On November 1, 1978, Justice Harold J. Rothwax of the state supreme court denied the motion to set aside the 1966 convictions of Butler and Johnson. The information in the affidavit might have exonerated those two men while identifying four others who, Hayer said, were guilty. However, the judge deemed the doc.u.ment insufficient to grant a new trial. Throughout 1978 and 1979 civil rights groups took up the Butler-Johnson case, first pet.i.tioning the U.S. House Select Committee on a.s.sa.s.sinations, requesting an investigation into Malcolm X"s death. The pet.i.tion charged, "The "official version" has it that Malcolm X was the victim of a Muslim vendetta. Many unanswered questions and unexplained events that predate the a.s.sa.s.sination . . . do not support the official version" at all." Signatories of the pet.i.tion included Ossie Davis, African Methodist Episcopal bishop H. H. Brookins, California state a.s.semblywoman Maxine Waters, and Huey P. Newton of the Black Panther Party. Despite the campaign"s efforts, no congressional hearings were held.
Norman Butler was paroled in 1985 and Thomas Johnson received parole in 1987. For decades both men agitated to clear their names. Johnson, who had changed his name to Khalil Islam, died on August 4, 2009. Butler changed his name to Muhammad Abdul Aziz, and in the early 1990s was employed as a supportive services counselor at a Harlem drug rehabilitation clinic. In 1998, Aziz briefly served as security chief for Harlem Mosque No. 7. Beginning in 1990, Hayer was incarcerated part-time at the Lincoln Correctional Facility in Manhattan, where he was confined for a total of twelve hours per week on weekends. After seventeen unsuccessful attempts, Hayer was finally granted full parole in April 2010. Hayer told the parole board, "I"ve had a lot of time . . . to think about [Malcolm X"s murder] . . . I understand a lot better the dynamics of movements . . . and conflicts that can come up, but I have deep regrets about my partic.i.p.ation in that." It was an oddly impersonal mea culpa, an apology without actually articulating the crime he had committed. Hayer"s parole provoked a negative response from the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, which announced at a press conference that Hayer"s crimes were too serious to permit his release.
Other than Talmadge Hayer, the alleged a.s.sa.s.sins of Malcolm X, according to Hayer"s affidavit, continued their lives in the Nation of Islam as before. The senior member of the crew, Newark mosque administrator Benjamin Thomas, was killed in 1986, at age forty-eight. Leon Davis lived on in Paterson, New Jersey, employed at an electronics factory there; he continued his affiliation with the Nation and the FOI for decades. Businessman Wilbur McKinley also continued to be a.s.sociated with the Newark mosque.
Alleged murderer Willie Bradley went into a life of crime. On April 11, 1968, the Livingston National Bank of Livingston, New Jersey, was robbed by three masked men brandishing three handguns and one sawed-off shotgun. They escaped with over $12,500. The following year Bradley and a second man, James Moore, were charged with the bank robbery and were brought to trial. Bradley, however, received privileged treatment, and he retained his own attorney separate from Moore. The charges against him were ultimately dismissed; meanwhile, after a first trial ending in a hung jury, Moore was convicted in a second trial.
Bradley"s special treatment by the criminal justice system in 1969-70 raises the question of whether he was an FBI informant, either after the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X or very possibly even before. It would perhaps explain why Bradley took a different exit from the murder scene than the two other shooters, shielding him from the crowd"s retaliation. It suggests that Bradley and possibly other Newark mosque members may have actively collaborated on the shooting with local law enforcement and/or the FBI. The existing evidence raises the question of whether the murder of Malcolm X was not the initiative of the Nation of Islam alone. In The Death and Life of Malcolm X The Death and Life of Malcolm X, Goldman does not identify Bradley by name but seems to be referring to him when he notes that one of the a.s.sa.s.sins "was tracked to a New Jersey state prison, where he was serving seven and a half to fifteen years for an unrelated felony."
Bradley continued to experience legal problems into the 1980s. In 1983, he was indicted on twelve counts, including robbery, "terroristic threat," aggravated a.s.sault, and possession of a controlled substance. He first pled not guilty to the charges, but was eventually convicted of several of them and was incarcerated. His life was turned around through a romantic relationship with Carolyn F. Kelly. A longtime leader of Newark"s black community, Kelly, a Republican, led the defense for boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in the 1970s, which helped overturn his murder conviction. The owner of First Cla.s.s Championship Center, a boxing establishment in Newark, Kelly was the first black woman in the state to promote lucrative prize fights. By the 2000s, Bradley could usually be found on Friday afternoons at his wife"s boxing gymnasium. In October 2009, he was inducted into the Newark Athletic Hall of Fame for his baseball achivements in high school.
In 2010, Bradley even appeared briefly in a campaign video, promoting the reelection of Newark"s charismatic mayor, Cory Booker. Bradley"s metamorphosis from criminality to respectability seemed complete.
But things began falling apart in May 2010, with the Internet publication of an investigative article on Bradley by journalist Richard Prince. In the article, journalist Abdur-Rahman Muhammad directly accused Bradley of being "the man who fired the first and deadliest shot" killing Malcolm X. Journalist Karl Evanzz, the author of several studies on the Nation of Islam, called for Bradley"s exposure and prosecution "for depriving Malcolm X of his civil rights in the same way that the Klansmen who killed black activists were prosecuted. . . . Bradley killed Malcolm X to stop him from exercising his freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of a.s.sembly." Weeks later, filmmaker Omar Shabazz released a doc.u.mentary film naming Bradley, Hayer, and the other Newark NOI members as the real killers of Malcolm X. The goal of these critics appears to be Bradley"s indictment by federal or local authorities.
The chief beneficiary of Malcolm"s a.s.sa.s.sination was Louis Farrakhan. Indeed, the transition from Minister Louis X of Boston to Louis Farrakhan was made possible only through the leadership model that Malcolm had established years earlier. For a decade Malcolm had spread the salvation message of Elijah Muhammad throughout the United States, and for another decade, 1965 to 1975, Farrakhan a.s.sumed the identical role as the Nation of Islam"s national minister. Just as Malcolm predicted, most of those inside the Nation who had criticized him and sought to undermine his influence were equally opposed to Farrakhan. Elijah Muhammad"s family was jealous and fearful of him, because as the patriarch approached death it seemed possible that Farrakhan might usurp the mantle of leadership.
But he never managed to escape the shadow of speculation and rumor regarding his possible role in Malcolm"s murder. Farrakhan"s vivid description of Malcolm as a man "worthy of death" may have sealed his reputation. In an interview with Mike Wallace decades after the killing, Farrakhan conceded, "In one sense I may have been complicit in the murder of Brother Malcolm in that when Malcolm spoke against the Messenger, I spoke against him, and this helped to create an atmosphere [in which] Malcolm was a.s.sa.s.sinated." But that admission has never satisfied latter-day Malcolmites, many of whom continue to demand a reopening of the case. Farrakhan is fully aware that "even now there are some black people calling for a grand jury because there"s no statute of limitations on murder to bring me into a grand jury to question me."
