Beyond 'The Autobiography'
http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-08/ae/29523097_1_african-american-malcolm-nationalism
Over the decades, Malcolm X's own book defined the popular view of
his life but a new biography offers a more complete look and may supplant it
May 08, 2011
By Nell Irvin Painter
MALCOLM X: A Life of Reinvention
By Manning Marable
Viking, 594 pp., illustrated, $30
Violence begets anger, the two a tragic combination in
African-American life. Until relatively recently, non-black Americans
ignored the facts of racially motivated violence, from the beatings
essential to the preservation of slavery to the lynchings and rapes
that preserved white supremacy. As late as 2000, for example,
"Without Sanctuary,'' an exhibition of postcards of lynchings, took
masses of Americans utterly by surprise.
More than racial violence went largely unseen. African-Americans were
rarely visible in American culture until the mid-20th century, and
when a black face appeared, it had better be grinning a happy darky
or at least a comforting Louis Armstrong. The fact of violence and
the prohibition against anger warped African-American life until
things began to change when Malcolm X burst into view.
Malcolm first appeared in the 1950s as an angry black man equally
proud of his anger and his blackness. His was a singular presence in
the era of "Satchmo.'' Instead of comforting white people, Malcolm
faced them down, decried police brutality, and demanded black men's
right to armed self-defense. Whether attraction to his outspokenness
outweighed the weirdness of his religion, thousands flocked to his
message of black nationalism and nascent black power and pride.
Since his death in 1965, Malcolm has become a cultural icon, defined
largely by "The Autobiography of Malcolm X,'' which was published in
the same year. While many an author has probed the phenomenon of
Malcolm X, his own version of his life, expressed in his own words,
has dominated his bibliography.
That is until now. With the publication of "Malcolm X: A Life of
Reinvention,'' Manning Marable offers a fuller portrait of the
minister, the activist, and the man, beautifully advancing our
understanding of the accomplishments of this pioneering leader within
his own time.
Malcolm Little was born in 1925 in Omaha, Neb., to a couple united by
Marcus Garvey's black nationalism, a source of inspiration throughout
Malcolm's life. After the father's death the mother tried but failed
to provide for the family and was committed to an insane asylum in
1939. Ella Little, Malcolm's half-sister, brought the children
emotional and financial support, and remained Malcolm's sustainer
throughout his life.
Ella Little lived in Boston in 1941, where nearly 16-year-old Malcolm
joined her. City life became a life of crime, landing Malcolm behind
bars in 1946. There he educated himself in the prison library and,
under the influence of his siblings, converted to the Nation of Islam.
After his release in 1952, Malcolm visited Elijah Muhammad, leader of
the religious movement, and, as Malcolm X, began the evangelical
career that made him famous. By 1953 he was working for the
organization full time, and the FBI had begun its surveillance. By
1954 he was leading Harlem's Temple No. 7, sparking a remarkable expansion.
During Malcolm's 12 years as the religion's most prominent minister,
he came to question its founding beliefs that African-Americans were
the "original Asiatic black man,'' that all white people were
"devils'' created by the evil black genius Yakub, that blacks should
separate from whites, that an imminent racial apocalypse would end
"the white man's'' reign, and that in the meanwhile, Nation members
should refuse to vote or undertake political action.
That apolitical creed might have worked during the 1950s, when
antiracist protest attracted little attention nationally, but not
later, when an overwhelming number of black people favored demanding
the right to vote. With blacks on the move with notable white
support, Malcolm found it difficult to remain apolitical and
implacably antiwhite.
It was only a matter of time before his surging popularity and
departure from Nation of Islam doctrine cost him his position. The
organization first attempted to silence him and later expelled him.
But much more determined the break. Malcolm's travel outside the
United States during the Third World ferment in the era of
postcolonial pan-Africanism helped him conclude that the group's
race-obsessed parochialism was out of touch.
Malcolm visited Egypt and Saudi Arabia in 1960, a trip that spurred
the international orientation and orthodox Islam that marked the last
years of his life. Although the trip was a turning point
intellectually, it is not mentioned in "The Autobiography.'' Marable,
however, presents a full description of the journey as part of his
thorough examination of both the Nation of Islam's and Malcolm's
changing relations to orthodox Islam.
The fruit of decades of careful research in older and newly opened
archives, Marable's magisterial work provides a more complete view of
Malcolm X within broader historical contexts. Marable describes a
life unfolding and the people and institutions around Malcolm who
counted in his life, for good and for ill.
His religion's financial support and organizational infrastructure
facilitated Malcolm's rise to prominence, just as its increasing
reliance on violence as a disciplinary tool cost him his life.
Marable investigates the planning and execution of Malcolm's
assassination, naming the Newark killers and following their lives
after the attack. Malcolm's wife, Betty Shabazz, receives sensitive
treatment throughout, as a dutiful (if independent-minded) Muslim
wife trapped in a miserable marriage, a widow embracing new
opportunities, and, ultimately, the victim of a fatal family tragedy.
Malcolm's right-hand man, James 67X Warden (Shabazz), emerges as the
worker who makes it possible for Malcolm to function publicly.
Given the fervor of Malcolm X's fans, Marable's biography is an
exceedingly brave as well as a major intellectual accomplishment.
Scholarly biography demands detachment, and Marable (who died on
April 1) was a scholar (politically engaged, yes, but a distinguished
scholar). Marable's thorough, sensitive, deeply researched biography
admires Malcolm X's commitment to his people without diminishing his
humanity. Like the "The Autobiography'' it supersedes, "Malcolm X: A
Life of Reinvention'' is deservedly a bestseller, one that helps us
understand the development of a leading American struck down before
he could help us understand our world in which Islam plays so crucial a role.
--
Nell Irvin Painter, author of "The History of White People,'' can be
contacted through her website, www.nellpainter.com.
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