Heroes Of The Civil Right Movement:

Malcolm X, Tides of Change

MALCOLM X, TIDES OF CHANGE

By Trevor K. McNeil

A Complicated History

No one is perfect, including and especially those who claim to be. It is usually a mistake to meet one’s hero’s, particularly because it is difficult for anyone to live up to the hype. No where is this more true than with political leaders and martyrs. Many is the celebrated later found out to hold some less than savory ideas or to have done some strange things.

Revisionism Not Necessarily Bad

One of the few cases this has worked in reverse is the legacy of Lord Byron who, while largely thought of as a swaggering sex-mad dandy, was also a strong advocate for the labor movement and republican ideals, and was mostly against the church and war in general. A labor supporting, anti-monarchist, Republican pacifist not the safest thing to be in 19th century Britain. An American early civil rights leader that has had a morphing of his image recently is the famous and infamous 1950-1960’s civil rights activist Malcolm X.  In your case you are interested, Malcolm took the last name of “X” because he had no way to trace his African ancestral family name. That ancestral name has been lost to history because of the slave trade.

A Voice In The Wilderness

It is difficult to understate the influence Malcolm X had on the struggle for racial reckoning in the early 20th century. Still held up as an example along with other Civil Rights leaders such as  Martin Luther King, Jr. and the lesser known, but no less important, Medgar Evers. Malcolm is the most controversial. Preaching a ‘by any means necessary’ approach to race relations.  Such ‘means’  included violence against the police and the state, as well as anyone else who threatened black lives. X also propagated the idea of black separatism, and even black nationalism. Not in America mind you, despite being a believer in so-called ‘black supremacy’ at the time, he wasn’t arguing that black people should take over America, so much as form their own nation separate from it. He was often very critical of the mainstream Civil Rights movement, particularly due to its principle of non-violence and preference for racial integration, particularly in terms of schooling.

Rage of Youth

While generally associated with the 1960s many of the most controversial statements made by Malcolm X, were made in the early 1950’s.  The 1950’s was a time of  ardent racism in America, when the notorious Jim Crow laws were  at their full strength. For context, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in 1955. Malcolm X first came to attention with his fiery rhetoric in 1952. While it in no way takes back or erases some of his more unsavory statements, it is important to keep in mind that he was 27 years old at the time. An adult to be sure but, as anyone who has made it to the saner side of 30 can attest, with age can come perspective.

Stepping Back

By the early 1960s, Malcolm X had distanced himself from the controversial and notoriously violent Nation of Islam. Instead he converted to Sunni Islam, generally considered the more moderate of the Islamic paths. It was a first step on a path to reform. The once violent firebrand embraced the explicitly non-violent mainstream Civil Rights movement, as put forward by King and Evers after completing the Hajj to Mecca.

Ghost From the Past

In February 1965 Malcolm X was gunned down in Harlem during a speaking engagement. It has been believed for decades that members of the Nation of Islam assassinated Malcolm X,  due to the severely strained relationship. Two Nation of Islam members were convicted in Malcolm X’s murder. On the other hand King and Evers were both killed by Klansmen. If anything, showing the backlash from angered white people was not the only threat the Civil Rights movement faced, and it is, therefore, even more impressive it managed to largely succeed.

New Evidence Emerging

Fifty-six years after his murder new evidence has come to light as I write this piece, indicating that the FBI and the NYPD were involved in the killing of Malcolm X.  A retired NYPD undercover officer admitted in a death bed confession that he had been responsible for making sure that Malcolm X’s security detail was arrested before the assassination. The confession further states this move would guarantee Malcolm X would have no door security at the Audubon Ballroom where he was killed. Malcolm’s family is asking the murder investigation be re-opened. In a separate case, last year the Manhattan DA began reviewing the convictions of those Nation of Islam members convicted of Malcolm’s murder as part of an Innocent Project request.

On Saturday the NYPD released the following statement:

“Several months ago, the Manhattan District Attorney initiated a review of the investigation and prosecution that resulted in two convictions for the murder of Malcom X. The NYPD has provided all available records relevant to that case to the District Attorney. The Department remains committed to assist with that review.” At this point the best I can say is, time will tell, as to who killed Malcolm X one of the heroic voices of the civil right movement.