structural:scholar_edition, information:classification, linguistic:voice_change, quality:corruption
Claims of bisexuality

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."

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."