Malcolm X - thief, junkie, pimp, jailbird, family guy, Muslim, speaker, visionary and much more ..... Black Power on GoSee

Malcolm X (born 19th May 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska in very modest circumstances; assassinated on the 21st of February 1965 in Washington Heights, New York City) was born as Malcolm Little. The X is a remnant from his time at the 'Nation of Islam', which rejected the surnames of African Americans, claiming they were all slave names.

After his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, he renamed himself to El Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He was a word-wielding US-American leader of the black civil rights movement and did not shy away from intentionally extending his horizon over the course of his life.

From thief to pimp, to Muslim with a 'women to the kitchen' philosophy, to Martin Luther King – the denouncer of the 'domestic Negro' and finally the world-spinning freedom theorist for all the black people on the globe. In the end, he even tolerated the occasional help of white people. A long journey indeed.

When Malcolm publicly confronted the very controversial leader of the Nation of Islam and his former mentor, Elijah Muhammad, with his extra-marital affairs, he was taken under police protection on the 16th of 1964 due to anonymous threats.

On the 21st of February 1965, the quarter-Scotsman, his mother Louise was half-white, held a lecture at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights when a smoke bomb detonated. The bodyguards apprehended the culprits and allowed Malcolm to return to the stage without protection. 22-year old Thomas Hagan stepped forward, drew his sawed-off shotgun out of his coat and shot Malcolm X right into the heart. Two more assassins fired even more pistol shots at him. The forensic doctor registered 21 bullet wounds.

Thomas was a member of the Nation of Islam and was sentenced to a life in prison but was released on probation on the 27th of April 2010 and he had already been living in an open prison for two decades already, which means he went about his regular work and only had to pay a visit to the Lincoln Correctional Facility in New York, located on the 110th street, only 50 blocks from where it all happened in the first place.

In early April 2011, the biography 'Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention' by the US-Historian Manning Marable was published, in which Marable claims that most of the parties involved in the still unsolved murder conspiracy are still free men. Even more: the FBI and the police force allegedly knew of the assassination but tolerated its devolution.

Malcolm X is considered an exceptional figure and vanguard of 'Black consciousness' to this day. The more tragic if one observes what remains of New York's former largest ballroom, build in 1912 by the film producer William Fox, who founded the Fox Film Corporation later, and the location of Malcolm X's last public appearance. Nothing but a façade.

The neighbouring Columbia University took over the historic location and generously allowed the corner where the assassination took place, including microphone and blood stain, to go untouched and calls it a 'Museum' in a rather PR-effective twist. A title that is very much open to interpretation and quite a courageous one to choose regarding the context.

It is a shame that Malcolm X himself cannot comment on their lax handling of black history – sometimes the world remains a black & white place after all.


Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Manning Marable (Author)
Hardcover: 608 pages
Publisher: Viking Adult; 1St Edition
English
ISBN-10: 0670022209
ISBN-13: 978-0670022205
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 2.1 inches