title: Malcolm X

text: When Malcolm was six, his father died in what has been officially ruled a streetcar accident, though his mother Louise believed Earl had been murdered by the Black Legion. Rumors that White racists were responsible for his father's death were widely circulated and were very disturbing to Malcolm X as a child. As an adult, he expressed conflicting beliefs on the question. After a dispute with creditors, Louise received a life insurance benefit (nominally $1,000 about $,000 in 2021) in payments of $18 per month; the issuer of another, larger policy refused to pay, claiming her husband Earl had committed suicide. To make ends meet, Louise rented out part of her garden, and her sons hunted game.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1937, a man Louise had been datingmarriage had seemed a possibilityvanished from her life when she became pregnant with his child. In late 1938, she had a nervous breakdown and was committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital. The children were separated and sent to foster homes. Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 24 years later.


title: Malcolm X

text: Malcolm attended West Junior High School in Lansing and then Mason High School in Mason, Michigan, but left high school in 1941, before graduating. He excelled in junior high school but dropped out of high school after a White teacher told him that practicing law, his aspiration at the time, was "no realistic goal for a nigger." Later, MalcolmX recalled feeling that the White world offered no place for a career-oriented Black man, regardless of talent.


title: Malcolm X

text: From age 14 to 21, Malcolm held a variety of jobs while living with his half-sister Ella Little-Collins in Roxbury, a largely African-American neighborhood of Boston.


title: Malcolm X

text: After a short time in Flint, Michigan, he moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood in 1943, where he found employment on the New Haven Railroad and engaged in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and pimping. According to biographer Bruce Perry, Malcolm also occasionally had sex with other men, usually for money, though this conjecture has been disputed by those who knew him. He befriended John Elroy Sanford, a fellow dishwasher at Jimmy's Chicken Shack in Harlem who aspired to be a professional comedian. Both men had reddish hair, so Sanford was called "Chicago Red" after his hometown, and Malcolm was known as "Detroit Red". Years later, Sanford became famous as comedian and actor Redd Foxx.


title: Malcolm X

text: Summoned by the local draft board for military service in World WarII, he feigned mental disturbance by rambling and declaring: "I want to be sent down South. Organize them nigger soldiers... steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers". He was declared "mentally disqualified for military service".


title: Malcolm X

text: In late 1945, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and four accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting wealthy White families. In 1946, he was arrested while picking up a stolen watch he had left at a shop for repairs, and in February began serving an eight-to-ten-year sentence at Charlestown State Prison for larceny and breaking and entering. Two years later, Malcolm was transferred to Norfolk Prison Colony (also in Massachusetts).


title: Malcolm X

text: When Malcolm was in prison, he met fellow convict John Bembry, a self-educated man he would later describe as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect... with words". Under Bembry's influence, Malcolm developed a voracious appetite for reading.


title: Malcolm X

text: At this time, several of his siblings wrote to him about the Nation of Islam, a relatively new religious movement preaching Black self-reliance and, ultimately, the return of the African diaspora to Africa, where they would be free from White American and European domination. He showed scant interest at first, but after his brother Reginald wrote in 1948, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison", he quit smoking and began to refuse pork.


title: Malcolm X

text: After a visit in which Reginald described the group's teachings, including the belief that White people are devils, Malcolm concluded that every relationship he had had with Whites had been tainted by dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Malcolm, whose hostility to religion had earned him the prison nickname "Satan," became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam.


title: Malcolm X

text: In late 1948, Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to renounce his past, humbly bow in prayer to God, and promise never to engage in destructive behavior again. Though he later recalled the inner struggle he had before bending his knees to pray, Malcolm soon became a member of the Nation of Islam,


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1950, the FBI opened a file on Malcolm after he wrote a letter from prison to President Truman expressing opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself a communist. That year, he also began signing his name "MalcolmX." Muhammad instructed his followers to leave their family names behind when they joined the Nation of Islam and use "X" instead. When the time was right, after they had proven their sincerity, he said, he would reveal the Muslim's "original name." In his autobiography, MalcolmX explained that the "X" symbolized the true African family name that he could never know. "For me, my 'X' replaced the White slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."


title: Malcolm X

text: After his parole in August 1952, MalcolmX visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago. In June 1953, he was named assistant minister of the Nation's Temple Number One in Detroit. Later that year he established Boston's Temple Number11; in March 1954, he expanded Temple Number12 in Philadelphia; and two months later he was selected to lead Temple Number7 in Harlem, where he rapidly expanded its membership.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1953, the FBI began surveillance of him, turning its attention from MalcolmX's possible communist associations to his rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.


title: Malcolm X

text: During 1955, MalcolmX continued his successful recruitment of members on behalf of the Nation of Islam. He established temples in Springfield, Massachusetts (Number13); Hartford, Connecticut (Number14); and Atlanta (Number15). Hundreds of African Americans were joining the Nation of Islam every month.


title: Malcolm X

text: Besides his skill as a speaker, MalcolmX had an impressive physical presence. He stood tall and weighed about . One writer described him as "powerfully built", and another as "mesmerizingly handsome... and always spotlessly well-groomed".


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1955, Betty Sanders met MalcolmX after one of his lectures, then again at a dinner party; soon she was regularly attending his lectures. In 1956, she joined the Nation of Islam, changing her name to BettyX. One-on-one dates were contrary to the Nation's teachings, so the couple courted at social events with dozens or hundreds of others, and MalcolmX made a point of inviting her on the frequent group visits he led to New York City's museums and libraries.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX proposed during a telephone call from Detroit in January 1958, and they married two days later. They had six daughters:


title: Malcolm X

text: Attallah (b. 1958; Arabic for "gift of God"; perhaps named after Attila the Hun); Qubilah (b. 1960, named after Kublai Khan); Ilyasah (b. 1962, named after Elijah Muhammad); Gamilah Lumumba (b. 1964, named after Gamal Abdel Nasser and Patrice Lumumba); and twins Malikah (1965–2021) and Malaak (b. 1965 after their father's death, and named in his honor).


title: Malcolm X

text: The American public first became aware of MalcolmX in 1957, after Hinton Johnson, a Nation of Islam member, was beaten by two New York City police officers. On April26, Johnson and two other passersbyalso Nation of Islam memberssaw the officers beating an African-American man with nightsticks. When they attempted to intervene, shouting, "You're not in Alabama... this is New York!" one of the officers turned on Johnson, beating him so severely that he suffered brain contusions and subdural hemorrhaging. All four African-American men were arrested.


title: Malcolm X

text: Alerted by a witness, MalcolmX and a small group of Muslims went to the police station and demanded to see Johnson. Police initially denied that any Muslims were being held, but when the crowd grew to about five hundred, they allowed MalcolmX to speak with Johnson. Afterward, MalcolmX insisted on arranging for an ambulance to take Johnson to Harlem Hospital.


title: Malcolm X

text: Johnson's injuries were treated and by the time he was returned to the police station, some four thousand people had gathered outside. Inside the station, MalcolmX and an attorney were making bail arrangements for two of the Muslims. Johnson was not bailed, and police said he could not go back to the hospital until his arraignment the following day. Considering the situation to be at an impasse, MalcolmX stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal to the crowd. Nation members silently left, after which the rest of the crowd also dispersed.


title: Malcolm X

text: One police officer told the "New York Amsterdam News": "No one man should have that much power." Within a month the New York City Police Department arranged to keep MalcolmX under surveillance; it also made inquiries with authorities in other cities in which he had lived, and prisons in which he had served time. A grand jury declined to indict the officers who beat Johnson. In October, MalcolmX sent an angry telegram to the police commissioner. Soon the police department assigned undercover officers to infiltrate the Nation of Islam.


title: Malcolm X

text: By the late 1950s, MalcolmX was using a new name, Malcolm Shabazz or Malik el-Shabazz, although he was still widely referred to as MalcolmX. His comments on issues and events were being widely reported in print, on radio, and on television, and he was featured in a 1959 New York City television broadcast about the Nation of Islam, "The Hate That Hate Produced".


title: Malcolm X

text: In September 1960, at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, MalcolmX was invited to the official functions of several African nations. He met Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress. Fidel Castro also attended the Assembly, and MalcolmX met publicly with him as part of a welcoming committee of Harlem community leaders. Castro was sufficiently impressed with MalcolmX to suggest a private meeting, and after two hours of talking, Castro invited MalcolmX to visit Cuba.


title: Malcolm X

text: From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he broke with it in 1964, MalcolmX promoted the Nation's teachings. These included beliefs:


title: Malcolm X

text: Louis E. Lomax said that "those who don't understand biblical prophecy wrongly label him as a racist and as a hate teacher, or as being anti-White or as teaching Black Supremacy". He was accused of being antisemitic. In 1961, Malcolm X spoke at a NOI rally alongside George Lincoln Rockwell, the head of the American Nazi Party; Rockwell claimed that there was overlap between Black nationalism and White supremacy.


title: Malcolm X

text: One of the goals of the civil rights movement was to end disenfranchisement of African Americans, but the Nation of Islam forbade its members from participating in voting and other aspects of the political process. The NAACP and other civil rights organizations denounced him and the Nation of Islam as irresponsible extremists whose views did not represent the common interests of African Americans.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX was equally critical of the civil rights movement. He called Martin Luther King Jr. a "chump," and said other civil rights leaders were "stooges" of the White establishment. He called the 1963 March on Washington "the farce on Washington," and said he did not know why so many Black people were excited about a demonstration "run by Whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive."


