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The 10 Best Books on Malcolm X

Essential books on malcolm x.

There are countless books on Malcolm X, and it comes with good reason, he was a Muslim minister and human rights activist who served as a prominent figure during the civil rights movement.

“You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it,” he remarked.

In order to get to the bottom of what inspired one of America’s most consequential figures to make his mark on western society, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 best books on Malcolm X.

The Dead Are Arising by Les Payne

Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X – all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.

The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm’s life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century’s most politically relevant figures “from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.”

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

Manning Marable’s acclaimed biography of Malcolm X finally does justice to one of the most influential and controversial figures of twentieth-century American history. Filled with startling new information and shocking revelations, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America. Reaching into Malcolm’s troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents’ activism as followers of Marcus Garvey through his own work with the Nation of Islam and rise in the world of black nationalism, and culminates in the never-before-told true story of his assassination.

The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph

To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense versus nonviolence, Black Power versus civil rights, the sword versus the shield. The struggle for Black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement’s militancy is either vilified or erased outright.

In  The Sword and the Shield , Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives.

Blood Brothers by Randy Roberts

In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X, the most famous minister in the Nation of Islam, saw the potential in Clay, not just for boxing greatness, but as a means of spreading the Nation’s message. The two became fast friends, keeping their interactions secret from the press for fear of jeopardizing Clay’s career. Clay began living a double life – a patriotic “good negro” in public, and a radical reformer behind the scenes. Soon, however, their friendship would sour, with disastrous and far-reaching consequences.

Based on previously untapped sources, from Malcolm’s personal papers to FBI records,  Blood Brothers   is the first book to offer an in-depth portrait of this complex bond. An extraordinary narrative of love and deep affection, as well as deceit, betrayal, and violence, this story is a window into the public and private lives of two of our greatest national icons, and the tumultuous period in American history that they helped to shape.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.

Malcolm X: The FBI File by Clayborne Carson

Shortly after he was released from a Boston prison in 1953, the FBI watched every move Malcolm X made. Their files on him totaled more than 3,600 pages, covering every facet of his life. Viewing the file as a source of information about the ideological development and political significance of Malcolm X, historian Clayborne Carson examines Malcolm’s relationship to other African-American leaders and institutions in order to define more clearly Malcolm’s place in modern history.

With its sobering scrutiny of the FBI and the national policing strategies of the 1950s and 1960s,  this gem among books on Malcolm X is one of a kind; plus, never before has there been so much material on the assassination of Malcolm X in one conclusive volume.

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz

Malcolm Little’s parents have always told him that he can achieve anything, but from what he can tell, that’s a pack of lies. There’s no point in trying, he figures, and lured by the nightlife of Boston and New York, he escapes into a world of fancy suits, jazz, girls, and reefer. But Malcolm’s efforts to leave the past behind lead him into increasingly dangerous territory.  X follows the boy who would become Malcolm X from his childhood to his imprisonment for theft at age twenty, when he found the faith that would lead him to forge a new path and command a voice that still resonates today.

By Any Means Necessary by Malcolm X

As a 14-year-old, he was Malcolm Little, the president of his class and a top student. At 16, he was hustling tips at a Boston nightclub. In Harlem, he was known as Detroit Red, a slick street operator. At 19, he was back in Boston, leading a gang of burglars. At 20, he was in prison. It was in prison that Malcolm Little started the journey that would lead him to adopt the name Malcolm X, and there he developed his beliefs about what being Black means in America: beliefs that shook America then and still shake America today. Walter Dean Myers’ classic biography sheds light on a Black man whose beliefs changed America.

The End of White World Supremacy by Malcolm X

When, in 1965, Malcolm X was gunned down on the stage of a Harlem theater, America lost one of its most dynamic political thinkers. Yet, as Michael Eric Dyson has observed, “he remains relevant because he spoke presciently to the issues that matter today: black identity, the politics of black rage, the expression of black dissent, the politics of black power, and the importance of consolidating varieties of expressions within black communities – different ideologies and politics – and bringing them together under a banner of functional solidarity.”

The End of White World Supremacy contains four major speeches by Malcolm X, including: “Black Man’s History,” “The Black Revolution,” “The Old Negro and the New Negro,” and the famous “The Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost” speech (“God’s Judgment of White America”), delivered after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs

Berdis Baldwin, Alberta King, and Louise Little were all born at the beginning of the 20th century and forced to contend with the prejudices of Jim Crow as Black women. These three extraordinary women passed their knowledge to their children with the hope of helping them to survive in a society that would deny their humanity from the very beginning – from Louise teaching her children about their activist roots, to Berdis encouraging James to express himself through writing, to Alberta basing all of her lessons in faith and social justice. These women used their strength and motherhood to push their children toward greatness, all with a conviction that every human being deserves dignity and respect despite the rampant discrimination they faced.

If you enjoyed this guide to essential books on Malcolm X, check out our list of The 20 Best Books on Martin Luther King, Jr !

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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Quick Facts

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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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By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 18, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

Malcolm X was a minister, a leader in the civil rights movement and a supporter of Black nationalism. He urged his fellow Black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary,” a stance that often put him at odds with the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. His charisma and oratory skills helped him achieve national prominence in the Nation of Islam, a belief system that merged Islam with Black nationalism. After Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, his bestselling book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, popularized his ideas and inspired the Black Power movement.

Malcolm X: Early Life

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska . His father was a Baptist preacher and follower of Marcus Garvey . The family moved to Lansing, Michigan after the Ku Klux Klan made threats against them, though the family continued to face threats in their new home.

In 1931, Malcolm’s father was allegedly murdered by a white supremacist group called the Black Legionaries, though the authorities claimed his death was an accident. Mrs. Little and her children were denied her husband’s death benefits.

Did you know? In 1964, Malcolm X made a pilgrimage to Mecca and changed his name to el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

At age 6, the future Malcolm X entered a foster home and his mother suffered a nervous breakdown. Though highly intelligent and a good student, he dropped out of school following eighth grade. He began wearing zoot suits , dealing drugs and earned the nickname “Detroit Red.” At 21, he went to prison for larceny.

Nation of Islam

It was in jail that Malcolm X first encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad , head of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, a Black nationalist group that identified white people as the devil. Soon after, Malcolm adopted the last name “X” to represent his rejection of his “slave” name.

Malcolm was released from prison after serving six years and went on to become the minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem, where his oratory skills and sermons in favor of self-defense gained the organization new admirers: The Nation of Islam grew from 400 members in 1952 to 40,000 members by 1960. His admirers included celebrities like Muhammad Ali , who became close friends with Malcolm X before the two had a falling out.

His advocacy of achieving “by any means necessary” put him at the opposite end of the spectrum from Martin Luther King, Jr. ’s nonviolent approach to gaining ground in the growing civil rights movement .

After King’s “ I Have a Dream ” speech at the 1963 March on Washington, Malcolm remarked: “Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ … while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?”

Malcolm X’s politics also earned him the ire of the FBI , who conducted surveillance of him from his time in prison until his death. J. Edgar Hoover even told the agency’s New York office to “do something about Malcolm X.”

