الثوار: Malcolm X continued to shape America after his death...

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

by Terri Schlichenmeyer05/18/2025

A handful of friends — at least those who are still around — might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, and maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: Who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely, he was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.” 

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that white America “needed his voice even more than blacks did.”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential in its beginning. He never knew the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali. 

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes. He was a “touchstone” for a president…

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”? 

Turns out, it’s all three, but the timeline for it isn’t always smooth and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in awhile, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”  For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.

Full article:  https://tri-statedefender.com/malcolm-x-continued-to-shape-america-...

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

Kofi Bilal Mahmud Eid AlFitr 1443 A.H.

http://oppressedpeoplesonlineword.ning.com/profiles/blogs/6273430:B...

Kofi Bilal Mahmud

Executive Director

Oppressed Peoples Online Word 

Your Voice Since 2010

The Voice Of The Voiceless...A People Without A Voice Can Not Be Heard!

Periodically we at OPOW have to make an evaluation on our being able to sustain this effort of bringing  you stories that many of you enjoy.  We do not take adds, nor do we charge a subscription.  Much or most of our operating expense is covered by a few individuals who have been very generous over the past 15 years.

Much of our content is supplied by volunteers and myself.   With that being said, we need your support to continue this effort.  No amount is too small or too large.  Please consider becoming a much needed supporter of OPOW today.  In advance, from all of us at OPOW,  we thank you for your continued support.  

Bilal Mahmud

Executive Director OPOW

Support OPOW:  OPOW Needs Your Support - Oppressed Peoples Online Word...The Voice...

The Voice Of The Voiceless... A People Without A Voice Can Not Be Heard...

Make Your Pledge To OPOW, The Voice Of The Voiceless

 

Paypal send to:[e-mail]1 

Shaban 1445 A.H.$1.00 per day can make a difference..

Or Cashapp: $bilal1370

Zelle: [e-mail]

Mail: Little Deep Creek LLC
P.O. Box 1241
Conley, Ga. 30288

Oppressed Peoples Online Word 

Your Voice Since 2010

https://oppressedpeoplesonlineword.ning.com/photo/opow-above-the-fo...

Support OPOW Today...An Appeal From The Executive Director Bilal Ma...

Thank you from all of us here at OPOW

Chip In To Help OPOW Make A Difference

Visit Us On Facebook:  (2) Facebook

OPOW Above The Fold

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the first major study of Malcolm X's influence in

the sixty years since his assassination, exploring his enduring impact on culture, politics, and civil rights. Malcolm X has become as much of an American icon as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Martin Luther King. But when he was murdered in 1965, he was still seen as a dangerous outsider. White America found him alienating, mainstream African Americans found him divisive, and even his admirers found him bravely radical. Although Ossie Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X as "our own Black shining prince," he never received the mainstream acceptance toward which he seemed to be striving in his final year. It is more in death than his life that Malcolm's influence has blossomed and come to leave a deep imprint on the cultural landscape of America. With impeccable research and original reporting, Mark Whitaker tells the story of Malcolm X's far-reaching posthumous legacy. It stretches from founders of the Black Power Movement such as Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton to hip-hop pioneers such as Public Enemy and Tupac Shakur. Leaders of the Black Arts and Free Jazz movements from Amiri Baraka to Maya Angelou, August Wilson, and John Coltrane credited their political awakening to Malcolm, as did some of the most influential athletes of our time, from Muhammad Ali to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and beyond. Spike's movie biopic and the Black Lives Matter movement reintroduced Malcolm to subsequent generations. Across the political spectrum, he has been cited as a formative influence by both Barack Obama--who venerated Malcolm's "unadorned insistence on respect"--and Clarence Thomas, who was drawn to Malcolm's messages of self-improvement and economic self-help. In compelling new detail, Whitaker also retraces the long road to exoneration for two men wrongfully convicted of Malcolm's murder, making The Afterlife of Malcolm X essential reading for anyone interested in true crime, American politics, culture, and history.

Book purchase:  https://www.alibris.com/The-Afterlife-of-Malcolm-X-An-Outcast-Turne...