7 Things You Never Knew About The Life And Death Of Malcolm X

Malcolm X - The House Negro and the Field Negro

Fifty-two years ago today, Malcolm X was killed while deliveringa speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

The shooting of the then 39-year-old took the life of a complicated and legendary figure who had been going through a transition period in life.

After years of helping promote the ideals of the National of Islam, Malcolm had a falling out with the group. Shortly after that falling out, his assassination occurred, creating suspicion that the two were linked.

In between, however, a couple of keyevents happened in Malcolms life that often get lost.

Here are a few:

He was terrorized by the Klan during childhood.

Malcolm Littles family had unfortunately been the target of multiple attacks by a Ku Klux Klan sub group, known as the Black Legion.

At one of Littles homes, the Klan had smashed his familys windows; a different home was burned down altogether. Malcolms father disappeared after leaving the home late one night, and wasrun over, amid suspicion that the Klan was behind the attack yet again.

And, as History.com details, Malcolm oncesaid his uncle was the victim of a lynching.

The FBI obsessed overhim.

Under infamous Director J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI watched Malcolm X like a hawk, and as CNN mentions, there are two key details that illustrate just how much they kept tabs on Omaha native.

During a 1954 meeting in which only 12 members, including Malcolm, were present, the FBI was still able to get an informant to report back to it, CNN writes.

By 1964, Hoover had sent a message to his New York, ordering something be done about Malcolm X.

A year later, he was shot dead amid speculation that the bureau knew about the plot to kill him and still did not intervene.

His tone on separatism softened before death.

Malcolm was noted to have been softening some of the stances he had so aggressively stood for earlier in his life. One example?

Before his death, Malcolm wrote to New York Times reportedM. S. Handler, per the New Yorker,

Some of my very dearest friends are Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheistssome are capitalists, socialists, conservatives, extremists . . . some are even Uncle Tomssome are black, brown, red, yellow and some are even white.

Here, Malcolm shows his rhetoric on separatismchanged and he showed more understanding of the idea of integration.

He was killed right before unveiling a new political program.

Malcolm X was on the verge of taking on new political initiatives in 1965.

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On the day he was killed, he was supposed to reveal a program that would have worked increase voter registration, organized efforts against police brutality and an appeal to the United Nations to condemn the United States for human rights violations, The Guardian details.

That Malcolm was interested in voter registration is worth noting, as his concern for blacks participation in the electoral process was a concern thatdeveloped later in his life.

At the time of his death, Malcolm had no specific philosophy.

For many, Malcolm Xs was defined by his aggressive, by-any-means-necessary persona. But the black history icon was also defined by the constant evolution he went through in life.

His last stage of development saw him separate from the Nation of Islam. He drifted into a space that left him without a specific movementto get behind.

The famed journalist Alex Haley quoted him as saying,

Im man enough to tell you that I cant put my finger on exactly what my philosophy is now, but Im flexible.

According to the New Yorker, that statement came just three days before his death.

Malcolms own security failed to protect him.

CNN notes there was an unusual lack of police presence at the Audubon Ballroom on that fatal Sunday afternoon in 1965, particularly considering the size of the event Malcolm was speaking at.

Still, Malcolm had his own security staff, but they had been of little help. The staff did not conduct searches of audience members before entering, reportedly at Malcolms request, CNN says.

Even more strange, however, his security had not jumped to his defense once shooter began attacking, according to CNN.

Before he died, he reportedly scheduleda meeting with mlk.

malcolm was schedule to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just two days after the fatal shooting in Harlem. Thats according to James Cone, the author ofMartin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare.

Cone relayed that information to journalist Terry Pristin, who wrote about Malcolm in the LA Times back in 1992.

Pristin had been writing in lieu of Spike Lees biopic, Malcolm X, which was released in the same year.

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Source: http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/7-things-never-knew-life-death-malcolm-x/1799197/

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Hundreds Make Pilgrimage to Ferncliff Cemetery in Honor of Malcolm X"s Birthday

WITNESSED: THE ASSASSINATION OF MALCOLM X (2015)

By the time Imamu Khari was 8 years old, he had read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." By age 10, he had watched Spike Lee"s cinematic adaptation, "Malcolm X," starring Denzel Washington.