In 1958, Malcolm X married Betty Shabazz (née Betty Sanders), a native of Detroit, Michigan , after a lengthy courtship.

The couple had six children, all daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba and twins Malikah and Malaak. Several of Malcolm X’s children have been outspoken activists in the civil rights movement and other causes.

Organization of Afro-American Unity

Disenchanted with corruption in the Nation of Islam, which suspended him in December 1963 after he claimed that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was “the chickens coming home to roost,” Malcolm X left the organization for good.

A few months later, he traveled to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he underwent a spiritual transformation: "The true brotherhood I had seen had influenced me to recognize that anger can blind human vision," he wrote. Malcolm X returned to America with a new name: El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

In June 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which identified racism, and not the white race, as the enemy of justice. His more moderate philosophy became influential, especially among members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee ( SNCC ).

Malcolm X Assassination

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated by three gunmen at an Organization of Afro-American Unity rally in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City .

Though it was initially believed that the three assassins were members of the Nation of Islam and were affiliated with religious leader Louis Farrakhan, the killing remains controversial and no consensus exists on who the killer(s) actually were.

In 2021, Muhammad Aziz was exonerated after being convicted in 1966 for the killing along with Khalil Islam and Mujahid Abdul Halim. Halim, who admitted to the shooting but later said Aziz and Islam were not involved, was paroled in 2010.

Malcolm X had predicted that he would be more important in death than in life, and had even foreshadowed his early demise in his book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm X is buried in Ferncliff Cemetery, New York.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X began work on his autobiography in the early 1960s with the help of Alex Haley , the acclaimed author of Roots . The Autobiography of Malcolm X chronicled his life and views on race, religion and Black nationalism. It was published posthumously in 1965 and became a bestseller.

The book and Malcolm X’s life have inspired numerous film adaptations, most famously Spike Lee’s 1992 film Malcolm X starring Denzel Washington .

Quotes by Malcolm X

“If you have no critics, you'll likely have no success.”

“Stumbling is not falling.”

“There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

“You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”

Malcolm X. Biography.com . ‘Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X.’ New York Times. People and Ideas: Malcolm X. PBS . Malcolm X’s 5 surviving daughters: Inside lives marred by tragedy and turmoil. New York Post . A man exonerated in the killing of Malcolm X is suing New York City for $40 million. NPR .

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Malcolm X: Criminal, Minister, Humanist, Martyr

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• June 17, 2011

“His aura was too bright,” the poet Maya Angelou said of her first meeting with Malcolm X. “His masculine force affected me physically. A hot desert storm eddied around him and rushed to me, making my skin contract, and my pores slam shut.” Malcolm X had that same sort of bone-deep, visceral impact on America. He got under everyone’s skin — either in the sense that he seeped into your pores and transformed you the way the great love of your life does, or in the sense that he annoyed or scared the living hell out of you. There is no middle ground with Malcolm. If you hate him or distrust him, you should consider giving him another try: officers assigned to monitor the wiretaps on his phones sometimes ended up being flipped, because close listening led them to believe that his programs and philosophies were sensible and righteous and that law enforcement agencies should not have been working against him at all. And while Malcolm’s ideas changed America, his life journey has captivated us even more. He went from a petty criminal and drug user to a long-term prisoner to an influential minister to a separatist political activist to a humanist to a martyr. Throughout his life he continually grew upward, unafraid to challenge or refute what he believed, giving hope that any of us can rise above even our deepest convictions to become better people.

The prime document that has kept Malcolm’s story alive over the dec­ades since his assassination in 1965 is “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” That book has changed countless lives and made Malcolm a central influence on generations of black men who admire his force, his courage, his brilliance, and his way of merging the protean trickster and the bold intellectual activist and the inspiring preacher. But all autobiographies are, in part, lies. They rely on memory, which is notoriously fallible, and are shaped by self-image. They don’t really tell us who you are but whom you want the world to see you as. Did Malcolm X consciously lie in his autobiography? In some cases, yes — he wanted us to believe he was a bigger criminal than he actually was, so that his growth into a Nation of Islam figure would seem a much more dramatic change. He also wanted us to think it was a friend who did sexual things with another man and not Malcolm himself. Sometimes he just left out details that didn’t fit his political agenda or the literary agenda of his co-author, Alex Haley. Some of those choices were right for what they were creating.

For a more complete and unvarnished — yet still inspiring — version of Malcolm’s life, there’s “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” by the late Columbia scholar Manning Marable. It’s the product of more than 10 years of work and draws on Malcolm’s letters and diaries; the results of surveillance conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department; and interviews with Malcolm’s contemporaries, including Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, whom Marable talked to for nine hours. Farrakhan has said that Malcolm was like “the father I never had.”

The loudest rumor before the book’s release was that it would shed light on Malcolm’s secret homosexual past. When he’s a young hustler, we find him apparently being paid to do things with one rich, older white man, but this moment is brief and anticlimactic and does not convey the impression that Malcolm was bisexual. Besides, there are far more titillating things in this book, which dives deep into Malcolm’s sex life. Marable obtained a letter Malcolm wrote in 1959 to Elijah Muhammad, then the leader of the Nation of Islam, in which he complains about his wife, Betty Shabazz: “At a time when I was going all out to keep her satisfied (sexually), one day she told me that we were incompatible sexually because I had never given her any real satisfaction.” Marable describes Malcolm as a virulent misogynist and a horribly neglectful husband who repeatedly got his wife pregnant, perhaps to keep her from making good on threats to cuckold him, and also made a habit of leaving for days or months immediately after the birth of each child.

That’s a Malcolm we all haven’t seen before. Meanwhile, the Malcolm we do know starts coming into view far earlier than expected, given that he’s known for metamorphosis. Born in Omaha in 1925, Malcolm was drilled as a child in the principles of Marcus Garvey — nationalism, separatism, Pan-Africanism, black pride, self-reliance, economic self-­empowerment — by his parents, Earl and Louise Little. Malcolm’s father was a particularly powerful role model: a devoted Garveyite who in 1930s Michigan stood up for what was right for black people, even in the face of death threats, and then paid for his bravery with a gruesome end. The apple did not fall far at all. And as a young man working the streets of Harlem, Malcolm came to know most of the stars of ’40s jazz and absorbed their example, learning to use pace, tone and space in jazz­like ways and perhaps to become a sort of jazzman of the spoken word. “He lived the existence of an itinerant musician,” Marable writes, “traveling constantly from city to city, standing night after night on the stage, manipulating his melodic tenor voice as an instrument. He was consciously a performer, who presented himself as the vessel for conveying the anger and impatience the black masses felt.”

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May 19, 1925 to February 21, 1965

As the nation’s most visible proponent of  Black Nationalism , Malcolm X’s challenge to the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped set the tone for the ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of King and his advocacy of racial separatism, it is not surprising that King rejected the occasional overtures from one of his fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, King wrote to his widow, Betty Shabazz: “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” (King, 26 February 1965).

Malcolm Little was born to Louise and Earl Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on 19 May 1925. His father died when he was six years old—the victim, he believed, of a white racist group. Following his father’s death, Malcolm recalled, “Some kind of psychological deterioration hit our family circle and began to eat away our pride” (Malcolm X,  Autobiography , 14). By the end of the 1930s Malcolm’s mother had been institutionalized, and he became a ward of the court to be raised by white guardians in various reform schools and foster homes.

Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) while serving a prison term in Massachusetts on burglary charges. Shortly after his release in 1952, he moved to Chicago and became a minister under Elijah Muhammad, abandoning his “slave name,” and becoming Malcolm X (Malcolm X, “We Are Rising”). By the late 1950s, Malcolm had become the NOI’s leading spokesman.

Although Malcolm rejected King’s message of  nonviolence , he respected King as a “fellow-leader of our people,” sending King NOI articles as early as 1957 and inviting him to participate in mass meetings throughout the early 1960s ( Papers  5:491 ). Although Malcolm was particularly interested that King hear Elijah Muhammad’s message, he also sought to create an open forum for black leaders to explore solutions to the “race problem” (Malcolm X, 31 July 1963). King never accepted Malcolm’s invitations, however, leaving communication with him to his secretary, Maude  Ballou .

Despite his repeated overtures to King, Malcolm did not refrain from criticizing him publicly. “The only revolution in which the goal is loving your enemy,” Malcolm told an audience in 1963, “is the Negro revolution … That’s no revolution” (Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,” 9).

In the spring of 1964, Malcolm broke away from the NOI and made a pilgrimage to Mecca. When he returned he began following a course that paralleled King’s—combining religious leadership and political action. Although King told reporters that Malcolm’s separation from Elijah Muhammad “holds no particular significance to the present civil rights efforts,” he argued that if “tangible gains are not made soon all across the country, we must honestly face the prospect that some Negroes might be tempted to accept some oblique path [such] as that Malcolm X proposes” (King, 16 March 1964).

Ten days later, during the Senate debate on the  Civil Rights Act of 1964 , King and Malcolm met for the first and only time. After holding a press conference in the Capitol on the proceedings, King encountered Malcolm in the hallway. As King recalled in a 3 April letter, “At the end of the conference, he came and spoke to me, and I readily shook his hand.” King defended shaking the hand of an adversary by saying that “my position is that of kindness and reconciliation” (King, 3 April 1965).

Malcolm’s primary concern during the remainder of 1964 was to establish ties with the black activists he saw as more militant than King. He met with a number of workers from the  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee  (SNCC), including SNCC chairman John  Lewis  and Mississippi organizer Fannie Lou  Hamer . Malcolm saw his newly created Organization of African American Unity (OAAU) as a potential source of ideological guidance for the more militant veterans of the southern civil rights movement. At the same time, he looked to the southern struggle for inspiration in his effort to revitalize the Black Nationalist movement.

In January 1965, he revealed in an interview that the OAAU would “support fully and without compromise any action by any group that is designed to get meaningful immediate results” (Malcolm X,  Two Speeches , 31). Malcolm urged civil rights groups to unite, telling a gathering at a symposium sponsored by the  Congress of Racial Equality : “We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying ‘We Shall Overcome.’ We've got to fight to overcome” (Malcolm X,  Malcolm X Speaks , 38).

In early 1965, while King was jailed in Selma, Alabama, Malcolm traveled to Selma, where he had a private meeting with Coretta Scott  King . “I didn’t come to Selma to make his job difficult,” he assured Coretta. “I really did come thinking that I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King” (Scott King, 256).

On 21 February 1965, just a few weeks after his visit to Selma, Malcolm X was assassinated. King called his murder a “great tragedy” and expressed his regret that it “occurred at a time when Malcolm X was … moving toward a greater understanding of the nonviolent movement” (King, 24 February 1965). He asserted that Malcolm’s murder deprived “the world of a potentially great leader” (King, “The Nightmare of Violence”). Malcolm’s death signaled the beginning of bitter battles involving proponents of the ideological alternatives the two men represented.

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X, 1 February 1957, in  Papers  4:117 .

Goldman, Death and Life of Malcolm X , 1973.

King, “The Nightmare of Violence,”  New York Amsterdam News , 13 March 1965.

King, Press conference on Malcolm X’s assassination, 24 February 1965,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King, Statement on Malcolm X’s break with Elijah Muhammad, 16 March 1964,  MCMLK-RWWL .

King to Abram Eisenman, 3 April 1964,  MLKJP-GAMK .

King to Shabazz, 26 February 1965,  MCMLK-RWWL .

(Scott) King,  My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr. , 1969.

Malcolm X, Interview by Harry Ring over Station WBAI-FM in New York, in  Two Speeches by Malcolm X , 1965.

Malcolm X, “Message to the Grassroots,”  in Malcolm X Speaks , ed. George Breitman, 1965.

Malcolm X, “We Are Rising From the Dead Since We Heard Messenger Muhammad Speak,”  Pittsburgh Courier , 15 December 1956.

Malcolm X to King, 21 July 1960, in  Papers  5:491 .

Malcolm X to King, 31 July 1963, 

Malcolm X with Haley,  Autobiography of Malcolm X , 1965.

Historical Material

Maude L. Ballou to Malcolm X

From Malcolm X

BlackPast is dedicated to providing a global audience with reliable and accurate information on the history of African America and of people of African ancestry around the world. We aim to promote greater understanding through this knowledge to generate constructive change in our society.

Malcolm x (1925-1965).

Malcolm X, one of the most influential African American leaders of the 20th Century, was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925 to Earl Little, a Georgia native and itinerant Baptist preacher, and Louise Norton Little who was born in the West Indian island of Grenada.  Shortly after Malcolm was born the family moved to Lansing, Michigan.  Earl Little joined Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) where he publicly advocated black nationalist beliefs, prompting the local white supremacist Black Legion to set fire to their home.  Little was killed by a streetcar in 1931. Authorities ruled it a suicide but the family believed he was killed by white supremacists.

Although an academically gifted student, Malcolm dropped out of high school after a teacher ridiculed his aspirations to become a lawyer.  He then moved to the Roxbury district of Boston, Massachusetts to live with an older half-sister, Ella Little Collins.  Malcolm worked odd jobs in Boston and then moved to Harlem in 1943 where he drifted into a life of drug dealing, pimping, gambling and other forms of “hustling.”  He avoided the draft in World War II by declaring his intent to organize black soldiers to attack whites which led to his classification as “mentally disqualified for military service.”

Malcolm was arrested for burglary in Boston in 1946 and received a ten year prison sentence. There he joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) .  Upon his parole in 1952, Malcolm was called to Chicago, Illinois by NOI leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad .  Like other converts, he changed his surname to “X,” symbolizing, he said, the rejection of “slave names” and his inability to claim his ancestral African name.

Recognizing his promise as a speaker and organizer for the Nation of Islam, Muhammad sent Malcolm to Boston to become the Minister of Temple Number Eleven. His proselytizing success earned a reassignment in 1954 to Temple Number Seven in Harlem. Although New York’s one million blacks comprised the largest African American urban population in the United States, Malcolm noted that “there weren’t enough Muslims to fill a city bus.  “Fishing” in Christian storefront churches and at competing black nationalist meetings, Malcolm built up the membership of Temple Seven.  He also met his future wife, Sister Betty X, a nursing student who joined the temple in 1956.  They married and eventually had six daughters.

