summary of malcolm x biography

Civil rights activist Malcolm X was a prominent leader in the Nation of Islam. Until his 1965 assassination, he vigorously supported Black nationalism.

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Who Was Malcolm X?

Quick facts, early life and family, time in prison, nation of islam, malcolm x and martin luther king jr., becoming a mainstream sunni muslim, assassination, wife and children, "the autobiography of malcolm x".

Malcolm X was a minister, civil rights activist , and prominent Black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam during the 1950s and 1960s. Due largely to his efforts, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. A naturally gifted orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. The fiery civil rights leader broke with the Nation of Islam shortly before his assassination in 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, where he had been preparing to deliver a speech. He was 39 years old.

FULL NAME: Malcolm X (nee Malcolm Little) BORN: May 19, 1925 DIED: February 21, 1965 BIRTHPLACE: Omaha, Nebraska SPOUSE: Betty Shabazz (1958-1965) CHILDREN: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. He was the fourth of eight children born to Louise, a homemaker, and Earl Little, a preacher who was also an active member of the local chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and avid supporter of Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey .

Due to Earl Little’s civil rights activism, the family was subjected to frequent harassment from white supremacist groups including the Ku Klux Klan and one of its splinter factions, the Black Legion. In fact, Malcolm Little had his first encounter with racism before he was even born. “When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, ‘a party of hooded Ku Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home,’” Malcolm later remembered. “Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out.”

The harassment continued when Malcolm was 4 years old, and local Klan members smashed all of the family’s windows. To protect his family, Earl Little moved them from Omaha to Milwaukee in 1926 and then to Lansing, Michigan, in 1928.

However, the racism the family encountered in Lansing proved even greater than in Omaha. Shortly after the Littles moved in, a racist mob set their house on fire in 1929, and the town’s all-white emergency responders refused to do anything. “The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned to the ground,” Malcolm later remembered. Earl moved the family to East Lansing where he built a new home.

Two years later, in 1931, Earl’s dead body was discovered lying across the municipal streetcar tracks. Although the family believed Earl was murdered by white supremacists from whom he had received frequent death threats, the police officially ruled his death a streetcar accident, thereby voiding the large life insurance policy he had purchased in order to provide for his family in the event of his death.

Louise never recovered from the shock and grief over her husband’s death. In 1937, she was committed to a mental institution where she remained for the next 26 years. Malcolm and his siblings were separated and placed in foster homes.

In 1938, Malcolm was kicked out of West Junior High School and sent to a juvenile detention home in Mason, Michigan. The white couple who ran the home treated him well, but he wrote in his autobiography that he was treated more like a “pink poodle” or a “pet canary” than a human being.

He attended Mason High School where he was one of only a few Black students. He excelled academically and was well-liked by his classmates, who elected him class president.

A turning point in Malcolm’s childhood came in 1939 when his English teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he answered that he wanted to be a lawyer. His teacher responded, “One of life’s first needs is for us to be realistic... you need to think of something you can be... why don’t you plan on carpentry?” Having been told in no uncertain terms that there was no point in a Black child pursuing education, Malcolm dropped out of school the following year, at the age of 15.

After quitting school, Malcolm moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella, about whom he later recalled: “She was the first really proud Black woman I had ever seen in my life. She was plainly proud of her very dark skin. This was unheard of among Negroes in those days.”

Ella landed Malcolm a job shining shoes at the Roseland Ballroom. However, out on his own on the streets of Boston, he became acquainted with the city’s criminal underground and soon turned to selling drugs.

He got another job as kitchen help on the Yankee Clipper train between New York and Boston and fell further into a life of drugs and crime. Sporting flamboyant pinstriped zoot suits, he frequented nightclubs and dance halls and turned more fully to crime to finance his lavish lifestyle.

In 1946, Malcolm was arrested on charges of larceny and sentenced to 10 years in prison. To pass the time during his incarceration, he read constantly, devouring books from the prison library in an attempt make up for the years of education he had missed by dropping out of high school.

