Malcolm X spent his childhood and early teen years in Lansing and Mason, later returning to visit friends and family to marry Louise Langford (later Betty X and Betty Shabazz) in 1958. His mother was from Granada and his father from Georgia. They were community organizers and Pan-African activists, working for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). In 1963, he spoke at the Erickson Hall Kiva on the campus of Michigan State University, where he extolled the necessity of education and expressed doubt that his father who was hit by a Lansing streetcar accident and died was killed by the Black Legion.

Malcolm X’s life was one of redemption after being imprisoned for six years in his twenties for burglary. While in prison he read widely, becoming a member of the Nation of Islam. After his release, he became a minister and national spokesman. By the late 1950s, he was a human rights activist in New York City, fighting police brutality and advocating for racial separation. He was critical of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his approaches to Civil Rights , though by the early 1960s their goals and tactics were converging. In 1964, he separate from the Nation of Islam, became a Sunni Muslim, made a pilgrimage to Mecca and took the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He was assassinated in 1965.

His autobiography, co-written with Alex Haley, was published posthumously, and is considered one of the most important books of the 20th-century. Locally, there are only a few markers dedicated to Malcolm, despite his stature. In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in his honor and in 2010, Lansing renamed Main Street for him.