Malcolm X and His Complex Message

Legends and history are inseparable. "If the true history of the world were ever told - and it never will be - it would be told through myths and legends" (Fleet ix). Malcolm X (1925-1965) was an historical figure who played a mythic role in the African-American consciousness even while he lived. At his death, an antagonistic Time magazine would write grudgingly, "Malcolm X had a hard-core following of no more than 100 - but he was more or less admired by thousands...deep in their hearts" ("Races"). This was a man whose career was born in violence and crime - and whose murder was to presage riots and civil violence that would begin in the Black ghetto neighborhood of Watts, Los Angeles only a few months later, then sweep through the United States for years to follow in cities as far apart as Newark and Detroit. For over a decade of public prominence, Malcolm X made inflammatory and provocative speeches, denouncing white society in terms of "devils" ("Famous" 1). Yet, as the legend goes, by his death he had "modified his views" ("Famous" 1); in this version of "history," the riots of the 1960s would not have been approved by Malcolm X. In contemporary parlance, the image of Malcolm X has been revived in films, commercial merchandising and pop culture. The myth, the message, the history and the man are complicated. Few who invoke the name of Malcolm X pay attention to his complex message.

Malcolm X was born "Malcolm Little" in Omaha, Nebraska on May 19, 1925. He was

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ppeared in 1934; the movement's leadership was assumed by his lieutenant, Elijah Muhammad (n�e Elijah Poole, 1897-1975), who proclaimed himself the "Messenger of Allah". Elijah Muhammad organized the movement along the general lines of Islamic lifestyle principles - and discipline - with the added "message" that all humankind derived from Black forebears: Other races - red, yellow and white - resulted only after a wicked and long-lived scientist named Yacub succeeded over many generations of genetic experiments in achieving a "bleached-out white race of people" ("Races" 3). The philosophy of the Black Muslims may have been founded on shaky theological grounds, but there was an incisive African-American message at the core of its teachings: the identity of a first-class human, not a second-class citizen. Malcolm assumed the surname "X" to replace "the white slave-master name which had been imposed on my paternal forebears" ("Races"). Muslim prohibitions against tobacco, alcohol and promiscuous sex proclaimed another important message to the Black community: self-control. Identity and self-control were the Black Muslims' call to action, differing greatly from the mainstream civil rights movement of Martin Luther King: whic

Category: History - M