Malcolm X quickly became a national public figure in July 1959 when CBS aired Mike Wallace’s expose on the NOI, “The Hate That Hate Produced.”  This documentary revealed the views of the NOI, of which Malcolm was the principal spokesperson and showed those views to be in sharp contrast to those of most well-known African American leaders of the time. Soon, however, Malcolm was increasingly frustrated by the NOI’s bureaucratic structure and refusal to participate in the Civil Rights Movement.  His November 1963 speech in Detroit, “Message to the Grass Roots,” a bold attack on racism and a call for black unity, foreshadowed the split with his spiritual mentor, Elijah Muhammad.  However, Malcolm on December 1, in response to a reporter’s question about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, used the phrase “chickens coming home to roost” which to Muslims meant that Allah was punishing white America for crimes against black people.  Whatever the personal views of Muslims about Kennedy’s death, Elijah Muhammad had given strict orders to his ministers not to comment on the assassination.  Malcolm defied the order and was suspended from the NOI for ninety days.

Malcolm used the suspension to announce on March 8, 1964, his break with the NOI and his creation of the Muslim Mosque, Inc.  Three months later he formed a strictly political group (an action expressly banned by the NOI), called the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) which was roughly patterned after the Organization of African Unity (OAU) .

His dramatic political transformation was revealed when he spoke to the Militant Labor Forum of the Socialist Workers’ Party.  Malcolm placed the Black Revolution in the context of a worldwide anti-imperialist struggle taking place in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, noting that  “when I say black, I mean non-white—black, brown, red or yellow.”  By April 1964, while speaking at a CORE rally in Cleveland, Ohio, Malcolm gave his famous “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech in which he described black Americans as “victims of democracy.”

Malcolm traveled to Africa and the Middle East in late Spring 1964 and was received like a visiting head of state in many countries including Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, and Ghana. While there, Malcolm made his hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia and added El-Hajj to his official NOI name Malik El-Shabazz.  The tour forced Malcolm to realize that one’s political position as a revolutionary superseded “color.”

The transformed Malcolm reiterated these views when he addressed an OAAU rally in New York, declaring for a pan-African struggle “by any means necessary.”   Malcolm spent six months in Africa in 1964 in an unsuccessful attempt to get international support for a United Nations investigation of human rights violations of Afro Americans in the United States.  In February 1965, Malcolm flew to Paris, France to continue his efforts but was denied entry amidst rumors that he was on a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hit list.  Upon his return to New York, his home was firebombed.  Events continued to spiral downward and on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

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Robert L. Jenkins and Mafanya Donald Tryman, The Malcolm X Encyclopedia (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002); Eugene V. Wolfenstein, The Victims of Democracy: Malcolm X and the Black Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981); Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1992); Malcolm X with Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Grove Press, 1965).

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley Mass Market Paperback – November 1, 1992

• Print length 460 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Ballantine Books
• Publication date November 1, 1992
• Dimensions 4.15 x 1.05 x 6.9 inches
• ISBN-10 0345350685
• ISBN-13 978-0345350688
• Lexile measure 1120L
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; Reissue edition (November 1, 1992)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 460 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345350685
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345350688
• Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1120L
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.15 x 1.05 x 6.9 inches
• #3 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Books)
• #11 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)
• #19 in Black & African American Biographies

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Customers find the story amazing, interesting, and inspiring. They also say the author did an excellent job with it, finding the man honest and simple. They appreciate the graceful way with words, and the perfect blend of powerful, entertaining, and passionate.

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Biography Online

Malcolm X Biography

Malcolm X (1925 – 1965) was an influential African-American leader of the 1960s. Initially, he was a member of the Nation of Islam, which advocated the separation of black and white Americans. He later converted to Sunni Islam and founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. Malcolm X advocated Pan-Africanism and black self-determination. Unlike the mainstream civil rights movement, Malcolm X rejected the philosophy of non-violence and defended the judicial use of self-defence. He was assassinated on February   21, 1965.

As a youngster, he was shocked when he told his teacher he wished to become a lawyer. His teacher discouraged him. Malcolm said that after that sobering experience his attitude to the white establishment soured.

As a teenager, Malcolm became involved in selling drugs in Harlem’s criminal world. He was often on the run from the police, and at age 21 he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in Charlestown State Prison. However, during his time in prison, he became increasingly receptive to the message of Islam brought to him by his brother Reginald.

On release from prison, he became closely involved with the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad. Possessing powerful skills of oratory and persuasion, Malcolm X was made the minister for the Nation of Islam’s New York Temple.

The Nation of Islam became an important faction in the civil rights movement. They were more militant than the non-violent civil rights movement and were often criticised for being unpatriotic.

Malcolm X said about being American.

“Sitting at the table [with nothing to eat] doesn’t make you a diner. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American”

In 1963, Malcolm X split from the Nation of Islam after revelations of the leader Elijah Muhammad having fathered children with former secretaries. His decision to leave created great animosity, and he received many threats in the next few year.

He made a pilgrimage to Mecca and travelled around the world becoming an international celebrity. He was struck by the degree of interracial harmony in the rest of the world.

On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated in New York, by members of the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X undoubtedly had a powerful impact on influencing American society and attitudes to race. He was instrumental in forging the movement of black power and radicalism that departed from the  non-violent approach of Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X briefly meet in 1964 before going to listen to a Senate debate about civil rights in Washington. (image Wikicommons )

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Malcom X Biography” , Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net, 11th Feb 2014. Last updated 2 March 2018.

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X , biography , published in 1965, of the American Black militant religious leader and activist who was born Malcolm Little. Written by Alex Haley , who had conducted extensive audiotaped interviews with Malcolm X just before his assassination in 1965, the book gained renown as a classic work on the Black American experience.

The Autobiography recounts the life of Malcolm X from his traumatic childhood plagued by racism to his years as a drug dealer and pimp, his conversion to the Black Muslim ( Nation of Islam ) faith while in prison for burglary , his subsequent years of militant activism, and the turn late in his life to more orthodox Islam .

55 years later, 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' still inspires

Ilyasah Shabazz is used to hearing from people from all walks of life about how much “The Autobiography Of Malcolm X” influenced them.

“His life resonates with so many people who find themselves at a crossroads, especially young people in underserved communities,” Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, told NBC News. “When you have people who are weary — whether they are young or they are old — with the way that our system works, they seemed to find a lot of solace in it.”

Since it was published in 1965, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” has sold millions of copies around the world and served as a guidebook into the life and philosophy of a civil rights leader who was as contentious as he was revered. Released eight months after his assassination and based on more than 50 interviews with the writer Alex Haley, the book was integral to shaping Malcolm X’s legacy.

“The Autobiography of Malcolm X” will soon reach a new audience on Thursday, when Audible releases an unabridged audio version of the text for the first time. Performed by the Oscar-nominated actor Laurence Fishburne, Shabazz said she hopes the audiobook “will inspire today’s activists and create a shared understanding with the civil rights leaders of the 1960s.”