Learning about the slain activist"s teachings was a critical part of Khari"s childhood, especially because Khari"s dad served as part of Malcolm X"s security unit while Malcolm was still a member of the Nation of Islam. Of all the black leaders Khari studied, Malcolm was always the one he admired most.

That"s why on Thursday, on what would have been Malcolm"s 91st birthday, 34-year-old Khari, along with dozens of other supporters, boarded a bus from the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, to pay their respects.

Several hundreds of people gathered at Malcolm"s resting place to witness a ceremony organized by the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) since 1965. Originally designed by Malcolm"s sister, Ella Collins, the pilgrimage is now facilitated by the Sons of Africa and managed by Malcolm"s nephew, Rodnell Collins, along with Willie Stark and James Small, a former professor at the City University of New York.

"Malcolm demonstrated that he will either be free or he will accept death," Small, vice president and executive director of the OAAU, told NBCBLK. "And if every black man were to take that attitude, freedom would come tomorrow, for all of us."

RELATED: Are African-Americans Locked Out? State of Black America Report

As part of the ritual, one Pan-African flag in red, black and green, is placed over Malcolm"s grave site, and another is draped over a chair with a framed photograph of Malcolm, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Additionally, there is a stool covered in white fabric to honor Betty Shabazz, Malcolm"s wife.

Professor James Small speaks at the annual ceremony honoring slain activist Malcolm X on what would be his 91st birthday. Sylvia Cunningham

Men in Sudanese-style white robes and turbans march and form a square around the grave, making way for Imam Al-Hajj Talib "Abdur-Rashid from the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, New York, to deliver his prayer and reflections.

"Evolution is revolution slowed down, and revolution is evolution speeded up. So El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz set an evolutionary example for and a revolutionary example for us, blazing a path and following those who preceded him," Imam Talib said.

"It"s important to me to pay homage to our shining prince."

Imam Talib said he has noticed that the number of children present at the ceremony has increased drastically over the years and offered advice to the young people in attendance.

"Don"t ever let anybody tell you that you don"t have power," Imam Talib said. "Don"t ever let anybody tell you that you don"t have the seed of greatness within you."

RELATED: Boston Archaeologists Begin Digging Into Malcolm X"s Past

Armed with a bag full of notebooks and pages of essays and spoken word poetry, Khari came prepared to get people in the right spirit as the bus headed north to the cemetery Thursday morning.

"See, I"m trying to get us reparations at the very least," Khari recited to passengers on the bus. "Instead, they lock me in a cage like a scary beast."

About three years ago, Khari said he had a spiritual awakening when he noticed there were a lot of similarities between the world he was living in and the world he had read about in the 1960s. That"s when he began to write.

"I came to this realization about where we came from, where we are now and how much further we have to go," Khari said.

Many people embarking on the pilgrimage were first timers, including Sheba X, a New Yorker. Although she was just a baby when she met Malcolm, her parents learned from him and passed on his teachings.

"It"s difficult to say in one word what he has done," Sheba said.

Malcolm gave African-American people hope, she said, even when they felt disenfranchised and oppressed.

Imam Al-Hajj Talib "Abdur-Rashid delivers a prayer and reflections to several hundreds of people who came to Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, to honor Malcolm X on his birthday. Sylvia Cunningham

"He gave us not only pride but a sense of self worth through the knowledge that he passed on," Sheba said.

Although she doesn"t think there"s been much progress in the United States in terms of legal, economic or education systems, she believes Malcolm X changed the consciousness of African people.

Sheba said Malcolm was "uncompromising in terms of his convictions," which is why she knew she needed to make the trip to Hartsdale to honor him on his birthday.

"It"s important to me to pay homage to our shining prince," Sheba said.

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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/hundreds-make-pilgrimage-ferncliff-cemetery-honor-malcolm-x-s-birthday-n577181

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Yuri Kochiyama, today"s Google Doodle, fought for civil rights and praised Osama bin Laden

Man beats up daughter"s cheating boyfriend/ Twitter Shows Malcolm X LOVE!

Thursday, May 19, this year would"ve been the 95th birthday of Yuri Kochiyama, a prominent Japanese-American activist who passed away at 93 two years ago. Google is marking the occasion with one of its trademark doodles.

