Malcolm X, borne Malcolm Little came to this world on May 19^th 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.  He was the fourth child out of the six children for Mrs. Louis Norton Little. Malcolm also had three step siblings from his father’s previous marriage. Malcolm’s father Earl Little was an outspoken Baptist minister who was a devoted follower as well as a supporter of the growing Black Nationalist movement. These activities by Malcolm’s father brought a lot of hate and resentment from white supremacist groups like “Black Legion” towards their family. The harassments went as far as to their house in Michigan being burned down. Even though they tried to elude the threats, in 1931 Earl’s body was found lying across the town trolley tracks. A few years after this Louis had an emotional break down and was admitted into a mental institution. The fate of the Little’s children was left in the hands of various foster homes and orphanages.

 In 1941 Malcolm went to live in Roxbury, Massachusetts. At this time Malcolm was a smart, focused lad who had graduated from junior high at the top of his class, but he came to a fork in his life passage when one of his favorite teachers told his that dreaming to become a lawyer was “no realistic goal for a nigger”. This made Malcolm lose interest in school and by 1942 Malcolm “red” Little was hustling the streets of Harlem, New York. Eventually his bad deeds caught up with him and was arrested and convicted of burglary charges in 1946.

 The seven years that Malcolm spent in the jail became another life changing experience for him. While serving his time he used his “free” time to further educate himself. During this self-enlightenment period Malcolm was introduced to the Nation of Islam and its teachings. Malcolm studied the teachings of the Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and embraced it. When Malcolm was released on parole in 1952 he was a devote follower of Nation of Islam and changed his surname “Little” which he considered a slave name to “X” to signify his lost tribal name.

 He was recognized for his intelligence and his verbal skills and Elijah appointed him to establish new mosques all over the United States. Malcolm utilized all methods of communication to get the Nation of Islam’s message across to the people. He was the founder of the newspaper “Muhammad Speaks”. The level of publicity he had gained was very visible when he was on a week long television special with Mike Wallace themed “The hate that hate produced” in 1959. This had a direct effect on the followers of Nation of Islam, the number of members increasing from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963. This also managed to catch the FBI’s attention.

 Malcolm took a direct blow to his believes in 1963 when he discovered his biggest influence in life, Elijah Muhammad was in violation of the teachings that he had embrace and stood up for. He felt betrayed and felt the Nation of Islam is a fraudulent organization. Further more Malcolm was “silenced” by Elijah for the controversial statement he made about John F Kennedy’s death, saying “he never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon”. He took the silencing personally and quit the Nation of Islam in March of 1964.He focused on a more secular black nationalism, encouraging his followers to use the ballot to make changes in one of his famous speeches “The bullet or the Ballot”. The same year on his pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, his outlook on the matter of integration changed and opted for a more ambiguous outcome of the race struggle in the U.S.

 The relations between the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X only kept getting bitter as the time went on, Malcolm renouncing Elijah Muhammad and repeated attempts on Malcolm’s life kept adding log to the fire between them. And on February 21, 1965 while giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan Malcolm X was shot 15 times at close range by three gunmen. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital leaving behind his wife Betty Shabazz and his six daughters. The three gunmen Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder. All three men were members of the Nation of Islam.