Malcolm X (Macolm Little) May 19,1925 – February 21,1965
~1925 born Malcolm Little on May 19, in Omaha, Nebraska.
~1929 The family’s Lansing, MI, home is burned to the ground.
~1946 Malcolm is sentenced to 8-10 years for armed robbery; serves 6 ½ years at Charlestown, MA State Prison.
1948-49 Converts to the Nation of Islam while in prison.
~1953 Changes name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X and becomes Assistant Minister of Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple.
~1963 Nation of Islam orders Malcolm X to be silent, allegedly because of remarks concerning President Kennedy’s assassination.
~May, 1964 Starts the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular political group.
~February 21, 1965 at a speaking engagement in the Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom ,three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage and shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
