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Malcolm X Activist Malcolm X. Malcolm X American Muslim leader print Print Please select which sections you would like to print: verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you he any questions. Select Citation Style Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Malcolm-X Feedback Thank you for your feedback

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External Websites Spartacus Educational - Biography of Malcolm X PBS - American Experience - Malcolm X: Make it Plain National Park Service - Places of Malcolm X Stanford University - Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute - Malcolm X Muslims in Brooklyn - A Short History of Black American Islam Official Site of Malcolm�X Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Malcolm X - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11) Malcolm X - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Also known as: Detroit Red, Malcolm Little, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz Written by Written by Lawrence A. Mamiya Lawrence A. Mamiya Paschall-Dis Professor of Religion and Africana Studies, Vassar College. Co-author of The Black Church in the African American Experience. Lawrence A. Mamiya Fact-checked by Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they he extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Sep. 22, 2025 •Article History Quick Facts Original name: Malcolm Little Muslim name: el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz Born: May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. Died: February 21, 1965, New York, New York (aged 39) Founder: “Muhammad Speaks” Notable Family Members: spouse Betty Shabazz Role In: black nationalism See all related content Top Questions What role did Malcolm X play in the emergence of the Black Power movement?

Malcolm X was one of the most significant figures within the American Black nationalist movement. Many of the ideas he articulated, like race pride and self-defense, became ideological mainstays of the Black Power movement that emerged in the 1960s and ’70s. He first rose to prominence in the late 1940s, as a member of the Nation of Islam, a religious organization that mixes elements of traditional Islam and Black nationalism. He continued his activism after leing the Nation. His iconic status, if not solidified during his lifetime, was certainly achieved shortly after his death with the publication of the acclaimed The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

What was Malcolm X’s early life like?

Malcolm X was born in 1925 as Malcolm Little. His father was killed while Malcolm was still very young, possibly by white supremacists. His mother was institutionalized for mental health issues, and the children of the family were dispersed among foster homes or the homes of relatives. Though an excellent student, Malcolm dropped out of school in the eighth grade because of the racial discrimination he faced from teachers. He was incarcerated in 1946 on charges of burglary. His time in prison would be an inflection point for the philosophical and political trajectory of his life.

When did Malcolm X convert to Islam?

After hearing about the Nation of Islam from his brother, who was already a member, Malcolm converted to the religion while serving prison time for burglary charges. Born in 20th-century America, the Nation combines elements from Black nationalism and traditional Islam. Malcolm X parted ways from the organization in 1964 and undertook the hajj—the traditional Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. It was then that he adopted Sunni Islam, along with the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

What was Malcolm X’s relationship with the civil rights movement?

Malcolm X’s ideas were often at odds with the message of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King, Jr., for example, expounded nonviolent strategies such as civil disobedience and boycotting to achieve integration, while Malcolm advocated for armed self-defense and repudiated the message of integration as servile. But Malcolm X’s philosophy evolved. He pressed the Nation of Islam to involve itself more in the civil rights movement during his final years in the organization. He also renounced his previously held separatist views after converting to orthodox Islam, and he expressed a desire near the end of his life to work more closely with the civil rights movement.

How did Malcolm X die?

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. Three members of the Nation of Islam—the religious group to which he had once belonged—were convicted of his murder. (Two were exonerated in 2021.) Prior to this, hostilities between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam had been mounting, the former hing begun to receive death threats from the latter.

Malcolm X (born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.—died February 21, 1965, New York, New York) was an African American leader and prominent figure in the Nation of Islam who articulated concepts of race pride and Black nationalism in the early 1960s. After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life story—The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)—made him an ideological hero, especially among Black youth.

Early years and conversion to Islam The significant role of Malcolm X in the Black Power movementQuestions and answers about Malcolm X.See all videos for this article

Born in Nebraska, while an infant Malcolm moved with his family to Lansing, Michigan. When Malcolm was six years old, his father, the Rev. Earl Little, a Baptist minister and former supporter of the early Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey, died after being hit by a streetcar, quite possibly the victim of murder by whites. The surviving family was so poor that Malcolm’s mother, Louise Little, resorted to cooking dandelion greens from the street to feed her children. After she was committed to an insane asylum in 1939, Malcolm and his siblings were sent to foster homes or to live with family members.

Malcolm excelled in school, but after one of his eighth-grade teachers told him that he should become a carpenter instead of a lawyer, he lost interest and soon ended his formal education. As a rebellious youngster, Malcolm moved from the Michigan State Detention Home, a juvenile home in Mason, Michigan, to the Roxbury section of Boston to live with an older half sister, Ella, from his father’s first marriage. There he became involved in petty criminal activities in his teenage years. Known as “Detroit Red” for the reddish tinge in his hair, he developed into a street hustler, drug dealer, and leader of a gang of thieves in Roxbury and Harlem (in New York City).

While in prison for robbery from 1946 to 1952, he underwent a conversion that eventually led him to join the Nation of Islam, an African American movement that combined elements of Islam with Black nationalism. His decision to join the Nation also was influenced by discussions with his brother Reginald, who had become a member in Detroit and who was incarcerated with Malcolm in the Norfolk Prison Colony in Massachusetts in 1948. Malcolm quit smoking and gambling and refused to eat pork in keeping with the Nation’s dietary restrictions. In order to educate himself, he spent long hours reading books in the prison library, even memorizing a dictionary. He also sharpened his forensic skills by participating in debate classes. Following Nation tradition, he replaced his surname, “Little,” with an “X,” a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to he originated with white sleholders.

Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam

After his release from prison Malcolm helped to lead the Nation of Islam during the period of its greatest growth and influence. He met Elijah Muhammad in Chicago in 1952 and then began organizing temples for the Nation in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston and in cities in the South. He founded the Nation’s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, which he printed in the basement of his home, and initiated the practice of requiring every male member of the Nation to sell an assigned number of newspapers on the street as a recruiting and fund-raising technique. He also articulated the Nation’s racial doctrines on the inherent evil of whites and the natural superiority of Blacks.

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Malcolm rose rapidly to become the minister of Boston Temple No. 11, which he founded; he was later rewarded with the post of minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, the largest and most prestigious temple in the Nation after the Chicago headquarters. Recognizing his talent and ability, Elijah Muhammad, who had a special affection for Malcolm, named him the National Representative of the Nation of Islam, second in rank to Muhammad himself. Under Malcolm’s lieutenancy, the Nation claimed a membership of 500,000. The actual number of members fluctuated, however, and the influence of the organization, refracted through the public persona of Malcolm X, always greatly exceeded its size.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm XA meeting of Martin Luther King, Jr. (center), and Malcolm X (right), 1964.

An articulate public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an indefatigable organizer, Malcolm X expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans during the major phase of the civil rights movement from 1955 to 1965. He preached on the streets of Harlem and spoke at major universities such as Harvard University and the University of Oxford. His keen intellect, incisive wit, and ardent radicalism made him a formidable critic of American society. He also criticized the mainstream civil rights movement, challenging Martin Luther King, Jr.’s central notions of integration and nonviolence. Malcolm argued that more was at stake than the civil right to sit in a restaurant or even to vote—the most important issues were Black identity, integrity, and independence. In contrast to King’s strategy of nonviolence, civil disobedience, and redemptive suffering, Malcolm urged his followers to defend themselves “by any means necessary.” His biting critique of the “so-called Negro” provided the intellectual foundations for the Black Power and Black consciousness movements in the United States in the late 1960s and ’70s (see Black nationalism). Through the influence of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X helped to change the terms used to refer to African Americans from “Negro” and “colored” to “Black” and “Afro-American.”

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