Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Earl Little and Louise Helen (née Norton). He lived briefly at 3448 Pinkney Street in the North Omaha neighborhood. His father was an outspoken Baptist lay speaker and supporter of Marcus Garvey, as well as a member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Three of Earl Little's brothers died violently at the hands of white men, and one of his uncles had been lynched.

Earl Little had three children (Ella, Mary, and Earl, Jr.) by a previous marriage before he married Malcolm's mother. From his second marriage he had eight children, of whom Malcolm was the fourth. Earl and Louise Little's children's names were, in order, Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Wesley, Yvonne, and Robert.

Louise Little was born in Grenada, and Malcolm said she looked like a white woman. Her father was a white man of whom Malcolm knew nothing except what he described as his mother's shame. Malcolm got his light complexion from him. Initially he felt it was a status symbol to be light-skinned, but later he would say that he “hated every drop of that white rapist's blood that is in me.” As Malcolm was the lightest child in the family, he felt that his father favored him; however, his mother treated him harshly for the same reason. One of his nicknames, "Red," derived from the reddish tinge of his hair. He was described as having, at birth, "ash-blonde hair ... tinged with cinnamon," and at four, "reddish-blonde hair." His hair darkened as he aged but also resembled the hair of his paternal grandmother, whose hair "turned reddish in the summer sun."

According to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, his mother had been threatened by Ku Klux Klansmen while she was pregnant with him in December 1924. His mother recalled the Klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because Earl Little's activities with UNIA were "stirring up trouble".

The family relocated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1926, and to Lansing, Michigan, shortly after. In 1931, Malcolm's father was found dead, having been run over by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death a suicide. Malcolm said that the black community disputed the cause of death. His family had frequently found themselves the target of harassment by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group his father accused of burning down their home in 1929, and many blacks felt that the Black Legion had killed Earl Little. Malcolm doubted that his father could "bash himself in the head, then get down across the streetcar tracks to be run over."

Though Malcolm’s father had two life insurance policies, his mother received death benefits solely from the smaller policy. Malcolm said the insurance company that had issued the larger policy accepted the police determination that Earl Little's death had been a suicide, and accordingly refused to pay. Louise Little had a nervous breakdown and was declared legally insane in December 1938. Malcolm and his siblings were split up and sent to different foster homes. Louise Little was formally committed to the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo, Michigan. She remained there until Malcolm and his brothers and sisters secured her release 26 years later.

In his Autobiography, written more than 25 years later, Malcolm said that after the death of his father he lived on Charles Street in downtown East Lansing. The 1930 U.S. Census showed him living on a different Charles Street, in the low-income Urbandale neighborhood in Lansing Township, between Lansing and East Lansing. Later, when he was in high school, Malcolm Little lived in Mason, an almost all-white small town 12 miles (19 km) to the south.

Malcolm Little graduated from junior high school at the top of his class but dropped out soon after a teacher told him that his aspirations of being a lawyer were "no realistic goal for a nigger". After enduring a series of foster homes, Malcolm was sent to a detention center. Then he moved to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Ella Little Collins. In Boston he held a variety of jobs and intermittently found employment with the New Haven Railroad. In 1942, at age 17, Malcolm became "involved with Boston's underworld fringe."

Malcolm left Boston to live for a short time in Detroit and Inkster, Michigan. He moved to New York City in 1943. There he worked again briefly for the New Haven Railroad. Malcolm found work as a shoeshiner at a Lindy Hop nightclub. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he said that he once shined the shoes of Duke Ellington and other notable African-American musicians. After some time in Harlem, he became involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery and prostituting himself. During this time, his friends and acquaintances called him "Detroit Red". Between 1943 and 1946, when he was arrested and jailed in Massachusetts, Malcolm drifted between Boston and New York City three more times.

When Malcolm was examined for the draft, military physicians classified him to be "mentally disqualified for military service." He explained in his autobiography that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "kill some crackers." His approach worked. His classification ensured he would not be drafted.

In early 1946, Malcolm returned to Boston. On January 12, he was arrested for burglary trying to steal a stolen watch he had left for repairs at a jewelry shop. Two days later, Malcolm was indicted for carrying firearms. On January 16, he was charged with Grand Larceny and Breaking and Entering. Malcolm was sentenced to eight to ten years in Massachusetts State Prison.

On February 27, Malcolm began serving his sentence at the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown. While in prison, Malcolm earned the nickname of "Satan" for his vitriolic hatred towards the Bible, God and religion in general. Malcolm began reading books from the prison library. Soon he developed a voracious appetite for reading, then astigmatism. His brother Reginald wrote letters describing his experience with the Nation of Islam, and Malcolm decided to convert.

For the remainder of his incarceration, Malcolm maintained regular contact with Elijah Muhammad, the group's leader. Malcolm started to gain fame among the prisoners but also remained under the eye of the authorities. They recognized in him a force that could potentially foment trouble and did not grant him the expected early release after five years.

In February 1948, mostly through his sister's efforts, Malcolm was transferred to an experimental prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, a facility that had a much larger library. Malcolm later reflected on his time in prison: "Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life." On August 7, 1952, Malcolm received parole and was released from prison.

In 1952, after his release from prison, Malcolm went to meet Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. Soon after their meeting, he changed his surname to "X". Malcolm explained the name by saying, "The 'X' is meant to symbolize the rejection of 'slave names' and the absence of an inherited African name to take its place. The 'X' is also the brand that many slaves received on their upper arm." This was the rationale that led many members of the Nation of Islam to change their surnames to X.