title: Malcolm X

text: While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, MalcolmX advocated the complete separation of African Americans from Whites. He proposed that African Americans should return to Africa and that, in the interim, a separate country for Black people in America should be created. He rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, arguing that Black people should defend and advance themselves "by any means necessary". His speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, who were generally African Americans in northern and western cities. Many of themtired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respectfelt that he articulated their complaints better than did the civil rights movement.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX is widely regarded as the second most influential leader of the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad. He was largely credited with the group's dramatic increase in membership between the early 1950s and early 1960s (from 500 to 25,000 by one estimate; from 1,200 to 50,000 or 75,000 by another).


title: Malcolm X

text: In January 1964, Clay brought MalcolmX and his family to Miami to watch him train for his fight against Sonny Liston.


title: Malcolm X

text: When MalcolmX left the Nation of Islam, he tried to convince Clay (who had just been renamed Muhammad Ali by Elijah Muhammad) to join him in converting to Sunni Islam, but Clay instead broke ties with him, later describing the break as one of his greatest regrets.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX mentored and guided LouisX (later known as Louis Farrakhan), who eventually became the leader of the Nation of Islam. MalcolmX also served as a mentor and confidant to Elijah Muhammad's son, Wallace D. Muhammad; the son told Malcolm X about his skepticism toward his father's "unorthodox approach" to Islam. Wallace Muhammad was excommunicated from the Nation of Islam several times, although he was eventually re-admitted.


title: Malcolm X

text: During 1962 and 1963, events caused MalcolmX to reassess his relationship with the Nation of Islam, and particularly its leader, Elijah Muhammad.


title: Malcolm X

text: In late 1961, there were violent confrontations between the Nation of Islam members and police in South Central Los Angeles, and numerous Muslims were arrested. They were acquitted, but tensions had been raised. Just after midnight on April27, 1962, two LAPD officers, unprovoked, shoved and beat several Muslims outside Temple Number 27. A large crowd of angry Muslims emerged from the mosque and the officers attempted to intimidate them.


title: Malcolm X

text: One officer was disarmed; his partner was shot in the elbow by a third officer. More than 70 backup officers arrived who then raided the mosque and randomly beat Nation of Islam members. Police officers shot seven Muslims, including William X Rogers, who was hit in the back and paralyzed for life, and Ronald Stokes, a Korean War veteran, who was shot from behind while raising his hands over his head to surrender, killing him.


title: Malcolm X

text: A number of Muslims were indicted after the event, but no charges were laid against the police. The coroner ruled that Stokes's killing was justified. To MalcolmX, the desecration of the mosque and the associated violence demanded action, and he used what LouisX (later Louis Farrakhan) later called his "gangsterlike past" to rally the more hardened of the Nation of Islam members to take violent revenge against the police.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX sought Elijah Muhammad's approval which was denied, stunning MalcolmX. MalcolmX was again blocked by Elijah Muhammad when he spoke of the Nation of Islam starting to work with civil rights organizations, local Black politicians, and religious groups. LouisX saw this as an important turning point in the deteriorating relationship between MalcolmX and Muhammad.


title: Malcolm X

text: Rumors were circulating that Muhammad was conducting extramarital affairs with young Nation secretarieswhich would constitute a serious violation of Nation teachings. After first discounting the rumors, MalcolmX came to believe them after he spoke with Muhammad's son Wallace and with the girls making the accusations. Muhammad confirmed the rumors in 1963, attempting to justify his behavior by referring to precedents set by Biblical prophets. Over a series of national TV interviews between 1964 and 1965, MalcolmX provided testimony of his investigation, corroboration, and confirmation by Elijah Muhammed himself of multiple counts of child rape. During this investigation, he learned 7 of those 8 girls had become pregnant as a result of this. He also revealed an assassination attempt made on his life, through a discovered explosive device in his car, as well as the death threats he was receiving, in response to his exposure of Elijah Muhammad.


title: Malcolm X

text: On December1, 1963, when asked to comment on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, MalcolmX said that it was a case of "." He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad." Likewise, according to "The New York Times":


title: Malcolm X

text: [I]n further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba, Congo leader, of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. These, he said, were instances of other "chickens coming home to roost".


title: Malcolm X

text: The remarks prompted widespread public outcry. The Nation of Islam, which had sent a message of condolence to the Kennedy family and ordered its ministers not to comment on the assassination, publicly censured their former shining star. MalcolmX retained his post and rank as minister, but was prohibited from public speaking for 90 days.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX had by now become a media favorite, and some Nation members believed he was a threat to Muhammad's leadership. Publishers had shown interest in MalcolmX's autobiography, and when Louis Lomax wrote his 1963 book about the Nation, "When the Word Is Given", he used a photograph of MalcolmX on the cover. He also reproduced five of his speeches, but featured only one of Muhammad'sall of which greatly upset Muhammad and made him envious.


title: Malcolm X

text: On March8, 1964, MalcolmX publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam. Though still a Muslim, he felt that the Nation had "gone as far as it can" because of its rigid teachings. He said he was planning to organize a Black nationalist organization to "heighten the political consciousness" of African Americans. He also expressed a desire to work with other civil rights leaders, saying that Elijah Muhammad had prevented him from doing so in the past.


title: Malcolm X

text: After leaving the Nation of Islam, MalcolmX founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), a religious organization, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism. On March26, 1964, he briefly met Martin Luther King Jr. for the first and only timeand only long enough for photographs to be takenin Washington, D.C., as both men attended the Senate's debate on the Civil Rights bill at the US Capitol building.


title: Malcolm X

text: In April, MalcolmX gave a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet", in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely but cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms.


title: Malcolm X

text: In the weeks after he left the Nation of Islam, several Sunni Muslims encouraged MalcolmX to learn about their faith. He soon converted to the Sunni faith.


title: Malcolm X

text: In April 1964, with financial help from his half-sister Ella Little-Collins, MalcolmX flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the start of his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca obligatory for every Muslim who is able to do so. He was delayed in Jeddah when his U.S. citizenship and inability to speak Arabic caused his status as a Muslim to be questioned.


title: Malcolm X

text: He had received Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam's book "The Eternal Message of Muhammad" with his visa approval, and he contacted the author. Azzam's son arranged for his release and lent him his personal hotel suite. The next morning MalcolmX learned that Prince Faisal had designated him as a state guest. Several days later, after completing the Hajj rituals, MalcolmX had an audience with the prince.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX later said that seeing Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to Black-skinned Africans," interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX had already visited the United Arab Republic (a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana in 1959 to make arrangements for a tour of Africa by Elijah Muhammad. After his journey to Mecca in 1964, he visited Africa a second time. He returned to the United States in late May and flew to Africa again in July. During these visits he met officials, gave interviews, and spoke on radio and television in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco.


title: Malcolm X

text: In Cairo, he attended the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity as a representative of the OAAU. By the end of this third visit, he had met with essentially all of Africa's prominent leaders; Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria had all invited MalcolmX to serve in their governments. After he spoke at the University of Ibadan, the Nigerian Muslim Students Association bestowed on him the honorary Yoruba name ('the son who has come home'). He later called this his most treasured honor.


title: Malcolm X

text: Malcolm especially hated Moïse Tshombe of the Congo as an "Uncle Tom" figure. In a 1964 speech in New York, he called Tshombe "the worse African ever born" and "the man who in cold blood, cold blood, committed an international crime-murdered Patrice Lumumba". Tshombe's decision in 1964 to hire White mercenaries to put down the Simba rebellion greatly offended Malcolm, who accused the mercenaries of committing war crimes against the Congolese.


title: Malcolm X

text: On November23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, MalcolmX stopped in Paris, where he spoke in the Salle de la Mutualité. After his return to the United States, he accused the United States of imperialism in the Congo by supporting Tshombe and "his hired killers" as he called the White mercenaries. X accused Tshombe and the American president Lyndon B. Johnson of "...sleeping together. When I say sleeping together, I don't mean that literally. But beyond that, they're in the same bed. Johnson is paying the salaries, paying the government, propping up Tshombe's government, this murderer". X expressed much anger about Operation Dragon Rouge, where the United States Air Force dropped in Belgian paratroopers into the city of Stanleyville (modern Kisangani) to rescue the White Belgian hostages from the Simbas. Malcolm X maintained that there was a double standard when it came to White and Black lives, noting it was an international emergency when the lives of Whites were in danger, making Dragon Rouge necessary, but that nothing was done to stop the abuses of the Congolese at the hands of "Tshombe's hired killers". X charged that the "Congolese have been massacred by White people for years and years" and that "the chickens have home to roast".


title: Malcolm X

text: A week later, on November30, MalcolmX flew to the United Kingdom, and on December3 took part in a debate at the Oxford Union Society. The motion was taken from a statement made earlier that year by U.S. presidential candidate Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue". MalcolmX argued for the affirmative, and interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.


title: Malcolm X

text: In his address at Oxford, Malcolm rejected the label of "Black Muslim" and instead focused on being a Muslim who happened to be Black, which reflected his conversion to Sunni Islam. Malcolm only mentioned his religion twice during his Oxford speech, which was part of his effort to defuse his image as an "angry Black Muslim extremist", which he had long hated. During the debate at Oxford, he criticized the way the Anglo-American press portrayed the Congo crisis, noting the Simbas were portrayed as primitive cannibalistic "savages" who engaged in every form of depravity imaginable while Tshombe and the White mercenaries were portrayed in a very favorable light with almost no mention of any atrocities on their part. Malcolm X charged that the Cuban émigré pilots hired by the CIA to serve as Tshombe's air force indiscriminately bombed Congolese villages and towns, killing women and children, but this was almost never mentioned in the media while the newspapers featured long accounts of the Simbas "raping White women, molesting nuns". Likewise, he felt the term mercenary was inappropriate, preferring the term "hired killer" and that Tshombe should not described as a premier as he preferred the term "cold-blooded murderer" to describe him. Malcolm X stated that what he regarded as the extremism of the Tshombe government was "never referred to as extremism because it is endorsed by the West, it is financed by America, it's made respectable by America, and that kind of extremism is never labelled as extremism". X argued this extremism was not morally acceptable "since it's not extremism in defense of liberty". Many in the audience at Oxford were angered by Malcolm X's thesis and his support for the Simbas who had committed atrocities with one asking "What sort of extremism would you consider the killing of missionaries?". In response, Malcolm X answered "it is an act of war. I'd call it the same kind of extremism that happened when England dropped bombs on German cities and Germans dropped bombs on English cities".


title: Malcolm X

text: On February5, 1965, MalcolmX flew to Britain again, and on February8 he addressed the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations in London. The next day he tried to return to France, but was refused entry. On February12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, where the Conservative Party had won the parliamentary seat in the 1964 general election. The town had become a byword for racial division after the successful candidate, Peter Griffiths, was accused of using the slogan, "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour." In Smethwick, MalcolmX compared the treatment of ethnic minority residents with the treatment of Jews under Hitler, saying: "I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens."


title: Malcolm X

text: After returning to the U.S., MalcolmX addressed a wide variety of audiences. He spoke regularly at meetings held by MMI and the OAAU, and was one of the most sought-after speakers on college campuses. One of his top aides later wrote that he "welcomed every opportunity to speak to college students." He also addressed public meetings of the Socialist Workers Party, speaking at their Militant Labor Forum. He was interviewed on the subjects of segregation and the Nation of Islam by Robert Penn Warren for Warren's 1965 book "Who Speaks for the Negro?"


title: Malcolm X

text: Throughout 1964, as his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, MalcolmX was repeatedly threatened.


title: Malcolm X

text: In February, a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered the bombing of MalcolmX's car. In March, Muhammad told Boston minister LouisX (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off"; the April10 edition of "Muhammad Speaks" featured a cartoon depicting MalcolmX's bouncing, severed head.


title: Malcolm X

text: On June8, FBI surveillance recorded a telephone call in which Betty Shabazz was told that her husband was "as good as dead." Four days later, an FBI informant received a tip that "MalcolmX is going to be bumped off." That same month, the Nation sued to reclaim MalcolmX's residence in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. His family was ordered to vacate but on February14, 1965the night before a hearing on postponing the evictionthe house was destroyed by fire.


title: Malcolm X

text: On July9, Muhammad aide John Ali (suspected of being an undercover FBI agent) referred to MalcolmX by saying, "Anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy." In the December4 issue of "Muhammad Speaks", LouisX wrote that "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death."


title: Malcolm X

text: The September 1964 issue of "Ebony" dramatized MalcolmX's defiance of these threats by publishing a photograph of him holding an M1 carbine while peering out a window.


title: Malcolm X

text: On February19, 1965, MalcolmX told interviewer Gordon Parks that the Nation of Islam was actively trying to kill him. On February21, 1965, he was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled,


title: Malcolm X

text: As MalcolmX and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. MalcolmX was pronounced dead at 3:30pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.


title: Malcolm X

text: Les Payne and Tamara Payne, in their Pulitzer Prize winning biography "", claim that the assassins were members of the Nation of Islam's Newark, New Jersey, mosque: William 25X (also known as William Bradley), who fired the shotgun; Leon Davis; and Thomas Hayer.


title: Malcolm X

text: One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.


title: Malcolm X

text: At trial, Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1977 and 1978, he signed affidavits reasserting Butler's and Johnson's innocence, naming four other Nation members of Newark's Mosque No. 25 as participants in the murder or its planning. These affidavits did not result in the case being reopened.


title: Malcolm X

text: Butler, today known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation's Harlem mosque in 1998; he maintains his innocence. In prison Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation's teachings and converted to Sunni Islam. Released in 1987, he maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, who also rejected the Nation's teachings while in prison and converted to Sunni Islam, is known today as Mujahid Halim. He was paroled in 2010.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 2021, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam (formerly Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson) were exonerated from their murder convictions, following a review that found the FBI and the New York Police Department withheld key evidence during the trial. On July 14, 2022, Aziz filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn against the City of New York, seeking $40 million in damages related to his wrongful imprisonment.


title: Malcolm X

text: The public viewing, February2326 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners.


title: Malcolm X

text: For the funeral on February27, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside Harlem's thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ, and a local television station carried the service live.


title: Malcolm X

text: Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young. Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing MalcolmX as "our shining Black prince... who didn't hesitate to die because he loved us so":


title: Malcolm X

text: There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captainand we will smile. Many will say turn awayaway from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the Black manand we will smile. They will say that he is of hatea fanatic, a racistwho can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him... And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Friends took up the gravediggers' shovels to complete the burial themselves.


title: Malcolm X

text: Actor and activist Ruby Dee and Juanita Poitier (wife of Sidney Poitier) established the Committee of Concerned Mothers to raise money for a home for his family and for his children's educations.


title: Malcolm X

text: Reactions to MalcolmX's assassination were varied. In a telegram to Betty Shabazz, Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his sadness at "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband." He said:


title: Malcolm X

text: While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.


title: Malcolm X

text: Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February26 that "MalcolmX got just what he preached," but denied any involvement with the murder. "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him," Muhammad said, adding "We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end."


title: Malcolm X

text: Writer James Baldwin, who had been a friend of MalcolmX's, was in London when he heard the news of the assassination. He responded with indignation towards the reporters interviewing him, shouting, "You did it! It is because of you—the men that created this White supremacy—that this man is dead. You are not guilty, but you did it... Your mills, your cities, your rape of a continent started all this."


title: Malcolm X

text: The "New York Post" wrote that "even his sharpest critics recognized his brillianceoften wild, unpredictable and eccentric, but nevertheless possessing promise that must now remain unrealized." "The New York Times" wrote that MalcolmX was "an extraordinary and twisted man" who "turn[ed] many true gifts to evil purpose" and that his life was "strangely and pitifully wasted." "Time" called him "an unashamed demagogue" whose "creed was violence."


title: Malcolm X

text: Outside of the U.S., particularly in Africa, the press was sympathetic. The "Daily Times of Nigeria" wrote that MalcolmX would "have a place in the palace of martyrs" The "Ghanaian Times" likened him to John Brown, Medgar Evers, and Patrice Lumumba, and counted him among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause."


title: Malcolm X

text: In China, the "People's Daily" described MalcolmX as a martyr killed by "ruling circles and racists" in the United States; his assassination, the paper wrote, demonstrated that "in dealing with imperialist oppressors, violence must be met with violence." The "Guangming Daily", also published in Beijing, stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights." In Cuba, "El Mundo" described the assassination as "another racist crime to eradicate by violence the struggle against discrimination."


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX was clearly a product of the hate and violence invested in the Negro's blighted existence in this nation...


title: Malcolm X

text: It is a testimony to Malcolm's personal depth and integrity that he could not become an underworld Czar, but turned again and again to religion for meaning and destiny. Malcolm was still turning and growing at the time of his brutal and meaningless assassination.…


title: Malcolm X

text: Like the murder of Lumumba, the murder of MalcolmX deprives the world of a potentially great leader. I could not agree with either of these men, but I could see in them a capacity for leadership which I could respect, and which was just beginning to mature in judgment and statesmanship.


title: Malcolm X

text: Within days, the question of who bore responsibility for the assassination was being publicly debated. On February23, James Farmer, leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Nation of Islam, were to blame. Others accused the NYPD, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection, the ease with which the assassins entered the Audubon Ballroom, and the failure of the police to preserve the crime scene. Earl Grant, one of MalcolmX's associates who was present at the assassination, later wrote:


title: Malcolm X

text: [A]bout five minutes later, a most incredible scene took place. Into the hall sauntered about a dozen policemen. They were strolling at about the pace one would expect of them if they were patrolling a quiet park. They did not seem to be at all excited or concerned about the circumstances.


title: Malcolm X

text: I could hardly believe my eyes. Here were New York City policemen, entering a room from which at least a dozen shots had been heard, and yet not one of them had his gun out! As a matter of absolute fact, some of them even had their hands in their pockets.


title: Malcolm X

text: In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs established to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. Louis Lomax wrote that John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, was a former FBI agent. MalcolmX had confided to a reporter that Ali exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad and that he considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership. Ali had a meeting with Talmadge Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing MalcolmX, the night before the assassination.


title: Malcolm X

text: The Shabazz family are among those who have accused Louis Farrakhan of involvement in MalcolmX's assassination. In a 1993 speech Farrakhan seemed to acknowledge the possibility that the Nation of Islam was responsible:


title: Malcolm X

text: Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the "hell" business is it of yours? A nation has to be able to deal with traitors and cutthroats and turncoats.


