By Sophia Hysaw, Opinion Editor & Staff Writer
Malcom X, born May 9, 1925, in New York, was an African American leader in the Nation of Islam who preached and pushed for Black nationalism during the American Civil Rights Movement.
Malcolm came from an extremely underprivileged background, with a childhood that included his father — a Baptist minister — being murdered by the Ku Klux Klan. He fell into a life of crime with his brothers. While in prison, he found himself gravitating toward the Nation of Islam, a mix of Black nationalism and and Islam elements.
After converting, he was soon let out of prison and he began preaching about Black nationalism and became a very famous leader of Black liberation during the Civil Rights Movement. Though, he urged against non-violent protest and pushed for African Americans to defend themselves unlike Martin Luther King Jr. He was, and still is, a very influential Civil Right’s leader through his human rights work and elements of Islam. To this day, his autobiography is read across the nation.