El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, popularly called Malcom X, was an American Muslim speaker and human activist, known for his reliable but controversial advocacy for the black race during the civil right movement in the United States.
Malcom X while growing up, spent most of his childhood days living in foster homes due to his father’s demise and his mother’s precarious health issue. With the lack of proper parental guidance, he got strayed with illicit use of drugs which later landed him in 10 years imprisonment on the charges of larceny and breaking and entering in 1946. While in prison, his belief and social orientation changed, and which made him to join the Nation of Islam from where he coined out his name ‘Malcom X’. After his release from jail in 1952, he steadily rose into prominence with his leadership role in the organization. His outspokenness in the organization spanned him through advocating for black supremacy, black empowerment, distinction between black and white Americans, and with a crusade for nonviolence and racial integration. These great strides of outlook from Malcom X made him to be on the watch list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who wants to unravel any link between him and the communists.
Malcom X in the 1960s renounced publicly the Nation of Islam, and founded the Islamic Muslim Mosque Inc. (MMI) after his wide travel across the length and breadth of Africa. It was at this time that he established the Pan-African Organization of Pan-American Unity (OAAU).
His outright exit from the Nation of Islam got him attracted to several death threats, as a result of his feud with the organization throughout 1964. He was later assassinated in February 21, 1965.
He was allegedly described as a controversial figure for preaching racism and violence, but he is celebrated by all Muslim Americans and black Americans as a crusader of racial and social justice. He was posthumously honored with a commemoration day ‘Malcom X Day’ to celebrate him in various countries of the world. His name in the United States has not waned in time, as some schools and streets across the US have been named in his honor. The Audubon Ballroom, which was the site of the fatal incident, has been partly redeveloped to have the Malcom X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center structured on it.
He died at the prime age of 39.
