The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, Payne - B+

               Malcolm Little was born to the Reverend Earl Little, a Baptist preacher and handyman, and his West Indian wife, Louise, on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. Earl was from Georgia and steeped in the culture of slavery and Jim Crow; Louise's father was white and she viewed the world through a more optimistic lens. Earl and Louise founded the local chapter of the United Negro Improvement Association, which fostered self reliance, independent thinking  and racial pride. The UNIA was the brainchild of Jamaican born Marcus Garvey, who took a more aggressive, less assimilationist stance than the NAACP. The couple raised their children to not succumb to any demeaning stereotyping from either white peers or teachers. Earl moved his family to Milwaukee in late 1926, and to Lansing in 1928. They purchased a home in a white neighborhood, and soon thereafter, were burned out. Earl built a tar-paper shack on 6 acres of land outside of town. On the night of Sept. 28, 1931, Earl was hit by a Lansing streetcar and killed. Among the many challenges Louise and her seven children faced, one was particularly painful and shameful. The insurance company holding a $10,000 accidental death policy on Earl refused to pay. Even though the Medical Examiner said it was an accident, the insurance company insisted it was suicide. "As the family struggled with raising crops and doing chores, a decided waywardness, or slackness, set in among the growing children." As pressure mounted so did Louise's ability to cope, and in late 1938, the state institutionalized her. By this time, young Malcolm was already hustling on the streets of Lansing. Soon he was an accomplished thief and con man, and one who, according to those who grew up with him, hated whites. The state sent him to reform school at 14. When he was 15, he moved to Boston to be under the supervision of his older half-sister, Ella. Malcolm was smart and ambitious and hoping for more opportunities in the east. His brother-in-law got him a job shining shoes at a nightclub, and soon he was making a fortune pimping and selling reefer.  He shifted his base to Harlem, where he was known as Detroit Red as he broke laws everyday, and as of 1943, evaded the draft. When the induction notice arrived, the 6'4" redhead put on a zany yellow zoot suit and playing a homosexual, talked to the psychiatrist about going south to get some crackers. A 4F classification followed. Back in Boston in the fall of 1945, Malcolm organized a burglary gang. Malcolm, his best friend, and three white girls were arrested and tried for braking and entering.  The two black men received sentences of 8-10 years.  The white girls cooperated with the state and got off with wrist slaps.

                He entered the prison system on Feb. 27, 1946. Encouraged by an inmate of color who seemed to have everyone's respect, Malcolm turned his photographic memory and loquacious verbal skills to the library and learning. He wanted to learn how to fight with words. At the same time, his oldest brother, Wilfred, encouraged him to consider the preachings of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad. He read extensively and adopted the beliefs of the Nation of Islam. When he was paroled in 1952, he was a new man, his drinking, drugs, and whoring days behind him. He went to work for the NOI in Detroit and soon was a first class recruiter. He was also a stickler for the rules. Elijah sent him east to rejuvenate some failing temples. He was so effective that he garnered the attention of the FBI. His pointed critiques of thousands of lynchings at the hands of the blue-eyed devils  as proof of the nation's institutionalized racism caught Hoover's attention. Both Elijah, and in particular Malcolm, now the Nation's national spokesman, were introduced to America in a documentary on a NY television station. Mike Wallace called Malcom a "remarkable man." That said, the roots of future conflict were arising as the ascetic Malcolm began to hear stories about Elijah's womanizing. Malcolm's fame and national profile brought money into the coffers, but his high profile began to trouble those in Chicago known in the faith as the royal family. By the end of the 1950's, Malcolm was a national figure traveling the country espousing the Nation of Islam's gospel of separation from whites and Black self-reliance. In 1961, Elijah asked him to sit down and talk in Atlanta to the KKK. The Klan desired to see if their mutual opposition to integration might lead to cooperation on some fronts. At the end of a two hour summit, the Klan asked for information about the location of the home of ML King. Malcolm blanched at the desire of the Klan to kill King, and fell out further with Elijah, who continued discussions with the KKK.

                 In 1963, Malcolm confirmed what he had long suspected. Elijah was a hypocrite and adulterer. Malcolm met with Elijah's son, Wallace, who confirmed that Elijah had impregnated a number of his secretaries and expelled them from the NOI for adultery. He also told Malcolm that Elijah's NOI creation myth was completely false. Shaken to the core, the street hustler cum evangelist turned away from the Honorable Elijah. At the same time, Elijah now considered Malcolm an existential threat. Malcolm X left the nation in March, 1964. He studied traditional Islam and even made the haj to Mecca. Upon his return from the seven week overseas trip, he attacked Elijah's paternity of six illegitimate children in the national media. He then focused on trying to create a coalition ranging from ML King to Kwame Nkrumah, president of Ghana, to bring the treatment of America's negroes to the UN. His focus was now political. On February 15, 1965, the NOI firebombed and destroyed his house in Queens. The day after the firebombing while speaking in Harlem, Malcolm disclosed Elijah's connection to the Klan. Elijah had already decreed that Malcolm must be eliminated. One of Malcolm's bodyguards was a NYPD undercover cop. When he alerted the department to what he believed was an  impending assassination attempt, the NYC police reduced their presence in front of the Audubon Ballroom where he spoke again on Feb. 21. When Malcolm stood at the podium to begin, a smoke bomb went off and a member of the NOI Newark mosque, stood up and blasted Malcolm with a sawed off shotgun. Two men jumped on the stage to finish him off with pistols.  He died a few minutes later. The only shooter prosecuted and jailed was the one wounded by a bodyguard at the scene. The other two and the two who had created a confusing distraction, were never pursued. The authorities were more interested in disparaging Malcolm than capturing his killers.

             His teachings have had a profound impact in the decades since his murder, particularly in the wake of Spike Lee's 1992 movie. Young Blacks took inspiration from his brilliance and his insistence that they were not second class citizens. Black replaced negro in daily usage as a proud affirmation of race. This book is 530 pages and a bit of a slog at times. But it is well worth the effort. He was an extraordinary individual who annoyed and threatened the white establishment and most of Black America, but he didn't pull any punches in his crusade against racism.