"Detroit Red"

The Prison Years and
Early Ministry: 1946-55

The Nation of Islam:
1955-1960

The National Spokesman:
1960-1962

Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement

The Silencing, Muhammad Ali and Out: Dec. 1963 - April 1964

The Epiphany of Mecca

African Sojourner, 1964

1965: The Final Months

February 21, 1965:
The Assassination and Aftermath

MULTIMEDIA

INTERVIEWS
requires free RealPlayer

Robin KellyRobin Kelley on Malcolm's use of "house Negro" and "field Negro"

Ossie DavisOssie Davis on the Malcolm's struggles with NOI inaction

Davis on trying to change Malcolm's philosophy

Davis on the murder at an LA mosque

Max StanfordMax Stanford on the schism within the NOI after the LA murder

Abdul Abdur-RaazaqAbdullah Abdur-Raazaq on Malcolm's power in the Nation of Islam

Raazaq on the LA mosque murder and Malcolm's response

The National Spokesman, 1960-1962.

In 1960 Malcolm X established the newspaper Muhammad Speaks, which by the end of the decade would have a national circulation of 600,000, the most widely-read black-owned newspaper in the country. However, by this time, serious divisions developed between Malcolm X and the NOI’s patriarch, Elijah Muhammad, and his coterie of organizational leaders based in Chicago, over a number of issues. Malcolm X was personally dismayed when it was publicly revealed that Muhammad had fathered a number of children out of wedlock. He also chafed under the NOI’s political conservatism and its refusal to support civil rights protests.

ADDITIONAL READINGS:
  • Malcolm X/Haley, Autobiography, Chapters 15-16.
  • De Caro, On the Side of My People, Chapter 13, pp. 171-188.
  • Malcolm X, “A Partial Transcript of a Sermon, June 16, 1961,” In Louis De Caro, Jr., Malcolm and the Cross, pp. 223-235.
  • Malcolm X, “Malcolm X Proclaims Muhammad as Man of the Hour: Address at Yale University (October 1962),” in Roy L. Hill, ed., Rhetoric of Racial Revolt, pp. 304-317.
  • Teague, “Negroes Say Conditions in U.S. Explain Nationalists’ Militancy,” New York Times, March 2, 1961, pp. 1, 17. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • O’Kane, “Muslim Negroes Suing the State,” New York Times, March 19, 1961, pp. 1, 46. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • Kihiss, “In Return for Years of Slavery, Four or Five States,” New York Times, April 23, 1961, p. 406. download
  • Cultist is Slain Battling Police,” New York Times, April 29, 1962, p. 72. download
  • “In Los Angeles Riot: Charge Muslim was ‘Murdered’,” Amsterdam News, May 5, 1962, pp. 1, 40. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • Becker, “Cultists on Coast Denounce Police,” New York Times, May 6, 1962, p. 73. download
  • “Study Shows Los Angeles Police Were Investigating Muslims at Time of Riot,” Amsterdam News, May 12, 1962, pp. 1, 2. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • “Coast Muslims Face Riot Charges,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 12, 1962, p. 7. download
  • “Los Angeles Tensions Up Over Police Brutality,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 19, 1962, p. 4. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • “The Muslim Message: All White Men Devils, All Negroes Divine,” Newsweek, August 27, 1962, pp. 26-27. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • “What Courier Readers Think: Muslim vs. Moslem!” Pittsburgh Courier, October 6, 1962, p. 13. download
  • “Malcolm X in Court,” Amsterdam News, November 17, 1962, pp. 1, 2. download pt 1 | download pt 2
  • Amsterdam News Readers Write…: Malcolm X Speaks,” Amsterdam News, November 24, 1962, p. 39. download
  • Turner, “Militancy Urged on U.S. Negroes,” New York Times, November 26, 1962, p. 18. download
  • “Pulse of New York’s Public: No Compromise,” Amsterdam News, December 1, 1962, p. 10. download
  • “L.A. Muslims Face Trial Over ‘Riot’,” Pittsburgh Courier, December 15, 1962, p. 22. download pt 1 | download pt 2


  • The Malcolm X Project at Columbia University home