Malcolm, Elijah and Louis

Malcolm X, Elijah Muhammad and Louis X. Image I restored using AI software from a frame ‘snatched’ from the Lance Shabazz Show on YouTube.

An undated photo of three key figures in the history of the Nation of Islam.

From left to right:

. Malcolm X (later El-Haj Malik Shabazz) who became the National Spokesman for Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.

. Elijah Muhammad the Georgia-born leader of the Nation of Islam until his death in 1975.

. Louis X (later Louis Farrakhan) who succeeded Malcolm as the National Spokesman for Elijah. Farrakhan revived the NOI in the late 1970s after initially accepting Wallace Muhammad's decision to convert the NOI into an Orthodox Sunni Islam organisation.

The photograph was taken in Harlem in 1963 before Malcolm’s suspension later that year for remarks made about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He went on to form the Organisation of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in 1964. The OAAU was a secular Black Nationalist organisation. Malcolm’s suspension was made “indefinite” the following year and in February 1965 he was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

© Adeyinka Makinde (2026).

Adeyinka Makinde is a writer based in London, England.