Even in his dreams, Farrakhan cannot escape his link to Malcolm. In a 2007 oral history interview, he shared this nocturnal revelation: As G.o.d is my witness, I had a vision of Brother Malcolm. He came to me in like a dream vision. . . . And gray is in his hair. You know he had this little hair, that knot sometime, you know, and I saw the gray in his hair. And he comes to me and he said, "Brother Louis, what went wrong?" And I said to him, "Brother, you were slated to sit in [Elijah Muhammad"s] seat. He had to try you, to see what was in you. And you failed the test. It wasn"t that he was against you, but he wanted to see what was really in you." . . . I am here because my brother died that I might live. It"s very difficult for me not to just beat him down, because I walked in his shoes. And I know what pain is when you love people, and you work for people, and they turn against you and seek to destroy you. I understand that.
Today, Farrakhan still seeks to demonstrate his continuing filial devotion to Malcolm, despite his central role in advocating his death. His dream, however, places the cause of the murder in Malcolm"s own failures. Farrakhan suggests that Elijah Muhammad intended to make Malcolm his spiritual heir, setting aside the claims of Wallace and his other children. Muhammad was simply testing Malcolm, to determine if he had the leadership qualities necessary to direct the Nation. While it is true that Malcolm, after being silenced, at first desperately attempted to remain inside the Nation of Islam, once the break occurred he was liberated from the restrictions that had been imposed on him. What Farrakhan has difficulty admitting is that it was only when Malcolm accepted the universalism and humanism of orthodox Islam, explicitly rejecting racial separatism, that he could reach a truly global audience. Had he lived, Malcolm could have led an international campaign for human rights for blacks, but he could have accomplished this only by divorcing himself from the Nation of Islam"s sectarian creed.
Several weeks after the firebombing and destruction of Mosque No. 7 in February 1965, Louis was asked to visit and speak to the Nation"s congregation in New York. It was only months later that Elijah Muhammad telephoned to say that he would be transferred to serve as minister of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Under Louis"s supervision, the destroyed mosque would be reconstructed; he would move into Malcolm"s rebuilt home in Elmhurst. In August 1965, Muhammad announced Louis"s appointment before six thousand members in Detroit"s Cobo Center.
Upon being told about his new position, an overwhelmed Farrakhan jumped into his car and drove to a park on the outskirts of Boston. Years before, as a high school distance runner, it had been a place of solitude, where he would run and exercise. He recounts how he jogged out into the middle of a gra.s.sy field, tears streaming down his face, dropped to his knees, looking up into the sky, and confessed to Malcolm: "I didn"t mean to take your mosque-I didn"t mean to take your home!" As Farrakhan relates this story, it is powerful and it may even be plausible. But is it true?
Only three hours after the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan delivered the guest sermon at Newark Mosque No. 25-the very mosque where the a.s.sa.s.sins had been recruited and organized. Was his presence in Newark on that fateful day simply coincidence, or something more?
Years from now, when thousands of pages of FBI and BOSS surveillance are finally accessible, more definitive judgments will be made about the connections between Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, and various law enforcement agencies. It would not be entirely surprising if an FBI transcript surfaced doc.u.menting a telephone call from Elijah Muhammad to a subordinate, authorizing Malcolm"s murder. At present, the evidence suggests that Farrakhan, for one, was not personally involved and had no prior knowledge of the plot; however, he surely understood the consequences of his fiery condemnation of Malcolm, as well as of the forces within the Nation of Islam that would rid Elijah Muhammad of the turbulent priest. He may have suspected that his order to speak at the Newark mosque that February 21, 1965, was not a wholly innocent pursuit. It was ambition, not direct involvement in the crime, that blinded Farrakhan to what was going on around him.
EPILOGUE.
Reflections on a Revolutionary Vision A biography maps the social architecture of an individual"s life. The biographer charts the evolution of a subject over time, and the various challenges and tests that the individual endures provide insights into the person"s character. But the biographer has an additional burden: to explain events and the perspectives and actions of others that the subject could not possibly know, that nevertheless had a direct bearing on the individual"s life. biography maps the social architecture of an individual"s life. The biographer charts the evolution of a subject over time, and the various challenges and tests that the individual endures provide insights into the person"s character. But the biographer has an additional burden: to explain events and the perspectives and actions of others that the subject could not possibly know, that nevertheless had a direct bearing on the individual"s life.
Malcolm X today has iconic status, in the pantheon of multicultural American heroes. But at the time of his death he was widely reviled and dismissed as an irresponsible demagogue. Malcolm deliberately sought to stand at the margins, challenging the United States government and American inst.i.tutions. There was a cost to all this. The state branded him as a subversive and a security risk. J. Edgar Hoover"s animus toward Malcolm X, for example, set into motion acts of illegal wiretapping, surveillance, and disruption by law enforcement officers that probably surpa.s.sed anything Malcolm could have imagined. Malcolm was not fully aware, until too late, of the deep hostilities he had provoked inside the Nation of Islam that led a coterie of officials around Muhammad to call for his murder. He placed his trust in a bodyguard who may have planned and helped to carry out his public execution. Leaders like Malcolm have enormous confidence in themselves and in their ability to persuade others. It was extremely difficult for him to antic.i.p.ate betrayal, or even to acknowledge it.
Malcolm"s strength was his ability to reinvent himself, in order to function and even thrive in a wide variety of environments. He carefully crafted his physical presentation, the manner in which he approached others, drawing upon the past experiences from his own life as well as from African-American folklore and culture. He wove a narrative of suffering and resistance, of tragedy and triumph, that captured the imaginations of black people throughout the world. He lived the existence of an itinerant musician, traveling constantly from city to city, standing night after night on the stage, manipulating his melodic tenor voice as an instrument. He was consciously a performer, who presented himself as the vessel for conveying the anger and impatience the black ma.s.ses felt. Impoverished African Americans could admire Dr. King, but Malcolm not only spoke their language, he had lived their experiences-in foster homes, in prisons, in unemployment lines. Malcolm was loved because he could present himself as one of them.
