Reference
- Malcolm XOne of twentieth-century America's most controversial black leaders, Malcolm X was critical of nonviolence as a tactic, and he advocated armed resistance to white racism. Often regarded as a radical opposite to Martin Luther King, Jr., he had a following that was almost entirely urban and Northern. Malcolm X insisted on high moral standards from his followers. Born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent much of his youth in Massachusetts, where he first became aware of class differences between African Americans. His teenage years were dominated by petty crime, and in 1946 Malcolm was imprisoned for burglary. There Malcolm converted to the Nation of Islam (NOI), led by the charismatic and enigmatic Elijah Muhammad, who convinced Malcolm that his imprisonment was the fault of white society. This would become a cornerstone of Malcolm's philosophy.
On his release from prison in 1952, Malcolm devoted himself to serving Muhammad. In accordance with the teachings of the NOI, he replaced Little, his “slave name,” with X, which signified the unknown African name of his forebears. Malcolm rose quickly through the hierarchy of the NOI and by 1957 had become Muhammad's national representative, responsible for representing the NOI to the media. Malcolm was a gifted speechmaker—powerful, quick-witted, and amusing—and this talent won him many admirers, even among those he opposed. White Americans, as well as many African Americans, were alarmed by the aggressive, uncompromising stance of the NOI. Malcolm frequently stated that all whites were devils, and he was particularly critical of other black leaders. This, combined with his insistence that blacks must arm themselves against white America, led to Malcolm X becoming a symbol of angry black militancy and being characterized by his detractors as a reactionary demagogue.
However, internal tensions within the NOI, particularly its apolitical stance, led to frustration and disillusionment for Malcolm. When President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, Malcolm defied an NOI ban on making comment by claiming that the chickens had come home to roost. This deliberately provocative statement (both to mainstream America and to Muhammad) resulted in Malcolm being censured by Muhammad, and in February 1964 he left the NOI.
The year between leaving the NOI and his death was one of the most important in Malcolm's life, yet it is frequently ignored. During that year Malcolm became an orthodox Muslim, and, having traveled in the Middle East and Africa, he recanted his statements about whites and changed his name to Al Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. Furthermore, Malcolm attempted during this time to move toward the center of the civil rights movement, having realized the importance of racial cooperation. However, before he was able to make any significant contribution, Malcolm was murdered on February 21, 1965, by three Black Muslims as he spoke at a meeting of his newly founded Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Harlem, New York. Malcolm's growing criticism of the Nation of Islam's teachings was deemed by Muhammad as sacrilegious, and within the NOI there was talk of making an example of Malcolm for his perceived treachery. Before his murder Malcolm was involved in several negative incidents with followers of Muhammad, and his house was destroyed by a fire only one week before he was assassinated.
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Perspectives
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
ONE OF TIME'S TEN MOST IMPORTANT NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America. Praise for The Autobiography of Malcolm X "Extraordinary . . . a brilliant, painful, important book."--The New York Times "This book will have a permanent place in the literature of the Afro-American struggle."--I. F. Stone
The Dead Are Arising
Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X--all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century's most politically relevant figures "from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary." In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary. With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations--from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder "Fard Muhammad," who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom. Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.
From Civil Rights to Black Liberation
One of the few books that offers historical research about the OAAU, a revolutionary organization founded by Malcom X and rooted in tradtions of black nationalism, self-determination and human rights. The author establishes the relevance of Malcolm's political legacy for the task of rebuilding the movement for Black liberation almost thity years after his assassination.
Malcolm X
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year Years in the making-the definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figure in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and reconciliation for millions around the world. Manning Marable's new biography of Malcolm is a stunning achievement. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and class in America, from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story of his assassination. Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the most singular forces for social change, capturing with revelatory clarity a man who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.
