Editing Malcolm X (section)

== Early years ==

Malcolm Little was born May 19, 1925, in [[Omaha, Nebraska]], the fourth of seven children of [[Grenada]]-born [[Louise Little]] (née Langdon) and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]-born Earl Little.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watson |first1=Clarence |last2=Akhtar |first2=Salman |author-link2=Salman Akhtar |chapter=Ideology and Identity: Malcolm&nbsp;X |title=The African American Experience: Psychoanalytic Perspectives |editor-last=Akhtar |editor-first=Salman |year=2012 |location=Lanham, Maryland|publisher=Jason Aronson |page=120 |isbn=978-0-7657-0835-9}}</ref> Earl was an outspoken [[Baptist]] [[Laity|lay]] speaker, and he and Louise were admirers of [[Pan-African]] activist [[Marcus Garvey]]. Earl was a local leader of the [[Universal Negro Improvement Association]] (UNIA) and Louise served as secretary and "branch reporter", sending news of local UNIA activities to ''[[Negro World]]''; they inculcated self-reliance and [[black pride]] in their children.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|pp=20–30}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|pp=2–3}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Ted |last=Vincent |title=The Garveyite Parents of Malcolm&nbsp;X |journal=[[The Black Scholar]] |volume=20 |number=2 |date=March–April 1989 |pages=10–13 |jstor=41067613 |doi=10.1080/00064246.1989.11412923 |issn=0006-4246}}</ref> Malcolm&nbsp;X later said that White violence killed four of his father's brothers.<ref>{{harvnb|Malcolm X|1992|pp=3–4}}.</ref>

Because of [[Ku Klux Klan]] threats, Earl's UNIA activities were said to be "spreading trouble"<ref>{{harvnb|DeCaro|1996|pp=43–44}}.</ref> and the family relocated in 1926 to [[Milwaukee]], and shortly thereafter to [[Lansing, Michigan]].<ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|p=3}}.</ref> There, the family was frequently harassed by the [[Black Legion (political movement)|Black Legion]], a White [[racism in the United States|racist]] group Earl accused of burning their family home in 1929.<ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|p=4}}.</ref>

When Malcolm was six, his father died in what has been officially ruled a [[streetcar]] accident, though his mother Louise believed Earl had been murdered by the Black Legion. Rumors that White racists were responsible for his father's death were widely circulated and were very disturbing to Malcolm&nbsp;X as a child. As an adult, he expressed conflicting beliefs on the question.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|p=29}}.</ref> After a dispute with creditors, Louise received a life insurance benefit (nominally $1,000 {{mdashb}}about ${{Inflation|US|1|1931|r=0}},000 in {{#expr:{{CURRENTYEAR}}-1}}){{Inflation-fn|US|group=upper-alpha}} in payments of $18 per month;<ref name="Marable 2011 32">{{harvnb|Marable|2011|p=32}}.</ref> the issuer of another, larger policy refused to pay, claiming her husband Earl had killed himself.<ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|p=10}}.</ref> To make ends meet, Louise rented out part of her garden, and her sons hunted game.<ref name="Marable 2011 32"/>

During the 1930s, white [[Seventh-day Adventist]]s witnessed to the Little family; later on, Louise Little and her son Wilfred were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Malcolm said the Adventists were "the friendliest white people I had ever seen."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.blacksdahistory.org/malcolm-x-and-sdas.html|title=Malcolm X and Seventh-day Adventism|website=Blacksdahistory|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190729224741/https://www.blacksdahistory.org/malcolm-x-and-sdas.html |access-date=June 27, 2023|archive-date=July 29, 2019 }}</ref>

In 1937, a man Louise had been dating{{mdashb}}marriage had seemed a possibility{{mdashb}}vanished from her life when she became pregnant with his child.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|p=35}}.</ref> In late 1938, she had a [[nervous breakdown]] and was committed to [[Kalamazoo Regional Psychiatric Hospital|Kalamazoo State Hospital]]. The children were separated and sent to [[foster home]]s. Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 24 years later.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|pp=35–36, 265}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|pp=33–34, 331}}.</ref>

Malcolm attended West Junior High School in Lansing and then Mason High School in [[Mason, Michigan]], but left high school in 1941, before graduating.<ref name="Dozier">{{cite news |last=Dozier |first=Vickki |date=February 21, 2015 |title=How Malcolm&nbsp;X's murder rippled through his hometown |url=https://eu.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2015/02/20/malcolm-xs-murder-rippled-hometown/23769113/ |work=[[Lansing State Journal]] |location=Lansing, Michigan}}</ref> He excelled in junior high school but dropped out of high school after a White teacher told him that practicing law, his aspiration at the time, was "no realistic goal for a nigger."<ref name="Perry42">{{harvnb|Perry|1991|p=42}}.</ref> Later, Malcolm&nbsp;X recalled feeling that the White world offered no place for a career-oriented Black man, regardless of talent.<ref name="Perry42" />

[[File:Malcolm X mugshot 1944.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|A Boston police mug shot of Malcolm, following his arrest for [[larceny]] (1944)<ref>{{cite web |title=Timeline of Malcolm&nbsp;X's Life |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/malcolmx-timeline-malcolm-xs-life/ |publisher=[[PBS]] |access-date=December 31, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109215346/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/malcolmx-timeline-malcolm-xs-life/ |archive-date=November 9, 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

From age 14 to 21, Malcolm held a variety of jobs while living with his half-sister [[Ella Little-Collins]] in [[Roxbury, Boston|Roxbury]], a largely [[African American neighborhood]] of [[Boston]].<ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|pages=21–29, 55–56}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|pp=32–48, 58–61}}.</ref>

After a short time in [[Flint, Michigan|Flint]], Michigan, he moved to New York City's [[Harlem]] neighborhood in 1943, where he found employment on the [[New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad|New Haven Railroad]] and engaged in drug dealing, gambling, [[racketeering]], robbery, and [[pimping]].<ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|pp=62–81}}.</ref> According to biographer Bruce Perry, Malcolm also occasionally had sex with other men, [[Male prostitution|usually for money]], though this conjecture has been disputed by those who knew him.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|pp=65–66}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|pp=77, 82–83}}.</ref>{{efn-ua|The accuracy of these accounts has been questioned by some people who met Malcolm&nbsp;X later in life or never knew him, including [[Ta-Nehisi Coates]],<ref>{{harvnb|Coates|2011|loc=online}}.</ref> [[Maulana Karenga]],<ref>[[Maulana Karenga|Karenga, Maulana]], "The Meaning and Measure of Malcolm&nbsp;X: Critical Remembrance and Rightful Reading", {{harvnb|Boyd et al.|2012|p=18}}.</ref> [[Ilyasah Shabazz]],<ref>{{cite news |title=Malcolm&nbsp;X's Daughter Disputes Claims in New Bio on Father |url=https://www.npr.org/2011/04/20/135570322/malcolm-xs-daughter-addresses-controversial-claims-in-new-bio-on-father |access-date=September 7, 2017 |publisher=[[NPR]] |date=April 20, 2011 |work=[[Tell Me More]] |first=Michel |last=Martin |author-link=Michel Martin |archive-date=July 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220712034452/https://www.npr.org/2011/04/20/135570322/malcolm-xs-daughter-addresses-controversial-claims-in-new-bio-on-father |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Raymond Winbush]].<ref>[[Raymond Winbush|Winbush, Raymond A.]], "Speculative Nonfiction: Manning Marable's ''Malcolm&nbsp;X''", {{harvnb|Ball|Burroughs|2012|pp=105–117}}.</ref> For further information, see Phelps,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Phelps |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Phelps |title=The Sexuality of Malcolm&nbsp;X |date=August 2017 |journal=[[Journal of American Studies]] |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=659–690 |doi=10.1017/S0021875816001341 |s2cid=147843832 |url=http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34331/1/Phelps%20-%20The%20Sexuality%20of%20Malcolm%20X.pdf |access-date=July 11, 2019 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212231046/http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34331/1/Phelps%20-%20The%20Sexuality%20of%20Malcolm%20X.pdf }}</ref> Polk,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Polk |first=Khary |title=Malcolm&nbsp;X, Sexual Hearsay, and Masculine Dissemblance |date=Summer 2013 |journal=[[Biography (journal)|Biography]] |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=568–584 |doi=10.1353/bio.2013.0029 |jstor=24570210 |s2cid=161615221}}</ref> and Street ''et al''.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Joe |last1=Street |first2=Margaret |last2=Washington |first3=Simon |last3=Hall |first4=Malcolm |last4=McLaughlin |first5=Peter |last5=Bailey |author-link5=A. Peter Bailey |title=Roundtable – Manning Marable, ''Malcolm&nbsp;X: A Life of Reinvention'' |date=February 2013 |journal=Journal of American Studies |volume=47 |issue=1 |pages=23–47 |doi=10.1017/S0021875812002605|s2cid=232254323 }}</ref> }} He befriended John Elroy Sanford, a fellow dishwasher at Jimmy's Chicken Shack in Harlem who aspired to be a professional comedian. Both men had reddish hair, so Sanford was called "Chicago Red" after his hometown, and Malcolm was known as "Detroit Red". Years later, Sanford became famous as comedian and actor [[Redd Foxx]].<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|pp=51–52}}.</ref>

Summoned by the local [[Conscription in the United States#World War II|draft board]] for military service in [[World War II]] in late 1943, he feigned mental disturbance by rambling and declaring: "I want to be sent down South. Organize them nigger soldiers{{nbsp}}... steal us some guns, and kill us [some] [[Cracker (pejorative)|crackers]]".<ref name="Autobiography124">{{harvnb|Malcolm X|1992|p=124}}.</ref><ref name="Carson108">Carson, p.{{nbsp}}108.</ref><ref name="USNews">{{harvnb|Lord|Thornton|Bodipo-Memba|1992|p=5}}.</ref> He was declared "mentally disqualified for military service".<ref name="Autobiography124" /><ref name="Carson108" /><ref name="USNews" />

In late 1945, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and four accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting wealthy White families.<ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|pp=106–109}}.</ref> In 1946, he was arrested while picking up a stolen watch he had left at a shop for repairs,<ref>{{harvnb|Perry|1991|p=99}}.</ref> and in February began serving a sentence of eight to ten years at [[Charlestown State Prison]] for larceny and breaking and entering.<ref>{{harvnb|Marable|2011|pp=67–68}}.</ref> Two years later, Malcolm was transferred to [[Norfolk Prison Colony]] (also in [[Massachusetts]]).<ref name="Autobiography181">{{harvnb|Malcolm X|1992|p=181}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Natambu|2002|p=131}}.</ref>