Comedian Redd Foxx and Malcolm X were best friends and worked together as dishwashers at the same restaurant in Harlem in the 1940s. The staff called Malcolm “Detroit Red”. and Foxx “Chicago Red”. Before history froze them into separate legends, Redd Foxx and Malcolm X were just two young Black men trying to survive Harlem in the 1940s.
They were best friends, hustling side by side as dishwashers at the same Harlem restaurant, scraping by in a city that offered talent but very few chances. Among the kitchen staff, they earned nicknames that followed them like street folklore: Malcolm was called “Detroit Red”, sharp, fiery, and already intense in thought and presence.
Foxx was “Chicago Red”, quick-witted, loud, and endlessly funny—even while elbow-deep in dirty plates. What makes their story powerful isn’t just where they ended up, but where they started. One would grow into a revolutionary voice that challenged America’s conscience.
The other would become a comedy icon, using laughter to expose the same truths from a different angle. Different paths. Same roots. Same grind. Long before microphones, speeches, or television fame, they were brothers in struggle—laughing, debating, surviving—proving that greatness often begins behind the scenes, unseen and uncelebrated. History rarely tells us how close legends once stood to each other. But sometimes, the most extraordinary futures are born in the most ordinary places—like a Harlem kitchen sink.
