Malcolm X Dies

Civil rights advocate Malcolm Little ditched his last name and used X instead as a nod to the Nation of Islam tradition. Having met and heard Elijah Muhammad in prison in 1946, he was inspired and became a preacher himself. However, he promoted self-defense and believed in whatever means it would take to uphold African-American liberation.

Muhammad felt that Malcolm had become too powerful, so when Malcolm aired a controversial comment on JFK’s death in 1963, he took this as an opportunity to suspend him from the group. The man eventually left the group and formed a new one, only to be killed by three members of the Nation of Islam in 1965.