He was born with the name of Malcolm Little in University Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Malcolm was the seventh child out of the whole eleven children. He was the son of his father, Reverend Earl Little, who was a Baptist minister and a strong believer in Marcus Garvey's ideas of black independence and self-respect. Malcolm X was the son of his father's second wife, Louise Norton. He grew up in a childhood of a lot of racism around him just like Jem and Scout did in the novel.
             The local Klu Klux Klan resented the ideas of Reverend Earl Little. As s result, after Malcolm's birth, they moved, first to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and later to Lansing, Michigan. Reverend Little's ideas were not any more popular in Lansing, Michigan than they had been in Omaha, and in 1929 members of a local violent group set fire to the Little's home. Malcolm's father was not one to be bullied, however. He stayed and built another home. But when Malcolm was six, his father was murdered, apparently by the same men who had burned down his house.
             Things changed significantly after that. Malcolm quit school after the eighth grade. He traveled first to Boston, Massachusetts, and then to Harlem, New York, where he became involved in crime. In 1946, at the age of twenty-one, he was charged with burglary and sent to prison for six and a half years. He was charged with larceny, breaking and entering, and with carrying a weapon.
             While he was in prison, he became interested in the Nation of Islam, popularly known as Black Muslims. This religious group, led by Elijah Muhammad, promoted black economic independence and wanted to establish a separate black state either in the United States or Africa.
             Malcolm joined the Black Muslims. It is here where he receives the legendary X from the Nations of Islam. This happened according to custom, so he dropped his original last name and called himself Malcolm X.
             ...