title: Malcolm X

text: In a "60 Minutes" interview that aired during May 2000, Farrakhan stated that some things he said may have led to the assassination of MalcolmX. "I may have been complicit in words that I spoke," he said, adding "I acknowledge that and regret that any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being." A few days later Farrakhan denied that he "ordered the assassination" of MalcolmX, although he again acknowledged that he "created the atmosphere that ultimately led to MalcolmX's assassination."


title: Malcolm X

text: No consensus has been reached on who was responsible for the assassination. In August 2014, an online petition was started using the White House online petition mechanism to call on the government to release, without alteration, any files they still held relating to the murder of MalcolmX. In January 2019, members of the families of MalcolmX, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were among dozens of Americans who signed a public statement calling for a truth and reconciliation commission to persuade Congress or the Justice Department to review the assassinations of all four leaders during the 1960s.


title: Malcolm X

text: A February 21, 2021 press conference attended by three of Malcolm X's daughters and members of deceased NYPD undercover officer Raymond Wood's family released his authorized posthumous letter that stated in part: "I was told to encourage leaders and members of the civil rights groups to commit felonious acts." "The Guardian" reports that "The arrests kept the two men from managing door security at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights on the day of the shooting, according to the letter." On February 26, 2021, the daughter of Raymond Wood, Kelly Wood, stated that the letter presented at the February 21 press conference is fake. Kelly Wood stated that the letter was created by her cousin Reggie Wood for attention and book sales.


title: Malcolm X

text: Except for his autobiography, MalcolmX left no published writings. His philosophy is known almost entirely from the many speeches and interviews he gave from 1952 until his death. Many of those speeches, especially from the last year of his life, were recorded and have been published.


title: Malcolm X

text: While he was a member of the Nation of Islam, MalcolmX taught its beliefs, and his statements often began with the phrase "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that..." It is virtually impossible now to discern whether MalcolmX's personal beliefs at the time diverged from the teachings of the Nation of Islam. After he left the Nation in 1964, he compared himself to a ventriloquist's dummy who could only say what Elijah Muhammad told him to say.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX taught that Black people were the original people of the world, and that Whites were a race of devils who were created by an evil scientist named Yakub. The Nation of Islam believed that Black people were superior to White people and that the demise of the White race was imminent. When questioned concerning his statements that White people were devils, MalcolmX said: "history proves the White man is a devil." "Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people ... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil."


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX said that Islam was the "true religion of Black mankind" and that Christianity was "the White man's religion" that had been imposed upon African Americans by their slave-masters. He said that the Nation of Islam followed Islam as it was practiced around the world, but the Nation's teachings varied from those of other Muslims because they were adapted to the "uniquely pitiful" condition of Black people in the United States. He taught that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation, was God incarnate, and that Elijah Muhammad was his Messenger, or Prophet.


title: Malcolm X

text: While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, MalcolmX advocated the complete separation of Blacks from Whites. The Nation of Islam proposed the establishment of a separate country for African Americans in the southern or southwestern United States as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. MalcolmX suggested the United States government owed reparations to Black people for the unpaid labor of their ancestors. He also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, advocating instead that Black people should defend themselves.


title: Malcolm X

text: After leaving the Nation of Islam, MalcolmX announced his willingness to work with leaders of the civil rights movement, though he advocated some changes to their policies. He felt that calling the movement a struggle for "civil rights" would keep the issue within the United States while changing the focus to "human rights" would make it an international concern. The movement could then bring its complaints before the United Nations, where MalcolmX said the emerging nations of the world would add their support.


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX argued that if the U.S. government was unwilling or unable to protect Black people, Black people should protect themselves. He said that he and the other members of the OAAU were determined to defend themselves from aggressors, and to secure freedom, justice and equality "by whatever means necessary".


title: Malcolm X

text: MalcolmX stressed the global perspective he gained from his international travels. He emphasized the "direct connection" between the domestic struggle of African Americans for equal rights with the independence struggles of Third World nations. He said that African Americans were wrong when they thought of themselves as a minority; globally, Black people were the majority.


title: Malcolm X

text: In his speeches at the Militant Labor Forum, which was sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, MalcolmX criticized capitalism. After one such speech, when he was asked what political and economic system he wanted, he said he did not know, but that it was no coincidence the newly independent countries in the Third World were turning toward socialism. When a reporter asked him what he thought about socialism, MalcolmX asked whether it was good for Black people. When the reporter told him it seemed to be, MalcolmX told him: "Then I'm for it."


title: Malcolm X

text: Although he no longer called for the separation of Black people from White people, MalcolmX continued to advocate Black nationalism, which he defined as self-determination for the African-American community. In the last months of his life, however, MalcolmX began to reconsider his support for Black nationalism after meeting northern African revolutionaries who, to all appearances, were White.


title: Malcolm X

text: After his Hajj, MalcolmX articulated a view of White people and racism that represented a deep change from the philosophy he had supported as a minister of the Nation of Islam. In a famous letter from Mecca, he wrote that his experiences with White people during his pilgrimage convinced him to "rearrange" his thinking about race and "toss aside some of [his] previous conclusions". In a conversation with Gordon Parks, two days before his assassination, Malcolm said:


title: Malcolm X

text: [L]istening to leaders like Nasser, Ben Bella, and Nkrumah awakened me to the dangers of racism. I realized racism isn't just a Black and White problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.


title: Malcolm X

text: Brother, remember the time that White college girls came into the restaurantthe one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the Whites get togetherand I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent, I saw White students helping Black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie thenlike all [Black] MuslimsI was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years.


title: Malcolm X

text: In recent years, some researchers have alleged that Malcolm X was bisexual. These claims are founded upon the work of late Columbia University historian Manning Marable, and his controversial 2011 book "Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention". In the book, Marable asserted that "Malcolm X had exaggerated his early criminal career and had engaged in an early homosexual relationship with a White businessman." Scholar Christopher Phelps agreed with Marable in the "Journal of American Studies": "Malcolm Little did take part in sex acts with male counterparts. If set in the context of the 1930s and 1940s, these acts position him not as a 'homosexual lover,' as has been asserted, but in the pattern of 'straight trade'—heterosexual men open to sex with homosexuals—an understanding that in turn affords insights into the Black revolutionary's mature masculinity."


title: Malcolm X

text: Malcolm X's family has rejected these allegations about his personal life. His daughter Ilyasah Shabazz said she would have known about these encounters before abruptly walking out on an interview on NPR. Shabazz said: "I think the things that I take issue with are the fact that he said my father engaged in a bisexual relationship, a homo—you know, he had a gay lover who was an elder White businessman, I think, in his late 50s when my father was in his teens. And, you know, my father was an open book. And we actually have four of the missing chapters from the autobiography. And, you know, he is very clear in his activities, which nothing included being gay. And certainly he didn't have anything against gay—he was for human rights, human justice, you know. So if he had a gay encounter, he likely would've talked about it. And what he did talk about was someone else's encounter."


title: Malcolm X

text: Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. He is credited with raising the self-esteem of Black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage. He is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the Black community in the United States. Many African Americans, especially those who lived in cities in the Northern and Western United States, felt that MalcolmX articulated their complaints concerning inequality better than did the mainstream civil rights movement. One biographer says that by giving expression to their frustration, MalcolmX "made clear the price that White America would have to pay if it did not accede to Black America's legitimate demands."


title: Malcolm X

text: In the late 1960s, increasingly radical Black activists based their movements largely on MalcolmX and his teachings. The Black Power movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the widespread adoption of the slogan "Black is beautiful" can all trace their roots to MalcolmX. In 1963, Malcolm X began a collaboration with Alex Haley on his life story, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". He told Haley, "If I'm alive when this book comes out, it will be a miracle." Haley completed and published it some months after the assassination.


title: Malcolm X

text: During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest in his life among young people. Hip-hop groups such as Public Enemy adopted MalcolmX as an icon, and his image was displayed in hundreds of thousands of homes, offices, and schools, as well as on T-shirts and jackets. In 1986 Ella Little-Collins merged the Organization of Afro-American Unity with the African American Defense League.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1992 the film "MalcolmX" was released, an adaptation of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X". In 1998, "Time" named "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.


title: Malcolm X

text: Malcolm X was an inspiration for several fictional characters. The Marvel Comics writer Chris Claremont confirmed that Malcolm X was an inspiration for the "X-Men" character Magneto, while Martin Luther King was an inspiration for Professor X. Malcolm X also inspired the character Erik Killmonger in the film "Black Panther".


title: Malcolm X

text: The house that once stood at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, was the first home of Malcolm Little with his birth family. The house was torn down in 1965 by new owners who did not know of its connection with MalcolmX. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.


title: Malcolm X

text: In Lansing, Michigan, a Michigan Historical Marker was erected in 1975 on Malcolm Little's childhood home. The city is also home to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus. The school is located in the building where Little attended elementary school.


title: Malcolm X

text: In cities across the United States, MalcolmX's birthday (May19) is commemorated as Malcolm X Day. The first known celebration of MalcolmX Day took place in Washington, D.C., in 1971. The city of Berkeley, California, has recognized MalcolmX's birthday as a citywide holiday since 1979.