One great gift of such remarkable individuals is the ability to seize their time, to speak to their unique moment in history. Both Martin and Malcolm were such leaders, but they expressed their pragmatic visions in different ways. King embodied the historic struggles waged by generations of African Americans for full equality. He established predominantly black political organizations, such as the Montgomery Improvement a.s.sociation in 1955 and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, but their emphasis was the achievement of desegregation and interracial cooperation. King never pitted blacks against whites, or used the atrocities committed by white extremists as a justification for condemning all whites. By contrast, throughout most of his public career Malcolm sought to place whites on the defensive in their relationship with African Americans. He keenly felt, and expressed, the varied emotions and frustrations of the black poor and working cla.s.s. His constant message was black pride, self-respect, and an awareness of one"s heritage. At a time when American society stigmatized or excluded people of African descent, Malcolm"s militant advocacy was stunning. He gave millions of younger African Americans newfound confidence. These expressions were at the foundation of what in 1966 became Black Power, and Malcolm was its fountainhead.
Malcolm came to occupy a central s.p.a.ce in the rich folk tradition of black outlaws and dissidents, fighting against the established social hierarchy. In the antebellum era, such men of resistance were Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner. In African-American music, this tradition includes the notorious folklore of Stagger Lee, the inventive blues guitarist Robert Johnson, and the charismatic hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. What these black outlaws all had in common was a cool contempt for the bourgeois status quo, the system of white supremacy and its law and courts. More significantly, the tradition of the black outlaw was to transgress the established moral order. In this respect, Detroit Red as Malcolm constructed him was the antihero, the hepcat who laughed at conventional mores, who used illegal drugs and engaged in illicit s.e.x, who broke all the rules. A close examination of the Autobiography Autobiography ill.u.s.trates that many of the elements of Detroit Red"s narrative are fictive; despite this, the character"s experiences resonate with black audiences because the contexts of racism, crime, and violence are integral aspects of ghetto life. ill.u.s.trates that many of the elements of Detroit Red"s narrative are fictive; despite this, the character"s experiences resonate with black audiences because the contexts of racism, crime, and violence are integral aspects of ghetto life.
The other dimension of Malcolm"s appearance was his ident.i.ty as a righteous preacher, the man who dedicated his life to Allah. Again, this was a role that resonated deeply with African-American culture. Through his powerful language, Malcolm inspired blacks to see themselves not as victims, but possessing the agency to transform themselves and their lives. Like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm boldly insisted to blacks that racism would not define their futures; that, instead, people of African descent were destined for greatness. He developed a profound love for black history, and he integrated into many of his lectures insights taken from the heritage of African-American and African people. Malcolm encouraged blacks to celebrate their culture and the tales of black resistance to European colonialism and white domination. And despite his genuine conversion to orthodox Islam, his spiritual journey was linked to his black consciousness. Only weeks following the a.s.sa.s.sination, the poet Amiri Baraka proclaimed, "Malcolm"s greatest contribution was to preach Black Consciousness to the Black Man. Now we must find the flesh of our spiritual creation." To Baraka, Malcolm represented a black aesthetic, a set of values and criteria for cultural representations that affirmed the genius and creativity of people of African descent. Malcolm provided the template for what black artists should aspire to achieve. "The Black artist is needed to change the images his people identify with, by a.s.serting Black feeling, Black mind, Black judgment," Baraka a.s.serted. In March 1965, Baraka left Greenwich Village and migrated to Harlem, where he established the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/ School (BARTS). This became the foundation for the flowering of the modern black arts movement, involving thousands of poets, playwrights, dancers, and other cultural producers. Malcolm became their muse, the ideal expression of blackness. Even the New York Times New York Times, measuring his continuing influence in Harlem, observed that "the central idea of Malcolm"s that has taken hold since his death is that Negroes must hold fast to and nurture their own black culture, and not have it "integrated out of existence." "
Stokely Carmichael, perhaps Black Power"s most important architect, traced his own development directly back to Malcolm. In his autobiography, Carmichael explains that as an undergraduate at Howard University in the early 1960s he had first viewed Bayard Rustin as his political mentor. He attended the public debate between Rustin and Malcolm in Washington, D.C., on October 30, 1961, expecting Bayard "to win the debate hands down." But like others there he was overwhelmed by Malcolm"s advocacy. "What Malcolm demonstrated that night . . . was the raw power, the visceral potency, of the grip our unarticulated collective blackness held over us. I"ll never forget it." Three decades after Malcolm"s triumph over Rustin, Carmichael was still inspired by the proud man who personified blackness: "A spotlight picked him out as he strode, slim, erect, immaculately tailored, to the mike on an otherwise darkened stage."
There is now a tendency of historical revisionism, to interpret Malcolm X through the powerful lens of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: that Malcolm was ultimately evolving into an integrationist, liberal reformer. This view is not only wrong, but unfair to both Malcolm and Martin. King saw himself, like Frederick Dougla.s.s, first and foremost as an American, who pursued the civil rights and civic privileges enjoyed by other Americans. King struggled to erase the color bar of stigmatization and exclusion that had relegated racial minorities to second-cla.s.s citizenship. As in the successful 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, King wanted to convince white Americans that "race doesn"t matter"-in other words, the physical and color differences that appear to distinguish blacks from whites should be meaningless in the application of justice and equal rights.
In striking contrast, Malcolm perceived himself first and foremost as a black man, a person of African descent who happened to be a United States citizen. This was a crucial difference from King and other civil rights leaders. When he was a member of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm saw himself as a member of the tribe of Shabazz, the fictive Asiatic black clan invented by W. D. Fard. But by the final phases of his career, and especially in 1964-65, Malcolm linked his black consciousness to the ideological imperative of self-determination, the concept that all people have a natural right to decide for themselves their own destiny. Malcolm perceived black Americans as an oppressed nation-within-a-nation, with its own culture, social inst.i.tutions, and group psychology. Its memories of struggles for freedom were starkly different from those of white Americans. At the end of his life he realized that blacks indeed could achieve representation and even power under America"s const.i.tutional system. But he always thought first and foremost about blacks" interests. Many blacks instinctively sensed this, and loved him for it.
King presented a narrative to white Americans that suggested that Negroes were prepared to protest nonviolently, and even die, to realize the promise of the nation"s Founding Fathers. By contrast, Malcolm proposed that the oppressed had a natural right to armed self-defense. His narrative was that of the history of structural racism-from the transatlantic slave trade to ghettoization-and his remedy was black reparations, compensation for the years of exploitation blacks had endured. This is why Malcolm, had he survived to the 1990s, would not have been an enthusiastic defender of affirmative action as a centerpiece for civil rights reforms. Affirmative action was never designed to promote full employment or to transfer wealth to African Americans. What Malcolm sought was a fundamental restructuring of wealth and power in the United States-not a violent social revolution, but radical and meaningful change nevertheless.