Also while in prison, Malcolm was visited by several siblings who had joined the Nation of Islam, a small sect of Black Muslims who embraced the ideology of Black nationalism—the idea that in order to secure freedom, justice and equality, Black Americans needed to establish their own state entirely separate from white Americans.

He changed his name to Malcolm X and converted to the Nation of Islam before his release from prison in 1952 after six and a half years.

Now a free man, Malcolm X traveled to Detroit, where he worked with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad , to expand the movement’s following among Black Americans nationwide.

Malcolm X became the minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem and Temple No. 11 in Boston, while also founding new temples in Hartford and Philadelphia. In 1960, he established a national newspaper called Muhammad Speaks in order to further promote the message of the Nation of Islam.

Articulate, passionate, and an inspirational orator, Malcolm X exhorted Black people to cast off the shackles of racism “by any means necessary,” including violence. “You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.”

His militant proposals—a violent revolution to establish an independent Black nation—won Malcolm X large numbers of followers as well as many fierce critics. Due primarily to the efforts of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam grew from a mere 400 members at the time he was released from prison in 1952, to 40,000 members by 1960.

By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had emerged as a leading voice of a radicalized wing of the Civil Rights Movement, presenting a dramatic alternative to Martin Luther King Jr. ’s vision of a racially-integrated society achieved by peaceful means. King was critical of Malcolm’s methods but avoided directly calling out his more radical counterpart. Although very aware of each other and working to achieve the same goal, the two leaders met only once—and very briefly—on Capitol Hill when the U.S. Senate held a hearing about an anti-discrimination bill.

A rupture with Elijah Muhammad proved much more traumatic. In 1963, Malcolm X became deeply disillusioned when he learned that his hero and mentor had violated many of his own teachings, most flagrantly by carrying on many extramarital affairs. Muhammad had, in fact, fathered several children out of wedlock.

Malcolm’s feelings of betrayal, combined with Muhammad’s anger over Malcolm’s insensitive comments regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy , led Malcolm X to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964.

That same year, Malcolm X embarked on an extended trip through North Africa and the Middle East. The journey proved to be both a political and spiritual turning point in his life. He learned to place America’s Civil Rights Movement within the context of a global anti-colonial struggle, embracing socialism and pan-Africanism.

Malcolm X also made the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, during which he converted to traditional Islam and again changed his name, this time to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

After his epiphany at Mecca, Malcolm X returned to the United States more optimistic about the prospects for a peaceful resolution to America’s race problems. “The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision,” he said. “America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.”

Just as Malcolm X appeared to be embarking on an ideological transformation with the potential to dramatically alter the course of the Civil Rights Movement, he was assassinated .

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X took the stage for a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. He had just begun addressing the room when multiple men rushed the stage and began firing guns. Struck numerous times at close range, Malcolm X was declared dead after arriving at a nearby hospital. He was 39.

Three members of the Nation of Islam were tried and sentenced to life in prison for murdering the activist. In 2021, two of the men—Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam—were exonerated for Malcolm’s murder after spending decades behind bars. Both maintained their innocence but were still convicted in March 1966, alongside Mujahid Abdul Halim, who did confess to the murder. Aziz and Islam were released from prison in the mid-1980s, and Islam died in 2009. After the exoneration, they were awarded $36 million for their wrongful convictions.

In February 2023, Malcolm X’s family announced a wrongful death lawsuit against the New York Police Department, the FBI, the CIA, and other government entities in relation to the activist’s death. They claim the agencies concealed evidence and conspired to assassinate Malcolm X.

Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz in 1958. The couple had six daughters: Attilah, Quiblah, Lamumbah, Ilyasah, Malaak, and Malikah. Twins Malaak and Malikah were born after Malcolm died in 1965.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In the early 1960s, Malcolm X began working with acclaimed author Alex Haley on an autobiography. The book details Malcolm X’s life experiences and his evolving views on racial pride, Black nationalism, and pan-Africanism.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965 after his assassination to near-universal praise. The New York Times called it a “brilliant, painful, important book,” and Time magazine listed it as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20 th century.

Malcolm X has been the subject of numerous movies, stage plays, and other works and has been portrayed by actors like James Earl Jones , Morgan Freeman , and Mario Van Peebles.

