Malcolm X

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Malcolm (his birth name was Malcolm Little) died on this day in 1965. The letter "X" represented his unknown African tribal name. He was a minister and activist in New York in the mid 20th century. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1946 for burglaries he committed in white neighborhoods. While in jail he converted to the Nation of Islam and this is when he changed his name to Malcolm X. He was able to attract more members due to his oration skills and brought the membership of the group from 500 in 1952 to 30,000. In 1943 Malcolm worked at a Harlem restaurant called Jimmy's Chicken Shack. One of his co-workers was John Sanford who later became famous as the comic Redd Foxx. They did several petty crimes together. He was assassinated while preparing to give an address to the OAAU in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom. There had been a disturbance in the crowd and Malcolm, along with his bodyguards, tried to calm the situation down. A man suddenly rushed forward and shot Malcolm once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. A couple of other men charged the stage and fired handguns. At the trial, one man confessed but refused to identify the others who were involved. In 2020 a Netflix docuseries "Who Killed Malcolm X?" was produced that examines the assassination.