My Icons: Malcom X

This photo has been on my office wall since 1999. With respect for his struggle, I'd like to take a moment today and remember the passing of Malcom X this week in 1965.

For me the story of Malcom is a life lesson for many reasons but the primary one being how he embraced change. We live in a world where people say that we as individuals cannot change who we are at our core but Malcom did so not once, but over and over. His evolution is also a logical systematic one and is thus a captivating one to follow and read about. I read his autobiography as a very alienated young man and found strength in his story that is still with me today. Looking at his life I can see that change is possible in my own life.



I have to also admire Malcom as a muslim searching for the positive. Yes when he was with the Nation of Islam that was not always the case, but we have to look at where he ended up. It was a tragedy for America to be denied this man. Think what he could do today to the attitude and relationship America has with Islam. Think where he would have gone next in his ideas and stance. His message was widening. His thoughts ever more humanitarian. His best work was always ahead of him. That is the kind of life to admire. That is the kind of life to live. It reminds me to keep pushing and keep growing not only on a personal spiritual level but in the way I enagage the world and the people around me.

I'm looking forward to this multi-volume book from professor Manning Marable.. He's lucky enough to be able to do his research at the New York Library who smartly saved Malcom's papers and photographs from the auction block in 2005. Their collection includes a set of diaries from Malcolm X's trips to Africa and Mecca in 1964. Alex Haley used the diaries to write The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Here's Gary Younge's introduction to a recent penguin edition of the book (click on cover).

Related to Malcom here's the cover of a great spiritual Jazz album by Chicago musician Phil Cohran dedicated to Malcom. Cohran is a musician known for his associations with Sun Ra and the A.A.C.M. The album (originally self-released in an edition of 1000 copies) documents a live peformance from February 1968 at the Cohran-run Afro-Arts Theater. The concert took the form of a suite of four tracks, each capturing a period of Malcom's life, 'Malcolm Little,' 'Detroit Red,' 'Malcolm X,' and 'El Hajj Malik El Shabazz.' The album was re-released on CD by Katalyst Entertainment in late 2007. You can listen and read more about it at CD Baby.



Finally here's a picture of two great icons side by side - Malcom and the man who "stung like a bee" Muhammed Ali