In 1992, Spike Lee directed Denzel Washington in the title role of his movie Malcolm X . Both the film and Washington’s portrayal of Malcolm X received wide acclaim and were nominated for several awards, including two Academy Awards.

In the immediate aftermath of Malcolm X’s death, commentators largely ignored his recent spiritual and political transformation and criticized him as a violent rabble-rouser. But especially after the publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X , he began to be remembered for underscoring the value of a truly free populace by demonstrating the great lengths to which human beings will go to secure their freedom.

“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression,” he said. “Because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.”

• Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.
• Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
• You don’t have a peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There’s no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.
• If you are not willing to pay the price for freedom, you don’t deserve freedom.
• We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying “We Shall Overcome.” We’ve got to fight to overcome.
• I believe that it is a crime for anyone to teach a person who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.
• We are non-violent only with non-violent people—I’m non-violent as long as somebody else is non-violent—as soon as they get violent, they nullify my non-violence.
• Revolution is like a forest fire. It burns everything in its path. The people who are involved in a revolution don’t become a part of the system—they destroy the system, they change the system.
• If a man puts his arms around me voluntarily, that’s brotherhood, but if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that’s not brotherhood, that’s hypocrisy.
• You get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.
• My father didn’t know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather, and his grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slavemaster.
• To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace. I formerly was a criminal. I formerly was in prison. I’m not ashamed of that.
• It’s going to be the ballot or the bullet.
• America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.

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Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother was the National recording secretary for the Marcus Garvey Movement which commanded millions of followers in the 1920s and 30s. His father was a Baptist minister and chapter president of The Universal Negro Improvement Association who appealed to President Hoover that Marcus Garvey was wrongfully arrested. Earl’s civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm’s fourth birthday.

Regardless of the Little’s efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl’s body was found lying across the town’s trolley tracks.

Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Little’s were certain that members of the Black Legion were responsible. Louise suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

Eventually Malcolm and his buddy, Malcolm “Shorty” Jarvis, moved back to Boston. In 1946 they were arrested and convicted on burglary charges, and Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. (He was paroled after serving seven years.) Recalling his days in school, he used the time to further his education. It was during this period of self-enlightenment that Malcolm’s brother Reginald would visit and discuss his recent conversion to the Muslim religion. Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam (NOI).

Intrigued, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success. Among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people. By the time he was paroled in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname “X.” (He considered “Little” a slave name and chose the “X” to signify his lost tribal name.)

Intelligent and articulate, Malcolm was appointed as a minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad also charged him with establishing new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Harlem, New York. Malcolm utilized newspaper columns, as well as radio and television to communicate the NOI’s message across the United States. His charisma, drive and conviction attracted an astounding number of new members. Malcolm was largely credited with increasing membership in the NOI from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.

The crowds and controversy surrounding Malcolm made him a media magnet. He was featured in a week-long television special with Mike Wallace in 1959, called “The Hate That Hate Produced.” The program explored the fundamentals of the NOI, and tracked Malcolm’s emergence as one of its most important leaders. After the special, Malcolm was faced with the uncomfortable reality that his fame had eclipsed that of his mentor Elijah Muhammad. Racial tensions ran increasingly high during the early 1960s. In addition to the media, Malcolm’s vivid personality had captured the government’s attention. As membership in the NOI continued to grow, FBI agents infiltrated the organization (one even acted as Malcolm’s bodyguard) and secretly placed bugs, wiretaps, cameras and other surveillance equipment to monitor the group’s activities.

Malcolm’s faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in children.

Since joining the NOI, Malcolm had strictly adhered to the teachings of Muhammad – which included remaining celibate until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. Malcolm refused Muhammad’s request to help cover up the affairs and subsequent children. He was deeply hurt by the deception of Muhammad, whom he had considered a living prophet. Malcolm also felt guilty about the masses he had led to join the NOI, which he now felt was a fraudulent organization built on too many lies to ignore.

