Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, had good reason to distrust whites. His father Earl had been active in the black nationalist movement. His death was clearly a murder, but the insurance company insisted it was a suicide, denying his family the insurance money. Malcolm's mother had to accept welfare, and Malcolm began stealing food from stores. Social workers eventually sent his mother Louise to a mental hospital. The children were split up, and Malcolm and most of his siblings were placed in foster homes. Malcolm blamed the state welfare department for causing his mother's mental illness. Both the whites who hated them and the whites who tried to help them participated in breaking up the Little family. .

             In his new foster home, Malcolm enrolled as the only black child in an otherwise white junior high. He had the highest grades in his class and was even elected class president, but Malcolm felt that he was viewed as a quaint oddity--a mascot in his foster home (p. 27) and a "pink poodle" at school (p. 32)--something interesting but of the wrong color. In spite of his outstanding grades, when he confided in a teacher that he wanted to become a lawyer, the teacher responded, "Don't misunderstand me, now. We all here like you, you know that. But you've got to be realistic about being a nigger. A lawyer--that's no realistic goal for a nigger." (p. 38).

             Eventually Malcolm moved with a family member to Boston, where he was exposed to big city life and manner of dress for the first time. He got his hair "conked," or straightened, and gradually fell in with the wrong crowd. He drifted in and out of a life of crime for several years, eventually ending up in prison for burglary. When he was released to live with his brother, Malcolm was exposed to Islam and liked its structure and moral ways. His natural leadership surfaced, and he helped found temples in other cities. He changed his name to Malcolm X to demonstrate that white slaveowners had forced a surname on him.