11 Comments

During his Harlem criminal career he was known as Detroit Red, which is an amazing handle for a crook to have.

This piece highlights one of the things I admire about Malcolm. He educated himself about the world in so many different ways and put that education to good use in the eloquent way he spoke about his people.

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Yeah, he was brilliant.

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Joel - this is really good stuff. I read his autobiography years ago but probably need to give it another go. He was a fascinating individual and of course I appreciated his love of reading and how closely it was intertwined with his life. He is a great example of how books can open up the world. Appreciate the work that went into this.

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Thanks, Matthew! I found his life absolutely fascinating. I really didn’t know much about him until reading the Autobiography.

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This is soul-stirring and heart-prodding!

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Thanks, man! It felt like that writing it too!

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It comes across, for sure. Well done!

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Talking about the dictionary, in the film version of Malcom’s life, staring Denzel Washington, an older man in prison took young Malcom under his wing and told malcom to read and study the dictionary to understand the language people were using..they looked up the words white and black and read the definitions aloud and Malcom was stunned at the difference, how one was clean and righteous the other evil and dirty..then the man told him to write down the words starting with aardvark which Malcom did..this shows the danger of artistic discretion which I have always complained about in film and television..the small details are the building blocks of truth, helps people to understand how the building was built, in this case it was the road set by his family not an imprisoned stranger ..as a side note, I’ve always believed it was a power struggle between Malcom (open and inclusive) and Louis Farrakhan (racial seperationist) which lead to his death..the pilgrimage to Mecca changed Malcom’s life and his vision of the future of the brotherhood of man

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Yes, he matured and grew in a compelling way into the middle 1960s. We were robbed of what he would have offered us had he lived. A tragedy.

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I read this book back in the late 1960's while in college. I have always remembered the change Malcolm X experienced with his pilgrimage to the Middle East. I also remember that he was self-educated while in prison. Alex Haley who worked with Malcolm on this book later wrote Roots. And we have since learned that the FBI may have played a role in his death. Thanks, Joel, for reminding me of this book. I will need to reread it.

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I need to read more on his killing. I don’t doubt there was some sort of official involvement in his death. All the civil rights leaders attracted the attention (and meddling and ire) of the FBI back then.

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