Malcolm X

[smark21]

I just finished reading the new biography of Malcolm X that was written by the late African American History/Studies scholar Manning Marable. Very interesting, informative and well written book. Marable got to exam a lot of FBI files kept on Malcolm, the Honorable Elijah Muhammed and others as well as access to a lot of other sources. Marable does a very good job tracing Malcolm X's ideological evolution in his last years of his life but he makes it quite clear that Malcolm X was not going to become a liberal reformer at anytime and that he was staking out a Pan-Africanist/3rd World Revolutionary stance at the time he was assasinated. Marable also goes into detail about the assasination and the pathetic NYPD investigator and later the prosecution and conviction of the men charged, two of whom were nowhere near the vicinity of the Audobahn Ballroom the day of the killing.

I was wondering what other members thought of Malcolm X..his life, his accomplishments and his ideals.

As for me, I've saw Spike Lee's movie when it came out in 1992, and before that, had read The Autobiography as well as several collections of his speeches that were published by Pathfinder Press, the publishing arm of the Socialist Workers Party.

[splanky]

I have not read the late Marable's book on Malcolm yet but I plan to. That Stanley Crouch gave it a quite favorable view last year tells me it doesn't paint a pretty picture of Malcolm because Stanley hates Malcolm's icon status in Black history.
I could talk all day about how much Stanley just doesn't get it but my blood pressures already up this morning and I need to
chill this weekend. That said, I LOVED Malcolm and always will no matter what is said and have since I was a child. As I had
muslims in my family at the time, we were shocked when he was killed. Fast forward many years and I would be shocked again when Sister Betty would be killed by her and his' grandson. I attended the wake for her in Harlem and I felt really bad
for not only the family but for her longitme friend Yuri Kochiyami who I had met before Betty's passing. Damn, too many memories. I've read and owned Malcolm's autobiography over a half dozen times; everytime I've loaned it to someone they
always kept it. It was always "Oh, soon, I'm not done...", "Sorry, I lost it...", "No, you didn't loan that to me, maybe you loaned it to my sister" or some other excuse, so I stopped asking for it back. I also have read over a dozen books on his life
from different perspectives, collections of speeches and I highly recommend readling the book about Betty's life with him. Sorry, I can't remember the title right now. Malcolm still lives in my heart to this day...

[arrr&bee]

Malcolm was a phophet as was dr.king,men who had a vision and spoke out against injustice knowing that it would cost them their lives,if you examine history men who truly posed a threat to the status que were almost always silenced.

[smark21]

There's a number of Malcolm clips and speeches up on youtube, including the complete Ballot or the Bullet speech [[sound quality is not the best):

[timmyfunk]

I have not read the late Marable's book on Malcolm yet but I plan to. That Stanley Crouch gave it a quite favorable view last year tells me it doesn't paint a pretty picture of Malcolm because Stanley hates Malcolm's icon status in Black history.
I could talk all day about how much Stanley just doesn't get it but my blood pressures already up this morning and I need to
chill this weekend. That said, I LOVED Malcolm and always will no matter what is said and have since I was a child. As I had
muslims in my family at the time, we were shocked when he was killed. Fast forward many years and I would be shocked again when Sister Betty would be killed by her and his' grandson. I attended the wake for her in Harlem and I felt really bad
for not only the family but for her longitme friend Yuri Kochiyami who I had met before Betty's passing. Damn, too many memories. I've read and owned Malcolm's autobiography over a half dozen times; everytime I've loaned it to someone they
always kept it. It was always "Oh, soon, I'm not done...", "Sorry, I lost it...", "No, you didn't loan that to me, maybe you loaned it to my sister" or some other excuse, so I stopped asking for it back. I also have read over a dozen books on his life
from different perspectives, collections of speeches and I highly recommend readling the book about Betty's life with him. Sorry, I can't remember the title right now. Malcolm still lives in my heart to this day...

Splankadelic, do not...and I mean DO NOT get me started on Stanley Crouch. If he is supposed to represent the 'black intellectual', then I'll leave it alone. What would bring your blood pressure down and put a smile on your face is a clip of Crouch and James Mtume debating over the relevance of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew. Mtume cuts him to shreds. While you're on youtube, you should check out the clips of Malcolm from Canada. Very fascinating.

[paladin]

Malcolm's autobiography over a half dozen times; everytime I've loaned it to someone they
always kept it. It was always "Oh, soon, I'm not done...", "Sorry, I lost it...", "No, you didn't loan that to me, maybe you loaned it to my sister" or some other excuse,

A great man, great posts and a great thread.



I haven't read Marable's book but its on my to do list.......