Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, he relocated to New
York City's Harlem neighborhood in 1943, after spending his teenage years in a
series of foster homes following his father's death and his mother's
hospitalization. In New York, Little engaged in several illicit activities, and
was eventually sentenced to ten years in prison in 1946 for larceny and
breaking and entering. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) and
changed his name to Malcolm X. After being paroled in 1952, he quickly became
one of the organization's most influential leaders.
During the civil rights movement, Malcolm X served as the
public face of the controversial group for a dozen years, where he advocated
for black supremacy, the separation of black and white Americans, and rejected
the notion of the civil rights movement for its emphasis on racial integration.
He also expressed pride in some of the social achievements he made with the
Nation, particularly its free drug rehabilitation program. In the 1950s,
Malcolm X endured surveillance from the FBI
for the Nation's supposed links to communism.
In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the
Nation of Islam, and in particular, with its leader Elijah Muhammad. Expressing
many regrets about his time with them, which he had come to regard as largely
wasted, he instead embraced Sunni Islam. Malcolm X then began to advocate for
racial integration and disavowed racism after completing Hajj, whereby he also
became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. After a brief period of travel across
Africa, he notably repudiated the NOI, and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI)
and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) to emphasize Pan-Africanism.
"Malcolm X was referred to as "Detroit Red" because of the reddish hair he inherited from his Scots maternal grandfather." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
- On top of my head was this thick smooth sheen of red hair - real red - as straight as any white man's..." https://books.google.it/
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