A convert to Islam in his 20s, Malcolm X forged a relationship with the Nation of Islam through the 1950s, and he became a leading public voice of the controversial group. His speeches and writings focusing on Black empowerment and the need for Black independence were largely considered more radical than that of the nonviolent approach of the civil rights movement. Malcolm X eventually left the Nation of Islam and converted to Sunni Islam in 1964 after performing the Hajj that same year. Still, his uncompromising rhetoric led to deep suspicions within white America, which could be summed up by a New York Times editorial in 1964 describing him as an “embittered racist” and an “irresponsible demagogue.”

This distrust persisted after his death. Immediately following his assassination at 39 in February 1965, “there was widespread derision in terms of Malcolm and his life” in the mainstream, white-owned press, noted Zaheer Ali, a historian and senior fellow at the Pillars Fund, a Muslim American philanthropic organization. An example of this is another New York Times editorial that ran the day after he was killed that described Malcolm X as “an extraordinary and twisted man” who used his “many true gifts to evil purpose.”

In contrast to those narratives, reading his extensive autobiography allowed readers to explore Malcolm X’s life story on their own terms, Ali said.

Partly as a result, the overall public mood toward Malcolm X began shifting after the book’s release, which had sold more than 6 million copies by 1977 , the year Haley died. “The book invites a full assessment of Malcolm’s life, it offers a reassessment of what people thought of him,” Ali said, adding that the book’s publication also came “at a time where the civil rights movement itself was being transformed” with the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

“The book became almost the sacred text of the Black Power movement,” Ali said. “It was almost like the bible, if you will, for many people, especially many young people, who were moving into the Black Power phase of the Black freedom movement.”

Shabazz herself was one of the young Black Americans who first read her father’s autobiography as a teen.

Malcolm X’s strong denunciation of white supremacy and his moving telling of how he went from being a troubled youth in the foster care system to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders of the 20th century is one reason the autobiography endures 55 years after its publication, with several activists, lawmakers and advocates crediting it with being instrumental in their decision to fight for civil rights.

Rep. André D. Carson, D-Ind., said a white teacher gave him the autobiography when he was a high school student in the early 1990s. “Malcolm was unapologetic in his boldness and he was unapologetic in speaking truth to power. He wasn’t fearful and he wasn’t trying to cater to a specific demographic,” Carson, one of four Muslim Americans in the House of Representatives, told NBC News. “He spoke from the heart, he spoke his truth and I think that resonates with people.”

The audiobook’s release comes as many Americans have been reading or returning to the autobiography in recent months as protesters confront police violence and systemic racism.

“We have never really dealt with race in our country. It has been this thing where white people have just expected Black people to forget and move on — even in the face of injustice,” said author Kim Johnson, whose new young adult novel “This Is My America” centers on a teen who is determined to get her innocent father off of death row. Johnson credits her study of Malcolm X and other civil rights leaders from the 1960s as an instrumental influence on her book.

“I think about what is happening right now in our society and it’s the same issues Malcolm X was fighting for and questioning,” Johnson said. “He himself was questioned by police. He was in the school-to-prison pipeline. He was talking about the same issues. They are just slightly different.”

Author and publisher Wade Hudson recalled being blown away by Malcolm X’s speeches and writings as a teenager, especially when he connected the struggles of Black Americans to other oppressed people worldwide.

“His voice particularly resonated with those of us who were younger at that time because so many older people around us were really afraid to speak out because of the retribution from the racist Jim Crow system,” Hudson said. With his wife, Cheryl Willis Hudson, he has worked on several books about the Black American experience, most recently the anthology, “The Talk .”

Malcolm X’s messages were particularly startling for young people who grew up in families like Cheryl Willis Hudson’s. “At the time he was really a radical,” said Willis Hudson, who grew up in Virginia while schools were just beginning to desegregate. “The autobiography just had a tremendous impact on how we could voice our concerns out loud.”

To many Black Muslim Americans, Malcolm X’s story also is intrinsically linked to his faith. Safiyah Cheatam, 24, an artist, remembers thinking of Malcolm X as a “household name” in her New Jersey home growing up.

Malcolm X’s faith journey is personally important to Cheatam because she says Black American Muslim stories are rarely part of the conversation about Islam in American. “I think his way of being a Muslim shines a light onto how you can be Black, and how you can be influential, and how you can be Muslim,” she said.

Margari Hill, the executive director of the Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative, recalls reading Malcolm X’s FBI files after graduating from high school in the early 1990s shortly before she converted to Islam. She said she came of age during a time when Malcolm X’s words were everywhere in popular culture, thanks to both the Oscar-nominated performance by Denzel Washington in the 1992 “Malcolm X” biopic, and hip-hop artists like Gangstarr, Eric B and Rakim.

Malcolm X’s story was also relatable in a way that the lives of many prominent Black Americans were not for those who had experienced incarceration and homelessness. “He exemplified a way of being dignified without having to go through respectability politics,” Hill said. “He showed you could still build and create a life for yourself.”

Ultimately, Hill said, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” still resonates with readers because it is a story of self-discovery and self-determination. “It’s not just a historical book, it’s a hero’s journey of struggling with white supremacy,” she said. “While it ended in tragedy with his assassination it also showed his power. Why were people so afraid of him? What were they trying to uphold?”

Lakshmi Gandhi is a contributor to NBC News.

13 Best Malcolm X Books of All Time

Our goal : Find the best Malcolm X books according to the internet (not just one random person's opinion).

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Last Updated: Monday 1 Jan, 2024

• Best Malcolm X Books

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

As told to alex haley.

By Any Means Necessary

Trials and tribulations of the making of malcolm x.

Martin & Malcolm & America

A dream or a nightmare.

James H. Cone

The FBI File

Clayborne Carson

A Life of Reinvention

Manning Marable

The Judas Factor

The plot to kill malcolm x.

Karl Evanzz

The End of White World Supremacy

Four speeches.

The Death and Life of Malcolm X

Peter Goldman

The Assassination of Malcolm X

Allison Stark Draper

Seventh Child

A family memoir of malcolm x.

Rodnell P. Collins

Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power

Jack Barnes

Malcolm X Speaks

Selected speeches and statements.

Making Malcolm

The myth and meaning of malcolm x.

Michael Eric Dyson

• 5 Books Every Muslim Should Read On Malcolm X And His Legacy - The Muslim Vibe themuslimvibe.com
• Books About Malcolm X - Malcolm X Resources - LibGuides at Cornell University guides.library.cornell.edu
• What Books Best Capture Malcolm X's Legacy? - Philly's Hip Hop and R&B Station. wrnbhd2.com
• Teaching About Malcolm X - Social Justice Books socialjusticebooks.org
• Books By and About Malcolm X - Malcolm X: Selected Resources - Library Guides at Penn State University guides.libraries.psu.edu

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REMEMBER THEM

Champions for humanity.

