Malcolm X

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little (1925-1965), was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who became one of the most influential voices of Black nationalism in the United States. Converting to the Nation of Islam while in prison in the late 1940s, he emerged in the 1950s and early 1960s as its chief spokesman, arguing for Black self-reliance and self-defense in contrast to the nonviolent integrationist approach of much of the mainstream civil rights movement. In 1964, after breaking with the Nation of Islam, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca and converted to mainstream Sunni Islam, adopting the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz and moderating some of his earlier positions while continuing to advocate for Black civil and human rights on an international stage. He was assassinated in New York City in February 1965 by members of the Nation of Islam, and his life and ideas, recorded in his best-selling autobiography, continued to shape Black political thought long after his death.