There is a common misconception in the United States that African Americans derive their last names from the owners of their enslaved ancestors.
For example, in his 1965 book, Message to the Blackman in America, Elijah Muhammad wrote, "You must remember that slave-names will keep you a slave in the eyes of the civilized world today.
You have seen, and recently, that Africa and Asia will not honor you or give you any respect as long as you are called by the white man's name.
"[8] Echoing this, Malcolm X said: "The slave master who owned us put his last name on us to denote that we were his property.
[6] Some African-Americans would later change their name after a religious conversion (Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) from Malcolm Little, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr, and Louis Farrakhan changed his from Louis Eugene Walcott, for example)[11][12] or involvement with the black nationalist movement, in this latter case usually adopting names of African origin (e.g., Amiri Baraka and Assata Shakur).