Another critical difference between the two leaders was their relationship to the African-American middle cla.s.s. King was the product of Atlanta"s well-educated, affluent black pet.i.te bourgeoisie. He was a graduate of More-house College and Boston University; Malcolm had left school without completing the ninth grade. His "university" was Norfolk Prison Colony. More than any other twentieth-century black leader, Malcolm demanded that blacks in the professional and managerial cla.s.ses should be more accountable to the ma.s.ses of poor and working-cla.s.s African Americans. In speeches like "Message to the Gra.s.sroots," he sharply condemned middle-cla.s.s black leaders for their compromises with white power brokers. He demanded greater integrity and accountability from privileged blacks, as an essential element in the strategy for achieving black freedom.
In his 2003 oral history, Ossie Davis was asked why, in his famous eulogy, he had referred to Malcolm as a "black shining prince." "Because a prince," Davis said, "is not a king." He implied that Malcolm"s premature death cut short his maturity and full potential as a leader. Another way of examining Davis"s insight is asking whether Malcolm"s vision of racial justice was fully realized or achieved. Again, a comparison between Martin and Malcolm is illuminating. Following his a.s.sa.s.sination, King"s image evolved from an anti-Vietnam protester and controversial civil rights advocate into a defender of a color-blind America. His birthday was celebrated by the U.S. government as a national holiday dedicated to public service. Politicians of all ideological stripes praise King"s nonviolence but rarely examine his fierce impatience with racial injustice and its relevance to our times. By contrast for several decades Malcolm was pilloried and stereotyped for his racial extremism. However, to most black Americans he became an icon of black encouragement, who fearlessly challenged racism wherever he found it and inspired black youth to take pride in their history and culture. These aspects of Malcolm"s public personality were indelibly stamped into the Black Power movement; they were present in the cry "It"s our turn!" by black proponents of Harold Washington in the Democrat"s successful 1983 mayoral race in Chicago. It was partially expressed in the unprecedented voter turnouts in black neighborhoods in Jesse Jackson"s presidential campaigns of 1984 and 1988 and in the successful electoral bid of Barack Obama in 2008. Malcolm truly antic.i.p.ated that the black electorate could potentially be the balance of power in a divided white republic.
Malcolm"s revolutionary vision also challenged white America to think and talk differently about race. In an era when some white entertainers still blackened their faces to perform, Malcolm challenged whites to examine the policies and practices of racial discrimination. Before postmodernists wrote about "white privilege," Malcolm spoke about the destructive effects of racism upon both its victims and its promulgators. Toward the end of his life he could imagine the destruction of racism itself, and the possibility of creating a humane social order devoid of racial injustice. He offered hope that whites could overcome centuries of negative socialization toward blacks, and that a racially just society was achievable. He did not embrace "color blindness" but, like Frantz Fanon, believed that racial hierarchies within society could be dismantled.
Malcolm also changed the discourse and politics of race internationally. During a period when many African-American leaders were preoccupied with efforts to change federal and state policies about race relations, Malcolm saw that for the domestic struggle for civil rights to succeed, it had to be expanded into an international campaign for human rights. The United Nations, not the U.S. Congress or the White House, had to be the central forum. Equally important were the distinctions he made between black politics inside the United States versus liberation politics in Africa and the Caribbean.
Despite his radical rhetoric, as "The Ballot or the Bullet" makes clear, the mature Malcolm believed that African Americans could use the electoral system and voting rights to achieve meaningful change. His position calling for ma.s.sive black voter education and mobilization was virtually identical to SNCC"s, and would later be embraced by the Black Panther Party in Oakland in the 1970s. But outside of the United States, despite his respect for Nkrumah, he did not see electoral politics and gradual social change as a viable approach for transforming postcolonial societies. He endorsed revolutionary violence against the apartheid regime in South Africa, and guerrilla warfare against the neocolonial regime in Congo and in the Portuguese colonies of Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique. Nelson Mandela, who in 1961 founded Umkhonto we Sizwe (the Spear of the Nation), the secret armed wing of the African National Congress, was a hero to Malcolm because of his identification with guerrilla attacks against white South Africa. Although today Mandela is perceived as a racial reconciliator, much like King, a half century ago the future president of South Africa largely shared Malcolm"s views about the necessity of armed struggle in Africa. So the view that there were "two Malcolm Xs"-one who advocated violence when he was a Black Muslim, and a second who espoused nonviolent change-is absolutely wrong. To Malcolm, armed self-defense was never equated with violence for its own sake.
Malcolm envisioned a modern version of Pan-Africanism, based on a global antiracism. The United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001, was in many ways a fulfillment of Malcolm"s international vision. Hundreds of religious, social justice, and civil rights nongovernmental organizations engaged in transnational dialogues, examining racism from a truly global perspective. Of the 11,500 delegates and observers, about three thousand were Americans, and nearly two-thirds of that number were black Americans. Malcolm believed that black freedom in the United States depended on internationalist geopolitical strategy.
The unrealized dimension of Malcolm"s racial vision was that of black nationalism. A political ideology that originated before the Civil War, black nationalism was based on the a.s.sumption that racial pluralism leading to a.s.similation was impossible in the United States. So cynical were many nationalists about the incapacity of whites to overcome their own racism that they occasionally negotiated with white terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, in the mistaken belief that they were more honest about their racial att.i.tudes than liberals. Yet as Malcolm"s international experiences became more varied and extensive, his social vision expanded. He became less intolerant and more open to multiethnic and interfaith coalitions. By the final months of his life he resisted identification as a "black nationalist," seeking ideological shelter under the race-neutral concepts of Pan-Africanism and Third World revolution. He had also come to reject violence for its own sake, but he never abandoned the nationalists" ideal of "self-determnation," the right of oppressed nations or minorities to decide for themselves their own political futures. Given the election of Barack Obama, it now raises the question of whether blacks have a separate political destiny from their white fellow citizens. If legal racial segregation was permanently in America"s past, Malcolm"s vision today would have to radically redefine self-determination and the meaning of black power in a political environment that appeared to many to be "post-racial."
Finally, and perhaps most important, Malcolm X represents the most important bridge between the American people and more than one billion Muslims throughout the world. Before immigration law reform in 1965, the most prominent group of self-identified American Muslims was the heretical Nation of Islam. As Malcolm learned more about orthodox Islam, he became determined to propagate the meaning of that faith to audiences regardless of race. Even before his death, Malcolm became widely known and well respected across the Islamic and Arab diasporas. He reached out to Islamic sects and organizations reflecting widely divergent opinions and theological tenets-Wahhabi Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Na.s.serite socialists in Egypt, African Sufis in Senegal, the Muslim Brotherhood in Lebanon, the Palestine Liberation Organization. He avoided arguments that pitted Muslims against one another; he emphasized Islam"s capacity to transform the believer from hatred and intolerance toward love. His own remarkable life story personified this reinvention.
And what of Malcolm X"s future life after death? As hip-hop culture was decisive in promoting his second renaissance in the 1990s, it seems probable that Islam will influence his future legacy.
