Malcolm X

Malcolm X:  By Any Means Necessary
By Walter Dean Myers

Walter Dean Myers has written a fascinating account of the life--and death--of one of the greatest and most influential but also most controversial leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Malcolm X was the "militant leader of hundreds of thousands in the Nation of Islam, a Muslim minister, a target of the F.B.I., a guest of Arab princes, at one time a streetwise, blade-sharp teenager" on the streets of Harlem.  He spent 6 1/2 years in prison as a young man, and used that time to read and learn, emerging as a powerful force for change in the years afterward.