The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

“King offered racists the other cheek, Malcolm the back of his hand. Freedom was so important to him that Malcolm counseled risking all, except one’s sense of self-respect, in the fight. Nonviolence, he taught, unduly narrowed an oppressed peoples’ options.

Over the three decades of researching Malcolm’s life, Les Payne always considered the message of the above quote to be the core takeaway from Malcolm’s ministry. Freedom was the master virtue, to be pursued at all costs. Nonviolence could lead to myopia and delay or diminish needed changes. As always, Malcolm led by example. He risked—and lost—his life living the values he preached to others.

“If fear of the gunmen gripped Mrs. Little, her children detected no sign in her tone and body language…The children, in fact, drew lasting strength from the manner in which their mother stood her ground that spring evening before the bullying white strangers on horseback.”

Louise refuses to submit to the armed Klansmen who demand to see her husband. She is calm and defiant. Her children see these traits and will live their lives in similar fashion. The Little children did not believe they had to treat white people as their superiors, because the most important people in their lives—Earl and Louise—insisted that they were not anyone’s inferiors.

“Grisly photographs of Brown’s body roasting on the pyre were sold as postcards at the time. And rope used in his lynching reportedly fetched ten cents a length as souvenirs. Such was the savagery of whites in Omaha and the barbarism in matters of justice for Negroes across America in the 1920s—and well beyond.”

William Brown’s lynching provides a grim example of the era in which the Littles were raising their children. Their defiance and unwillingness to acquiesce to white demands is all the more notable given that they could have been lynched themselves. Louise and Earl insisted on black dignity at a time when doing so could have lethal consequences.

“Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.”

Louise and Earl took this credo of Garvey’s to heart. They emphasized to their children that they were not treat people who disparaged them with deference and submissiveness. Malcolm would show this trait later in his decision to fight with his mind rather than his body, although he was not opposed to physical violence when he believed it was warranted. The expansion of his mind in prison led him away from a life of petty crime.

“When white people find out that you don’t have that inferiority complex, they deal with you at that level; it makes a difference. A lot of our problems we bring on ourselves by our own inferiority feelings sometimes.”

Wilfred agreed with Garvey and his parents when they taught the importance of dignity. The Littles do not apologize for who they are, and some of them are white people’s first experience of talking to a Black person who is not apologetic for their existence. Showing inferiority, even in order to keep the peace in the racist South, perpetuated the continued black struggle and emboldened their oppressors.

“As Malcolm grew older, he would feel quite differently about his father’s death—and would boldly express his view to the world.”

Wilfred and the other children accepted that Earl’s death was an accident. There was no proof of violence. Malcolm, however, continued to believe the Klan was involved. He used his father’s death to fuel and sustain many of his ideas during his ministry. If his father was murdered, Malcolm saw that as an unforgivable crime. His inability to consider Earl’s death an accident narrowed his focus and limited his options.

“Slow money was in doing what is right…but the fast money is in doing what’s wrong. And he wanted fast money, so Malcolm was involved in anything that would bring him fast money—other than hurting somebody.”

Wilfred describes his early impressions of Malcolm after seeing that his younger brother smoked and sold marijuana. Malcolm’s worth ethic was indomitable later on when he was working with the Nation of Islam. However, when he was younger he relished any shortcut that could make him easy money in less time. His parents’ work admirable ethic would not influence him until he was an adult.

“Malcolm demonstrated none of the self-doubt, insecurities, or fears that Negroes commonly displayed during close encounters with members of the group dominating American society. This manner emanated from parental conditioning, reinforced by the Garvey philosophy and sustained through Malcolm’s life, even in the face of clear and present danger, by his strong penchant for risk taking.”

Malcolm’s boldness—and sometimes recklessness—enabled him to seek opportunities that other black teenagers would not. He dated white women, talked back to white cops, and looked white people in the eye when he spoke to them. Despite the continuance of systemic racism, in the present day these actions are ordinary. In the Jim Crow era, however, they likely would have been provocative at best and dangerous at worst. However, Danger did not temper Malcolm’s demeanor. His early years reflect his willingness later to accept the consequences of his words and actions, even if they led to his death.

“Malcolm was mostly a camouflage person…He portrayed an image that he could have underworld ties. That’s the way he walked around Boston. People knew this cat was into something. Being so young, he got into the habit of talking with such a heavy voice to impress people that he was older. He had an expert choice of words. And he was not a violent man out on the streets.”

Jarvis describes Malcolm’s commitment to his image. Malcolm wanted to be taken seriously even though he had not street credibility as a teenager. He never had a problem impressing people who were older than he was. People treated him with the gravity of someone who was capable of committing violence, even though he wasn’t violent.

“By employing self-control and what he called reverse psychology, Malcolm sought to maneuver women—especially those who had influence over other men—into his sphere, and thereby establish control.”

Malcolm had a take it or leave it attitude with women, which they were unaccustomed to among men who made sex the singular focus of their existence. Malcolm enjoyed seducing and controlling women, which made him feel powerful and enabled him to enlist women like Beatrice in his brief burglary ring.

“In addition to appreciating Bembry’s rich vocabulary, Malcolm noticed, upon further observation, that the older inmate’s prison-yard dialectic was based on a command of historical facts, statistics, and the writings of cited philosophers, experts, and scholars. It was not just words simply. And Bembry had a knack for rendering lofty ideas accessible to even the unschooled.”

Bembry is the catalyst for Malcom’s intellectual awakening in prison. He is a powerful speaker and thinker who can relate to anyone who will listen. He also shows Malcolm the superficial nature of thinking and speaking that is unbacked by knowledge and statistics. He will later emulate Bembry in his rhetorical flourishes, his appeal to data, and his ability to address any crowd on their level.

