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Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little 95 years ago today. I wrote about his assassination f/ this book: https://products.abc-clio.com/abc-cliocorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4761C
The most recent of the prominent Malcolm X biographies was by Dr. Manning Marable. I took issue w/ it here: https://medium.com/@bcwriter1/heres-an-unpublished-book-review-of-the-late-dr-29214e78ce43
In 1952-53, Minister Malcolm began his career in Boston, the same years Ph.D. candidate Martin Luther King, Jr. ministered there
When Malcolm lived in Roxbury, he worked f/ a little while as a dining car waiter on the New Haven Railroad on which my grandfather was a Pullman Porter based in The 'Bury.
Later Malcolm served in two Southeastern Massachusetts prisons, Charlestown & Norfolk
Later Malcolm served in two Southeastern Massachusetts prisons, Charlestown & Norfolk
If you want a good sense of Malcolm's relationship w/ Roxbury, even after he became Harlem Mosque minister, read his cousin Hakim Jamal (Allen Donaldson)'s book "From The Dead Level": https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Level-Malcolm-Me/dp/0394462343
Jamal dated actress Jean Seberg, whose biopic dropped last year. Anthony Mackie portrayed Malcolm's Bostonian cousin
In Boston Malcolm cribbed w/ an older sister in this house: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/72-Dale-St-Boston-MA-02119/59186550_zpid/
Ella Little's home: https://historicboston.org/portfolio_page/malcolm-x-house/
Less than a week after Malcolm was killed, a former member of Roxbury's Temple # 11, Aubrey Barnette, published an expose in "The Saturday Evening Post" titled "The Black Muslims Are A Fraud": https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=7232802809&searchurl=n%3D201000133%26pt%3Dmag%252Cbook%26bi%3D0%26ds%3D30%26bx%3Doff%26pics%3Don%26sortby%3D20%26tn%3DThe%2BSaturday%2BEvening%2BPost%26recentlyadded%3Dall
In early December of 1963, Malcolm defied a national gag order on NOI ministers in the wake of JFK's assassination. He was suspended 90 days. In Feb. Muhammad Ali became heavyweight champ, w/ Malcolm in the audience
Ali's title defense vs. Liston (rematch) was sched. f/ The Boston Garden in Nov. '64. Ali suffered a hernia while training. The rift between former NOI members who aligned w/ Malcolm, & Nation members grew more tense- sometimes violent. Hakim Jamal describes this in his book
Promoters feared violence in Boston, & moved the bout to a h.s. hockey arena in Lewiston, Maine. It's still the smallest crowd to attend a modern heavyweight title fight
This article dateline Boston, details the threats reportedly emanating fr. both camps: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19650223.2.13&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
In 1957 the NOI in Roxbury purchased this former Roxbury Hebrew Free School: https://www.google.com/maps/place/35+Intervale+St,+Boston,+MA+02121/@42.3116481,-71.0801785,3a,75y,232.88h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sV1Vn8Pjy_PjlKaYw_Hlylw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e37bcedacf4f7f:0xf8f88849792d54f4!8m2!3d42.3115232!4d-71.0803954
For context on Jewish flight fr. Roxbury: https://www.timesofisrael.com/what-happened-to-the-jews-of-bostons-jew-hill-avenue/
Malcolm X as a panel guest on "City Desk"- in living color
Many NYCers were unaware of the NOI until Ch. 13's special "The Hate That Hate Produced" dropped in 1959:
Malcolm X addresses Saviour's Day 1958:
Malcolm X in 1959:
Minister Malcolm in Atlantic City 1960 (he was 35):
Malcolm debates on WCAU Radio in Philly 1961:
On April 27, 1962 an unarmed NOI member from Roxbury named Ronald X Stokes was killed by the LAPD. Malcolm speaks in L.A. after the hate crime:
Related intel: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ccbh/mxp/pdf/mx-lashooting.pdf
Malcolm X at Oxford Union in 1964:
Malcolm interviewed in 1964 after leaving the NOI:
At 1:35 Malcolm gives the reason he did not go back to the NOI after his suspension. Two of the young women he is referencing were fr. Temple # 11 in Roxbury- Lucille X Rosary & Evelyn Williams, whom Malcolm knew fr. Boston:
Opinions vary as to why Malcolm never went back. Some cite his trip to North Africa and Mecca. But he had already been to The Middle East & seen "white" & Semitic Muslims in 1959:
Re- being suspended f/ saying "The chickens come home to roost" after Oswald killed JFK = Malcolm added "As an old farm boy- chickens coming home to roost have always made me glad, and never made me sad":
Malcolm & the NOI's influence on journalist Alex Haley inspired Haley to research his family's ancestry, which resulted in the best seller, & hit miniseries "Roots"