Some of Kochiyama"s work was deeply, clearly admirable. As an associate of Malcolm X, she was an important nonblack ally to the more militant end of the civil rights movement. She endured forced internment during World War II, and was an outspoken advocate for reparations to internees, which would eventually be passed in 1988. She was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and advocate for inmates she viewed as political prisoners.

But other commitments of hers were more ambiguous. She was an outspoken admirer of Mao Zedong even after the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. She praised Malcolm X for his "admiration for Mao and Ho Chi Minh," and worked closely with the Revolutionary Action Movement, an "urban guerrilla warfare" organization based on "a synthesis of the thought of Malcolm X, Marx and Lenin, and Mao Zedong." The activist Robert Williams gifted her with a copy of the Little Red Book, and she later thanked him for "the gift of Mao"s philosophy."

Yuri Kochiyama was a supporter of the terrorist group Shining Path Cris Bouronicle/AFP/Getty Images Graffiti in Lima, Peru, calls for the freeing of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmn.

Two positions of Kochiyama"s stand out as particularly alarming. First, she was an enthusiastic supporter of the Peruvian terrorist group Shining Path, a Maoist organization that has conducted a brutal insurgency killing tens of thousands of people since 1980. Peru"s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Shining Path personally killed or disappeared at least 30,000.

"Its tactics include the burning of ballot boxes and the public "executions" of moderate local leaders and others, including nuns and priests, who are seen as rivals for the allegiance of the poor," according to a 1992 New York Times report. "In wildly exaggerated demonstrations of Maoist precepts, children have been killed for political "crimes." Amnesty International says the guerrillas routinely torture, mutilate and murder captives."

"We reject and condemn human rights because they are reactionary, counter-revolutionary, bourgeois rights," founder Abimael Guzmn declared in one document. "Rather than concentrate its attacks on the armed forces or police, Shining Path has predominantly singled out civilians," Human Rights Watch noted in 1997. "The Shining Path has pragmatically avoided taking captives unless it intends to execute them Shining Path has been reported to torture captured civilians before executing them." Shining Path also used rape as a weapon of war.

This did not appear to bother Kochiyama, who joined a delegation to Peru organized by the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, which defends the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. She read, in her words, "the kind of reading materials that I could become "educated" on the real situation in Peru; not the slanted reports of corporate America. The more I read, the more I came to completely support the revolution in Peru." In other words, she read, and believed, Maoist propaganda denying Shining Path"s war crimes.

After her return from Peru, she declared, "What has been taking place in both Peru and the US is a serious campaign to discredit Guzmn and the Shining Path movement, tainting them as terrorists, undermining their struggle with lies, isolating them, and intimidating anyone who might support them."

Yuri Kochiyama declared Osama bin Laden "one of the people that I admire" Getty Images Osama bin Laden, on a horse.

Kochiyama was a thorough-going opponent of what she viewed as American imperialism, and like some radical anti-imperialists this occasionally led her to admiring truly loathsome figures, because she thought they were effective at combating American empire. Abimael Guzmn was one. Osama bin Laden was another.

In a 2003 interview for the Objector: A Magazine of Conscience and Resistance, Kochiyama explained:

Im glad that you are curious why I consider Osama bin Laden as one of the people that I admire. To me, he is in the category of Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro, all leaders that I admire. They had much in common. Besides being strong leaders who brought consciousness to their people, they all had severe dislike for the US government and those who held power in the US.

bin Laden may have come from a very wealthy family, but by the time he was twenty, he came to loathe the eliteness and class conduct of his family

You asked, "Should freedom fighters support him?" Freedom fighters all over the world, and not just in the Muslim world, dont just support him; they revere him; they join him in battle.

You stated that some freedom fighters responded that bin Ladens agenda is more reactionary and does not speak to the needs of the masses of people who exist under US dominance. bin Laden has been primarily fighting US dominance even when he received money from the US when he was fighting in Afghanistan. He was fighting for Islam and all people who believe in Islam, against westerners, especially the US--even when he was fighting against the Russians.

To be clear, this is Kochiyama defending bin Laden who, besides being a mass murderer, was a vicious misogynist and hardly the brave anti-imperial class traitor Kochiyama fancies him as against other leftists who correctly noted that you can oppose American imperialism without allying or supporting violent jihadism.

Kochiyama"s praise for Che Guevara and Fidel Castro is also controversial, and,I think wrong, but is at least somewhat common on the left. Sympathy for Shining Path and bin Laden, by contrast, is not a common left position basically anywhere.

