Malcolm X
Malcolm X (1925-1965) is one of the great prisms of American history and society. A number of national and cultural topics, broken through the refraction of his life and actions and thought, yield a spectrum of perspectives, histories, and controversies. To approach what is called race in America (its political and cultural significations), you must study Malcolm X. To approach the complex history of civil rights in modern America, you must study Malcolm X. To approach the fascinating history of Islam in America, you must study Malcolm X. The topics proliferate the more you follow the threads. Physical intimidation of African-Americans, the behavioral shipwreck of broken families, the prison experience, rural vs. urban African-American experience, gun control, militancy and the larger society, media involvement in celebrity culture, violence and national identity, transnational connections of religion and skin color, the issue of iconic commemoration and biography — all of these subjects are enriched by the life and words of Malcolm X. He is essential to know.
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska. His emotional life was scarred by a violent and alienated childhood, his intellectual life was begun in prison, and his spiritual life was ignited by the discovery of an American form of Islam. He had a extraordinary mind, nimble and creative and always alert to new information and perspectives. He had a charismatic ability to move individuals and crowds with his articulation and his skill in making clear and urgent arguments. His autobiography, as told to Alex Haley, is the best place to begin to know him. It is one of the great American autobiographies, easily on par with those by Benjamin Franklin, Henry Adams, Lincoln Steffens, and Emma Goldman, to name a good mix of classics. I also carry his speeches (still no definitive and scholarly collection of those, alas), biographies of him, the landmark portrayal of him by Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s great film, and some more recent books by a daughter.
Again, to know America, you must know Malcolm X. Be provoked. It would please him.
X [a film by Spike Lee]
X [a film by Spike Lee]
Spike Lee's comprehensive film biography of the slain civil rights leader Malcolm X is much more than the depiction of a great man's life. It is a film that shows, through the powerful story of one man, a person's ability to reinvent himself and change his life. It is fueled by a towering, charismatic performance by Denzel Washington as Malcolm X (Washington had previously played Malcolm in the early 1980s in an off-Broadway play, When the Chickens Come Home To Roost). The film breaks Malcolm X's life down into three acts. The first deals with the troubled childhood of Malcolm Little, whose father is murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and whose mother is institutionalized for insanity. Malcolm grows up and gets a job as a Pullman porter, calling himself Detroit Red. Getting involved with Harlem gangster West Indian Archie (Delroy Lindo), Malcolm finds himself in prison. The second section follows his life in prison, where a fellow inmate, Baines (Albert Hall), introduces him to the teachings of the Nation of Islam. The third section follows Malcolm's religious conversion as a messianic disciple of the Honorable Elijah Mohammed (Al Freeman Jr.). During this fervent immersion into the Nation of Islam, he becomes an incendiary speaker for the movement and marries Betty Shabazz (Angela Bassett). Malcolm X preaches a doctrine of hate against the white man, but a pilgrimage to Mecca softens his beliefs and he endeavors to break free of the strict dogma of the Nation of Islam, with tragic results.