Malcolm X was one of the most important civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s. He was much respected for changing his life from a criminal to a fighter for the rights of African Americans.
Born in the American Midwest in 1925, Malcolm Little had a very troubled childhood. When he was six his father died after a streetcar had run over him. At the age of 12 his mother was put into a mental hospital after a nervous breakdown. Malcolm spent the rest of his childhood with foster parents. In his youth he thought that white racists were responsible for everything that had gone wrong in his early life.
As a stude