Shortly after his shocking discovery, Malcolm received criticism for a comment he made regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. “[Kennedy] never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon,” said Malcolm. After the statement, Elijah Muhammad “silenced” Malcolm for 90 days. Malcolm, however, suspected he was silenced for another reason. In March 1964 Malcolm terminated his relationship with the NOI. Unable to look past Muhammad’s deception, Malcolm decided to found his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.

That same year, Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The trip proved life altering. For the first time, Malcolm shared his thoughts and beliefs with different cultures, and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive. When he returned, Malcolm said he had met “blonde-haired, blued-eyed men I could call my brothers.” He returned to the United States with a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. This time when Malcolm spoke, instead of just preaching to African-Americans, he had a message for all races.

After Malcolm resigned his position in the Nation of Islam and renounced Elijah Muhammad, relations between the two had become increasingly volatile. FBI informants working undercover in the NOI warned officials that Malcolm had been marked for assassination. (One undercover officer had even been ordered to help plant a bomb in Malcolm’s car).

After repeated attempts on his life, Malcolm rarely traveled anywhere without bodyguards. On February 14, 1965 the home where Malcolm, Betty and their four daughters lived in East Elmhurst, New York was firebombed. Luckily, the family escaped physical injury.

One week later, however, Malcolm’s enemies were successful in their ruthless attempt. At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Fifteen hundred people attended Malcolm’s funeral in Harlem on February 27, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ (now Child’s Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ). After the ceremony, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves.

Later that year, Betty gave birth to their twin daughters.

Malcolm’s assassins, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1966. The three men were all members of the Nation of Islam.

The legacy of Malcolm X has moved through generations as the subject of numerous documentaries, books and movies. A tremendous resurgence of interest occurred in 1992 when director Spike Lee released the acclaimed movie, Malcolm X. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Denzel Washington) and Best Costume Design.

Malcolm X is buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

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Malcolm X summary

Malcolm X , orig. Malcolm Little later El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , (born May 19, 1925, Omaha, Neb., U.S.—died Feb. 21, 1965, New York, N.Y.), U.S. Black nationalist leader.

He was raised in Michigan, where the family house was burned by the Ku Klux Klan; his father was later murdered and his mother was institutionalized. He moved to Boston, drifted into petty crime, and was sent to prison for burglary in 1946. He then joined the Nation of Islam .

On his release from prison in 1952, he changed his surname to X to signify his rejection of his “slave name.” Soon after meeting the Nation of Islam’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, he became the sect’s most effective speaker and organizer.

Malcolm expressed the anger and frustration of African Americans toward white American society, and he criticized the civil rights movement and racial integration, calling instead for Black separatism, Black pride, and the use of violence for self-protection.

Differences with Elijah Muhammad prompted Malcolm to leave the Nation of Islam in 1964. A pilgrimage to Mecca led him to acknowledge the possibility of world brotherhood and to convert to orthodox Islam. Members of the Nation made threats against his life, and he was shot to death at a rally in a Harlem ballroom. His celebrated autobiography (1965) was written by Alex Haley on the basis of numerous interviews conducted shortly before Malcolm’s death.

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Malcolm X's The Autobiography of Malcolm X . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Malcolm X: Introduction

Malcolm x: plot summary, malcolm x: detailed summary & analysis, malcolm x: themes, malcolm x: quotes, malcolm x: characters, malcolm x: terms, malcolm x: symbols, malcolm x: theme wheel, brief biography of malcolm x.

Historical Context of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Other books related to the autobiography of malcolm x.

• Full Title: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
• When Written: 1963-1965
• Where Written: New York
• When Published: 1965
• Literary Period: African-American memoir, 20th century memoir
• Genre: Autobiography, Nonfiction
• Setting: Primarily Lansing, Michigan, Boston, Massachusetts and New York City, with journeys throughout the US, the Middle East, and Africa
• Climax: While Malcolm’s assassination occurs outside of the narration, it looms over the book like a shadow, and can therefore be rightly considered the climax.
• Antagonist: The racial caste system that denies equality and justice to African Americans
• Point of View: First person

Extra Credit for The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is someone who writes a book on behalf of someone else and generally attempts to mimic their voice. Whether or not Alex Haley is a ghostwriter in the context of the Autobiogrpahy of Malcolm X is up for debate. On the one hand, Malcolm had considerable oversight on the text, rendering it more in line with his own style and language. On the other hand, Haley had considerable influence in convincing Malcolm to allow certain thoughts and feelings to be made public. So, perhaps the Autobiography is best understood as a collaboration, rather than as the product of a ghostwriter.

Film adaptation. Malcolm X (1992), starring Denzel Washington and directed by Spike Lee, was largely based on the Autobiography of Malcolm X . Washington was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, but lost to Al Pacino’s performance in Scent of a Woman (1992) – a choice publicly criticized by Lee.

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Book Summary The Autobiography of Malcolm X , by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

Published in 1965, The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicles how Malcolm X rose from a life of poverty and crime to become a significant leader of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X was a controversial figure—his views were often considered extreme and changed radically throughout his life. In telling his story (with the help of writer Alex Haley), Malcolm X explains why he believed what he believed—and why he fought for racial justice, even though he knew it would lead to his death.

This guide discusses the impact that early experiences of racism, pro-Black radical traditions, and Islam had on Malcolm X as well as his achievements as a civil rights activist. We’ll go into the historical and sociological context surrounding Malcolm X’s life and explore the civil rights movement (and Malcolm X’s relationship to other activists, like Martin Luther King Jr.) in more depth. We’ll also connect historical and present-day racism, and we’ll provide an update on the circumstances leading up to Malcolm X’s murder and his legacy.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X and Alex Haley

1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Published in 1965, The Autobiography of Malcolm X explains how Malcolm X rose from a life of poverty and crime to become a significant leader of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X was a controversial figure—his views were often considered extreme, and they changed radically throughout his life. In telling his life story, Malcolm X explains why he believed what he believed—and why he fought stalwartly for racial justice, even though he knew it would lead to his death.

This book was written by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, a journalist and author of the novel Roots , which later became a record-breaking television series. Haley recorded interviews with Malcolm X,...

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary Malcolm X’s Early Life Was Marred by Racism

Malcolm X believed that the racism he experienced throughout his childhood to adolescence determined the path he would take as an adult. In this section, we’ll explain how racist violence and structural inequality destabilized and discouraged a young Malcolm X—and ultimately led him to spend time in prison.

Racism Destabilized and Discouraged Him

Malcolm X explains that he was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. (Shortform note: He eventually dropped “Little” and changed his name to Malcolm X—we’ll discuss that decision later, but we’ll still refer to him as Malcolm X throughout the guide.)

From the time he was born, his family was constantly being threatened by racists, in part because his father, Earl Little, was associated with Marcus Garvey’s Back-to-Africa movement, which argued that Black Americans must move to Africa to attain dignity and self-determination. As a result, the family moved often; eventually, they settled in Lansing, Michigan.

(Shortform note: Historians explain that between 1880 and 1940, Black Americans faced particularly high levels of *[racial...

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary The Nation of Islam Gave X a Second Chance

While he was in prison, some of Malcolm X’s family converted to Islam—and they promised that they could help him get out of prison if he joined, too. In this section, we’ll discuss the unique teachings of the Islamic organization he joined. Then, we’ll explore how his involvement in this organization changed his life for the better, culminating in the beginning of his civil rights career.

The Nation of Islam’s Unique Teachings

The type of Islam Malcolm X’s family tried to convert him to was known as the Nation of Islam —a collection of teachings promoted by Elijah Muhammad (the Nation of Islam’s leader, who succeeded founder W.D. Fard), which posited that white people are the devil and that they’ve perpetrated evil against Black men by cutting them off from their ancestral cultures and convincing them of white superiority. Malcolm X explains that according to this belief system, the different races were purposefully created by a scientist named Yacub through eugenic engineering, and the white race was supposed to rule the world for 6,000 years before Black people (who were the original and naturally superior race) would ascend to the top.

(Shortform note: Now...

