19.05.1925 - 21.02.1965 (39 years) (Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.)
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Arabic: ٱلْحَاجّ مَالِك ٱلشَّبَازّ, romanized: al-Ḥājj Mālik ash-Shabāzz, May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), better known as Malcolm X, was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his staunch and controversial black racial advocacy, and for time spent as the vocal spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, he relocated to New York City in 1943, following spells at a series of foster homes after his father's death and his mother's hospitalization. There, Malcolm X engaged in several illicit activities, eventually being sentenced to ten years in prison in 1946 for larceny and breaking and entering. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam, adopted the name Malcolm X, and quickly became one of the organization's most influential leaders after being paroled in 1952. Malcolm X then served as the public face of the organization for a dozen years, where he advocated for black supremacy, black empowerment, the separation of black and white Americans, and publicly criticized the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on nonviolence and racial integration. Malcolm X also expressed pride in some of the Nation's social welfare achievements, namely its free drug rehabilitation program. Throughout his life beginning in the 1950s, Malcolm X endured surveillance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the Nation's supposed links to communism. In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with leader Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing Hajj, and became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. After a brief period of travel across Africa, he publicly renounced the Nation of Islam, and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), Islamic and Pan-African organizations, respectively. Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. Three of its members were charged with the murder and sentenced to indeterminate life sentences. Speculation about the assassination, and whether it was conceived or aided by leading or additional members of the Nation, or with law enforcement agencies, have persisted for decades after the shooting. A controversial figure accused of preaching racism and violence, Malcolm X is a widely celebrated figure within African American and Muslim American communities for his pursuit of racial justice. He was posthumously honored with Malcolm X Day, where he is commemorated in various countries worldwide. Hundreds of streets and schools in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, while the Audubon Ballroom, the site of his assassination, was in-part redeveloped in 2005 to accommodate the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.