Malcolm X was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. He was a vocal critic of the Nation of Islam, and later founded his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. Malcolm X also advocated for the black community to embrace self-defense and economic self-sufficiency. He was assassinated in 1965, and his autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was published posthumously.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925. He was the fourth of seven children born to Earl Little and Louis Norton. Earl Little was a Baptist minister and an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Louis Norton was a homemaker and housekeeper. The family lived in a predominantly white neighborhood, and Earl Little was often threatened by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). In 1929, when Malcolm X was four years old, Earl Little moved his family to East Lansing where he became co-pastor at St Luke’s Methodist Episcopal Church with Reverend Albert Bledsoe.
In 1930, Earl Little’s father died as a result of injuries sustained during a fight with white men who had come to their home looking for him after he had gone missing.