title: Malcolm X

text: Many cities have renamed streets after MalcolmX. In 1987, New York mayor Ed Koch proclaimed Lenox Avenue in Harlem to be MalcolmX Boulevard. The name of Reid Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, was changed to MalcolmX Boulevard in 1985. Brooklyn also has El Shabazz Playground that was named after him. New Dudley Street, in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, was renamed Malcolm X Boulevard in the 1990s. In 1997, Oakland Avenue in Dallas, Texas, was renamed MalcolmX Boulevard. Main Street in Lansing, Michigan, was renamed MalcolmX Street in 2010. In 2016, Ankara, Turkey, renamed the street on which the U.S. is building its new embassy after MalcolmX.


title: Malcolm X

text: Dozens of schools have been named after MalcolmX, including Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark, New Jersey, Malcolm Shabazz City High School in Madison, Wisconsin, and Malcolm X College in Chicago, Illinois. Malcolm X Liberation University, based on the Pan-Africanist ideas of MalcolmX, was founded in 1969 in North Carolina.


title: Malcolm X

text: In 1996, the first library named after MalcolmX was opened, the MalcolmX Branch Library and Performing Arts Center of the San Diego Public Library system.


title: Malcolm X

text: The U.S. Postal Service issued a MalcolmX postage stamp in 1999. In 2005, Columbia University announced the opening of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where MalcolmX was assassinated. Collections of MalcolmX's papers are held by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Robert W. Woodruff Library.


title: Malcolm X

text: After a community-led initiative, Conrad Grebel University College in Canada (affiliated with the University of Waterloo) launched the "Malcolm X Peace and Conflict Studies Scholarship" in 2021 to support Black and Indigenous students enrolled in their Master of Peace and Conflict Studies program.


title: Malcolm X

text: Arnold Perl and Marvin Worth attempted to create a drama film based on "The Autobiography of Malcolm X", but when people close to the subject declined to talk to them they decided to make a documentary instead. The result was the 1972 documentary film "Malcolm X".


title: Malcolm X

text: Critic Roger Ebert and film director Martin Scorsese included the film among their lists as one of the ten best films of the 1990s. Washington had previously played the part of MalcolmX in the 1981 Off-Broadway play "When the Chickens Came Home to Roost".


title: 50 Cent

text: Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and businessman. Born in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 2000, when he produced "Power of the Dollar" for Columbia Records; however, days before the planned release, he was shot, and the album was never released. In 2002, after 50 Cent released the mixtape "Guess Who's Back?" he was discovered by Eminem and signed to Shady Records, under the aegis of Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.


title: 50 Cent

text: His first major-label album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (2003), was a huge commercial success. The album spawned the "Billboard" Hot 100 number one singles "In da Club" and "21 Questions", and was certified 9× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). That same year, he founded G-Unit Records, signing his G-Unit associates Young Buck, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo; prior to becoming the "de facto" leader of the East Coast hip hop group G-Unit. 50 Cent had similar commercial and critical success with his second album, "The Massacre" (2005), which contained the single "Candy Shop". He underwent musical changes by his fifth album, "Animal Ambition" (2014), and is currently working on his sixth studio album. He executive-produced and starred in the television series "Power" (2014–2020) and is slated to produce its spin-offs.


title: 50 Cent

text: 50 Cent has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and won several awards, including a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, thirteen Billboard Music Awards, six World Music Awards, three American Music Awards and four BET Awards. As an actor, Jackson appeared in the semi-autobiographical film "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (2005), the war film "Home of the Brave" (2006), and the crime thriller film "Righteous Kill" (2008). 50 Cent was ranked the sixth-best artist of the 2000s and the third-best rapper (behind Eminem and Nelly) by "Billboard". "Rolling Stone" ranked "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' and "In da Club" in its lists of the "100 Best Albums of the 2000s" and "100 Best Songs of the 2000s" at numbers 37 and 13, respectively.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson was born in the borough of Queens, New York City, and raised in its South Jamaica neighborhood by his mother Sabrina. A drug dealer, Sabrina raised Jackson until she died in a fire when Jackson was 8. Jackson revealed in an interview that his mother was a lesbian. After his mother's death and his father's departure, Jackson was raised by his grandparents.


title: 50 Cent

text: He began boxing at about age 11, and when he was 14, a neighbor opened a boxing gym for local youth. "When I wasn't killing time in school, I was sparring in the gym or selling crack on the strip," Jackson remembered. He sold crack during primary school. "I was competitive in the ring and hip-hop is competitive too ... I think rappers condition themselves like boxers, so they all kind of feel like they're the champ."


title: 50 Cent

text: At age 12, Jackson began dealing narcotics when his grandparents thought he was in after-school programs, and brought guns and drug money to school. In the tenth grade, he was caught by metal detectors at Andrew Jackson High School: "I was embarrassed that I got arrested like that ... After I got arrested I stopped hiding it. I was telling my grandmother [openly], 'I sell drugs.'"


title: 50 Cent

text: On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine, and a starting pistol. Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp and earned his GED. He has said that he did not use cocaine himself. Jackson adopted the nickname "50 Cent" as a metaphor for change. The name was inspired by Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent"; Jackson chose it "because it says everything I want it to say. I'm the same kind of person 50 Cent was. I provide for myself by any means."


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson began rapping in a friend's basement, where he used turntables to record over instrumentals. In 1996, a friend introduced him to Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, who was establishing Jam Master Jay Records. Jay taught him how to count bars, write choruses, structure songs, and make records. Jackson's first appearance was on "React" with Onyx, for their 1998 album "Shut 'Em Down". He credited Jam Master Jay for improving his ability to write hooks, and Jay produced Jackson's first (unreleased) album. In 1999, after Jackson left Jam Master Jay, the platinum-selling producers Trackmasters signed him to Columbia Records. They sent him to an upstate New York studio, where he produced thirty-six songs in two weeks; eighteen were included on his 2000 album, "Power of the Dollar". Jackson founded Hollow Point Entertainment with former G-Unit member Bang 'Em Smurf.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson's popularity began to grow after the successful, controversial underground single "How to Rob", which he wrote in a half-hour car ride to a studio. The track comically describes how he would rob famous artists. Jackson explained the song's rationale: "There's a hundred artists on that label, you gotta separate yourself from that group and make yourself relevant". Rappers Jay-Z, Kurupt, Sticky Fingaz, Big Pun, DMX, Wyclef Jean, and the Wu-Tang Clan responded to the track, and Nas invited Jackson to join him on his "Nastradamus" tour. Although "How to Rob" was intended to be released with "Thug Love" (with Destiny's Child), two days before he was scheduled to film the "Thug Love" music video, Jackson was shot and hospitalized.


title: 50 Cent

text: On May 24, 2000, Jackson was attacked by a gunman outside his grandmother's former home in South Jamaica. After getting into a friend's car, he was asked to return to the house to get some jewelry; his son was in the house, and his grandmother was in the front yard. Jackson returned to the back seat of the car, and another car pulled up nearby; an assailant walked up and fired nine shots at close range with a 9mm handgun. Jackson was shot in the hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek. His facial wound resulted in a swollen tongue, the loss of a wisdom tooth and a slightly slurred voice; his friend was wounded in the hand. They were driven to a hospital, where Jackson spent thirteen days. The alleged attacker, Darryl Baum, Mike Tyson's close friend and bodyguard, was killed three weeks later.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson recalled the shooting: "It happens so fast that you don't even get a chance to shoot back ... I was scared the whole time ... I was looking in the rear-view mirror like, 'Oh shit, somebody shot me in the face! It burns, burns, burns.'" In his autobiography, "From Pieces to Weight: Once upon a Time in Southside Queens", he wrote: "After I got shot nine times at close range and didn't die, I started to think that I must have a purpose in life ... How much more damage could that shell have done? Give me an inch in this direction or that one, and I'm gone". Jackson used a walker for six weeks and fully recovered after five months. When he left the hospital he stayed in the Poconos with his girlfriend and son, and his workout regime helped him develop a muscular physique.


title: 50 Cent

text: In the hospital Jackson signed a publishing deal with Columbia Records before he was dropped from the label and blacklisted by the recording industry because of his song, "Ghetto Qu'ran". Unable to work in a U.S. studio, he went to Canada. With business partner Sha Money XL, Jackson recorded over thirty songs for mixtapes to build a reputation. In a HitQuarters interview, Marc Labelle of Shady Records A&R said that Jackson used the mixtape circuit to his advantage: "He took all the hottest beats from every artist and flipped them with better hooks. They then got into all the markets on the mixtapes and all the mixtape DJs were messing with them." Jackson's popularity increased, and in 2002 he released the mixtape "Guess Who's Back?". He then released "50 Cent Is the Future" backed by G-Unit, a mixtape revisiting material by Jay-Z and Raphael Saadiq.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2002, Eminem heard Jackson's "Guess Who's Back?" CD, received from Jackson's attorney (who was working with Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg). Impressed, Eminem invited Jackson to fly to Los Angeles and introduced him to Dr. Dre. After signing a $1 million record deal, Jackson released "No Mercy, No Fear". The mixtape featured one new track, "Wanksta", which appeared on Eminem's "8 Mile" soundtrack. Jackson was also signed by Violator Management and Sha Money XL's Money Management Group.


