Malcolm X Summary

Malcom X This poignant point of view written about Malcolm X by Manning Marable shows Malcom transforming from an angry, scared boy to an enlightened visionary. In Marable’s work, he describes how Malcolm’s life was challenging. Malcolm’s father, Earl Little, was a Baptist minister and strongly supported the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Malcolm’s father was a visible example of African-Americans in leadership roles. Sadly, even this relationship was clouded by racism. When Malcolm was six, his father was attacked and killed by a white supremacist group. The rest of the family was split apart following this unforeseen tragedy. Obviously, Malcolm’s childhood was permeated with racism, but this sort of bombardment of injustice
He was allowed to use his “holy name” publicly as others had not been in the past. The holy name is given to followers after a period of time when they have been devout in their duties and promoted through the ranks. Belonging to the Lost Tribe of Shabazz, to use this as a last name was permitted only to the initiated. During this time debates between Malcolm and other ideological rivals was gathering heat and the people loved them. He married Betty Sanders during these buoyant times and although the family of Betty did not approve of him, eventually the marriage went ahead. According to the dated NOI files from March of 1959, correspondence between Malcolm and Elijah Poole showed that they in fact had not been as compatible as show to the outside world. This was especially in the area of sex and private
His assassination not only lionized him to his devotees but also confirmed the fears that his enemies and detractors espoused, namely that Malcolm was a victim of his own violent rhetoric. Marable then flows into the Epilogue and research notes and gives the methodology for how he went about his research, his sources and the reasons for his deeply held convictions. Others have come out in strong defense of the legacy of Malcolm, his own daughters, some of the men said by Marable to by co-conspirators and other researches. What is unfortunate is that Marable died days before the release and could not be here to be cross-examined. In spite of all of this, this book was remarkable and well written. The researcher chose not to include the footnotes on the same page but rather after each chapter; but to his credit he put his own suppositions in plain words and was careful not to mix between those and the facts on the ground. Whether one agrees with it or not, this is a welcome addition to all the literature on Malcolm X and is perhaps a good distillation of all the collated literature to read before picking up the Autobiography of Malcolm X. In conclusion, as said before Malcolm X is not a role model for the Muslim Ummah. He is not one of our leaders. Rather, he is a source of where we should be headed, not where we have reached.