Source: http://www.vox.com/2016/5/19/11713686/yuri-kochiyama

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Beyonc touches down at TCF Bank Stadium following her gutsiest play yet

Malcolm X: Speeches and Interviews (1960-65)

The two biggest music stories of the year happened just two days apart last month: Prince died, and Beyonc came alive like never before.

Of course, it was unfortunate timing on Queen Beys part that the greatest album and bravest artistic achievement of her career, Lemonade, landed April 23, just two days after Princes passing. The voracious marketing campaign behind the album had started in early February at the Super Bowl and culminated with an HBO special on the day of release. She couldnt exactly ring up the record executives and say, Lets hold off a week even if two of those execs are herself and the husband who is skewered and smoked like a roast pig on the album.

In its five-star review of Lemonade, Rolling Stone put a positive spin on Beyoncs opus coming right on the heels of Princes passing: Its a welcome reminder that giants still walk among us.

And now here comes Beyonc with her most gigantic production to date, the Formation Tour, which lands Monday at TCF Bank Stadium in Princes hometown. Her timing is perfect in this case.

Forget any overall comparisons of the two iconic singers; thatd be silly. But theres one resemblance worth exploring: Lemonade is Beys Purple Rain. Its her big moment. Its an album that engrosses from start to finish. Theres not one filler track on it. There are songs that make you blush, think, ache, writhe and marvel. Theres even a film counterpart that stands up on its own artistic merit.

First aired by HBO and since streamed 11 million times on Tidal, the movie version of Lemonade is officially billed as a visual album. Our first glimpse of it came right before the Super Bowl, when the footage for the records gritty closing track, Formation, hit the Web like wildfire, showing an underwater New Orleans and over-excessive police.

That was our warning shot, our first clue the former teen pop star was clearly up to something bigger and bolder than Crazy in Love. Then came the Super Bowl performance of Formation with a Black Panthers-looking dance troupe, when Coldplay suddenly became the halftime benchwarmer this year.

Saturday Night Live brilliantly spoofed the shocked reaction to the Formation rollout with a mock horror-movie trailer that declared it the day we learned Beyonc is black. A police union in Miami took it far more seriously, calling for a boycott of officers working her concert a reaction largely due to another scene in the visual album that shows the mothers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin holding up photos of their sons, two of whom were killed during run-ins with police.

Then came the real shocker. Turns out the racial issues of Formation were just scratching the surface of what Bey is coming out from under on Lemonade.

Dirt off her shoulder

The albums most talked-about theme is actually infidelity. Its all over the record like spilled red wine on a white carpet, starting with the splashy opening line: You can taste the dishonesty / Its all over your breath. Video scenes of Bey smashing up cars with a baseball bat now the subject of another funny spoof on Ellen plus a litany of explicit lyrics all seem to point to real-life strife in her marriage to rap mogul Jay Z.

Another example of Bey going off in the songs: I smell your secrets, and Im not too perfect to ever feel this worthless / How did it come down to this, going through your call list? Also: This is your final warning / You know I give you life / If you try this [bleep] again youre gonna lose your wife.

If you surf the Web at least once a month or arent living on the International Space Station, chances are youve seen or heard something about what is now the most talked-about marriage in America. Gossip sites have been ablaze with Bey-Jay tidbits and marital examinations since the day after Lemonade went public.

Some of the most heavily trafficked reports have been over Becky with the good hair, the supposed other woman referenced in one of Lemonades most riveting songs, Sorry. Much has even been written about who isnt the alleged Becky (Rachael Ray deserves an award for this years Most Gracious Innocent Bystander). And now there are rumors that all the rumors arent even real rumors, and instead theyre all part of an elaborate publicity stunt that Beyonc dreamed up to play off the plague of modern tabloid culture or maybe just to sell records.

Single lady?

For her part, Beyonc is keeping mum. Its not even clear if her marriage is still intact. Her husband shows up toward the end of the visual album in a few sweet scenes that find him embracing his wife and playing with their daughter. No baseball bats are in sight, just forgiveness for a weapon. A Rolling Stone cover or story or maybe even an Oprah TV special will probably tell us whats what in the end.