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary A Pilgrimage to Mecca Opened Malcolm X’s Eyes

Although the Nation of Islam helped turn Malcolm X into a successful civil rights activist, problems were brewing within the organization that he couldn’t abide by. In this section, we’ll explain why Malcolm X broke from the Nation of Islam and explore how his beliefs and civil rights work changed afterward.

Malcolm X’s Break From the Nation of Islam

Malcolm X gained prominence that other Nation of Islam leaders didn’t—and he explains that eventually, Elijah Muhammad became jealous of him. He made Malcolm X the first National Minister of the organization and praised him to his face; all the while, he told others Malcolm X was untrustworthy and that he’d betray the Nation of Islam. But Malcolm X came to know that Muhammad was the untrustworthy one: He’d been having adulterous affairs with his secretaries, who became pregnant and were harshly punished for it.

Eventually, some of those secretaries filed a paternity lawsuit against Muhammad, and Malcolm X spoke to them himself to discover the truth. He’d been hearing rumors about Muhammad’s adultery for years, but his respect for the man and dependence on his teachings had prevented him from believing them. After talking to...

The Autobiography of Malcolm X Summary Malcolm X’s Death and Legacy

Before Malcolm X had a chance to accomplish very much with his newfound beliefs and organization, he was murdered in front of his family and community. In this section, we’ll explore the circumstances around his death and discuss his legacy.

Malcolm X explains that from a young age, he believed he would die a violent death —partly because that had happened to his father and other men in his family. Now that he’d left the Nation of Islam and begun making headway as a civil rights activist, he was even more convinced that someone would kill him.

(Shortform note: Although Malcolm X expected to be killed primarily because he was a Black activist, Black men in general have a significantly higher chance of dying a violent death. Some studies suggest that young Black men in the US are 20 times more likely to die by homicide than young white men—homicide is the most common cause of death among the demographic, and this likelihood shaves six months off the average Black man’s life expectancy. [Police shootings account for a disproportionate number of homicide...

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What did you believe about Malcolm X before you read this guide? Write down both facts you knew and opinions you had about him.

Table of Contents

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

92 pages • 3 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-9

Chapters 10-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-18

Chapter 19-Epilogue

Key Figures

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Summary and Study Guide

The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a nonfiction memoir published in 1965 by American human rights activist Malcolm X , in collaboration with American author Alex Haley . The book is the result of numerous interviews Haley conducted in the two years leading up to Malcolm’s assassination in February 1965. It covers Malcolm’s upbringing in Michigan, his career as a burglar and drug dealer in New York and Boston, his conversion to Islam in prison, his involvement in and eventual break with the Nation of Islam , and his becoming one of the most important civil rights activists in the country. The book was enormously influential on Black political and artistic movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and it continues to be widely read by students and civil rights activists in the 21st century.

This study guide refers to the 2015 reprint edition published by Ballantine Books.

Plot Summary

Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925, Malcolm is the son of Earl Little, a Baptist minister who spreads the Pan-African teachings of Marcus Garvey. This makes Earl the target of White supremacists, particularly after the Littles relocate to Lansing, Michigan. When Malcolm is around six years old, members of the Black Legion , a White supremacist terrorist organization, murder Earl.

In 1938, Malcolm’s mother Louise suffers a mental breakdown and is sent to the Kalamazoo State Mental Hospital, leaving Malcolm in the care of a White couple in nearby Mason, Michigan. The only Black person in his junior high school class, Malcolm thrives academically and socially. Yet a pivotal moment arrives for Malcolm in eighth grade, when an otherwise supportive English teacher tells Malcolm it is unrealistic for him to pursue a career as a lawyer. Suddenly and painfully aware of his second-class status as a young Black person, Malcolm works to escape Mason. He successfully convinces his adult half-sister Ella to take him into her home in the culturally vibrant, predominantly Black neighborhood of Roxbury in Boston, Massachusetts.