title: 50 Cent

text: 50 Cent released his debut album, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (described by AllMusic as "probably the most hyped debut album by a rap artist in about a decade"), in February 2003. "Rolling Stone" noted its "dark synth grooves, buzzy keyboards and a persistently funky bounce", with Jackson complementing the production in "an unflappable, laid-back flow". It debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, selling 872,000 copies in its first four days. The lead single, "In da Club" (noted by "The Source" for its "blaring horns, funky organs, guitar riffs and sparse hand claps"), set a "Billboard" record as the most listened-to song in radio history within a week.


title: 50 Cent

text: Interscope began funding and distributing for Jackson's label, G-Unit Records, in 2003. He signed Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck as members of G-Unit, and The Game was later signed in a joint venture with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. 50 Cent executive produced Lloyd Banks's June 2004 debut studio album, "The Hunger for More", which achieved Platinum status in America. 50 Cent also contributed vocals to Lloyd Banks's hit single, "On Fire". In March 2005, 50 Cent's second commercial album, "The Massacre", sold 1.14 million copies in its first four days (the highest in an abbreviated sales cycle) and was number one on the "Billboard" 200 for six weeks. He was the first solo artist with three singles in the "Billboard" top five in the same week with "Candy Shop", "Disco Inferno" and "How We Do". According to "Rolling Stone", "50's secret weapon is his singing voice - the deceptively amateur-sounding tenor croon that he deploys on almost every chorus".


title: 50 Cent

text: After The Game's departure Jackson signed Olivia and rap veterans Mobb Deep to G-Unit Records, with Spider Loc, M.O.P., 40 Glocc and Young Hot Rod later joining the label, who all eventually departed the label. Jackson expressed an interest in working with rappers other than G-Unit, such as Lil' Scrappy of BME, LL Cool J of Def Jam, Mase of Bad Boy and Freeway of Roc-A-Fella, and recorded with several.


title: 50 Cent

text: In September 2007, 50 Cent released his third album, "Curtis", which was inspired by his life before "Get Rich or Die Tryin"'. It debuted at number two on the "Billboard" 200, selling 691,000 copies during its first week. It sold behind Kanye West's "Graduation", released the same day; the outcome of this highly-publicized sales battle between Jackson and West has been accredited to the commercial decline of the gangsta rap and "bling era" style that previously dominated mainstream hip-hop.


title: 50 Cent

text: On the September 10, 2008, episode of "Total Request Live," Jackson said his fourth studio album, "Before I Self Destruct", would be "done and released in November". He released "Ok, You're Right", produced by Dr. Dre for "Before I Self Destruct", on May 18, 2009, and was scheduled to appear in a fall 2009 episode of VH1's "Behind the Music". On September 3, 2009, Jackson posted a video for the Soundkillers' Phoenix- produced track, "Flight 187", introducing his mixtape and book ("The 50th Law"). The song, with lyrics inspiring speculation about tension between Jackson and Jay-Z, was a bonus track on the iTunes version of "Before I Self Destruct". "Before I Self Destruct" was released on November 9, 2009.


title: 50 Cent

text: In a Contactmusic.com interview, Jackson said he was working on a Eurodance album, "Black Magic", inspired by European nightclubs: "First they played hip-hop which suddenly changed to uptempo songs, known as Eurodance". He later said he had changed his next album to "The Return of the Heartless Monster" after writing different material when he returned home from the Invitation Tour in 2010, shelving "Black Magic". On September 3, Jackson supported Eminem on his and Jay-Z's The Home & Home Tour, performing "Crack A Bottle" with Eminem and Dr. Dre amid rumors of tension between Jackson and Dre.


title: 50 Cent

text: He "recorded 20 songs to a whole different album concept" before putting them aside, wanting his new album to have the "aggression" of "Get Rich or Die Tryin". Jackson tweeted that the album was "80 percent done" and fans could expect it in the summer of 2011. It was ultimately delayed a year due to disagreements with Interscope Records, with Jackson saying that he would release it in November 2011 with a different title than "Black Magic". Eminem would appear on the album, and Jackson said he was working with new producers such as Boi-1da and Alex da Kid. Cardiak, who produced Lloyd Banks' "Start It Up", confirmed that he produced a song for the upcoming album.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson released a song, "Outlaw", from his fifth album on the Internet on June 16, 2011. The single, produced by Cardiak, was released on iTunes on July 19 (although Jackson tweeted that it was not the album's first single). The rapper planned to write a semi-autobiographical young-adult novel about bullying, different from his previous books which focused on his life and the rules of power. According to the book's publisher, the first-person novel (about a 13-year-old schoolyard bully "who finds redemption as he faces what he's done") was scheduled for publication in January 2012.


title: 50 Cent

text: In a series of tweets, Jackson said that the delay of his fifth album was due to disagreements with Interscope Records, later suggesting that it would be released in November 2011 with his headphone line (SMS by 50). He speculated to MTV News about not renewing his five-album contract with Interscope: "I don't know ... It will all be clear in the negotiations following me turning this actual album in. And, of course, the performance and how they actually treat the work will determine whether you still want to stay in that position or not."


title: 50 Cent

text: On June 20, 2011, Jackson announced the release of "Before I Self Destruct II" after his fifth album. Although he planned to shoot a music video for the fifth album's lead single, "I'm On It", on June 26 the video was never filmed. Jackson told Shade45, "I did four songs in Detroit with Eminem. I did two with Just Blaze, a Boi-1da joint, and I did something with Alex da Kid. We made two that are definite singles and the other two are the kinds of records that we been making, more aimed at my core audience, more aggressive, more of a different kind of energy to it." He released "Street King Energy Track #7" in September 2011 to promote Street King, his charity-based energy drink. An announcement that Jackson was shooting a music video for "Girls Go Wild", the fifth-album lead single featuring Jeremih, was made on September 28, 2011.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson's fifth album, "Street King Immortal", was initially scheduled for a summer 2012 release and postponed until November 13. Disagreements with Interscope Records about its release and promotion led to its temporary cancellation. Its first promo single, "New Day" with Dr. Dre and Alicia Keys, was released on July 27. The song was produced by Dr. Dre, mixed by Eminem and written by 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, Royce da 5'9" and Dr. Dre. A solo version by Keys was leaked by her husband, Swizz Beatz. "My Life", the album's second promo single (with Eminem and Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine), was released on November 26, 2012.


title: 50 Cent

text: In January 2014, Jackson said he planned to release "Animal Ambition" in the first quarter of the year, followed by "Street King Immortal". On February 20, he left Shady Records, Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope, signing with Caroline and Capitol Music Group. According to Jackson, although he owed Interscope another album, he was released from his contract because of his friendship with Eminem and Dr. Dre: "I'm a special case and situation. It's also because of the leverage of having the strong relationships with Eminem and Dr. Dre. They don't want me to be uncomfortable. They value our friendship to the point that they would never want [to jeopardize] it over that little bit of money."


title: 50 Cent

text: That day, he announced that "Animal Ambition" would be released on June 3 and released its first track. The song, "Funeral", was released with a video on Forbes.com. Produced by Jake One, it is a continuation of "50 Bars" from a previous album; two more tracks were scheduled for release on March 18. At South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, Jackson performed "Hold On" from the new album. That song and "Don't Worry 'Bout It" were released with accompanying videos on March 18. According to Jackson, prosperity would be a theme of the album: "This project, I had to search for a concept, a really good concept, in my perspective, and that was prosperity. I outlined all the things that would be a part of prosperity, positive and negative [for "Animal Ambition"]."


title: 50 Cent

text: On May 14, 2015, Jackson revealed in an interview that the first single from "Street King Immortal", would be previewed Memorial Day weekend and would likely be released in June. Jackson released "Get Low" on May 20, 2015, as the intended first single from his sixth studio album, "Street King Immortal". The song, produced by Remo the Hitmaker, features vocals from fellow American rappers 2 Chainz and T.I., as well as American singer Jeremih. He announced bankruptcy on July 13, 2015.


title: 50 Cent

text: On March 31, 2017, Interscope Records released 50 Cent's final album for the label, a greatest hits album titled "Best Of".


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2020, Jackson led the executive-producer duties for late rapper Pop Smoke's debut album, "Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon", having been one of Pop Smoke's biggest inspirations. The album was released on July 3, 2020. Jackson curated the album, desiring to finish it after Pop had died. He contacted many of the artists involved, and also features on one of the album tracks, "The Woo".


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2020, it was reported that Jackson was producing two television series for Starz, an anthology about hip hop and a biographical drama about sports agent Nicole Lynn.


title: 50 Cent

text: In May 2021, Curtis Jackson moved to Houston. This was thought to be for lower taxes, no income tax, and for the rapper scene, as well as other ventures such as writing new screenplays. Also, Jackson, Horizon United Group, and Houston Independent School District began a partnership on a project that would help high school students learn the business skills that define successful entrepreneurship.


title: 50 Cent

text: While living in Houston, Curtis Jackson was in the process of writing screenplays for new crime shows.


title: 50 Cent

text: In a July 2021 interview with "The Independent", 50 Cent confirmed that he had officially decided to shelve his "Street King Immortal" album after it spent a decade in development hell. He even confirmed that he plans to release a completely new project.


title: 50 Cent

text: In the fall of 2021 Starz released "Black Mafia Family," a series based on two brothers in Detroit who ran a drug trafficking and money laundering operation from the mid 1980s until 2005. Jackson is the executive producer of the show, which is based on a true story.


title: 50 Cent

text: On February 13, 2022, 50 Cent was a surprise performer in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) in September for the performance.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson cites Boogie Down Productions, Big Daddy Kane, The Juice Crew, EPMD and KRS-One as his rapping influences, while citing LL Cool J as an inspiration behind his writing of "21 Questions". Jackson also states that he drew influences from Nas, Rakim and The Notorious B.I.G. while working on "Animal Ambition".


