As the leader of a young conservative political movement that helped Donald Trump win a second presidential term, Charlie Kirk accomplished a lot in his too-short life. But at Kirk’s packed memorial in Arizona last weekend, his admirers proclaimed that the slain activist now stands to become something even more powerful and potentially lasting: a martyr.

A premature and violent death can turn a controversial individual into an object of sympathy and a symbol of a larger movement—one that gains attention with every new headline and eulogy. By evoking both curiosity and compassion, martyrdom can make a polarizing public figure more influential in death than they were in life.

To see how such a process can take place, consider the example of Malcolm X, another firebrand who was gunned down

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