Malcolm X Enters United Souls Hall of Fame: "Respect by Any Means Necessary"

2025 marks the centenary of Malcolm X. On this occasion, United Souls continues its tribute to the great figures of the struggles for justice and emancipation with a new creation from the collection: the powerful and determined face of Malcolm X , illustrated by Camille Laforcenée , the committed artist who also created our portrait of James Baldwin.

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little in 1925, embodies an entire chapter of Black American history. The son of a Garveyite father murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and a mother shattered by institutions, he experienced firsthand the structural violence of racism. His chaotic youth led him to prison, where he reinvented himself through reading, study, and the search for deeper meaning in his life.

Refusing to bear the name inherited from slavery, he chose the letter "X," a symbol of this confiscated identity. He became the flamboyant spokesperson for the Nation of Islam, and later an independent, Pan-Africanist, revolutionary, and visionary political thinker. Malcolm X carried a simple but radical idea: respect is not begged for, it is earned—by any means necessary.

In 1964, during his pilgrimage to Mecca and his travels in Africa, he underwent a decisive transformation. It was no longer just a matter of defending Black people in the United States, but of linking their fate to that of colonized, oppressed, and dispossessed peoples throughout the world. His fight became universal : it was no longer just a struggle for civil rights, but a struggle for human rights .

A few months before his assassination in Harlem, he created the Organization of Afro-American Unity , thus laying the foundations of a black internationalism, anchored in conscience and dignity.

A creation by Camille La Forcenée

To pay tribute to this essential figure, we entrusted the creation to Camille Laforcenée , a former architect turned illustrator. Her precise line, her keen sense of perspective and her ability to translate the intensity of a gaze into lines make her work as much a work of combat as it is of art.

3 centenarians. 1 fight.

In this year 2025, United Souls celebrates three legendary figures: Frantz Fanon, Patrice Lumumba and Malcolm X. Three men, three centenarians, one struggle : that of dignity, emancipation, and social justice.

At United Souls, we believe that wearing these faces means prolonging their struggles , circulating their ideas in the public space, and transmitting their heritage with pride.

It's available now

👉 The Malcolm X creation is available today on our website.

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