On this Day, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was Assassinated
(This review was written a few years ago but I find it appropriate to republish it today.)
The Smithsonian Channel in collaboration with The Amistad Center for Art & Culture presented the movie, "The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X" at the Wadsworth's Aetna Theater Tuesday evening, February 20.
The movie compelled anyone in the audience old enough to live through the 1960s, including this writer, to relive it. And for those too young to have witnessed the turmoil of the era, it provided a glimpse into that Dante-like hell cauldron of bombings, assassinations, Vietnam War casualties with a disproportionate number of casualties being African-American. It was troubling for me to relive this period of my then young life.
The movie exposed the deep pain of loss of good people being slain for the cause of equality and justice that had been delayed for 400 of Eurocentric ignorance and intransigence. Some young firebrands of the day were willing to concede incompatibility of the races. Enter Malcolm X.
The clips cut to brief vignettes of a multitude of his fiery speeches and of his building the Nation of Islam far beyond that of its founder, Elijah Muhammad. The viewer is drawn into these frequent video cuts as a passive observer. The movie includes the bruising public split and accusations of infidelity (of impregnating underage followers) by Elijah Muhammad as Malcolm X vilifies him.
Was Malcolm a modern-day Nat Turner of language demanding an end to racism "by any means necessary" and for a separation of the races? Maybe and for good reason. The struggle never fully ended through the American centuries. A story often told but not included in the movie is of a white female student "a little blond girl" as Malcolm described her, who was so moved by his talk early on in his college tours, to ask Malcolm what she could do for the cause to which he replied, "Nothing." Later, after his pilgrimages to Africa and Mecca, he realized that allies to the cause came in all colors and backgrounds and he was heard to often repeat his desire to find that young woman and to tell her there was indeed, a place for her.
And then the assassination on February 21, 1965 at the age of 39 and the extraordinary and defiant voice is silenced forever. As he often said, he only wanted freedom for his people "by whatever means necessary." A local Hartford daily newspaper obituary described Malcolm X as "the prophet of race war and violence."
Oh drat.,..(I can’t be the only one who complains about the inconvenient placing of the ‘send’ button?)
One more try to finish this thought:
…. in a time WHEN even asking a question could get a kid in trouble. I asked a lot of questions before I shut up and read everything I could find.
As an adult, I encourage curiosity.by answering with as much as I know to be true and suggesting reliable sources for more info.
It’s more important now than ever, when censorship of historical fact has raised its ugly head.
Your post reminded me of a conversation just a few years ago. I had personally seen the violence in 1967. From the south bank of the Detroit River, frightening smoke and flames were just one mile away on the north side.
However the subject came up in the first place, I don’t recall but I’ll never forget this young person’s confusion as I referred to the Detroit race riots. This intelligent, white , honor role senior, had never heard of that and asked WHY that had happened?
Why? … a small word… 400 years.
…. .apparently not included in history class.
I heard recently that most young people in China today, have never heard of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
continued…. Who knew they could ask me just about anything about the ‘olden days’. Since I had grown up in a time w