"A black man should give his life to be free, and he should also be willing to take the life of those who want to take his." Unlike Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X was determined to change the situation for black Americans more quickly. In the early 1950s, he started advocating violence as a way to best achieve these goals, and had the Nation of Islam behind his methods. There is a good explanation about the differences between traditional Islam and the Nation of Islam, and Louis Farakkhan. Eventually, he changed his mind about the use of violence, which put him at odds with the leaders of the group. Malcolm knew that given his violent history, he would not survive to old age, but his death brought up suspicion of greater conspiracies. This book does a good job of describing Malcolm's early life and the start of his political activism, then details his change of philosophy and the various circumstances surrounding his death. The book is attractively formatted with lots of pictures, although the E ARC loaded VERY slowly. The back of the book includes a timeline, short biographies of other key players, and a good bibliography.