Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, one of eight children. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher who supported Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement. When Malcolm was four, the family moved to Lansing, Michigan where Earl tried opening a store while continuing his preaching. But a group of white supremacists calling themselves the Black Legion (a sub-branch of the Ku Klux Klan) became irate to him.

Two years later, Earl Little was found dead on the truly tracks in town after a streetcar ran over him. Dispite the police report that Earl's death was an accident, Malcolm strongly believed that his father was killed by the Black Legion who placed his father's body on the tracks to make it look like an accident. Following Earl's death, Malcolm's mother, Louise Little, tried to support her eight children on her own. Malcolm started stealing food and candy from neighborhood stores to support his brothers and sisters. After being caught a few too many times, a local court ruled that Louise was unable to control Malcolm and had him removed from her care and placed in a friendly white couple's home who knew Louise. Two years later, Louise, due to severe stress in raising her children, suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to the state mental hospital where she remained for the remaining 26 years of her life.

After finishing 8th grade, Malcolm dropped out of school and traveled to Boston where his older sister, Ella, lived. After a few years, Malcolm moved to New York City where, to support himself, be became a numbers runner, a drug dealer, even a pimp. He wore zoot suits and dyed his hair red where he earned the nickname 'Detroit Red'. He relocated to Boston again where he organized a robbery ring which was uncovered by the police in 1946 and he was sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison. Malcolm used the time behind bars to educate himself in the prison library where he learns the fundamentals of grammar and increased his vocabulary. It was here that a few inmates introduced Malcolm to a new religion and movement, The Nation of Islam. Malcolm's younger brother, Reginald, already a member, visited him and told him about Islam and about Allah. Much of what Reginald said confused Malcolm, but two phrase took root in his head, "the white man is the devil" and "the black man is the brainwashed." Malcolm learned that if he wanted to join he would have to accept its theology and submit completely to its founder and leader, Elijah Muhammad.

Inspired by the new direction his life was taking, Malcolm wrote Elijah Muhammad a hearfelt letter about himself and why he wanted to join. Elijah wrote back welcoming Malcolm to the faith. He instructed Malcolm to drop his last name, which his ancestors inherited from a slave owner, and replace it with the letter X which symbolized that his true African name had been lost. In 1952, Malcolm was finally paroled from prison. Rather than returning to the life of crime, Malcolm committed himself to learning more about his new religion. In 1958 Malcolm marred Betty Shabazz, a Muslim nurse and together they had four daughters (plus two more born after his death). Over the next several years Malcolm became the spokesperson for the Nation of Islam and became one of it's most powerful speakers attracting thousands of African-Americans into the fold with his charismatic speeches and rich and powerful words. Malcolm's charismatic personalty also attracted the attention of the white media. But unlike Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who believed in non-violent tactics to archive equal rights for blacks, Malcolm favored the use of arms and proposed a revolutionary program that would create a separate society for blacks in America. Malcolm's relationship with the media displeased Elijah Muhammad for he felt that the Nation of Islam's messages where being overshadowed by Malcolm's newfound celebrity.

In the early 1960's Malcolm learned of paternity suits filed by two women of the Nation of Islam who worked for Elijah Muhammed as his secretaries. Determined