On 20 January, 1999, the U.S. Postal Service added another collectible postage stamp to its Black Heritage commemorative stamps series with their dedication of the 33-cent Malcolm X stamp. Malcolm X, a civil rights activist, appears on the 22nd stamp in the popular Black Heritage stamp series.

Malcolm X Biography

According to AfricaWithin.com biography, Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X) was born on 19 May, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Malcolm was an exceptional student, but after being discouraged from striving to attend law school based on racial grounds, he quit school and eventually settled in Harlem, New York where he became a coordinator for narcotic, prostitution, and gambling rings.

In 1946, Malcolm was given a seven year prison term on burglary charges. In prison, he furthered his education and converted to the ideology of the Nation of Islam, a black muslim group that advocated a separate state for Nation of Islam followers that was to include no white people. In 1952, Malcolm was paroled and changed his name to Malcolm X because he considered his previous surname to be a slave name. "X" was to stand for his lost African tribal name.

Appointed as a minister and a national spokesman for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm is credited with increasing membership in the Nation of Islam from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.

Malcolm's faith in the Nation of Islam was destroyed in 1963 when he learned that the Nation's leader, Elijah Muhammad, had affairs with many women in the Nation. Malcolm refused to keep the affairs quiet and felt guilty about the large number of followers he had led into what was, in his mind, a fraudulent organization. In March, 1964 Malcolm left the Nation of Islam and founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc.

Malcolm was now marked for assassination by the Nation of Islam. After repeated attempts, the assassination was finally carried out on 21 February during Malcolm's speaking engagement in the Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom. Three gunmen shot him 15 times at close range. The assassins, all members of the Nation of Islam, were convicted of first-degree murder.

USPS Malcolm X Black Heritage Stamp

As seen in USA Philatelic: Beyond the Perf, Issue 016, with the Malcolm X stamp, the USPS continued its drastic and ultimately unpopular change in the design of their Black Heritage stamps. All previous designs used illustrations, paintings, or engravings to depict their subjects - the Malcolm X stamp featured a photograph taken from the Associated Press. The USPS continued the use of photographs on the Black Heritage stamps until the Marian Anderson stamp in 2005.

Several stamps in the Black Heritage series have met with resistance due to the radical ties displayed by the subjects. As mentioned in the USA Philatelic: Beyond the Perf article on the Black Heritage series, the Malcolm X stamp caused some contentious debate but the USPS was mostly praised for its recognition of the assassinated leader.