Includes bibliographical references (p. 563-576) and index.

Life beyond the legend -- "Up, you mighty race" : 1925-1941 -- The l egend of Detroit Red : 1941-January 1946 -- Becoming "X" : January 1946 -August 1952 -- "They don't come like the minister" : August 1952-May 1 957 -- "Brother, a minister has to be married" : May 1957-March 1959 -- "The hate that hate produced" : March 1959-January 1961 -- "As sure as God made green apples" : January 1961-May 1962 -- From prayer to prote st : May 1962-March 1963 -- "He was developing too fast" : April-Novemb er 1963 -- "The chickens coming home to roost" : December 1, 1963-March 12, 1964 -- An epiphany in the Hajj : March 12-May 21, 1964 -- "Do som ething about Malcolm X" : May 21-July 11, 1964 -- "In the struggle for dignity" : July 11-November 24, 1964 -- "Such a man is worthy of death" : November 24, 1964-February 14, 1965 -- Death comes on time : Februar y 14-February 21, 1965 -- Life after death -- Reflections on a revoluti onary vision.

This biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination. Years in the making, it is a definitive biography of the legendary bl ack activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American histo ry perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Const antly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a lead er, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age t hirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empower ed hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actua lized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad sym bol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world . Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography of Malcolm X, this work unfolds a story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan t o the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties . Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his par ents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, cha rting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culmi nating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. This w ork captures the story of one of the most singular forces for social ch ange, a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.