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson has had a highly successful business career. He is financially invested in a highly diversified variety of industries. Jackson is now involved in artist and talent management, record, television, and film production, footwear, apparel, fragrances, liquor, video games, mobile apps, book publishing, headphones, along with health drinks and dietary supplements. His broad business and investment portfolio contains investments in a variety of sectors including real estate, financial market investments, mining, boxing promotion, vodka, fragrances, consumer electronics and fashion.


title: 50 Cent

text: He established his own record label G-Unit Records in 2003 following his mainstream success. In November 2003, he signed a five-year deal with Reebok to distribute a G-Unit Sneakers line for his G-Unit Clothing Company. In an interview, Jackson said his businesses had a habit of doing well as he saw all of his ventures both past and present as revolving around his alter ego.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson has also started a book publishing imprint, G-Unit Books on January 4, 2007, at the Time Warner Building in New York. He has written a number of books including a memoir, "From Pieces To Weight" in 2005 where it sold 73,000 copies in hardcover and 14,000 copies in paperback; a crime novel and a book with Robert Greene titled "The 50th Law", an urban take on "The 48 Laws of Power". In November 2011, Jackson released 50 Cent's Playground, a young adult fiction novel about a bullied, violent boy and his gay mother.


title: 50 Cent

text: One of Jackson's first business ventures was a partnership with Glacéau to create an enhanced water drink called Formula 50. In October 2004, Jackson became a beverage investor when he was given a minority share in the company in exchange for becoming a spokesperson after learning that he was a fan of the beverage. The health conscious Jackson noted that he first learned of the product while at a gym in Los Angeles, and stated that "they do such a good job making water taste good." After becoming a minority shareholder and celebrity spokesperson, Jackson worked with the company to create a new grape flavored "Formula 50" variant of VitaminWater and mentioned the drinks in various songs and interviews. In 2007, Coca-Cola purchased Glacéau for $4.1 billion and, according to "Forbes", Jackson, who was a minority shareholder, earned $100 million from the deal after taxes.


title: 50 Cent

text: Though he no longer has an equity stake in the company, Jackson continues to act as a spokesperson for VitaminWater, supporting the product including singing about it at the BET Awards and expressing his excitement over the company's continuing to allow his input on products.


title: 50 Cent

text: He joined Right Guard to introduce a body spray (Pure 50 RGX) and endorsed Magic Stick condoms, planning to donate part of their proceeds to increasing HIV awareness. Jackson signed a multi-year deal with Steiner Sports to sell his memorabilia, and announced plans for a dietary-supplement company in conjunction with his film "Spectacular Regret" in August 2007.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson has founded two film production companies: G-Unit Films in 2003 and Cheetah Vision in 2008. Cheetah Vision produces low budget action thrillers for foreign film markets across the world. When G-Unit Films folded, he focused on Cheetah Vision and the company obtained $200 million in funding in 2010. In 2010, Jackson revived G-Unit Films, renaming the company to G-Unit Films and Television Inc. The company has joint ventures with Will Packer's production company Will Packer Productions and Universal Television. In over 18 months, Jackson has sold projects to six different networks. Among them was "Power", a STARZ drama in which he not only co-stars but also serves as co-creator and executive producer. "Power" debuted in June 2014 and was renewed for a second season after one episode.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson serves as a co‐star, co-creator and executive television producer of the STARZ network drama where he signed a 2-year contract with representation coming from the Agency for the Performing Arts. Ratings have been a success for Starz. with the second-season premiere being the highest-ever season with 1.43 million people tuning in live. "Power" ended in 2020. Jackson is the executive producer of three of its spin-offs, "PowerBook II: Ghost," "PowerBook III: Raising Kanan," and "Powerbook IV: Force."


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2002, Jackson filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the term "50 Cent" as a trademark for clothing, sound recordings, and live performances. The application was published in 2003, and registration issued in 2004. He has since filed for additional trademark registrations.


title: 50 Cent

text: In July 2011, Jackson launched a philanthropic initiative to provide food for one billion starving people in Africa by 2016, joining Pure Growth Partners to introduce Street King. A portion of the proceeds from each Street King purchase would be used to provide a daily meal to an underprivileged child. The partnership coincides with Jackson's goal to feed a billion people in Africa during the next five years. "50 Cent and I share a common vision: to address the world's problems through smart and sustainable business models," said Chris Clarke, founder and CEO of Pure Growth Partners. "With the rampant starvation in Africa and hunger afflicting children worldwide, we need socially responsible businesses that affect real change now more than ever." Jackson said, "I'm inspired by Clarke's vision and innovative approaches to tackling serious issues. It's our mission with Street King to really change children's lives around the world." In 2011, he founded SMS Audio, a consumer-electronics company selling Street by 50 headphones, pledging to donate a portion of their sales to charity. In April 2015, SMS announced new co-branding deals with Reebok and Marvel. It added those to existing partnerships with Walt Disney Parks, Lucasfilm's Star Wars, and Intel.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2014, Jackson became a minority shareholder in Effen Vodka, a brand of vodka produced in the Netherlands, when he invested undisclosed amount in the company Sire Spirits LLC. He currently endorses the product via his live concert performances and social media. The rapper was asked to take part in two promotional bottle signings, one in Oak Creek and another in Sun Prairie. Jackson made an appearance at Liquor Warehouse in Syracuse, New York on April 25, 2015, where he reportedly sold 1,400 bottles (277 gallons) of Jackson's signature liquor brand. Liquor Warehouse's owner George Angeloro reportedly stocked 300 cases (1,800 bottles or 357 gallons) of Effen Vodka, which sells for $30 a bottle, prior to the event.


title: 50 Cent

text: In December 2014, Jackson signed a $78 million deal with FRIGO Revolution Wear, a luxury underwear brand. The joint venture is partnered between Jackson, basketball player Carmelo Anthony, baseball player Derek Jeter and Mathias Ingvarsson, the former president of mattress company Tempur-Pedic. Jackson became the chief fashion designer for the brands single pair of Frigo boxers. In April 2015, Jackson mulled investing in Jamaica, exploring foreign investment opportunities on the island when he met with some local officials and had ongoing discussions on investment opportunities in the Montego Bay resort area.


title: 50 Cent

text: Over the years, Jackson invested his earnings from music and celebrity endorsements in an array of privately controlled companies, real estate, and stocks and bonds. A portion of his investments lost value during the 2008 recession. In December 2008, he told the Canadian press that he had been affected by the recession, losing several million dollars in the stock market. Unable to sell his Connecticut mansion, Jackson postponed "Before I Self-Destruct" due to the severity of the economic downturn.


title: 50 Cent

text: His Farmington mansion located on 50 Poplar Hill Drive that he tried to sell for years filed for bankruptcy in Connecticut in 2015 listed an asking price for that property in 2012 at $10 million but was valued at $8.3 million in 2015. He first tried to sell the house in 2007 for $18.5 million, and dropped the price several times in the next five years, when it was on and off the market.


title: 50 Cent

text: In January 2011, Jackson reportedly made $10 million after using Twitter to promote a marketing company which he was part shareholder of. His endorsements company G Unit Brands Inc. revealed through a public SEC filing controls 12.9 per cent of H&H Imports, which is a parent company of TV Goods – the firm responsible for marketing his range of headphones, Sleek by 50 Cent. Jackson bought stock in the company on November 30, 2010, a week after it offered buyers 180 million shares at 17 cents each. Jackson later made a stock recommendation on Twitter, causing its share value to rise from four cents to nearly 50 cents (32p) each, closing on Monday at 39 cents (25p). Jackson was later investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for breaching securities laws following his tweet which may have constituted allegations of Insider trading via his Pump and dump stock investment strategy.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2013, Jackson became a minority investor in Hang w/, a live video broadcasting mobile app used by dozens of celebrities to broadcast their daily activities and chat with fans. The app was downloaded more than 1 million times since its launch in March 2013 and had more than 1 million users . Other minority celebrity investors include former NFL player Terrell Owens and record producer Timbaland.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2008, Jackson visited a platinum, palladium and iridium mine shaft in South Africa, and met with South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe in talks of purchasing an equity stake in the mine. After his meeting with Motsepe, Jackson considered purchasing equity in the mine and launching his own line of 50 Cent branded platinum.


title: 50 Cent

text: On July 21, 2012, Jackson became a licensed boxing promoter when he formed his new company, TMT (The Money Team). Licensed to promote in New York, he was in the process of being licensed in Nevada (where most major fights are held in the U.S.). A former amateur boxer, Jackson signed gold medalist and former featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa and middleweight Olympic medalist Andre Dirrell. On July 29, 2012, he and the boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr., signed IBF featherweight champion Billy Dib. They unveiled plans to challenge the box-office dominance of mixed martial arts and change the landscape of boxing with TMT Promotions. Boxer Zab Judah also expressed interest in making a deal with Jackson. In December 2012, Mayweather and Jackson parted company, with Jackson taking over the promotion company and founding SMS Promotions with Gamboa, Dirrell, Dib, James Kirkland, Luis Olivares and Donte Strayhorn in his stable.


