Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-24993958-20170114144645/@comment-4010415-20170115100623

73.Anon.52 wrote: just look at the "freedman" names slavery in America created, with many taking on favored master's names, famous figures, civil rights hero's... now imagine that was EVERYONE, and your family name was copied.... To be fair, that's because it was common practice for slavemasters to take away their slaves' true family names and replace them with their own, thus marking the slaves as theirs as well as further taking away their slaves' identities in a single action. As time passed, the newer generations of slaves had no idea what their families' last names originally were, so it's not like they could've returned to their true last names when they gained freedom. They didn't want their previous owner's mark to follow their family for the rest of time, so they ditched it for a new last name.

When Malcom X learned of this, he even ditched the last name his family had been given, which is why he is referred to as Malcom X - "X" for unknown last name.