Malcolm X

Born Malcolm Little, his father was lynched by racists when Malcolm was a child. Although Malcolm was intelligent and was elected class president at school, his teachers discouraged him from being a lawyer and told him to become a carpenter. Black people were not expected to be anything better. After leaving school, Malcolm drifted into a life of crime, getting involved with prostitution and thieving. He was sent to prison for a robbery when he was 21. The prison conditions were terrible. There was no running water and the cells were filthy and full of rats. While Malcolm was in prison, he learnt that many other black men were in prison unjustly. White racism meant that black people were automatically suspected of crimes. Even the flimsiest evidence was used against them, or sometimes no evidence at all. The police brutalised them and the courts dealt with them more severely. Other black prisoners told him about a new religion for black people called the Nation of Islam (NOI). While in prison Malcolm began to study and to educate himself. He taught himself to read and write and became a follower of the NOI, which was led by the Honourable Elijah Mohammed.

When Malcolm was released from prison he taught Elijah Mohammed's beliefs and encouraged black people to follow them. He changed his last name to 'X' to symbolise the unknown African name taken away from his people through the history of slavery. He criticised black people who wanted to please whites and accept racist injustice, saying 'There are two kinds of negroes, the house negro and the field negro. One lives in the big house and takes better care of the white man than he does of his own family. Then there is the field negro, who lives outside in the field and does everything he can to hurt the white master.'

A charismatic speaker, Malcolm soon became a chief spokesman for the NOI and was appointed minister of one of its largest temples. Membership of the NOI grew because many people admired Malcolm's leadership. Meetings at temples were for the whole of the black family. Malcolm taught that black people must control their own destiny, not ask favours from white society, but demand their rights. 'Expecting the white police to look out for us is like putting the fox in charge of guarding the chicken house.'

Malcolm came to the attention of the police who feared his influence over black people and his powerful words against the racism of white society. Malcolm was the first person to speak of 'Black Power'. He did not argue that black people should break the law but that they should exercise their right to carry a gun (which is allowed by the U.S. constitution) and should defend themselves 'by any means necessary'. Although he disagreed with Martin Luther King that black people should 'turn the other cheek' and 'love their enemies', they both believed in the same thing; equality and justice for their people. 'Our methods differ but we are both in the same battle,' he said.

Malcolm wanted the NOI to work more positively against injustice rather than just preaching. He became more disenchanted after it was said that the honourable Elijah Mohammed had strayed from the moral code by fathering children by several different women. Malcolm left the NOI to form his own black activist organisation. In 1964 he established Muslim Mosques Inc. and the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. He went on a Hajj (religious pilgrimage) to Mecca, travelled in Africa and made links throughout the Islamic world where he was rapturously received. But what he saw changed him. He was surprised to see Muslims of all races and he learnt that people could unite for a cause whatever their race. The teaching of the NOI, which he had followed up to then, was that black and white people were destined to be deadly enemies, hostile to each others interests and could never come together.

Malcolm returned to the US at a time of great unrest. In Watts, Los Angeles, riots took place after police invaded a black neighbourhood and attacked, beat and killed innocent people. Lynchings were still taking place and the Black Power movement in the USA was beginning. Malcolm wanted to take the US government to the United Nations and charge it with violating the human rights of black people. He felt that the crimes of racism and injustice should be presented before the world just as the Nuremberg Trials brought the criminals of the second world war to justice. By this time, Malcolm was being spied on by the US government - his phone was bugged and his home was being watched.

On 19 February 1965, Malcolm's home was firebombed. He had been ordered to leave the house, as the NOI, which owned it, now regarded him as an enemy. At a meeting of the OAAU in New York on 21 February at which he was speaking, Malcolm was shot and killed. It has never been established who the gunmen were, though many continue to suspect the NOI was involved.

Find out more about the people who made a difference on the HomeBeats: Struggles for Racial Justice CDROM.