Malcolm (Little) X started out in a life of crime only to become become America’s most popular and threatening black revolutionary. His father Earl Little was an active supporter of Marcus Garvey who advocated that all Afro-Americans abandon America and return to their motherland. The fact that Earl Little was a black political activist made the Little family subject to constant attack from groups such as the KKK. Due to this neverending harassment, the Little family was eventually forced to move and ended up in Lansing, Michigan. The peace, however, only lasted so long and tragedy struck in 1931, when Earl was murdered by white supremacists.

Malcolm’s mother, a single black female with no money and six children, eventually became ill from stress and was committed by the authorities to a mental hospital. Malcolm was then sent to live with various foster families until he left school in 1940, and went to Boston to work as a shoe shine boy. Eventually, Malcolm Little became involved in a life of crime and fast living that eventually landed him in jail. It was in prison that he discovered the Nation of Islam and, upon his release from prison, Little changed his name to Malcolm X when he became a full and active member. In 1964, however, X went on the pilgrimage to Mecca and returned less militant and more hopeful of black and white racial harmony. Malcolm X changed his name yet again to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabbaz.

Around a year later in 1965, he was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York. The assassin has never been caught but there are generally two theories as to who assassinated Malcolm X, the first being that it was an agent of the federal government getting rid of potential national security threat. The second and most often repeated theory is that it was an operative ordered by the Nation of Islam to get rid of a renegade who might threaten their organization. Malcolm X was laid to rest in Ferncliff Cemetery, Ardsley, New York.
Work History
(02/ 21/1965) Assassinated New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims.

(1964) Leaves the Nation of Islam and begins the new movement Muslim Mosque; travels to Mecca in the Middle East for the required pilgramige and returns with the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz; forms the Organization of Afro-American Unity, OAAU

(1963) Suspended from the Nation of Islam.

(1959) Travels to Middle East and Africa.

(1954) Minister of the Nation of Islam's New York Temple.

(1953) Assistant Minister of the Nation of Islam's Detroit Temple.

(1952) Joins nation of Islam; changes name to Malcolm X.

(1946) Caught and convicted to a six-year prison sentence for burglary.

(c. 1944-1946) Begins a life of crime dealing in everything from drugs to prostitution to burglary.

(1942) Railroad dinnng car porter, New York.

(1940) Shoeshine boy at the Roseland Ballroom in Boston.
Affiliations
1952-1964 Nation of Islam. 1964- Muslim Mosque. 1964- Organization for Afro-American Unity.