Violence

» African-American activist, born in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He claimed that his father, a minister and follower of Marcus Garvey, was murdered by racists in Lansing, MI (1931) (but at least one researcher claims his father died accidentally). Moving to Boston, he turned to pimping and drugs as a teenager, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for burglary (1946), where he discovered the anti-white Black Muslims. Joining the Muslims (1952), he became a recruiter, changed his name, and came to national attention with his writings and through a television documentary (1959), both of which tended to portray him as a threat to white people.

Breaking with the Muslims (1964), he founded the Muslim Mosque in an effort to internationalize the Afro-American struggle, and journeyed to Muslim lands abroad where he was impressed with their lack of racial bias. Returning to the US convinced that whites were not inherently racist, he called himself El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz and formed the Organization of African American Unity, hoping to co-operate with progressive white groups. Before his assassination in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City (Mar 1965), he came to believe that leaders of the Nation of Islam and powerful elements within the US government wanted him dead; the only legal trial put all the blame on members of the Nation of Islam.

Alex Haley helped immortalize him as co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), and Spike Lee's 1992 film renewed interest in the man and his message.

He proved as powerful after his death as alive, influencing disparate movements with his positions on black power and neo-colonialism, and transforming the consciousness of a generation of African-Americans.