The process of jihadist reinvention began with the Iranian revolution. The government of Ayatollah Khomeini was the first to issue a postage stamp featuring a likeness of Malcolm, which was released in 1984 to promote the Universal Day of Struggle Against Race Discrimination. Less than two decades later, his influence was discovered in the mountain caves of Afghanistan, in the radicalism of Islamic convert and Talibanist John Walker Lindh. An upper-middle-cla.s.s white American from affluent Marin County, California, Lindh was introduced to Malcolm when his mother took him to Spike Lee"s film. After reading the Autobiography Autobiography, Lindh"s fascination grew into fierce dedication. In October 2001, as American forces stormed into Afghanistan, Lindh was captured among the Taliban combatants and is now serving a twenty-year sentence. Lindh"s religious adviser, Shakeel Syed, is convinced that Lindh could "become the new Malcolm X."
The al-Qaeda terrorist network is also sufficiently aware of American racial politics to make sharp distinctions between mainstream African-American leaders and black revolutionaries like Malcolm. An al-Qaeda video released following the election of Barack Obama in November 2008 described the president-elect as a "race traitor" and "hypocrite" when compared to Malcolm X. "And in [Barack Obama] and Colin Powell, [Condoleezza] Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning "house Negroes" are confirmed," declared al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. Malcolm was described as central to the political traditions of "honorable black Americans." What is truly ironic is that Malcolm would certainly have condemned the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, as representing the negation of Islam"s core tenets. A religion based on universal compa.s.sion and respect for the teachings of the Torah and the Gospels, Malcolm would have known, holds no common ground with those who employ terror as a tool for politics. Malcolm"s personal journey of self-discovery, the quest for G.o.d, led him toward peace and away from violence.
But there is one more legacy that may shape the memory of Malcolm: the politics of radical humanism. James Baldwin"s first real encounter with Malcolm occurred in 1961, when he was asked to moderate a radio program panel that included the Nation of Islam leader. Malcolm had been invited to debate a young civil rights activist who had just returned from desegregation protests in the South. Baldwin feared that the celebrated firebrand would take the young protester apart. Baldwin later wrote that he had come "to throw out the lifeline whenever Malcolm should seem to be carrying the child beyond his depth." To Baldwin"s amazement, Malcolm "understood that child and talked to him as though he was talking to a younger brother." Baldwin was profoundly moved. "I will never forget Malcolm and that child facing each other, and Malcolm"s extraordinary gentleness. And that"s the truth about Malcolm: he was one of the gentlest people I have ever met."
A deep respect for, and a belief in, black humanity was at the heart of this revolutionary visionary"s faith. And as his social vision expanded to include people of divergent nationalities and racial ident.i.ties, his gentle humanism and antiracism could have become a platform for a new kind of radical, global ethnic politics. Instead of the fiery symbol of ethnic violence and religious hatred, as al-Qaeda might project him, Malcolm X should become a representative for hope and human dignity. At least for the African-American people, he has already come to embody those loftier aspirations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND RESEARCH NOTES.
The origins of this book date back to the winter of 1969, my freshman year at Earlham College in Indiana, when I first read The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Malcolm had become the icon of the Black Power movement, and I eagerly devoured the edited volumes of his speeches and interviews. Like others, I did not question the inconsistencies between some parts of his speeches and recordings and the printed texts of these same speeches in publications. Nearly all of the scholarly work on Malcolm was based on a very narrow selection of primary sources, his transcribed speeches, and secondary sources, such as newspapers articles.
Nearly two decades later, in 1988, I was teaching a course in African-American politics that included The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X as part of the required reading, at Ohio State University. A close reading of the text revealed numerous inconsistencies, errors, and fictive characters at odds with Malcolm"s actual life history. There also seemed to be missing sections of a.n.a.lysis. Chief among them was the absence of any detailed discussion of Malcolm"s two groups formed in 1964-Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. as part of the required reading, at Ohio State University. A close reading of the text revealed numerous inconsistencies, errors, and fictive characters at odds with Malcolm"s actual life history. There also seemed to be missing sections of a.n.a.lysis. Chief among them was the absence of any detailed discussion of Malcolm"s two groups formed in 1964-Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. The Autobiography The Autobiography had been long accepted as Malcolm"s political testament, yet it was largely silent on major political issues. There was also a strange yet unmistakable fissure within the body of the text, separating chapters one through fifteen from a second "book" consisting of chapters sixteen through nineteen. About two-fifths of the book focused exclusively on Malcolm"s childhood and juvenile years, describing the criminal exploits of the teenage Malcolm, "Detroit Red." It was only years later that I would learn that much of Detroit Red was fictive, that Malcolm"s actual involvement in burglaries and hard-core crime was short-lived. had been long accepted as Malcolm"s political testament, yet it was largely silent on major political issues. There was also a strange yet unmistakable fissure within the body of the text, separating chapters one through fifteen from a second "book" consisting of chapters sixteen through nineteen. About two-fifths of the book focused exclusively on Malcolm"s childhood and juvenile years, describing the criminal exploits of the teenage Malcolm, "Detroit Red." It was only years later that I would learn that much of Detroit Red was fictive, that Malcolm"s actual involvement in burglaries and hard-core crime was short-lived.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I taught from 1989 to 1993, I began work on what I thought would be a modest political biography of Malcolm X. The study was first designed to map the evolution of his political and social thought. I hired a team of student researchers, led by then Ph.D. candidate Eleanor Hubbard, and we began to construct a bibliography of nearly one thousand works about the black leader.
Opportunities rarely come in life without a certain cost. In 1993, I accepted the appointment as director of the newly established Inst.i.tute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University. For the next ten years my primary focus was building the Inst.i.tute; the Malcolm X biography project was placed on hold. It was only in 1999-2000, after meeting on several occasions with one of Malcolm"s children, Ilyasah Shabazz, that I decided to return to the biography. But in reading nearly all of the literature about Malcolm produced in the 1990s, I was struck by its shallow character and lack of original sources. Many Malcolmites had constructed a mythic legend to surround their leader that erased all blemishes and any mistakes he had made. Another version of "Malcolmology" simplistically equated Martin Luther King, Jr., with Malcolm, both advocating multicultural harmony and universal understanding. I decided to write a full, comprehensive study of Malcolm"s life.
The historical Malcolm, the man with all his strengths and flaws, was being strangled by the iconic legend that had been constructed around him. There were several reasons for this. Inexplicably, Betty Shabazz, and later the Shabazz estate, did not make available to the public hundreds of doc.u.ments-personal correspondence, photographs, texts of speeches-by Malcolm X until 2008. Following Malcolm"s 1965 a.s.sa.s.sination, many of his closest a.s.sociates went underground, fled the country, or simply refused to speak to scholars. The Nation of Islam, accused of murdering Malcolm, obviously had no incentive to go on the record explaining its reasons for opposing the former Black Muslim leader. NOI leader Louis Farrakhan had made speeches and statements about his relationship with Malcolm, but had never given a detailed life history of himself related to the subject. And finally, both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department continued to suppress thousands of pages of surveillance and wiretapping related to Malcolm. At times these multiple roadblocks were so difficult to navigate around that it seemed no serious life history could be written.