title: 50 Cent

text: On July 13, 2015, Jackson filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut with a debt of $32,509,549.91. On July 17, 2015, the Court issued an order allowing a creditor to proceed with the punitive damages phase of a trial against Jackson in a New York state court, in connection with the alleged release of a private video. His assets were listed as between $10 million and $50 million in his bankruptcy petition, though he testified under oath that he is worth $4.4 million. Citing between $10 million and $50 million in debt, and the same amount in assets. Later in the week, Jackson's bankruptcy lawyers elucidated the court documents that legal fees and judgments exceeding $20 million over the past year were the primary cause of the filing.


title: 50 Cent

text: His filings listed 32 entities that he has a stake in. The bankruptcy came days after a jury ordered him to pay $5 million to rapper Rick Ross's ex-girlfriend Lastonia Leviston for invading her privacy by posting online a sex tape of her and another man. In addition, Jackson lost a dispute over a failed business deal to come to fruition to his Sleek headphones, where Jackson invested more than $2 million. An ex-partner accused Jackson of later stealing the design of the "Sleek by 50" headphones, prompting a judge to award the partner more than $17.2 million. His Connecticut bankruptcy filing states that he owns seven cars valued at more than $500,000, including a 2010 Rolls Royce and a 1966 Chevrolet Coupe. His expenses of $108,000 a month include $5,000 for gardening along with a monthly income of $185,000, mainly from royalties and income from his external businesses and investments. The court filing says he also owes money to his stylist, his barber, and his fitness coach.


title: 50 Cent

text: Other details in the bankruptcy documents included information about two deals that sold the right to collect royalties of on-air play of his music. Half the rights to his portfolio were sold to the British independent music publishing company Kobalt Music Group for $3 million and the other half for another $3 million with the sales of his albums allowing Jackson to own 100 percent of the rights to the master recordings while paying only for distribution. Zeisler & Zeisler, a Bridgeport law firm, represented 50 Cent in the bankruptcy, which later resulted in Jackson filing a $75 million lawsuit against his own lawyers. He stated that his lawyers did a terrible job of representing him, specifically citing the fallout of his failed venture with Sleek Audio headphones and accused Garvey Schubert Barer, a Wall Street law firm, of failing to "employ the requisite knowledge and skill necessary to confront the circumstances of the case."


title: 50 Cent

text: On October 13, 1996, Jackson's girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins, gave birth to son Marquise. Tompkins later sued Jackson for $50 million in 2009, saying he promised to take care of her for life. The suit, with 15 causes of action, was dismissed by a judge who called it "an unfortunate tale of a love relationship gone sour." The two have bickered for years, and have even taken their feud to social media many times.


title: 50 Cent

text: Marquise's birth changed Jackson's outlook on life: "When my son came into my life, my priorities changed, because I wanted to have the relationship with him that I didn't have with my father". He credited his son for inspiring his career and being the "motivation to go in a different direction". Despite this, the two have endured a fractured relationship that began when Jackson and Tompkins separated in 2008. Their feud has been taken to social media numerous times, including in 2020 when Jackson disclosed that he "used to" love his son. Jackson has a tattooed "Marquise" with an axe on his right biceps ("The axe is 'cause I'm a warrior. I don't want him to be one, though"), and has "50", "Southside" and "Cold World" on his back: "I'm a product of that environment. It's on my back, though, so it's all behind me".


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson dated model Daphne Joy and had his second son, Sire Jackson, with her, on September 1, 2012. At the age of two years, Sire modeled for Kidz Safe, a headphone brand for kids, earning $700,000 through his contract.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2005, Jackson supported President George W. Bush after rapper Kanye West criticized Bush for a slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. If his felony convictions did not prevent him from voting, he said, he would have voted for the president. Jackson later said that Bush "has less compassion than the average human. By all means, I don't aspire to be like George Bush." In September 2007, he told "Time" that although he would not endorse a candidate in 2008, he "liked Hillary [Clinton]".


title: 50 Cent

text: Six months later, the rapper told MTV News that he had switched his support to Barack Obama after hearing him speak, but had lost interest in politics. Asked his opinion of President Obama's May 9, 2012 endorsement of gay marriage, Jackson said, "I'm for it ... I've encouraged same-sex activities. I've engaged in fetish areas a couple times." He had been criticized for anti-gay comments in the past.


title: 50 Cent

text: Despite having numerous songs that reference drug and alcohol usage, Jackson remains teetotal, citing a bad experience with alcohol as his main reason.


title: 50 Cent

text: "Forbes" noted Jackson's wealth in 2007, ranking him second behind Jay-Z in the rap industry. He lived in a Farmington, Connecticut mansion formerly owned by ex-boxer Mike Tyson. Jackson listed the mansion for sale in 2007 at $18.5 million to move closer to his son (who lived on Long Island at the time). The mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut declared October 12, 2007 "50 Cent Curtis Jackson Day", honoring the rapper with a proclamation and a key to the city. One of Jackson's New York homes, purchased in January 2007 for $2.4 million and the center of a lawsuit between Jackson and Shaniqua Tompkins, caught fire on May 31, 2008, while he was filming in Louisiana.


title: 50 Cent

text: In December 2008, he told the Canadian press that he had lost several million dollars in the stock market and, unable to sell his Connecticut mansion, had postponed "Before I Self-Destruct" because of the economic downturn. Jackson won a lawsuit in November 2009 against Taco Bell over the fast-food chain's use of his name without permission.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the run-up for the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He rejected an offer of $500,000 from the Trump campaign to make an appearance on the candidate's behalf. However, he endorsed Donald Trump in 2020, due to his dislike of Joe Biden's tax plans. A week later, he retracted his endorsement, saying on Twitter "Fu*k Donald Trump, I never liked him", and endorsed Biden.


title: 50 Cent

text: On June 29, 1994, Jackson was arrested for selling four vials of cocaine to an undercover police officer. He was arrested again three weeks later, when police searched his home and found heroin, ten ounces of crack cocaine and a starter's pistol. Although Jackson was sentenced to three to nine years in prison, he served six months in a boot camp (where he earned his high-school equivalency diploma). According to him, he did not use cocaine.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson and four members of his entourage were arrested shortly before 2 a.m. on December 31, 2002, when police found a .25-caliber handgun and a .45-caliber pistol in a parked car (which they searched due to its tinted windows) outside a Manhattan nightclub. The rapper was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson was sentenced to two years' probation on July 22, 2005, for a May 2004 incident, when he was charged with three counts of assault and battery after jumping into an audience when he was hit by a water bottle.


title: 50 Cent

text: Jackson filed a lawsuit against an advertising company, Traffix of Pearl River, New York, on July 21, 2007, for using his image in a promotion he said threatened his safety. He was alerted by a staff member to an Internet advertisement on a Myspace page. According to court documents, the advertisement had a cartoon image of the rapper with "Shoot the rapper and you will win $5000 or five ring tones guaranteed". Although the ad did not use his name, the image allegedly resembled him and suggested that he endorsed the product. The lawsuit, calling the ad a "vile, tasteless and despicable" use of Jackson's image which "quite literally call[ed] for violence against him", sought unspecified punitive damages and a permanent injunction against the use of his image without permission.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2008, Jackson sued Taco Bell over an ad campaign in which it invited him to change his name for one day from 50 Cent to 79 Cent, 89 Cent, or 99 Cent, in line with pricing for some of its items, and they would donate $10,000 to the charity of his choice. The case was settled out of court.


title: 50 Cent

text: While walking through Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in May 2016, Jackson harassed and insulted a janitor at the airport, accusing him of being under the influence. The janitor was a hearing-impaired, autistic teenager named Andrew Farrell. The parents of the janitor had seen the viral video as disrespect and wanted to sue Jackson for his action against their child. The lawsuit was originally over one million dollars, but the parents settled for a $100,000 donation to Autism Speaks and his apology.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2016, a judge declared that Brandon Parrott gave Dr. Dre and 50 Cent the rights to "Bamba" for the song "P.I.M.P."


title: 50 Cent

text: One of his New York homes, purchased for $2.4 million in January 2007 and the center of a lawsuit between Jackson and Shaniqua Tompkins, caught fire on May 30, 2008, while he was filming in Louisiana. On August 5, 2013, Jackson pleaded not guilty to one count of domestic violence and four counts of vandalism in a Los Angeles County court. If convicted of all charges, he faced up to five years in prison and a $46,000 fine. Model-actress Daphne Joy accused Jackson of kicking her and ransacking her bedroom during an argument at her condominium in the Toluca Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 23. He allegedly caused $7,100 in property damage, leaving the scene before police arrived.


title: 50 Cent

text: Judge Ann Nevins has ordered Jackson back to court because of Instagram messages he made over several months. She said Jackson was not fully clear about his funds and indicated posts of the rapper showing stacks of his money. In March 2016, Jackson claimed that he would no longer use Instagram, electing instead to have his profile page operated by someone else.


title: 50 Cent

text: In 2020, Jackson was a subject of controversy for his involvement in a viral video of him giving money to a Burger King restaurant in New York City on behalf of a local scammer who was later arrested and charged for Bitcoin scamming and for assaulting and kidnapping his victims on April 24, 2021.