Not long after his arrival, Malcolm meets Shorty, a musician and poolroom employee who helps him navigate the Black nightlife scene in Boston. Around this time, Malcolm straightens his hair, starts wearing flamboyant zoot suits, and enters into a relationship with a young affluent White woman named Sophia. Around two years later, Malcolm relocates to New York where he gets a job as a waiter at the legendary Harlem nightclub Small’s Paradise. This puts him into contact with musicians, drug dealers, pimps, and racketeers. Before long, Malcolm supports himself by selling marijuana, engaging in burglaries and stickups, and running numbers for local gamblers. Meanwhile, he is increasingly dependent on marijuana, cocaine, and opium.

After a nearly fatal confrontation with a fearsome numbers runner, Malcolm returns to Boston in 1945 to plot his next move. Malcolm organizes a lucrative burglary ring with Shorty, Sophia, and Sophia’s younger sister. They successfully evade the authorities for several months until Malcolm is arrested after bringing a stolen watch to a repair shop. Malcolm and Shorty are each sentenced to ten years in prison, despite the fact that the average sentence for first-time burglary offenders is two years. Malcolm believes that in the eyes of the court, his true crime was corrupting the White women who conspired with him.

During his first year in prison, Malcolm earns the nickname “Satan” because of his constant and vicious invective against God and the Bible. In a letter, Malcolm’s younger brother Reginald tells him that the way out of prison is to quit cigarettes and pork. Malcolm complies, believing this to be some kind of hustle. Shortly thereafter, Reginald visits Malcolm and reveals that Reginald is now a member of the Nation of Islam, an organization that filters Black nationalism through a non-traditional interpretation of Islam. Under the teachings of the group’s leader, Elijah Muhammad , the Nation of Islam frames the contemporary Black struggle as a battle against White America, which seeks to brainwash African Americans through Christianity. Its members are observant Muslims who adhere to a strict taboo against cigarettes, alcohol, pork, and premarital sex. The Nation of Islam characterizes White people as “devils” whose time as the dominant group in American society will soon end.

Given Malcolm’s experiences with White Americans—starting with his father’s murder—the Nation of Islam’s teachings resonate deeply. Malcolm consumes books on history, philosophy, and religion voraciously, reading until four a.m. every night.

In 1952, Malcolm is released from prison. He lives with his older brother Wilfred in Detroit, where the two of them attend the Nation of Islam’s Temple Number One. Not long after, Malcolm meets Elijah Muhammad in Chicago and impresses the leader with his eagerness to recruit young Black men to their cause. Through his recruitment efforts and his blistering oratory, Malcolm ascends in the organization, eventually becoming the head of New York City’s Temple Number Seven in 1954. He also changes his name to Malcolm X, abandoning the surname given to his ancestors by slaveholders.

In 1959, the Nation of Islam becomes a household name—and an object of intense fear for many White Americans—after a Mike Wallace documentary on the group titled The Hate That Hate Produced . This catapults Malcolm into the national spotlight. White journalists frequently ask him to defend the Nation of Islam’s teachings, particularly those surrounding the term “white devils,” Black superiority and separatism, and armed Black self-defense. Meanwhile, other ministers in the Nation of Islam grow jealous of Malcolm’s national attention, turning Elijah Muhammad against him. Things come to a head when Malcolm learns that Elijah Muhammad has repeatedly broken the Nation of Islam code of conduct, impregnating multiple secretaries. In 1963, viewing Malcolm as a threat, Muhammad and his ministers prohibit him from speaking in public after Malcolm ignites controversy with comments that seemingly approve the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Effectively cut off from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm fears he will be murdered by a White supremacist or a Nation of Islam agent. Certain that his days are numbered, Malcolm takes the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Muslim is required to do before they die if they are able. The experience of seeing Muslims of all races and nationalities come together in the name of Allah transforms Malcolm’s thinking about the possibility of White and Black people coexisting. Although he harbors no illusions about the racist attitudes of most White Americans, Malcolm finally acknowledges that there may be a place for sincere, antiracist White people in the fight for Black human rights.

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The Assassination of Malcolm X

By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 15, 2023 | Original: December 14, 2021

Civil rights leader Malcolm X took the stage at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan on February 21, 1965. Just minutes later, shortly after 3 p.m., the former prominent Nation of Islam figure was gunned down by three men as his wife, Betty Shabazz, pregnant with twins, and four daughters took cover in the front row. He was 39.

