Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention [View All]

[H2O Man]

On April 1, Professor Manning Marable, of Columbia University's African-American Studies, died at the age of sixty. Yesterday, his final book – “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” – was published by Viking Press. It is his 11th book.

His first book, “How Capitalism Undeveloped Black America” (1983), set the tone for his future work. Yet it was the influence of Malcolm X that lead this unique scholar to become a progressive activist.



In 1992, he published “On Malcolm X: His Message and Meaning.” This was, of course, the same year that Spike Lee's movie on Malcolm was released. Marable noted that the vast majority of the resources for the numerous books that followed the movie were based upon “second-hand” sources.” He also re-read the autobiography, and concluded that there must be “missing sections” that Malcolm had intended for the final book.

Clayborne Carson's “Malcolm X: The FBI File” (1991) had documented that intelligence agencies in the United States took a significant interest in both the Nation of Islam, and Malcolm X after he left Elijah Muhammad's group. Carson's book indicates that sources other than the FBI – including but not limited to the CIA and US State Department – were watching Malcolm as he traveled abroad. Indeed, when Malcolm attempted to enter France for a second time, he was refused entry. Civil Rights legend James Farmer told me that this was because French authorities became aware of a plot to assassinate Malcolm while he was in France (something the NOI was incapable of doing).

Marable's new book was going to be published in 2008. However, it took Manning and his research staff longer to gain access to the material Malcolm had prepared for three additional chapters of his autobiography; these chapters focused almost exclusively on Malcolm's plans for political organizing. Malcolm had reached out, primarily to Martin Luther King, Jr., in an attempt to transform the Civil Rights movement into a Human Rights effort on the international stage. One goal was to bring the struggle to the United Nations. Another was to form a united political front in the US.

The new book also provides “new” information on some of the actions and dynamics surrounding Malcolm's death. Among this information is documentation on the connections to intelligence agencies that several of the people Malcolm had come to trust had – including those involved in writing and publishing the autobiography.

It's an eye-opening book. I recommend it to forum members here. It may be of particular interest to those who recall last year, when I posted some information in a thread about being “Malcolm X Democrats,” and the ugly responses that one person (who claimed intimate knowledge of the topic) posted to discredit my essay. Of course, as much of what I said is now found in Marable's book, I'm sure that “experts” will be busy attempting to discredit this book, too.