My initial breakthrough came when I finally realized that critical deconstruction of the Autobiography Autobiography held the key to reinterpreting Malcolm"s life. In this process, I was aided tremendously by Jonathan Cole, then Columbia University"s provost, and Vice Provost Michael Crow, who provided the financial support in 2001-2004 to fund the development of a multimedia version of the held the key to reinterpreting Malcolm"s life. In this process, I was aided tremendously by Jonathan Cole, then Columbia University"s provost, and Vice Provost Michael Crow, who provided the financial support in 2001-2004 to fund the development of a multimedia version of the Autobiography Autobiography. At one point more than twenty graduate and undergraduate students were employed by the Malcolm X Project, writing hundreds of profiles and abstracts of important individuals, inst.i.tutions, and groups that were mentioned in the Autobiography Autobiography. The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, directed by Frank Moretti, produced our extraordinary website, which greatly accelerated the early development of the biography. A more recent multimedia resource presenting materials on Malcolm X is available at we deconstructed the Autobiography Autobiography, I came to appreciate the book as a brilliant literary work, but more of a memoir than a factual and objective reconstruction of a man"s life. Consequently, the book focused largely on personalities rather than on deeper ideological or political differences that increasingly divided Malcolm from the Nation. It also said little about Malcolm"s extensive travels across the Middle East and Africa, in July-November 1964.
Another important element in the making of this biography was the critical advice of Clayborne Carson, the director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Papers Project at Stanford University. I visited the Stanford campus in 2001 to observe how Clay had organized his project, and a.s.signed specific responsibilities to student researchers. Clay suggested that the key to writing a full biography of Malcolm X would be the construction of an extremely detailed chronological grid of his life; in covering his last two years, 1963 to 1965, there would be almost daily entries. Each entry would indicate where the information came from and, whenever possible, would contain multiple sources of doc.u.mentation. Over a six-year period, a ma.s.sive chronology was developed, which became the foundation for this biography.
One additional detail in reading this work is the issue of names. Most of the central figures in Malcolm"s life changed their names two or three times, or even more. Malcolm"s invaluable and crusty chief of staff, James Warden, was usually called James 67X when he belonged to Mosque No. 7, and was often referred to as James Shabazz in 1964-65. However, there was at the same time another James Shabazz, James 3X McGregor, head of the Newark mosque, a deadly opponent of Malcolm"s. Consequently, Warden is referred to throughout the text as James 67X. There are similar problems with others" names: Malcolm"s trusted a.s.sistant minister, Benjamin 2X Goodman, was also Benjamin Karim after embracing orthodox Islam; Thomas 15X Johnson, who was unjustly convicted of Malcolm"s murder, was later Khalil Islam; Louis Walcott, also named Louis X, the minister of Boston"s NOI mosque, is known throughout the world today as Louis Farrakhan. Wallace Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad"s son who inherited the leadership of the Nation of Islam in 1975, changed the spelling of his name to Warith Mohammed. With the partial exception of Farrakhan, I have tried to be consistent in the identification of key personalities throughout the text. This guideline also extends to individuals such as Maya Angelou, who was for several years in the 1960s known as Maya Make.
Any work of this type is the product of many individuals. One of my Columbia University doctoral a.s.sistants, Zaheer Ali, made many important contributions as the Malcolm X Project"s a.s.sociate director for four years, especially during the development of the multimedia version of the Autobiography Autobiography. Zaheer"s extensive knowledge of the Nation of Islam as well as orthodox Islam expanded our study to include the voices of Black Muslims like Louis Farrakhan. Zaheer"s successor, Elizabeth Mazucci, was largely responsible for building the Malcolm X chronology and organizing thousands of pages of FBI surveillance. This was the chronological core that made the construction of the biography possible, and I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth for her years of tireless effort. Doctoral student Elizabeth Hinton was critical in cross-checking multiple sources, from archives to newspapers, to fully doc.u.ment important events in Malcolm"s life. Russell Rickford, now a history professor at Dartmouth College, was instrumental in setting up many oral histories and interviews with individuals who were Malcolm"s contemporaries. Since 2008 the Malcolm X Project has been expertly coordinated by Garrett Felber, who is an extraordinary researcher and young scholar of twentieth-century black America. Garrett has the uncanny ability to locate the rarest and most obscure doc.u.ments connected with Malcolm"s life. In the past year our newest researcher, Kevin Loughran, has also made important contributions to the project.
Earlier drafts or various chapters in this biography were read by Ira Katznelson, Renate Bridenthal, Hishaam Aidi, Samuel Roberts, and Bill Fletcher, Jr. Their comments and criticisms were extremely helpful. Richard Cohen, my superb editor, worked closely with me in the development of each chapter. My editors at Viking Penguin, particularly Wendy Wolf and Kevin Doughten, have been extremely supportive throughout the evolution of this ma.n.u.script. For nearly eighteen months, Kevin and I communicated almost daily, discussing various versions of chapters, in the effort to build an effective narrative to reach the broadest possible audience. Thanks are also richly due to my agent, Elyse Cheney, and my attorney, Lisa Davis, who have both worked closely with me on this book project for nearly a decade.
Sara Crafts has been my primary ma.n.u.script typist for many previous book projects, and she has done a superb job of processing the many different versions of each chapter and keeping the corrected ma.n.u.scripts on track. I have always valued her friendship and advice. Courtney Teague, my secretary at Columbia"s Center for Contemporary Black History, has been instrumental in coordinating my Malcolm X seminar, and also typing ma.n.u.scripts. Both have been invaluable in keeping the project on track.
A final, unantic.i.p.ated roadblock in completing this work came in the form of a serious health challenge. For a quarter century I have had sarcoidosis, an illness that gradually destroyed my pulmonary functions. In the last year in researching this book, I could not travel and I carried oxygen tanks in order to breathe. In July 2010, I received a double lung transplant, and following two months" hospitalization, managed a full recovery. Throughout this ordeal, the writing, editing, and research on the Malcolm X biography continued. For this, I am deeply grateful to my pulmonologists, Dr. David Lederer and Dr. Doreen Addrizzo-Harris; my surgeon, Dr. Frank D"Ovidio; and the entire lung transplant team-the coordinators, nurses, and physical and occupational therapists at New York Presbyterian Hospital, all of whom were instrumental in my successful surgery and recovery. Equally important in my recovery were my family members-including Sandra Mullings, Alia Tyner, Michael Tyner, Pansy Mullings, Pauline Mullings, Paul Mullings, Malaika Marable Serrano, Sojourner Marable Grimmett, Joshua Marable, Adriana Nova, and Chris Nova-who stayed up night after night at the hospital and were so supportive during my difficult weeks of recovery.