“Blacks at that time […] needed something to lift us out of the caretaker mentality. We needed someone to tell us we were somebody important.”

Alston describes the effect that Noble Drew Ali’s message had on him and others in the early 1920s. He had not been immune to aspects of the inferiority complex describe elsewhere by Wilfred Little. Ali’s message of pride and self-respect gave Alston a chance at forging a new identity for himself. Not only did Ali preach that black people were not inferior, but he also insisted that they were important and critical to global history.

“Malcolm was interested, according to Wilfred, but had a problem accepting that ‘the white man is a devil.’ That was a problem for him. He couldn’t accept that.”

Wilfred recalls one of Malcolm’s major obstacles to accepting Elijah’s teachings. Malcolm had white friends before going to prison. He did not believe that his friends were devils simply because of their skin tone. He felt that condemning a white man to the status of a devil because he was white was no different than white people treating black people as inferior because they were black.

“I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.”

After reading Elijah’s teachings, Malcolm accepts his doctrine. His conversion is his moment of arising from the dead. He believes that the most important things that a person can know are already visible. Finding the truth is a matter of accepting observable realities, not of persistent seeking. He believed that Elijah’s teachings were objectively true, and that the truths should be self-evident if one was willing to look.

“Here was one of the white man’s characteristic behavior patterns—where black men are concerned. He loves himself so much that he is startled if he discovers that his victims don’t share his vainglorious self-opinion.”

Malcolm responds to white America’s reaction to the documentary The Hate That Hate Produced. He found it hypocritical that white people responded incredulously to his claims that they are evil by nature. It amused him that they focused on how his words affected them, rather than on the destruction that white actions had wreaked on the black community.

“Unlike the civil rights movement, the Black Muslim doctrine was aimed not at whites, but at Negroes themselves. Malcolm popularized the notion that, despite centuries of bitter treatment, Negroes continued not only to love their white, racist, ‘Christian’ enemies, but also to hate themselves.”

Malcolm frequently responded to claims that his Muslims were the black equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan. However, Malcolm encouraged black people to respect themselves, protect themselves, and to realize that trying to change whites was a futile endeavor. Subservience to white ideals also encouraged the cycle of inferiority and self-loathing that Black Muslim doctrine fought against. They could take responsibility for their own actions rather than trying to change anyone else’s attitudes.

“We can work together and put a stop to this integration.”

Malcolm is uncomfortable with Fellows’ constant reiterations that they are allies who want the same thing. He does not want to cooperate with people who consider the lynching of black people a duty and an honor. However, they do want the same thing—complete separation of the races—but for very different reasons.

“Malcolm had a way of disparaging whites in the vilest manner and yet not provoking individual reporters into taking it personally. He was effective at assuaging the feelings of white reporters in attendance.”

Malcolm makes for such good media that interviewers keep covering his message even though they are often the targets of his remarks. He is such a gifted, compelling speaker and presence that white reporters often praise him even as he condemns them with his words. Without the help of white journalists, Malcolm would not have been able to spread his message as widely and with such speed.

“By publicly celebrating the existence of blond, blue-eyed Muslims, as her did in his reports from Mecca, Malcolm was breaking with decades of his own preaching.”

Malcolm had as much conviction in his beliefs after his departure from the Nation of Islam as he did before. However, his beliefs were changing. Malcolm could have remained silent about his acceptance of white Muslims as his brothers. However, it was more important to him to publicly speak the truth as he saw it—even though it meant acknowledging his own mistakes—than to preserve his own safety. He was always willing to accept the consequences of his words.

“That discussion with the ambassador gave him a new insight—one which I like—that the white man is not inherently evil, but America’s racist society influences him to act evilly.”

After meeting with William Atwood, the U.S. Ambassador in Nairobi, Malcolm has another epiphany. He no longer condemns white people as innately evil. Rather, they are enabled by a society that supports racism. It was often in the best interest of white people—financially and socially—to uphold Jim Crow laws. Malcolm does not consider white people as victims, but he comes to see them as people who, under a racist capitalistic system, never had a chance to avoid evil actions that the system compelled them to commit.

“[Malcolm] seemed very hopeful. His overwhelmingly positive reception in Africa by blacks, whites, Asians, and Arabs alike had pushed him towards believing that people could come together.”

John Lewis describes the effect that Malcolm’s traveling had on him. Malcolm found himself accepted by people he had previously railed against. Some of his pessimism relented. If people who he had demonized could accept him and his new message, then he had to admit that perhaps he could accept them as well.

“The Nation of Islam had been violent, Malcolm said, ‘violent from coast to coast. Muslims, in the Muslim movement, have been involved in cold, calculated violence. And not at one time have they been involved in violence against the Ku Klux Klan. They’re capable. They’re qualified. They’re equipped. They know how to do it—only to another brother.’”

Malcolm exposes Elijah’s hypocrisy to the crowd at the Audubon Ballroom. If there was any group that the NOI should have targeted with its violent actions, surely the KKK, with its gleeful ledgers of lynchings, was more deserving than anyone. However, the NOI worked with the KKK on their agenda of race separation. They reserved their violence for black critics of Elijah Muhammad and his teachings.

“I have never said or done anything in my life that I wasn’t prepared to suffer the consequences for.”

Malcolm knows that the NOI will target him for naming names and speaking out against Elijah’s hypocrisy. His commitment to the truth is more important to him that his safety. He knows better than most that the NOI is willing to commit violence. He will ultimately pay with his life for his willingness to speak out against the NOI.