December 04, 2020
X Factor
In the BLM era, the relevance of civil rights martyr Malcolm X resonates. The 2020 National Book Award for the best nonfiction book has been won by “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X” co-authored by the father-daughter duo of Les and Tamara Payne.
The award-winning biography took nearly 30 years. Les Payne, a Pulitzer-prize investigative journalist, died in 2018. Tamara Payne, his daughter, had this to say on receiving the best book prize: “We’ve seen how Malcolm X has influenced people internationally. Today, we see the youth all over the world continue to embrace him because his message still rings true.” For multi-factorial reasons, America has been slow to acknowledge the true scope of Malcolm’s impact.
On February 25, 1964, Malcolm X watched in person then Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston in Miami to become the world heavyweight boxing champion. It was Malcolm who first facilitated Ali’s transition into Islam. A year later, on February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated.
55 years later, the George Floyd strangulation in public view gave fresh impetus to the legacy of Malcolm X. Alex Haley’s 1965 book, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, is heralded as one of the seminal books in American literature. Malcolm’s ideas had a transformative impact on a young man by the name of Barrack Hussein Obama. In his book, “Dreams From My Father,” originally published in July 1995, the future President recalled how in his youth "only Malcolm X's autobiography seemed to offer something different…his insistence on respect spoke to me, promised a new order, martial in its discipline.” As a young Senator serving on Capitol Hill, he displayed on his office wall a picture of Ali knocking out Liston.
Spike Lee’s 1992 movie, “Malcolm X”, had a similar impact on segments of mainstream America, spurring a ‘Malcolmania.’ Then, President Bill Clinton proudly wore an X cap, and, on January 20, 1999, Malcolm X became the first Muslim depicted on a US postage stamp.
Malcolm, a proponent of black separatism, underwent a major epiphany when he undertook the Hajj in April 1964. In his autobiography, Malcolm acknowledged how Islam transformed his thinking: “The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites made blanket indictments against blacks.” He related: “In my thirty-nine years on this earth, the Holy City of Mecca had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of All and felt like a complete human being.”
During his travels, he met luminaries like Nasser in Cairo, Ben Bella in Algiers, and Kwame Nkrumah in Accra, Ghana.
Malcolm X had a sense of prescience and he even predicted his own death, telling Alex Haley that, by the time the book would be published, he would be a dead man.
The life of Malcolm X is a classic saga of valor, integrity, grit, and indomitability. When American Muslims bemoan that they don’t have role models to look up to, they need look no further than Malcolm X. As for American blacks, the sad truth is that many are still uncomfortable in acknowledging the huge debt owed to Malcolm X.
Yet, there is a flicker of a fresh narrative. I recently saw an edifying movie, “Residue” on the experience of a Los Angeles-based black filmmaker returning to his old Washington, DC residential neighborhood to reconnect with his parents and old friends. When he first opens the door of his parents’ house, he sees a large framed portrait of Malcolm X.
The epilogue of the “Malcolm X” movie shows Nelson Mandela standing up and proclaiming “I am Malcolm.”
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