He grew up in Fresno and Oakland, in an activist household. He graduated from Thomas Alva Edison High School in Fresno in 1962. His parents published the Black-owned paper of Fresno, California, called the Fresno Voice.[1] The 1947 paper advertised community events, local businesses, including their own real-estate business, and focused on national and state events including: the promotion of anti-lynching laws, Jackie Robinson Day, New York Freedom trains being integrated, the mission work of the Catholic church with Indian and Negroes, and the $350 million expansion of PG&E in California.Marvin X has four living children and one son who preceded him in death.