Malcolm X: Biography

July - Travels for three weeks as Elijah Muhammad’s ambassador to the Middle East and Africa. Visits Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana using the name Malik Shabbaz.

His host and guide in Sudan was Malik Badri, a Sudanese student with whom he had corresponded in letters­ before­ his­ arrival­ in­ Khartoum.­ Visiting Sudan he wanted to discover the ancient civilizations of the people of America.

Founds Muhammad Speaks, Nation of Islam’s official newspaper.

September - Informal Bandung Conference in Harlem, world leaders had arrived in New York City for the 15^th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Leaders interested in anti-racism, anti-colonial politics, and non-alignment, would travel to Harlem starting with Fidel Castro, who was soon joined not only by Jamal Abdul Nasser, but also Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. 

October 08 - Speaker at a street rally in the vicinity of Hotel Theresa, 125^th Street and 7^th Avenue, Manhattan in honor of Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana

1961

July - New York Times reports Malcolm X is second most sought-after speaker for U.S. college campuses (after Republican presidential candidate Senator Barry Goldwater).

November 7 - Ahmed Osman, a Sudanese student from Dartmouth College, challenged Malcolm face-to-face in Harlem’s Mosque, expressing his belief that Islam had no place for hatred based on race, leading to a gradual change in Malcolm X’s political beliefs. 

Nation of Islam orders Malcolm X to be silent, allegedly because of remarks concerning President Kennedy’s assassination

1964

March - Starts visiting Dr. Mahmoud Youssef Shawarbi,an Egyptian-born, New York–based professor and the president of the Federation of Islamic Associations (FIA) and director of Islamic Center of New York, for instruction about Islam and converts to traditional Islam before going to hajj.  

March 8 - Malcolm X leaves the Nation of Islam and starts his new organization, Muslim Mosque Incorporated. 

April 3 - In Cleveland, Ohio, Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X delivered his iconic speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet”, in which, among other things, he marked his transition from the Black nationalist politics of the Nation of Islam to an internationalist Black freedom movement that recognized Blacks’ common interests in fighting racism and imperialism globally. 

April 13–May 21 - Travels to nine Middle Eastern and African countries. Makes the hajj in Mecca and sends letter describing his move beyond black/white perspective to more humanistic vision; Guest of Prince Faisal in Saudi Arabia and meets with President Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana. In Saudi Arabia, before hajj, he was the house guest of Abd al-Rahman Azzam who was the chief architect and first secretary-general of the Arab League (1945–1952) and was an Islamist scholar.  

April 21 - In Saudi Arabia, he was invited to meet with the Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia.  In hajj, Malcolm met and befriended a Sudanese scholar called Sheikh Ahmed Hassoun, who taught in Mecca for 35 years, who eventually became Malcolm’s spiritual advisor, and later taught at the Muslim Mosque Inc. 

April 30 - Flies to Beirut invited by Dr. Malik Badri, professor at the American University of Beirut. Malcolm was not allowed to speak at AUB and he spoke at Sudanese Cultural Center instead.   May 01, then back to Cairo; travels by rail to Alexandria, where he boards an airplane to Nigeria (until 5-6-64).  

May 8 - Following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home".  

June 28 - Following his April-May visit to Cairo, he founded the Organization of African American Unity (OAAU), a political body that he hoped would operate like the Organization of African States as a political entity that could make demands and lobby international bodies, like the United Nations, on behalf of the African diaspora.  

July 9–November 24 - Tours Africa, Middle East, and London. Visits fourteen nations and meets with at least eight heads of state and numerous other leaders.  

September 29 - Visits Beirut, invited by Aziza El-Hibri, an AUB student on behalf of the Debate Student Club. This time he spoke at AUB.

July 17 - He was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. 

He petitions the African states to help them resolve their problems before the United Nations on the grounds that the United States government is morally incapable of protecting the lives and the property of 22 million African Americans.

Following Malcolm’s second visit to Egypt, Al-Azhar University would establish a scholarship for twenty MMI students to study at that institution.

February 14 -  Malcolm X’s home is firebombed.  

February 21 -  Malcolm X is assassinated as he begins speaking at the Audubon Ballroom, New York. Talmadge Hayer (aka Thomas Hagan) got arrested. Sheikh Hassoun prepared his body for burial and Ahmed Osman denounced the media’s “distorted” memorialization of Malcolm X. 

February 27 - Ossie Davis delivers eulogy at funeral service at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem. Buried at Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.

November - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex Haley, published.