May 19 marks Malcolm X Day

CAIRO – 19 May 2022: On May 19, 1971, the first celebration of the Malcolm X Day took place, to become a holiday in some states of the North American Union that commemorates and honors the path of the famous Islamic preacher.

Malcolm X Day, also his birthday, comes as a tribute to Malcolm's fight for African Americans' rights. Malcom’s birth anniversary is considered an official holiday in California, Atlanta, Georgia and Washington DC.

Many activists also demanded that this memory be unified with the birth anniversary of the black rights activist Martin Luther King, to be a federal holiday in all the states of the union.

The first day to celebrate the birth of Malcolm X was recorded in 1971 in Washington DC.

Malcolm X enjoyed the ability to organize, lead, and preach. This quickly made him the first preacher after the founder of the group, the Nation of Islam.

Indeed, he managed to increase the number of members of the movement from 500 people in 1952 to 30,000 people in 1963.

Malcolm X assumed the position of the official spokesperson of the movement, but due to a disagreement between him and Elijah Mohammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam at the time, he left the movement permanently and headed to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj.

His pilgrimage in Mecca had a huge impact on him, as was clear in a letter he sent to his wife and friends, saying: “From Mecca, the holy city of Islam, I wrote to my friends in America, I have never witnessed such a welcome and this sincere brotherhood, which I see practiced on this ancient holy land, the land of our master Abraham, our master Mohammad [SAW], and the land of all the messengers of God Almighty. 

You may be shocked that these words come from me, but what I have seen is pushing me to rearrange most of my thinking patterns that I have lived in, and to throw out most of my previous conclusions.”