Meet Malcom X – His Story

Transcript

MALCOM X

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. A posthumous autobiography, on which he collaborated with Alex Haley, was published in 1965.

Malcolm spent his adolescence living in a series of foster homes or with relatives after his father’s death and his mother’s hospitalization. He committed various crimes, being sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison in 1946 for larceny and burglary. Malcom X  adopted the ‘X’ when he joined the Nation of Islam while in prison to symbolize his unknown African ancestral surname while discarding “the White slavemaster name of ‘Little‘, and after his parole in 1952 quickly became one of the organization’s most influential leaders.

Malcom X was the public face of the organization for 12 years, advocating Black empowerment and ‘separation of Black and White Americans’, and criticizing Martin Luther King Jr. and 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, such as its free drug rehabilitation program. From the 1950s onward, Malcolm X was subjected to surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with its leader, Elijah Muhammad. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca, and became known as “el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,” which roughly translates to “The Pilgrim Malcolm the Patriarch”.

Voiced and Produced by Lanre Sowobi

Credit

His Story – Created & Produced by:  Deon Sowobi : @Deon_469 (on X)

Podcast Scheduling: David Billeya david@fineradio.co

Social Media Promotion: Boluwatife Adeleke @tifeh_m_adeleke

Adapted for Podcast by: Femi D Amele  femid@fineradio.co / @femidlive 

Distribution: FineRadioCO Distribution

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David Billeya

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