Malcolm X was a top student as a young teenager but got involved in criminal activities as a teenager in Boston and Harlem, earning nicknames like Detroit Red. He was imprisoned at age 20 which is where he started his journey to adopting the name Malcolm X and developing his beliefs about what it means to be black in America, beliefs that had a profound impact then and still do today shaking America. The classic biography by Walter Dean Myers sheds light on this influential black man whose beliefs changed America.