Malcolm X: 55 Years Since his Death
By: Nikolaos Barbaressos
Tags: Social Justice, Politics, Race Relations, Malcolm X, Culture

Fifty-five years ago, today, on February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated. That day a family lost a husband, father, brother. The United States lost one of the most brilliant orators and thinkers of the 20th century, and Muslims lost a leader and a role model.

Marion S. Trikosko / Public domain

The Early Life

Malcolm X born Malcolm Little on May 19th, 1925. In Omaha, Nebraska was a boy who initially did not understand what meant to be black in the United States. A boy whose dreams were crushed when a white teacher told him that he should become a carpenter because he was good with his hands instead of following his dream of becoming a lawyer.

With his father possibly murdered by the Kux Kux Klan and his mother hospitalized in a mental institution, Malcolm found himself inside the foster care system until he moved to New York. Once in New York, he learned to hustle, steal, and pimp out women to survive. In his Autobiography as Told to Alex Haley, Malcolm describes a young man always taking risks, living under constant danger, and obsessed with wearing the most elegant clothes on his night outings and burning his scalp to straighten his hair.

In 1946, Malcolm’s luck ran out; he is arrested by the police for robbing and breaking inside someone’s home and gets sentenced to prison for ten years. Quite often, when an induvial enters the American prison system, it is hard to ever get out of it. The prison system is no rehabilitation; it is not a pathway to learning from your crimes and come out a clean person. The system is designed in a way that individuals will always be dependent on it like a drug and always will go back to it no matter how many times they try not to. Once in prison, the odds are stacked up against you. Not for Malcolm Little, though. Malcolm will enter prison with a slave name as he will refer to it and come out of jail as Malcolm X.

Today Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the United States, and most conversions take place in jail where a high number of African — Americans convert to Islam. That was the case during Malcolm’s years as well. During the time Malcolm went to prison, the Nation of Islam was spreading within the prison system. With Elijah Muhammed as its leader, the Nation was rapidly gaining new members. Malcolm was one of these members. While many folks will be just members of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was not going to be just a member. He would become its greatest asset.

Malcolm X was born to be a leader, and the early signs of his leadership came in prison. Malcolm became the spokesman of the Muslim prisoners and he demanded that they get cells that are facing the East, as Muslims pray in the direction of the Qibla, which is in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In addition to the cells, Malcolm demanded the Muslims prisoners are given meals free of pork and threaten to write to the Egyptian consulate if the demands were not met.

In the new biography Malcolm X: A life Reinvention, the author Manning Marable writes about the event and labels it as the event which will define the rest of Malcolm’s life; his political career and the eventual fall out with Elijah Muhammed and the Nation of Islam.

The Rise And Fall within the Nation of Islam

Malcolm came out of prison in 1952 and immediately got involved with the Nation of Islam. As Ta-Nehasi Coates recounts on his piece The Legacy of Malcolm X for the Atlantic, once out of prison, Malcolm could not believe that the Nation had only a few hundred recruits. Malcolm X got to work, and under his supervision, the Nation grew tremendously. As the newly released Netflix documentary Who Killed Malcolm X? points out, Malcolm was blunt and his words inspired so many African — Americans who felt like nothing they did matter, who felt that the status quo will always be the same and against them, who felt like a young Malcolm did when he used to burn his scalp to straighten his hair.

Malcolm X gave them hope, belief, confidence, and inspired them to leave their old lives and become Muslims. While recruiting, Malcolm used rhetoric, which made the establishment and even Elijah Muhammed feel uneasy. Despite their claims that Malcolm advocated for violence, that is by far the truth. Malcolm X supported violence only when violence was inflicted upon his people. He did not believe in the peaceful movements Martin Luther King Jr was advocating. Malcolm X did not believe African — Americans would get their rights by allowing themselves to be beaten by the police and in nonviolent demonstrations, sit-ins, etc.

Malcolm wanted his people to stand up and take their rights because none would hand it to them. As Malcolm became more political, his criticism of the United States intensified. He called out the imperialism of the United States, unjust policies and race topics, etc. That made J Edgar Hoover very nervous and had Malcolm watched and his phones wiretapped. Who Killed Malcolm X? claims Malcolm’s rise to power with the Nation made a lot of people around Elijah Muhammed feel uneasy, and the FBI exploited the situation. Malcolm was already under tremendous pressure by Elijah Muhammad to watch his mouth. and right after JFK’s assassination and following a statement Malcolm made about his death, Malcolm got suspended by the Nation. That marked the end of the association of Malcolm X with the Nation of Islam.

The Pilgrimage to Hajj and Death.

In his autobiography, as told to Alex Haley, Malcolm describes his experience performing Hajj. Hajj is an intense religious pilgrimage every Muslim men and women must take at least once during their lifetime if they are able to.

Malcolm comes back to the U.S. as someone who is more at peace with himself and a slightly different mindset. Before leaving for Mecca, Malcolm believed that white folks could not live side by side with African — American people hence his constant calling for segregation. While in Mecca, he sees white men sharing food with black men, sleeping next to each other, talking as race and skin color did not matter, as it should not as Islam speaks out against racism.

Malcolm changed his rhetoric. He started believing that perhaps both races can co-exist in the U.S. as long as everyone’s rights are given and respected. That was the Malcolm X the establishment feared the most. A Malcolm that is going a little more mainstream. Malcolm’s calling out of the imperial policies of the U.S and the criticism of the government kept intensifying. Simultaneously Malcolm continues to criticize Elijah Muhammed and the Nation. It was at that moment that Malcolm knew he was a marked man and his days were numbered. He was right; on February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X was gun down during rally in Harlem. He was 39 years old.

Malcolm X: The Legacy

With the assassination of Malcolm X, the government and the Nation thought that was it. They were wrong. Malcolm X was not just a preacher for the Nation of Islam, going, rogue. He is perhaps one of the greatest intellectuals of the 21st century. His talks on race relations, U.S. foreign policy, are still relevant today. His speech The Ballot or The Ballot is by far one of the most profound speeches given by any intellectual that speaks to truths the United States deals with still today.

Malcolm spoke of the white racist liberal and the white conservative racist and how they are both of the same coins, the liberal hides his true feelings, and the conservative does not. He talked about U.S. foreign wars and how the U.S. has not really won a war after World War II, and he did not even get to witness the end of the Vietnam war, the Gulf wars, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Malcolm was destined to be in this world for a little while. People like him are not meant to live long. Malcolm X was a man of integrity; he stood for justice no matter how hard it was at times. He refused to back down from his beliefs even when it was understood he would face certain death. Malcolm left us early; his spirt, however, did not.

His fighting spirit remains with all the activists who put their bodies in the front lines against injustice today. His spirit remains with the black lives matter movement who are not afraid to take a stand. His spirit remains with Colin Kaepernick, who took a principled knee even though it cost his NFL career. His spirit remains with the young people who happen to stumble upon his autobiography and get inspired by his legacy and beliefs.

As long as there are people who stand up against injustice, Malcolm’s X words and his legacy will not be forgotten and his legacy will be carried on.

El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)

May 19th, 1925 — February 21st, 1965

“To Allah, we belong, and to Allah, we shall return”