Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. The family soon moved to Lansing, Michigan, where the six-year-old Malcolm’s father was killed in 1931—possibly murdered by members of the Black Legion, a local Ku Klux Klan group. A good student, Malcolm nevertheless got into trouble early. He admired the energy and intelligence of criminals and soon became involved with the numbers racket and drugs. It did not help that his mother was committed to a mental institution and that having lost both parents he was placed in foster care. Living with his sister failed to provide enough stability for the unruly teenager, and at the age of twenty-one he was sent to prison for burglary, larceny, breaking and entering, and carrying a firearm.