Louise Little, Mother of Malcolm X

Millions know the name of controversial activist Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965. But do we ever think of the woman who raised him? Louise Little was born out of tragedy, conceived when her mother was raped by a white man at 11 years old.

In her youth, she married Earl Little and had seven children with him (the fourth being the future Malcolm X) before his untimely murder at the hands of the Black Legion, an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan.

Now in her early thirties, Louise was a widow with seven mouths to feed— and America was in the throes of the Great Depression.

She and her children lived in Lansing, Michigan, the only black family in the neighborhood. Around this time, a new family moved onto their street. They were white, but there was something different about them.

They began to visit Louise and the children. They were kind, friendly—like real neighbors. It was a shock to someone like Louise, well-acquainted with injustice and racism. Color did not seem to matter to these new neighbors though. To them, they were all in the same boat, sinners in need of a Savior.

They would talk with Louise for hours, often about the second coming of Christ. They would leave her gifts too, literature about the Bible, and Louise would read them.

After a while, Louise began to take her children to what her new friends called camp meetings, where a large group of people would study the Bible together. Louise and her children especially liked the food, which followed God’s dietary laws directly from the Bible.

Eventually, Louise began to see these people as her people. Their faith was now her faith; their identity was her identity. This same God-fearing group of Christians, decades later, became known for keeping the Bible Sabbath.

Unfortunately, Louise’s life took a turn for the worse. Her children were taken from her, and she spent the next 25 years in a psychiatric ward—some say unjustly so.

While history does not disclose the state of Louise’s faith in her later life, what is clear is that at a time when segregation was the norm, Louise’s life was once changed by the love of God, demonstrated through a special Bible-based group of Christians as extending to every creature, no matter the race.

Reflect: How do you view those to whom you witness? God sees every child of His with the same tender regard.

Key Bible Texts

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 KJV)