Whatever the true story of Lemonade is, the truth wont lessen the impact of this record. If Beyoncs own struggles arent entirely real, theyre all too real for other women.

The album particularly seems to be about the strength of African-American women, whether theyre grieving mothers, estranged wives, survivors of segregation or victims of modern injustice. It quotes Malcolm X saying, The most disrespected person in American is the black woman. It also features a speech by Beyoncs own grandmother from her 90th birthday, when she said, Life gave me lemons, but I made lemonade.

No matter what, Beyonc gave us a landmark album in Lemonade. Musically, it actually bears a closer likeness to Princes Sign o the Times than Purple Rain in the way it tackles a grab bag of social woes over a wide range of styles. Like Purple Rain, though, this is the one shes going to be most remembered for.

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Source: http://www.startribune.com/beyonc-xe9-touches-down-at-tcf-bank-stadium-following-her-gutsiest-play-yet/380141011/

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Daughter of Malcolm X preaches compassion, solutions

WITNESSED: THE ASSASSINATION OF MALCOLM X (2015)

Ilyasah al Shabazz, a daughter of human rights activist Malcolm X, speaks at the First Unitarian Universalist Society Church in Burlington on Sunday.(Photo: ELIZABETH MURRAY/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

A daughter of human rights activist Malcolm X stood at a podium, looking out at a sea of faces Sunday at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington during an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day remembrance.

Ilyasah al Shabazz smiled andsaid she used to visit Vermont when she was a young girl to attend camp in Pittsford. At that time, Vermonters she met were not accustomed to meeting black people, and she was very aware of the color of her skin, she said.

"They used to touch our hair and they would touch our skin, and it was just something new," Shabazz said. "I"m really astonished to see so many colorful faces here today."

Shabazz provided the keynote address for the annual remembrance, organized by the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center. The one-hour program also included performances by the New Alpha Missionary Children"s Choir of Burlington and the Montreal West Gospel Choir. Mayor Miro Weinberger also attended to provide an update on the city"s diversity plan and introduce Shabazz.

Shabazz"s remarks touched on her experiences growing up with Malcolm X as a father and Dr. Betty Shabazz as a mother, and how she came to see the world as the "daughter of two great leaders."

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The New Alpha Missionary Children"s Choir of Burlington performs at the First Unitarian Universalist Society Church in Burlington on Sunday during an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day remembrance.(Photo: ELIZABETH MURRAY/FREE PRESS)

Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X, is now an educator, social activist and motivational speaker, and she has written several books about her life and her family. She was three years old when her father was assassinated in 1965, she said.

Shabazz encouraged young people to continue speaking out against hatred and injustice, andto seek out solutions to the problems, as did her father and Dr. King. Shabazz said her father was in his 20s when he began traveling the world and speaking to other leaders about human rights and social justice.

"As protesters, this generation of young people expressed discontent and skillfully used social media to organize, galvanize and educate the masses on the important human rights issues," Shabazz said. "What we must understand is just because we"ve tweeted a social media hashtag, it does not end there. It does not make you an activist, or a social change agent. You must have a well-thought-out plan, a strategy for getting from point A to Z, colleagues to discuss and assign leadership roles to your task at hand."

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Ilyasah al Shabazz uses her cell phone to snap a picture of the crowd at the First Unitarian Universalist Society church after giving the keynote address at an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day remembrance in Burlington.(Photo: ELIZABETH MURRAY/FREE PRESS)

Compassion, humanity and equalitywere large parts of thevisions of Malcolm Xand Dr. King, Shabazzsaid ideas which still have not been fully implementedyears later. Those behaviorsmust be taught as children grow, so they might learn to work together and give back to their world, Shabazz said.

"We teach our children to hate, and if we teach our children to hate someone else, then in actuality we"re teaching them to hate themselves," Shabazz said.

She later added, "I believe that every child must have the opportunity to be their greatest selves, to conquer all obstacles that stand in their way, to be inspired, motivated, and truly believe they are worthy of quality education, so that each and every one of us is properly prepared and recognizes his or her true value."

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The Montreal West Gospel Choir performs at an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day remembrance at the First Unitarian Universalist Society church on Sunday in Burlington.(Photo: ELIZABETH MURRAY/FREE PRESS)

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.

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Source: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2016/01/17/daughter-malcolm-x-preaches-compassion-solutions/78942480/

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