Malcolm X was immortalized as a “shining black prince” by Ossie Davis, a well-known African American actor, civil rights activist, and dear friend in his eulogy for the infamous leader. He was a powerful man, who treated his authority like a fine piece of music, lending his whole being – mind, body, and soul – to the task of realizing his dream. Not unlike Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X dreamed of freedom for his people, for black men, women, and children all over the world. There was, without a doubt, something enigmatic about Malcolm X. Malcolm’s approach to African American liberation was controversial, and his involvement with the Nation of Islam (NOI) was pivotal in shaping his thoughts and deeds. However, before Malcolm’s tragic assassination, he broke from the NOI, and truly transformed his fundamental beliefs about humanity, equality, and justice. As the late Columbia University professor and historian Manning Marable wrote in his epic biography of Malcolm X: “He was a truly historical figure in the sense that, more than any of his contemporaries, he embodied the spirit, vitality, and political mood of an entire population – black urban mid-twentieth century America.”   The influence of such an embodiment became evident in the success of  The Autobiography of Malcolm X , Spike Lee’s Academy Award-winning film  Malcolm X , and the abundance of literature, art, education, and social justice work that continues in the great man’s name today. His story is fascinating, his metamorphoses illuminating, and his dream empowering. Malcolm X was indeed a revolutionary humanitarian leader.

The Early Life of Malcolm Little

Malcolm X was born “Malcolm Little” in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925. His father was a radical Baptist minister and a Garveyite, follower of Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey, who believed that freedom, independence, and self-respect could never be achieved by blacks in America, and they should therefore return to Africa. His mother was fair-skinned, her mother likely raped by a white man, and Malcolm Little was born with red-hued hair. Malcolm’s childhood was disturbing and traumatic. His father was frequently threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, who acted on these threats by burning down Malcolm’s home, and later murdering his father. His mother was so distraught by her husband’s death that she was admitted to a mental health facility, leaving Malcolm and his seven siblings to wade through the welfare system. In  The Autobiography  Malcolm reflects on his early memories:

…the nightmare night in 1929, my earliest vivid memory. I remember being suddenly snatched awake into a frightening confusion of pistol shots and shouting and smoke and flames. My father had shouted and shot at the two white men who had set the fire and were running away. Our home was burning down around us…I remember we were outside in the night in our underwear, crying and yelling our heads off. The white police and firemen came and stood around watching as the house burned down to the ground.   When the state welfare people began coming to our house…[t]hey acted and looked at [my mother], and at us, and around in our house, in a way that had about it the feeling – at least for me – that we were not people. In their eyesight we were just  things,  that was all.   [My teacher] looked surprised… He kind of half-smiled and said…“You’ve got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer – that’s no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be… Why don’t you plan on carpentry?” Mr. Ostrowsky’s advice to others in my class – all of them white…had encouraged what they had wanted.  Yet nearly none of them had earned marks equal to mine…. apparently I wasn’t intelligent enough, in their eyes, to become whatever I wanted to be…. It was then that I began to change – inside.

Malcolm’s painful childhood affected both his trials and triumphs. He suffered both psychologically and physically as a result of the systemic racism and oppression he was exposed to, and externalized this in the form of anger and hatred. As a result, Malcolm was often in trouble as a young man. He later reflected, “The addict steals, he hustles in other ways; he preys upon other human beings like a hawk or a vulture – as I did. Very likely, he is a school drop-out, the same as I was, an Army reject, psychologically unsuited to a job even if he was offered one, the same as I was.”    

This deep internal pain and troubled early life enabled Malcolm to relate to the masses of African Americans, and as importantly, for them to connect to him and follow his radical rejection of hegemonic racism in America. As Marable explains in his biography:

Malcolm…was a product of the modern ghetto. The emotional rage he expressed was a reaction to racism in its urban context: segregated urban schools, substandard housing, high infant mortality rates, drugs, and crime. Since by the 1960s the overwhelming majority of African Americans lived in large cities, the conditions that defined their existence were more closely linked to what Malcolm spoke about than what [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] represented. Consequently, he was able to establish a strong audience among urban blacks, who perceived passive resistance as an insufficient tool for dismantling institutional racism.

“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad”

Seeing no path forward for him in a racist educational system, Malcolm turned to the streets and eventually a life of crime.  It was while in prison (1946-1952) that Malcolm discovered a new path though the aid of his brother, Reginald who had recently converted to the Muslim religion, and joined the organization of the Nation of Islam (NOI). Malcolm took to the teaching of the NOI leader Elijah Muhammad who preached self-empowerment, black self-reliance, and separatism from an oppressive white society. One of the first life-changing ideas that Muhammad planted in Malcolm’s mind was that God is black. Malcolm believed this, and found an omnipotent ally in God, and in Muhammad himself. Of course, the idea that man shares a likeness with God is profoundly empowering, and for Malcolm, this was the beginning of the unraveling of years of internalized racism. It was during this time that Malcolm changed his surname from Little, a slave name he came to reject, to X which was meant to signify an African tribal name that could never be known.

Malcolm’s intellectual dexterity swelled as he devoured literature throughout the rest of his time in prison.  Upon his release Malcolm became a devoted minister for the Nation of Islam, urging black people to transform their lives in the way he had transformed his own.   Malcolm’s charisma, intelligence, and drive saw him quickly rise within the NOI and obtain the eventual appointment as its national spokesman.  NOI membership swelled from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963 largely due to Malcolm’s appeal.  He preached the need to overthrow oppression by any means necessary and to build a separate black nation. He referred to all white people as “blue-eyed devils”, aligning with Muhammad’s stance. Most whites and some African Americans, who were struggling for racial integration, viewed his teachings as dangerous.

Malcolm X spent twelve years (1952-64) preaching the beliefs of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Toward the end of these years, Malcolm’s relationship with Muhammad deteriorated because of Muhammad’s personal misconduct and inability to follow his own teachings.  In 1964, Malcolm decided to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Following his travels, and discourses and discussions with people of various cultures, Malcolm returned a changed man with a changed message of self-empowerment tempered by tolerance toward all, preaching this not just to African Americans, but to people of all races. Malcolm severed his ties with the NOI, and founded his own religious organizations, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity which would better reflect his evolving views.

Shortly after embarking in this new direction, Malcolm’s home was bombed and set fire on February 14, 1965 at 2:30 a.m. while he, his wife, Betty Shabazz, and their children were asleep. They managed to escape safely.  Even though Malcolm firmly believed the perpetrators to be NOI members, their identities were never discovered.

The next day, Malcolm, tense and sleep-deprived, gave a speech entitled “There’s a worldwide revolution going on” in Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom, less than a week before his assassination in the same venue. It is one of many examples of Malcolm’s effort to separate himself from the NOI, denounce his former allegiance to the group and its leader, and explain his newfound beliefs:

I had blind faith in [Elijah Muhammad], the same as many of you have had and still have blind faith in me or blind faith in Moses or blind faith in somebody else. My faith in Elijah Muhammad was more blind and more uncompromising than any faith that any man has ever had for another man. And so I didn’t try to see him as he actually was. But, being away, I could see him better, understand many things better.

