backto Boston after finding out another hustler, the Mafia, and police were all after him. Onceback in Boston, Malcolm took up another illegal trade, house robberies. Along with two otherblack men, a white women and Sophia, Malcolm committed a series of these robberies in aresidential area of Boston. Sooner or later in 1946 they were caught by a very appalled policeforce. In yet another act of racism, the judge gave Malcolm 7 years imprisonment inCharleston, Massachusetts due to his association with the white women. The normal sentencefor a first offender of such crimes would be 2 to 3 years. In those seven years Malcolm becamea follower of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of a small urban prophet-cult, the Nation of Islam. This group , at the time, stressed moral conduct with other black persons but instructed thatwhite people were devils. Malcolm’s brother Reginald and sister, Ella, visiting him in prison,urged him to join Muhammad’s cult, and while in prison he did. He discarded his “slave name”Little, and was assigned the new name “X” to symbolize his true African family name. He thenbecame one of the most influential leaders of blacks and whites alike during the civil rightsmovement.After his parole in 1952, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam under the guidance ofElijah Muhammad and eventually was made a minister and top administrator of the MuslimMovement. Malcolm founded mosques in Boston, Philadelphia, and Harlem (already in Detroit,Chicago and New York) and was credited with the national expansion of the movement, whichincluded a membership of approximately 30,000 by 1963. In 1958 he married Betty Shabazz,and they had six daughters (Ahilah Shabazz, Qubilah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz, GamilahLamumbah Shabazz, Malikah Shabazz Saban, and Malaak Shabazz Saban). Malcolm X cameto broad public notice as result of a July 13-17, 1959, television special with Mike Wallacecalled The Hate That Hate P...
