What Was Malcolm X's Birth Name?

Malcolm Little was the birth name of the civil rights activist, popularly known as Malcolm X. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925. In his lifetime, he went by a number of names including Detroit Red and Big Red.  When he embraced orthodox Islam in 1964, he changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

He was a charismatic civil rights activist and a Muslim Minister who initiated the Organization of Afro-American Unity and the Muslim Mosque, Inc. Malcolm was sent to prison for robbery and it was in prison that his life began to change. There he educated himself and was introduced to the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad, its founder and leader was the one who instructed Malcolm to drop the name Little which was inherited from a slave owner and change it to 'X', symbolizing his true lost African name.