Episode Details

Malcolm X reinvented himself more completely than almost any public figure in American history. He went from street criminal to Nation of Islam minister to orthodox Muslim to pan-Africanist internationalist — each transformation so thorough that the previous version seemed to belong to a different person. The man assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in 1965 bore almost no resemblance to the one who had entered prison fifteen years earlier.

This episode traces Malcolm from his traumatic childhood through the prison conversion, the Nation of Islam years, the break with Elijah Muhammad, the pilgrimage to Mecca that changed everything, and the assassination that silenced him at thirty-nine.

• Malcolm's childhood — his father's murder, his mother's institutionalization, and the foster care that radicalized him
• The prison years, the conversion to the Nation of Islam, and his rise as its most powerful voice
• The break with Elijah Muhammad and the Hajj pilgrimage that transformed his racial philosophy
• The assassination at the Audubon Ballroom and the Autobiography that became a classic