Making Malcolm
Malcolm X's cultural rebirth--his improbable second coming--brims with irony. The nineties are marked by intense and often angry debates about racial authenticity and "selling out," and the participants in these debates--from politicians to filmmakers to rap artists--often draw on Malcolm's scorching rebukes to such moves. Meanwhile, Malcolm's "X" is marketed in countless business endeavors and is stylishly branded on baseball hats and T-shirts sported by every age, race, and gender. But this rampant commercialization is only a small part of Malcolm's remarkable renaissance. One of the century's most complex black leaders, he is currently blazing a new path across contemporary popular culture, and has even seared the edges of an academy that once froze him out. Thirty years after his assassination, what is it about his life and words that speaks so powerfully to so many? In Making Malcolm, Michael Eric Dyson probes the myths and meanings of Malcolm X for our time. From Spike Lee's film biography to Eugene Wolfenstein's psychobiographical study, from hip-hop culture to gender and racial politics, Dyson cuts a critical swathe through both the idolization and the vicious caricatures that have undermined appreciation of Malcolm's greatest accomplishments. The book's first section offers a boldly original and penetrating analysis of the major trends in interpreting Malcolm's legacy since his death, and the fiercely competing interests and ideologies that have shaped these trends. From mainstream books to writings published by the independent black press, Dyson identifies and examines the different "Malcolms" who have emerged in popular and academic investigations of his life and career. With impassioned and compelling force, Dyson argues that Malcolm was too formidable a historic figure--the movements he led too variable and contradictory, the passion and intelligence he summoned too extraordinary and disconcerting--to be viewed through any narrow cultural prism. The second half of the book offers a fascinating exploration of Malcolm's relationship to a resurgent black nationalism, his influence on contemporary black filmmakers and musicians, and his use in progressive black politics. From sexism and gangsta rap to the painful predicament of black males, from the politics of black nationalism to the possibilities of race in the Age of Clinton, Dyson's trenchant and often inspiring analysis reveals how Malcolm's legacy continues to spur debate and action today. A rare and important book, Making Malcolm casts new light not only on the life and career of a seminal black leader, but on the aspirations and passions of the growing numbers who have seized on his life for insight and inspiration.
Malcolm X, a Controversial Leader
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Malcolm X was a fiery orator. Born Malcom Little, he joined the Islamic nation in 1946 while in prison. In 1964,he formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Malcom X used tough rhetoric to arouse his supporters.
Black Consciousness Movement
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowWe see archival footage of Malcom X and Stokely Carmichael discussing racial features and hate. Vertamae and Diane discuss the "African look" of the 1960s.
Malcom X and Black Panther Movement
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowKareem Abdul-Jabbar argues that Malcom X inspired black people to think about themselves in new ways and reject ways of thinking that imprisoned them. Malcom X represented a fierceness and pride that inspired a new generation. The Black Panther Party started as a way to protect black communities from police violence and fight for self-determination.
Online Resources
- A Domestic Marshall Plan to Transform America's "Dark Ghettos": Toward a Martin Luther King-Malcom X Community Revitalization InitiativeDaniels calls for a major initiative to rebuild and revitalize the black and poor communities still devastated after 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Characterizing this initiative as a Domestic Marshall Plan, Daniels specifically identifies the black community as its main potential beneficiary and proposes calling the plan the Martin Luther King-Malcolm X Initiative, a mobilization which he hopes can inject the issue into the presidential campaign and onto the public policy agenda leading up to and beyond the forthcoming presidential election if necessary.
- Is Martin Luther King or Malcom X the More Acceptable Face of Protest? High-Status Groups' Reactions to Low- Status Groups' Collective Action: High status groups’ reactions to low status groups’ collective actionWork on collective action focuses mainly on the perspective of disadvantaged groups. However, the dynamics of social change cannot be fully understood without taking into account the reactions of the members of advantaged groups to collective action by low-status groups. In 10 experiments conducted in 4 different intergroup contexts (N = 1349), we examine advantaged groups support for normative versus non-normative collective action by disadvantaged groups. Experiments 1a to 1e show that normative collective action is perceived as more likely to improve the disadvantaged group's position and that non-normative collective action is perceived as more damaging to the advantaged group's social image. Also, these differences are due to differences in perceptions of actions violating norms of protest and perceptions of protesters as blaming the advantaged group for the inequality. Experiments 2a to 3 show that high compared with low identified members of advantaged groups distinguish more between types of collective action, showing a greater preference for the normative type. Both a mediational design and an experimental-causal-chain design (Experiments 3 and 4) show that support among high identifiers depends more on whether collective action damages the high-status group's social image than on whether it actually reduces inequality. Findings suggest that high-status groups' support for collective action is not only shaped by the perceived likelihood of change but also by its potential damage to the image of the high-status ingroup.
Behind Malcom X's Murder
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowExperts discuss repeating trails that suggest who ordered the assassination of Malcolm X. The activist rejected integration and supported violence to fight racism. The census office predicts that whites will become the minority group in America by 2050.