My greatest debt of grat.i.tude is owed to my intellectual partner and companion, Leith Mullings. For years, she patiently listened to, or read, countless chapters from Malcolm"s life. She critiqued the final drafts of the entire book, line by line, making important suggestions along the way. Leith also put her own life on hold for more than two years as I struggled with my pulmonary crisis, surgery, and recovery. Without her constant encouragement and unfailing support, I would not have survived.
And finally, I am deeply grateful to the real Malcolm X, the man behind the myth, who courageously challenged and transformed himself, seeking to achieve a vision of a world without racism. Without erasing his mistakes and contradictions, Malcolm embodies a definitive yardstick by which all other Americans who aspire to a mantle of leadership should be measured.
Manning Marable September 25, 2010
NOTES.
Key to Notes MANY-Munic.i.p.al Archives in the City of New York RWL-Robert W. Woodruff Library Special Collections Department MX FBI-Malcolm X FBI file MXC-S-Malcolm X Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture BOSS-Bureau of Special Services UTLSC-University of Tennessee Library Special Collection KMC-The Ken McCormick Collection of the Records of Doubleday and Company
Prologue: Life Beyond The Legend 1 1 larger Grand Ballroom, holding up to fifteen hundred. larger Grand Ballroom, holding up to fifteen hundred. See Eric William Allison, "Audubon Theatre and Ballroom," in Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., See Eric William Allison, "Audubon Theatre and Ballroom," in Kenneth T. Jackson, ed., The Encyclopedia of New York City The Encyclopedia of New York City (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 66. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 66.1 accompanied by the occasional violent confrontation. accompanied by the occasional violent confrontation. Letter to the editor, Shirley G. Quill, Letter to the editor, Shirley G. Quill, New York Times New York Times, April 1, 1990. Quill observed that "long before the gruesome a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X, the Audubon Ballroom was known as the cradle of the T.W.U., the first union of munic.i.p.al transit workers in modern labor history."1 Two people were badly wounded. Two people were badly wounded. "Girl and Man Shot in Dance Hall," "Girl and Man Shot in Dance Hall," New York Times New York Times, September 22, 1929.3 "The Negroes at the ma.s.s level are ready to act." "The Negroes at the ma.s.s level are ready to act." M. S. Handler, "Malcolm X Splits with Muhammad," M. S. Handler, "Malcolm X Splits with Muhammad," New York Times New York Times, March 9, 1964; and M. S. Handler, "Malcolm X Sees Rise in Violence," New York Times New York Times, March 13, 1964.3 "who are responsible to white authorities-Negro Uncle Toms." "who are responsible to white authorities-Negro Uncle Toms." Emanuel Perlmutter, "Murphy Says City Will Not Permit Rights Violence," Emanuel Perlmutter, "Murphy Says City Will Not Permit Rights Violence," New York Times New York Times, March 16, 1964.4 and only one, briefly, was stationed. and only one, briefly, was stationed. Herman Ferguson interview, OAAU member and eyewitness to Malcolm X"s a.s.sa.s.sination, June 27, 2003. Herman Ferguson interview, OAAU member and eyewitness to Malcolm X"s a.s.sa.s.sination, June 27, 2003.4 at a considerable distance from the featured event at a considerable distance from the featured event. Peter Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X The Death and Life of Malcolm X, revised edition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979), pp. 269, 274.4 an easy escape to New Jersey. an easy escape to New Jersey. Ibid., pp. 416-19. Ibid., pp. 416-19.4 about as far as he could have been from the stage. about as far as he could have been from the stage. William 64X George statement with New York County District Attorney"s office, March 18, 1965. The police interviews related to the Malcolm X murder investigation are available in Case File 871-65, Series I, New York Department of Records and Information Services, Munic.i.p.al Archives in the City of New York (MANY). The district attorney"s case file on the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X is divided into three series, according to chronological periods corresponding with the murder case. Series I includes materials from the police investigation and indictment; Series II includes the 1966 murder trial; Series III encompa.s.ses the appeals of the convicted a.s.sailants, Norman Butler, Thomas Johnson, and Talmadge Hayer (aka Thomas Hagan). Of great significance is the availability of unredacted FBI internal doc.u.ments and a copy of the full grand jury transcript of the Malcolm X murder trial, in Series I. The district attorney"s files were closed to the public until 1993, at which point they were transferred to the New York City Munic.i.p.al Archives. For a comprehensive a.n.a.lysis of the case file, see Elizabeth Mazucci, "St. Malcolm"s Relics: A Study of the Artifacts Shaped by the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X," M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 2005. William 64X George statement with New York County District Attorney"s office, March 18, 1965. The police interviews related to the Malcolm X murder investigation are available in Case File 871-65, Series I, New York Department of Records and Information Services, Munic.i.p.al Archives in the City of New York (MANY). The district attorney"s case file on the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X is divided into three series, according to chronological periods corresponding with the murder case. Series I includes materials from the police investigation and indictment; Series II includes the 1966 murder trial; Series III encompa.s.ses the appeals of the convicted a.s.sailants, Norman Butler, Thomas Johnson, and Talmadge Hayer (aka Thomas Hagan). Of great significance is the availability of unredacted FBI internal doc.u.ments and a copy of the full grand jury transcript of the Malcolm X murder trial, in Series I. The district attorney"s files were closed to the public until 1993, at which point they were transferred to the New York City Munic.i.p.al Archives. For a comprehensive a.n.a.lysis of the case file, see Elizabeth Mazucci, "St. Malcolm"s Relics: A Study of the Artifacts Shaped by the a.s.sa.s.sination of Malcolm X," M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 2005.5 Cathcart complied and returned to his seat. Cathcart complied and returned to his seat. In his NYPD interview, Linwood X Cathcart was shown photographs of Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson, two NOI members who by then had been arrested for Malcolm X"s murder. Linwood X denied knowing the ident.i.ties of Johnson and Butler from their photographs. He stated that neither man was in attendance at the Audubon Ballroom rally. Then, provocatively, according to police records, "Mr. Cathcart went on to say that Malcolm X could be compared to Benedict Arnold as he was also a traitor and that Allah takes care of us all." See Augurs Linwood C. Cathcart interview with NYPD, March 22, 1965. Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY. In his NYPD interview, Linwood X Cathcart was shown photographs of Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson, two NOI members who by then had been arrested for Malcolm X"s murder. Linwood X denied knowing the ident.i.ties of Johnson and Butler from their photographs. He stated that neither man was in attendance at the Audubon Ballroom rally. Then, provocatively, according to police records, "Mr. Cathcart went on to say that Malcolm X could be compared to Benedict Arnold as he was also a traitor and that Allah takes care of us all." See Augurs Linwood C. Cathcart interview with NYPD, March 22, 1965. Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY.5 security people, he returned to his seat. security people, he returned to his seat. Langston Savage grand jury testimony and NYPD interview with Langston Savage, March 22, 1965. Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY. Langston Savage grand jury testimony and NYPD interview with Langston Savage, March 22, 1965. Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY.5 "We"re dealing with an entirely different group." "We"re dealing with an entirely different group." James 67X Warden (also known as Abdullah Abdur Razzaq and James Shabazz) interview, July 21, 2003. James 67X Warden (also known as Abdullah Abdur Razzaq and James Shabazz) interview, July 21, 2003.5 to pay the manager that afternoon"s $150 fee. to pay the manager that afternoon"s $150 fee. Officer William E. Confrey, "Interview of Mr. William Fogel, Manager of Audubon Ballroom, February 21, 1965." Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY. Officer William E. Confrey, "Interview of Mr. William Fogel, Manager of Audubon Ballroom, February 21, 1965." Case File 871-65, Series I, MANY.6 one of them was going to ignite a smoke bomb. one of them was going to ignite a smoke bomb. Goldman, Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X The Death and Life of Malcolm X, pp. 418-19.6 podium immediately following Benjamin"s introductions. podium immediately following Benjamin"s introductions. Transcript of address by Benjamin 2X Goodman (also known as Benjamin Karim), delivered at the Audubon Ballroom, February 21, 1965. Copy and audiotape recording in possession of author. Transcript of address by Benjamin 2X Goodman (also known as Benjamin Karim), delivered at the Audubon Ballroom, February 21, 1965. Copy and audiotape recording in possession of author.6 Benjamin stepped down and returned to the backstage room. Benjamin stepped down and returned to the backstage room. Ibid. Also see Goldman, Ibid. Also see Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X The Death and Life of Malcolm X, pp. 271-73.6 Malcolm yelled out, "Hold it! Hold it!" Malcolm yelled out, "Hold it! Hold it!" Transcript of address by Benjamin 2X Goodman. Malcolm X"s initial remarks can be heard on the tape recording. Transcript of address by Benjamin 2X Goodman. Malcolm X"s initial remarks can be heard on the tape recording.8 "our manhood, our living, black manhood." "our manhood, our living, black manhood." Malcolm X and Alex Haley, Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Ballantine, 1999), p. 462. (New York: Ballantine, 1999), p. 462.8 formed a Malcolm X Democrat Club. formed a Malcolm X Democrat Club. Goldman, Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 378.8 "any black cat in this curious place and time." "any black cat in this curious place and time." See James Baldwin, See James Baldwin, One Day, When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley"s The Autobiography of Malcolm X One Day, When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley"s The Autobiography of Malcolm X (New York: Dell, 1972); David Leeming, (New York: Dell, 1972); David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography James Baldwin: A Biography (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), pp. 297-99; and Brian Norman, "Reading a Closet Screenplay: Hollywood, James Baldwin"s Malcolm X and the Threat of Historical Irrelevance," (New York: Henry Holt, 1994), pp. 297-99; and Brian Norman, "Reading a Closet Screenplay: Hollywood, James Baldwin"s Malcolm X and the Threat of Historical Irrelevance," African American Review African American Review, vol. 39, no. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 103-18.8 promoting the reelection of Richard Nixon. promoting the reelection of Richard Nixon. Paul Deloney, "Black Parlays in Capital Hail Nixon and Thurmond," Paul Deloney, "Black Parlays in Capital Hail Nixon and Thurmond," New York Times New York Times, June 12, 1972.8 a portrait of Malcolm on the cover of one of its CDs. a portrait of Malcolm on the cover of one of its CDs. William T. Strickland and Cheryll Y. Greene, eds., William T. Strickland and Cheryll Y. Greene, eds., Malcolm X: Make It Plain Malcolm X: Make It Plain (New York: Viking, 1994), p. 225. (New York: Viking, 1994), p. 225.8 "Quayle should think he"s talking about him." "Quayle should think he"s talking about him." Sam Roberts, "Dan Quayle, Malcolm X and American Values," Sam Roberts, "Dan Quayle, Malcolm X and American Values," New York Times New York Times, June 15, 1992.8 "a hero for black Americans today." "a hero for black Americans today." "Will the Real Malcolm X Please Stand Up?" "Will the Real Malcolm X Please Stand Up?" Los Angeles Sentinel Los Angeles Sentinel, January 7, 1993.8 "undergirded his bond with blacks." "undergirded his bond with blacks." Gerald Horne, ""Myth" and the Making of "Malcolm X,"" Gerald Horne, ""Myth" and the Making of "Malcolm X,"" American Historical Review American Historical Review, vol. 98, no. 2 (April 1993), p. 448.8 "integrationist solution to racial problems." "integrationist solution to racial problems." Manning Marable, Manning Marable, Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America"s Racial Future Living Black History: How Reimagining the African-American Past Can Remake America"s Racial Future (New York: Basic Civitas, 2006), p. 147. (New York: Basic Civitas, 2006), p. 147.10 "to the cause of liberating the black man." "to the cause of liberating the black man." Malcolm X and Haley, Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography Autobiography, p. xxv.10 "cellblock had a name for me: "Satan."" "cellblock had a name for me: "Satan."" Ibid., p. 256. Ibid., p. 256.11 "it was like having tea with a black panther." "it was like having tea with a black panther." Ibid., p. xxv. Ibid., p. xxv.11 his autobiography is highly exaggerated. his autobiography is highly exaggerated. See the a.n.a.lysis of Detroit Red"s criminal career in Rodnell P. Collins and Peter Bailey, See the a.n.a.lysis of Detroit Red"s criminal career in Rodnell P. Collins and Peter Bailey, Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X (New York: Kensington, 1998). (New York: Kensington, 1998).
Chapter 1: "Up, You Mighty Race!".
15 15 on July 29, 1890 on July 29, 1890. Early (Earl) Little"s death certificate, March 30, 1931, Michigan Department of Community Health, Division of Vital Statistics, State Official Number 1338243. Copy in possession of author. There is some uncertainty about the precise birth date of Earl Little. According to the 1930 census, E. Little was born in 1891-92. However, in his 1959 pa.s.sport application Malcolm placed the birth of his father, "J. Early Little," in 1889. See MX FBI, Memorandum, July 27, 1959; and MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 17, 1959, p. 31.15 eight thousand bales each year eight thousand bales each year. "Reynolds," The Butler Herald The Butler Herald (Georgia), June 20, 191 1. (Georgia), J