Motive and Background

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925, was the civil rights era 's most notable advocate of Black nationalism. Rising through the ranks of the Nation of Islam, he left the political and religious group in 1964, following a deeply strained relationship with leader Elijah Muhammad over political ideology (Malcolm believed the Nation of Islam should join in civil rights protests), as well as morals (he also was distressed to learn Muhammad had fathered several children by multiple women). Deepening the rift, when Malcolm called the assassination of President John F. Kennedy “ chickens coming home to roost ,” Muhammad silenced him for 90 days.

After breaking with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964 and converted to Sunni Islam, taking the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He formed the secular Organization of African American Unity, blaming racism, rather than the white race, for injustices and adopting a more moderate stance on civil rights.

The separation from the Nation of Islam prompted the group to make death threats against Malcolm. On February 14, 1965, Molotov cocktails were thrown through the windows of his Queens, New York home as he and his family slept inside, “upon the orders of Elijah Muhammad,” according to Malcolm. The family escaped the flames, but he told reporters , "I live like a man who is dead already."

The Audubon Attack

Just after taking the stage with approximately 400 people in the audience, three men, one with a sawed-off shotgun and the others with pistols, rushed at Malcolm, firing several shots, at least one of which was fatal. Mujahid Abdul Halim (aka Thomas Hagan) was shot in the leg by a security guard, held and beaten by the crowd, and was arrested at the scene, while two other gunmen escaped. Five days later, Muhammad A. Aziz, aka Norman 3X Butler, was arrested, and Khalil Islam, aka Thomas 15X Johnson, was arrested on March 3, 1965. All three men were members of the Nation of Islam and were indicted on first-degree murder charges.

More than 1,500 people attended the February 27 funeral service, led by actor Ossie Davis, and approximately 20,000 paid respects to the civil rights leader’s body as it lied in repose at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem.

“While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had the great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem,” Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated three years later, wrote to Malcolm’s widow .

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published October 29, 1965, nine months after Malcolm’s death. Written with Alex Haley, it became an immediate best-seller.

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Malcolm X speaks to reporters about the Black Nationalist Movement and the need to establish Black Rifle Clubs.

The Trial and Convictions

During the 1966 trial, Halim confessed to the crime and eventually testified that Islam and Aziz were innocent. Witness accounts were contradictory, The New York Times reports , and no physical evidence was provided against Islam or Aziz, who both presented credible alibis.

"I just want to testify that Butler (Aziz) and Johnson (Islam) had nothing to do with it. ... I was there, I know what happened and I know the people who were there," Halim told the jury, according to the newspaper.

Still, all three men were found guilty on March 11, 1966, and were sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Aziz and Islam maintained their innocence. Aziz was released from prison in 1985, at age 46, after serving 20 years. Islam, released in 1987, died in 2009. Halim was granted release in 2010.

Case Is Reopened, Leading to Exonerations

Doubt was cast on the verdict against Aziz and Islam for decades. Halim again asserted their innocence in a pair of affidavits filed in 1977 and 1978 and offered up partial names of his accomplices, but a judge denied a motion for a new trial. Calls from book authors and experts to reopen the case were also left unheard—until February 2020. This is when Manhattan district attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. began a review that coincided with the release of a documentary, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”, that supported the innocence claims of Aziz and Islam.

On November 18, 2021, Aziz and Islam were exonerated after an investigation that included the discovery of key FBI documents withheld from the defense and prosecution during the trial. Aziz was 83 at the time of the exoneration.

"The assassination of Malcolm X was a historic event that demanded a scrupulous investigation and prosecution but, instead, produced one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen," Innocence Project Barry Scheck stated .

“2 Men Convicted of Killing Malcolm X Will Be Exonerated After Decades,” the New York Times "Malcolm X," T he Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University “The Day Malcolm X Was Killed,” the New Yorker "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X," by Les Payne , Norton Books "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention," by Manning Marable , Penguin Books

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The autobiography of Malcolm X : as told to Alex Haley - Malcolm X, Alex Haley

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