Malcolm X in Encyclopedia of African American History (original) (raw)
Related papers
Malcolm X and the Search for the Universality of Blackness
2012
This biography of Malcolm was more than a decade in the making. It was written by Manning Marable, who died on April 1, 2011, shortly before the publication of his reevaluation of Malcolm’s life and politics. Marable was one of the foremost scholars of Black politics in the United States. Here Marable has crafted a compelling intellectual history of Malcolm in which he shows how Malcolm’s thoughts grew out of social and religious movements that first emerged within the black community during the nineteenth century.
In the volatile American society of the mid twentieth century, Malcolm was born. Like every other black youth, he felt the pain of segregation, but unlike many who where born before him and those who were his contemporary, Malcolm strongly desired a change. He knew that something was happening, he knew that something must have to be done, and he also knew that he could do something but how was not quite clear. When he eventually decided to read law in order to acquire a basic education for his course was when his father Early Little, preacher and an organizer for Marcus Garvey's universal Negro Improvement Association was murdered thereby bringing an economic strain that cut short his dream of going to the university. He became mischievous, a burglar, an armed robber and so on all targeted at the whites; it was his own little way of living his childhood dream. Providence that directs the way of great men, however landed him in a prison cell where he met with great influence and transformation. Thus, the man, Malcolm Little who went in a ruffian emerged a great force of change Malcom X that was to awaken the consciousness of both the living and the unborn.
Malcolm X, the prison years.pdf
Malcolm X, The Prison Years: The Relentless Pursuit of Formal Education, 2017
There are many good reasons why Malcolm X's legacy has outlived his short life. Though his life as a public figure lasted just thirteen years before an untimely death-murdered by gunfire at 39 years old while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom-his ideas about achieving racial justice remain among the most influential of any thinker or leader before or since. He is arguably responsible for giving birth to the movements for black pride and Black Power. Perhaps even more memorable than the challenging and powerful ideas he advanced, it was Malcolm's literary style in the fight against racism-both in speech and writingthat make him an entirely unique figure among contemporary or subsequent civil rights leaders. This is why Ossie Davis presciently predicted over fifty years ago that despite the many enemies his fiery and controversial rhetoric produced, Malcolm X would be remembered as a martyr for the cause of racial justice. So, it's not surprising that his story has been told and retold countless times through popular and scholarly literary works, films, theater, opera, music, ancillary products, and more. 2 As it stands, Malcolm's life is generally remembered as the heroic struggle of an individual who overcame extreme odds all on his own, rising from ignorance and obscurity to become one of the great thinkers and leaders of his time. But it is curious that a key period in his life-the prison yearsremains largely unexamined. And examining this period complicates what we think we know about who he was and how he came to occupy such a central and influential space in the American psyche.
"A Complex Revolutionary: Remembering the Multi-Dimensional Malcolm X"
NewBlackMan (In Exile): The Digital Home for Mark Anthony Neal - Blog, 2019
Consummate activist, gifted communicator, introspective strategist, master teacher and Pan-Africanist revolutionary are all but a minor list of descriptors that have been used in the attempts to adequately capture the complex life of Malcolm X. For many Black Americans, his life's trajectory meant much. To the transnational audience that Malcolm X attracted through his university lectures, radio & television programs, and public debates, Malcolm X had grown to mean more as his exposure increased beyond the borders of the Nation of Islam (NOI) and the United States. Though the life of Malcolm X was cut drastically short on February 21, 1965 at the age of thirty-nine, the popularity of Malcolm X for young people increased and transcended political movements, trends of popular culture and the many attempts to either minimize or distort the impact of Malcolm X to the 'glocal' Black world. Nonetheless, the general public continues to perceive Malcolm X as the chief agitator and antagonist to the likes of the more socially accepted Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Though over 930 books, 360 films & internet sources and 350 sound recordings have been excavated by scholars such as the late Manning Marable, the memory and education of Malcolm X becomes either muddled and/or reduced to his popular catchphrase, "By Any Means Necessary".
Revisiting Dyson's Malcolm X, Dr. Nilgun ANADOLU-OKUR, Journal of Black Studies, USA
In Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X, Michael E. Dyson (1995) had examined several texts on Malcolm X in order to assess the impact of his legacy not only in the U.S. but in the world. Though Dyson provided a well-documented summary of Malcolm’s life and career, as well as the consequences of Black leaders’ assassination in society, such as that of Dr. Martin Luther King, his narration presents a few difficulties. However the book is still essential reading for scholarly interests.