Yes, he’s immoral. You can’t take nine teenaged women and seduce them and give them babies…and then tell me you’re moral. …Any time you seduce teenaged girls and…make them hide your crimes, why you’re not even a man, much less a divine man.   So, I feel responsible for having played a major role in developing a criminal organization [the NOI]. It was not a criminal organization at the outset. It was an organization that had the power, the spiritual power, to reform the criminal…. I know because I went into the movement with more negative tendencies than anybody in the movement. It was faith in what I taught that made it possible for me to stop doing anything that I was doing and everything that I was doing…. I, for one, disassociate myself from the movement completely.   …what Elijah Muhammad is teaching is an insult to the entire Muslim world, because Islam…as a religion, has nothing to do with color…. it doesn’t use the color of a man’s skin to measure him…. Islam, as a religion, judges a man by his intention, by his behavior, by his deeds.

A Reframing of Racism

One of the most significant impacts of Malcolm’s journey to Mecca was a great shift in his beliefs about race and racism. “Like W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin, [Malcolm] had denounced the psychological and social costs that racism had imposed upon his people…”.   However, prior to his trip to Mecca, he had not recognized that unchecked racism can have a deleterious effect on any and all people subjected to it, not just African Americans. Though he remained steadfast in his prioritization of the social, economic, political, and psychological liberation of blacks, he acknowledged that not all white people are evil, and in fact, many can be allies in the global struggle for equality and justice. He wrote to Betty Shabazz, his wife, while in Mecca about his initial realization:

…was the only time in my life that I stood before the creator of all and felt like a complete human being…. Now, you may not believe this, but I have eaten from the same plate, drank from the same glass, and prayed to same god with fellow Muslims whose eyes were blue, whose hair was blonde, and whose skin was the whitest of white, and we were all brothers, truly. People of all colors and races believing in one God with one humanity…. Each hour here in this sacred land enables me to have a greater spiritual insight into what is happening in America. The American Negro can never be blamed for his racial animosity. He’s only reacting to 400 years of oppression and discrimination…. In the past I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. And these generalizations have caused injuries to some white folks who did not deserve them…. I am not a racist, and I do not subscribe to any of the tenets of racism. In all honesty and sincerity, it can be stated that I wish nothing but freedom, justice, and equality, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all people.

At a New York college where Malcolm was speaking a year before his death, a black student rose and began attacking Jews…with practiced viciousness. Malcolm wouldn’t let him finish and grabbed the microphone: “What you’re doing is what has for so long been done to us. Bigotry doesn’t help anybody, including the bigot. Listen, I don’t judge a man because of the color of his skin. I don’t judge people because they’re white. I don’t judge you because you’re black. I judge you because of what you do and what you practice. I’m not against people because they’re Jews. I’m against  racists .”

In his  Autobiography , Malcolm further condemns racism: “…to me the earth’s most explosive and pernicious evil is racism, the inability of God’s creatures to live as One, especially in the Western world.”

Malcolm’s desire to see the venomous politic of black-white racism in America destroyed was transformed  into the desire to eliminate all of its manifestations:

Malcolm’s revolutionary vision also challenged white America to think and talk differently about race…. Malcolm challenged whites to examine the policies and practices of racial discrimination…. Malcolm spoke about the destructive effects of racism upon both its victims and its promulgators. Toward the end of his life he could image the destruction of racism itself…. He did not embrace “color blindness” but…believed that racial hierarchies within society could be dismantled.

A Global Human Rights Leader in the Making

In his final years, Malcolm certainly embraced a more open and accepting vision of humanity, but it was not without his characteristic firebrand approach to human rights and social change. After he left the NOI, and formed Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964, Malcolm sought through both organizations to make the African American struggle for justice a global one. In  The Autobiography  Malcolm proclaimed, “Human rights! Respect as  human beings!  That’s what America’s black masses want. That’s the true problem. The black masses want not to be shrunk from as though they are plague-ridden. They want not to be walled up in slums, in the ghettoes, like animals. They want to live in an open, free society where they can walk with their heads up, like men and women.” In his speech at the Audubon in Harlem, not a week before his death, Malcolm elaborated upon  how  blacks could achieve this type of radical respect:

So the first step that has actually been taken, brothers and sisters, since Garvey died, to actually establish contact between the 22 million Black Americans with our brothers and sisters back home was done by two organizations…. So this has been the purpose of the [Organization of Afro-American Unity] and also the Muslim Mosque – to give us direct links, direct contact, direct communication and cooperation with our brothers and sisters all over the earth. And once we are successful in uniting ourselves with our people all over the world, it puts us in a position where we no longer are a minority who can be abused and walked upon.

The united front Malcolm proposed was meant to revolt against the cultural stranglehold of white Western colonial rule. In the same speech, Malcolm declared:

You and I are living at a time when there’s a revolution going on. A worldwide revolution…. what is it revolting against?… An international Western power structure…. These countries that formerly colonized the dark man formed into a giant international combine. A structure, a house that has ruled the world up until now. And in recent times there has been a revolution taking place in Asia and in Africa, whacking away at the strength or at the foundation of the power structure.

Malcolm was killed before he could realize his revolutionary vision. Until the moment of his death, he advanced its cause with all his might and all his will. As hard as he fought, his intentions were never violent at their core. Marable eloquently illuminates Malcolm’s often provocative stance on violence in his biography: “So the view that there were ‘two Malcolm Xs’ – one who advocated violence when he was a Black Muslim, and a second who espoused nonviolent change – is absolutely wrong. To Malcolm, armed self-defense was never equated with violence for its own sake.”   Marable continues, “Malcolm’s personal journey of self-discovery, the quest for God, led him toward peace and away from violence.” After Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca, he traveled throughout the African continent, meeting with presidents and leaders of many countries. These travels had a profound impact on his sociopolitical aims, and shaped his fundamental beliefs, just as his spiritual journey had in Mecca. Encountering blacks and Muslims from diverse regions of the world also carved a unique public space for Malcolm as black icon and a Muslim icon. Marable expresses the relevance of Malcolm’s exceptional position:

…Malcolm X represents the most important bridge between the American people and more than one billion Muslims throughout the world…. He avoided arguments that pitted Muslims against one another; he emphasized Islam’s capacity to transform the believer from hatred and intolerance toward love. His own remarkable life story personified this reinvention.

These final efforts cemented Malcolm’s role as first a leader of human rights, as well as an African American leader, and a Muslim leader. This was captured in the final scene of Spike Lee’s film,  Malcolm X  where South African hero Nelson Mandela’s words offer a resounding affirmation of Malcolm’s place as international humanitarian leader: “As brother Malcolm said, we declare our right on this earth to be a man, to be a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, to be respected as a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intended to bring into existence.”

A Tragic Hero

Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, who worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote of Malcolm X, “Malcolm’s life was tragic on a heroic scale. He had choices, but never took the easy or comfortable ones.”   This was true until the very hour of his death. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm “insisted that none of his security team, with the sole exception of [his personal bodyguard] should carry arms…[d]espite the recent firebombing and the escalating threats of violence.”  Whether a more vigilant approach  could have saved his life is uncertain. Had his assassins failed to complete their task that Sunday, it is likely that they would not have rested until they stopped him in his defiant tracks. Of the murderers’ identities, Marable asserts:

Although in 1966 three NOI members were convicted of the murder, extensive evidence suggests that two of those men were completely innocent of the crime, that both the FBI and the NYPD had advance knowledge of it, and that the New York County District Attorney’s office may have cared more about protecting the identities of undercover police officers and informants than arresting the real killers.

