Malcolm X

Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. After a youth that ended in prison, he joined the Nation of Islam and became its most prominent spokesman, criticising integration and nonviolence. In 1964 he broke with the Nation, made the pilgrimage to Mecca, embraced Sunni Islam and turned towards Pan-Africanism and international human rights. He was assassinated in New York in 1965. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex Haley, was published that year.

Key ideas

• Black Americans should define themselves and control their own political, economic and social life.
• People have a right to defend themselves against violence, 'by any means necessary'.
• The struggle of Black Americans is a struggle for human rights and belongs before the world, not only a domestic matter of civil rights.
• Racism had taught Black people to hate themselves, so self-respect and knowledge of history are part of liberation.
• His pilgrimage to Mecca led him to reject judging people by colour and to see Islam as a faith across races.

Major works

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
• Malcolm X Speaks (1965)

In the Book corner

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X 1965 · Beginner
  An autobiography written in collaboration with the journalist Alex Haley from interviews held between 1963 and 1965, and published after Malcolm X's…

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