In March 1953, the FBI opened a file on Malcolm X, after hearing that he had described himself as a Communist. Included in the file were two letters wherein Malcolm used the alias "Malachi Shabazz". In Message to the Blackman in America, Elijah Muhammad explained the name Shabazz as belonging to descendants of an "Asian Black nation".

In May 1953, the FBI concluded that Malcolm had an "asocial personality with paranoid trends (pre-psychotic paranoid schizophrenia)", and had, in fact, sought treatment for his disorder. This was further supported by a letter intercepted by the FBI, dated June 29, 1950. The letter said, in reference to his 4-F classification and rejection by the military, "Everyone has always said ... Malcolm is crazy, so it isn't hard to convince people that I am."

Later that year, Malcolm left his half-sister Ella in Boston to stay with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. He soon returned to Boston and became the minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Eleven.

In 1954, Malcolm was selected to lead the Nation of Islam's Temple Number Seven on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. He rapidly expanded its membership. After a local television broadcast in New York City about the Nation of Islam, Malcolm became known to a wider audience. Representatives of the print media, radio, and television frequently asked Malcolm for comments on issues. He was also sought as a spokesman by reporters from other countries.

From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation's teachings. He referred to whites as "devils" who had been created in a misguided breeding program by a black scientist, and predicted the inevitable (and imminent) return of blacks to their natural place at the top of the social order.

Malcolm was considered the second most influential leader of the movement, after Elijah Muhammad. He opened additional temples, including one in Philadelphia. He was largely credited with increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963. He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam. (Like Malcolm, Ali later left the Nation of Islam and joined mainstream Islam.)

In 1958, Malcolm married Betty X (née Sanders) in Lansing, Michigan. They had six daughters, all of whom carried the family name of Shabazz. Their names were Attallah, born in 1958; Qubilah, born in 1960; Ilyasah, born in 1962; Gamilah (also spelled Gumilah), born in 1964; and twins, Malaak and Malikah, born after Malcolm's death in 1965.

In September 1960, Malcolm met with Fidel Castro during Castro's visit to the United Nations in New York. Malcolm was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of black community leaders that greeted heads of state, particularly those from African countries, who had come to New York to address the UN General Assembly.

In early 1963, Malcolm started collaborating with Alex Haley on The Autobiography of Malcolm X. The book had not been finalized at the time of Malcolm's assassination in 1965. Haley completed it and published it later that year.

Writing after his break from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm said in the Autobiography that one reason for the separation was growing tension between him and Elijah Muhammad that arose from Malcolm's dismay at rumors of Muhammad's extramarital affairs with young secretaries. These rumors troubled Malcolm because the Nation of Islam condemns adultery. At first Malcolm brushed these rumors aside. Later, he spoke with Elijah Muhammad's son and the women making the accusations and he came to believe them. According to the Autobiography, in 1963 Elijah Muhammad confirmed the rumors to Malcolm. Muhammad justified his actions by saying they followed a pattern established by Biblical prophets.

Malcolm criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington". He said he didn't know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive."

When asked for a comment about the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm said that it was a case of "the chickens coming home to roost." He added that "Chickens coming home to roost never made me sad. It only made me glad." This remark prompted a widespread public outcry. The Nation of Islam publicly censured their former shining star. Although Malcolm retained his post and rank as minister, Elijah Muhammad banned him from public speaking for 90 days.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, March 26, 1964 Malcolm publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam on March 8, 1964. He founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. four days later. Malcolm stayed close to some of the teachings of the Nation of Islam but began modifying them. He explicitly advocated political and economic black nationalism, as opposed to the Nation of Islam's religious nationalism. In April, he made a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet." Malcolm was in contact with several orthodox Muslims, who encouraged him to learn about orthodox Islam. He soon converted to orthodox Islam, and decided to make his pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tensions increased between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam. It was alleged that orders were given by leaders of the Nation of Islam to "destroy" Malcolm; in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, he says that as early as 1963, a member of the Seventh Temple confessed to him having received orders from the Nation of Islam to kill him.

On March 20, 1964, Life published a photograph of Malcolm holding an M1 Carbine and pulling back the curtains to peer out of the window of his family's home. The photo was taken in connection with Malcolm's declaration that he would defend himself from the daily death threats which he and his family were receiving. Undercover FBI informants warned officials that he had been marked for assassination.

In June 1964, the NOI sued to reclaim Malcolm's home in Queens, which they claimed belonged to the organization. The suit was successful, and Malcolm and his family were ordered to vacate the house. On February 14, 1965, the night before a scheduled hearing to postpone the eviction date, the house burned to the ground. Malcolm and his family survived, and no one was charged with any crime.

On February 21, 1965 in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm had just begun delivering a speech when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!" As Malcolm and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns at Malcolm, who was shot 16 times. Angry onlookers in the crowd caught and beat the assassins as they attempted to flee the ballroom. Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Two suspects were named by witnesses — Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, both members of the Nation of Islam.

Three men were eventually charged in the case. Talmadge Hayer, also a Black Muslim, confessed to having fired shots into Malcolm's body, but he testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and were not involved in the shooting. All three were convicted.

After Malcolm's death, Martin Luther King, Jr., sent a telegram to Betty Shabazz, expressing his sadness over "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband."

While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and the root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems we face as a race.

Elijah Muhammad reacted differently; as he told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26, "Malcolm X got just what he preached."

The international press, particularly that of Africa, was sympathetic. The Daily Times of Nigeria wrote,

Like all mortals, Malcolm X was not without his faults ... but that he was a dedicated and consistent disciple of the movement for the emancipation of his brethren no one can doubt. ... Malcolm X has fought and died for what he believed to be right. He will have a place in the palace of martyrs."

wangming, published in Beijing, bluntly stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights."