1925–1965 · U.S. civil-rights leader & Muslim minister
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was one of the most influential figures of the American civil-rights era, a minister of the Nation of Islam who later broke with it and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the secular Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in 1964. His speeches on Black self-determination, education, and human rights — many collected posthumously after his assassination in February 1965 — remain widely quoted. The education passage behind this line comes from the OAAU’s founding statement of aims.