malcolm x

African-American revolutionary and Black nationalist leader.

Born Malcom Little, he lived through numerous foster homes after his father was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. Suffering from poverty, family disruption, and criminal activity, he was ultimately arrested in 1946 for larceny and burglary, and being in sexual relationship with a white woman, one of his accomplices.

In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam and would expand his knowledge and vocabulary by reading the entire dictionary. He went on to become a prominent figure during the civil rights movement, replacing his last name with "X" to reject "the white slavemaster name of 'Little'", and to represent his unknown African ancestral heritage.

In the 1960s he would become disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, converting to Sunni Islam after his Hajj to Mecca. His conflicts with the NOI would intensify in 1964 when he would receive numerous death threats. He was also targeted by the FBI in a Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) for his advocacy for Black Nationalism.

He was ultimately assassinated in 1965. While the NOI was believed to be responsible, inconsistencies with his supposed killers' convictions lead many conspiracy theorists to believe X was assassinated by the FBI.

He is often characterized by his advocacy for black nationalism. He is often accused of advocating for violence in the name of racial justice. He also believed Black Americans were better off leaving America entirely and establishing their own nation elsewhere, due to America's history of enslaving black people, and the inescapable reach of Jim Crow laws. This is in direct contrast to Martin Luther King Jr.'s method of non-violent Civil Disobedience. It is said the dynamic between Martin Luther King and Malcom X inspired the dynamic between Charles Xavier and Magneto in the X-Men franchise.