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Malcolm X (1925–1965)

The prison experiences of Malcolm X proved to be the turning point in his life and career. During his years of incarceration, he underwent a profound spiritual conversion that transformed him from a petty criminal into the principal spokesperson for the Nation of Islam.

Biographical Details

Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His childhood could not have been more troubled. Malcolm's father, Earl, was an ardent advocate of the United Negro Improvement Association, the militant black organization established by Marcus Garvey. Earl's uncompromising politics aroused the enmity of the Ku Klux Klan, which repeatedly terrorized the family. The Littles abandoned Omaha and settled first in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then Lansing, Michigan. Trouble awaited them with every move. When the family moved into an otherwise all-white neighborhood in Lansing, they were served with an eviction notice. After Earl refused to relinquish the property, local whites burned it to the ground. On September 28, 1931, Earl was killed when he fell under the wheels of a streetcar. The circumstances surrounding his death are clouded in confusion. According to some, Earl was murdered by white supremacists known as the Black Legion; in the opinion of others, he died as the result of a drunken fall.

Whether or not the cause of his death was an accident, the impact on the rest of the family was catastrophic. Earl's widow, Louise, struggled unsuccessfully to support her children. Malcolm became increasingly unruly at school. He also started to steal. In January 1939, exhausted by strain, Louise Little was admitted to the Michigan State Mental Hospital. Malcolm was sent to live with an adoptive family. Expelled from school, he was then admitted to a detention home.

Malcolm found temporary reprieve when he moved to Roxbury, Massachusetts, under the legal guardianship of his half-sister, Ella Little-Collins. However, he soon descended into a life of petty crime. Under the alias “Detroit Red,” Malcolm worked the streets of Harlem as a pimp, drug dealer, and number runner. In November 1944, he received a three-month suspended sentence and one year of probation for pawning a stolen coat. Four months later, he was arrested for a robbery in Detroit but failed to attend the trial hearing.

Imprisonment

Eventually, the law caught up with him. On January 12, 1946, Malcolm was arrested when he attempted to reclaim a stolen watch left for repair at a jewelry store. The police then uncovered a cache of stolen goods in his apartment. Malcolm stood trial along with the other members of his small gang in February 1946. Two of his accomplices, a white woman Malcolm had dated, along with her sister, received minor sentences. Malcolm and his friend Shorty were advised to plead guilty on the assumption that they would each receive a maximum of two years' imprisonment. However, the judge had other plans and handed down sentences of eight to ten years. On February 27, 1946, Malcolm entered the Charlestown State Prison. Prisoner 22843 was still only 20 years old.

Yet prison was to prove Malcolm's salvation. There he befriended a fellow inmate, John Bembry (“Bimbi”), who encouraged him to study. In January 1947, Malcolm was transferred to the Concord Reformatory, where he received a letter from his brother Philbert, who had converted to the Nation of Islam. Further letters followed from other family members who had also become Black Muslims. By the time of his transfer to the Norfolk Prison Colony in 1948, Malcolm was himself a disciple of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm Little became Malcolm X. His new identity symbolized the African name that he never knew, stripped from his forebears who had been enslaved by white Christian masters. Through the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm learned that the “original man” who founded human civilization was black, but that this had been deliberately concealed by whites who distorted the texts of holy scripture. Malcolm started to practice the strict code of personal discipline demanded by the Nation of Islam, refraining from the consumption of pork, alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics. He also embraced the political doctrine of the Black Muslims: racial pride, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent black republic. Malcolm's success in recruiting and converting other inmates to the Nation of Islam eventually led to his being placed under FBI surveillance.

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