Random Unexpected Things Most People Don't Know About Malcolm X (13 items)

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  (#13) He Had A Massive FBI File

  While in prison in 1950, Malcolm X wrote a letter to President Truman announcing himself as a communist opposed to the Korean War. After that moment, the FBI watched his every move. In one document, FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, even said to “do something about Malcolm X.” There are a total of about 4,000 pages of surveillance reports the FBI put together on Malcolm X. You can request to look at them through the Freedom of Information Act website.
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  (#4) His Father May Have Been Killed By A KKK Splinter Group

  Although official police records ruled that Earl Little was killed after being struck by a streetcar in 1931, the African-American community believed that he was murdered by a KKK splinter group called the Black Legion. Because of Earl Little’s outspoken support for the controversial civil rights figure Marcus Garvey, the Little family was subjected to numerous attacks by racist groups. When Malcolm was four, he recalled the KKK smashing all the windows of the family home in Omaha. Because of this, the family moved around a lot. In 1929, they ended up in Lansing, Michigan. Shortly thereafter, the Black Legion burned their home to the ground. They then moved to East Lansing and built a new home. Two years later, Earl’s body was found on the streetcar tracks. However, due to the frequency of attacks by the Black Legion, many believe that members of the hate group beat Earl and placed him on the tracks to be run over. 
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  (#12) He Broke With The Nation Of Islam And Was Killed For It

  By the early ‘60s, Malcolm had become disillusioned with the Nation of Islam. He especially began to grow distant when he discovered that his mentor, Elijah Muhammad, had fathered several illegitimate children. This went against the very teachings that Muhammad was supposed to uphold. By 1964, Malcolm announced his split from the movement.

  After leaving and converting to traditional Islam, Malcolm began openly criticizing Elijah Muhammad in his speeches. This brought on a lot of retaliation from the movement. On February 14, 1965, someone threw Molotov cocktails through his New York City home. A week later, members of the Nation of Islam assassinated him at the Audubon Ballroom. Three members of the Nation of Islam were charged and found guilty of the murder. Thomas Hagan, who was released from prison in 2010, was the only member to have admitted to the killing. Although Nation of Islam members carried out the murder, there is evidence that the FBI and the NYPD knew about the murder plot and did nothing to stop it.
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  (#2) He Was Nicknamed ‘Satan’ In Prison

  By 1946, Malcolm X was serving a 10-year sentence for larceny and breaking and entering in the Charlestown State Prison in Boston, MA. During his first year in prison, Malcolm’s cellblock mates gave him the nickname “Satan” because of his anti-religious rants and the way he would pace up and down his cell cursing God and the Bible.

  "I would pace for hours like a caged leopard, viciously cursing aloud to myself. And my favorite targets were the Bible and God. But there was a legal limit to how much time one could be kept in solitary. Eventually, the men in the cellblock had a name for me: 'Satan.' Because of my antireligious attitude," he wrote in his autobiography.
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  (#3) He Converted Thousands To The Nation Of Islam

  Soon after leaving prison in 1952, Malcolm X moved in with his brother, who lived in Detroit. There, he began attending a local Nation of Islam mosque and quickly became a favorite of Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad promoted him to a ministerial position and sent him to Boston and Philadelphia to seek out new converts and establish new mosques. Malcolm X then spent 10 years in Harlem where he became head of the local mosque. During his time there, he became a prominent figure in the movement. He launched a Nation of Islam newspaper and spoke at universities across the country. In his time as a figurehead for the Nation of Islam, membership grew rapidly. In 1955, there were about 6,000 members. By the early ‘60s, that number had risen to about 70,000 converts due to his influence.
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  (#6) He Thought Martin Luther King’s Speech Was A Joke

  Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were two different sides of the same coin. Both wanted equal rights and empowerment for Black Americans, but they went about achieving those goals in wholly different ways. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech is perhaps the most famous and treasured speech in American history. However, X didn’t see it that way. He called King’s 1963 March on Washington, a “Farce on Washington.”

  “Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing ‘We Shall Overcome’... while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?” Malcom wrote in his autobiography.

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