Malcolm’s life

Malcolm X was born on the 19th of May 1925 as Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm was the son of a Baptist minister, who was a supporter of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. While living in Omaha, the family was often harassed. At one point the family's house was set on fire. In 1929 the family moved to Lansing, Michigan. While in Michigan, Malcolm's father was killed; his body severed in two by a streetcar and his head smashed. 

His father’s death had a disastrous effect on Malcolm and his family. His mother suffered a nervous breakdown, and the welfare department took the eight of her children away from her. Malcolm was placed in a foster home and then in reform school. In 1941 he went to live with his half-sister in Boston, Massachusetts. There he soon entered the fringes of the underworld, and at the age of 17 he moved to the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City. Known as Detroit Red, Malcolm turned to a life of crime, including drug dealing and armed robbery. When he was 20, Malcolm received a sentence of ten years in prison for burglary.

While in prison, Malcolm read widely and developed an interest in the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist religious movement whose members were known as Black Muslims. Malcolm studied the teachings of the leader of the Black Muslims, Elijah Muhammad.

Once Malcolm X was released from prison in 1952, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, and joined the Nation of Islam temple in that city. He dropped his last name considered a “slave name” by Black Muslims, and became Malcolm X. Malcolm X rose rapidly in the Nation of Islam organization as a minister and recruiter of new members. Elijah Muhammad appointed him as the chief minister of Harlem’s main temple in June 1954.In 1958 he married Betty Sanders, later known as Betty Shabazz, and they eventually had six daughters.

 His fiery style and natural speaking ability made Malcolm X a popular public speaker, but his growing reputation caused tension with Elijah Muhammad and other Black Muslim leaders. While Muhammad strenuously tried to maintain the Nation of Islam as a religious self-help movement, Malcolm was increasingly moving towards a political response to racism. He called for a “black revolution,” which he declared would be “bloody” and would renounce any sort of “compromise” with whites. In this way Malcolm X rejected the conservative values of the Nation of Islam in favour of a more radical, revolutionary approach to social change. Malcolm X also had come to reject some of the tenets of the Nation of Islam, including Elijah Muhammad’s theory that the white race was created by a dissident “mad scientist” named Yakub.

In 1963 Elijah Muhammad silenced Malcolm X for his statement that the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy had represented “the chickens coming home to roost”—a repayment for America’s continuing failure to end racial cruelty and hatred. This comment, often taken out of context, was not meant to be disrespectful to the late president, although in fact, Malcolm X had little respect or admiration for any white leaders. Rather, he was trying to make the point that the violent treatment of blacks had now come back to the “roost” with violence against a white president. However, the insensitive nature of the statement reflected poorly on the Black Muslims and led Muhammad to silence Malcolm X.

Malcolm X decided to make his own club and call it the Muslim Mosque. Malcolm X had already begun to part ways with the Black Muslims because he felt stifled by the authoritarian organization of the Nation of Islam. He was ready to be his own leader, rather than to follow the dictates of Muhammad or anyone else.