Malcolm X

Malcolm Little was a burglar serving time in Massachusetts when he joined the Nation of Islam, taught himself by copying out a dictionary, and came out to become the organisation's most effective speaker. He broke with Elijah Muhammad in 1964, over Muhammad's affairs with young secretaries and over the ban on political action, made the hajj to Mecca, and returned saying he had prayed alongside white Muslims and could no longer call every white person a devil. He was shot dead in a Harlem ballroom in February 1965, at thirty-nine. The autobiography was assembled from interviews by Alex Haley, who wrote the epilogue and made the editorial decisions, including holding back chapters Malcolm had wanted kept in. Two of the three men convicted of the killing were exonerated in 2021.