It is possible, therefore, that Malcolm’s assassins have not been brought to justice, despite the public arrests made after his death. This lack of judicial transparency and integrity only adds to the tragedy of Malcolm’s death, and underscores his fight against oppression.

Malcolm X was a passionate leader, a lucid minister, a devoted Muslim, and a steadfast champion of the disenfranchised. He is remembered in his many incarnations, and often celebrated for these transformations. Despite the mass success of  The Autobiography , Spike Lee’s  Malcolm X , and countless other retellings of his life, Malcolm remains a controversial and enigmatic figure in American history.  His purpose and faith are frequently misunderstood and for this reason, his legacy seems to continue to unfold.

Nevertheless, friends and followers have beautifully encapsulated his memory through words, art, music, and action time and again. Civil Rights visionaries James Baldwin and Ossie Davis remember the complete Malcolm X. 

James Baldwin moderated a radio program panel in 1961 during which Malcolm debated a young civil rights activist who had just returned from desegregation protests in the South. Baldwin was astonished by their interaction: Malcolm “understood that child and talked to him as though he was talking to a younger brother…. I will never forget Malcolm and that child facing each other, and Malcolm’s extraordinary gentleness. And that’s the truth about Malcolm: he was one of the gentlest people I have ever met.”

Ossie Davis’ eulogy for his dear friend captured Malcolm X’s spirit, and is one of the best examples of why the legacy of Malcolm X is celebrated and remembered:

…this Afro-American who lies before us – unconquered still. I say the word again, as he would want me to: Afro-American – Afro-American Malcolm, who was a master, was most meticulous in his use of words. Nobody knew better than he the power words have over minds of men. Malcolm had stopped being a “Negro” years ago. It had become too small, too puny, too weak a word for him. Malcolm was bigger than that. Malcolm had become an Afro-American and he wanted – so desperately – that we, that all his people, would become Afro-Americans too.   …Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain – and we will smile…. And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.   Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves. Last year, from Africa, he wrote these words to a friend: “My journey,” he says, “is almost ended, and I have a much broader scope than when I started out, which I believe will add new life and dimension to our struggle for freedom and honor and dignity in the States. I am writing these things so that you will know for a fact the tremendous sympathy and support we have among the African States for our Human Rights struggle. The main thing is that we keep a United Front wherein our most valuable time and energy will not be wasted fighting each other.” However we may have differed with him – or with each other about him and his value as a man – let his going from us serve only to bring us together, now.   …we will know him then for what he was and is – a Prince – our own black shining Prince! – who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.

Malcolm X and Alex Haley,  The Autobiography of Malcolm X  (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964) 3.

X and Haley 12.

X and Haley 36-37.

X and Haley 262.

Malcolm X,  Malcolm X: The Last Speeches , Bruce Perry, ed., (New York: Pathfinder, 1989) 111-112.

Malcolm X: The Last Speeches  117.

Malcolm X: The Last Speeches  127.

Malcolm X: The Last Speeches  141.

Malcolm X , Dir. Spike Lee, Warner Brothers, 1992.

Clarence B. Jones and Joel Engel,  What Would Martin Say?  (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2008) 135.

X and Haley 338.

Marable 484.

X and Haley 272-273.

Malcolm X: The Last Speeches  125.

Malcolm X: The Last Speeches  122.

Marable 485.

Marable 487.

Marable 486.

Marable 466.

Marable 13.

Ossie Davis,  Malcolm X’s Eulogy , 27 February 1965,  Malcolm X Official Website ,  http://www.malcolmx.com/about/eulogy.html , 4 December 2013.

About the Monument

The Remember Them Monument is installed in Henry J. Kaiser Park, near 19 th Ave and Telegraph Ave in Oakland, CA. The bronze monument was cast at Mussi Artworks Foundry in Berkeley, CA. Mario Chiodo donated his design and sculpturing hours. The Oakland Chamber of Commerce Foundation was the fiscal sponsor.

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The Civil Rights Movement was a history changing movement for America. There were many well-known activists that led this movement to change America's treatment of African Americans. Malcolm X was one of those leaders. Watch this video and then complete the lesson to learn more about how Malcolm X led America through a revolution.

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Malcolm X Biography: A Look at His Life and Legacy

Malcolm X: A Life of Transformation and Advocacy

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, was a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement who rose from a troubled youth to become a powerful voice for racial equality and self-determination. His life story is one of transformation, advocacy, and enduring impact on American history.

Early Life and Influences

Malcolm X’s early life was marked by hardship and racial prejudice. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, he experienced firsthand the harsh realities of segregation and discrimination. His family faced threats from white supremacists, and his father was tragically killed when Malcolm was a young boy. The family later moved to Michigan, where they encountered further difficulties.

Malcolm X dropped out of school and became involved in petty crime. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison, where he began his journey of self-discovery and intellectual awakening. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam (NOI), a religious and social movement that advocated for Black empowerment and self-reliance.

Rise to Prominence in the Nation of Islam

Within the NOI, Malcolm X quickly rose to prominence as a charismatic speaker and leader. He embraced the movement’s teachings and became known for his fiery rhetoric and unwavering commitment to Black liberation. He argued for Black separatism, rejecting integration as a viable path to equality. Malcolm X’s message resonated with many African Americans who felt frustrated and marginalized by white society.

His speeches and writings became increasingly popular, attracting a wide following. He established mosques and branches of the NOI across the country, spreading its message of self-determination and Black power. However, his controversial views and confrontational style also drew criticism and condemnation from some quarters.

Break with the Nation of Islam

In the early 1960s, Malcolm X began to question some of the NOI’s teachings and leadership. He became increasingly critical of its founder, Elijah Muhammad, and its emphasis on separatism. Malcolm X’s growing disillusionment led to a break with the organization in 1964.

Later Years and Assassination

After leaving the NOI, Malcolm X embarked on a new path, embracing a more inclusive vision of racial equality. He traveled to Mecca, where he experienced a profound spiritual transformation, broadening his understanding of Islam and its universal message. He returned to the United States with a renewed commitment to interracial dialogue and cooperation.

However, his newfound openness and willingness to work with white allies made him a target for those who saw him as a threat. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated while delivering a speech in New York City. His death shocked the nation and sent a wave of grief and anger through the Civil Rights Movement.

Malcolm X’s legacy is complex and multifaceted. He is remembered as a powerful advocate for Black liberation, a charismatic speaker, and a symbol of resilience in the face of adversity. His writings and speeches continue to inspire activists and scholars today. His influence can be seen in the Black Power movement, the fight against racial injustice, and the ongoing struggle for equality and human rights.

Malcolm X’s life and death serve as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for racial justice and the importance of challenging oppressive systems. He remains a figure of inspiration and a testament to the enduring power of hope and transformation.

Further Reading

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
• Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
• Malcolm X: The Last Years by Bruce Perry

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A pioneering African-American TV reporter finally gets his due with new biography

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Mal Goode was first African-American reporter for a major American TV news network. A new biography of the pioneering broadcaster is finally getting Goode the recognition he deserves.

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