While in prison, he learned about the Nation of Islam's leader, Elijah Muhammad. ... He dropped his last name, considered a "slave name" by Black Muslims, and became Malcolm X. Malcolm X later became the Nation of Islam's most prominent leader. ... However, the insensitive nature of the statement reflected poorly on the Black Muslims" (Finkelman). In 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his split with the Nation of Islam. ...
While in prison, Malcolm X had become a member of the Nation of Islam and had taken up a far more radical attitude. ... Only after a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he had prayed with Muslims from all over the world, he adapted a more tolerant and integrative mindset (cf. ... Malcolm X had quite successfully appropriated the religious discourse of Islam and instrumentalized it to political ends. ... Also, one could detect a multitude of positive side effects of this islamization, as the Afro-American community had a lot of trouble with so-called vices of the white man as drugs, alcohol, prostitutio...
In 1946, while in prison for burglary, he was converted to the Black Muslim faith, (Nation of Islam) which was a group who hated whites. Malcolm X was sent on speaking tours around the country and soon became the most effective speaker and organizer for the Nation of Islam. ...
