Malcom X came into the world as Malcolm Little this date in 1925 in Omaha Nebraska.

If there’s no racism left in the world ask yourself: given how readily Americans remember the name of Lee Harvey Oswald, how many of us even know how Malcolm X died? Or who was convicted? Or where he died? What he was doing when he was shot down? Or, more importantly, how his views changed over the course of his life?

Radicals reside at the very heart of social change, whether we find them palatable or not. Without Malcolm, there is no Martin, or at the very least, King’s work as a leader would have been much more difficult. We need people with the willingness to call injustice what it is and to imagine an entirely different world. You don’t need to be perfect or perfectly right in your vision to matter tremendously to those who come after you.