Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

The gospel of separation according to Malcolm X

The gospel of separation according to Malcolm X

So determined was Malcolm X on black resistance and separatism that he even met secretly with the KKK, according to Les and Tamara Payne
In late April 1962 Los Angeles police shot and killed an unarmed black man, Ronald X Stokes, during a disturbance outside

a Nation of Islam temple. Malcolm X, then the second most powerful figure in the NOI, rushed to the city. At a rally he told protesters: ‘You’re brutalised because you’re black, and when they lay a club on the side of your head, they do not ask your religion. You’re black, that’s enough.’ Sound familiar?

The Dead Are Arising, a new biography of Malcolm X, is timely. But perhaps this sobering book’s clearest message is that it will always be timely, because the story it narrates is timeless. In 1964 it would be Harlem, in 1965 Watts, in 1967 Detroit. Today, it’s Minneapolis and Louisville.

He may not have used the phrase, but Malcolm X was one of the innovators of concepts such as systemic racism. In contrast to his great rival Martin Luther King, Malcolm preached a gospel of separation, not integration, because he didn’t feel that white America would ever give blacks a fair chance.

This wasn’t simply a southern problem but a national one, and it’s telling that Malcolm was born and raised in northern states such as Nebraska, Wisconsin and Michigan. ‘Mississippi,’ he once declared, ‘is anywhere south of the Canadian border.’

Bracing, perhaps — but such an outlook stemmed from all that African Americans endured. The system seemed rigged because it was rigged, not just in subtle, systemic ways but in the frequent, blunt application of physical violence and economic force: ‘The hate that hate produced,’ to go by the title of a 1959 television documentary on black radicalism that featured Malcolm and the NOI, and that about gets it right. This doesn’t excuse the hate, but it does explain it.

The young Malcolm Little, born in 1925 when the Ku Klux Klan was at its full might, was a difficult child. He was clearly different, more intelligent but also more wayward than any of his six siblings, and all through adolescence he had trouble with the law. After moving to Boston at the age of 20, the small-time crook graduated into a full-time thief. He was arrested, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Prison breeds revolutionaries, and so it was for Malcolm Little. With nothing else to do, he read voraciously and eclectically, everything from sociology to Shakespeare. He was also introduced to the writings of the NOI, an eccentric amalgam of Protestantism and Islam that divided the races as stringently as any white supremacist. NOI doctrine held that all whites were ‘devils’, that racial harmony was a delusion, and that blacks had every right to defend themselves.

These hard-edged views made sense to Malcolm, and after being released on parole he quickly established himself as the rising star of this more radical wing of the black rights struggle. The hoodlum Malcolm Little dropped his ‘slave surname’ and became the upright and forthright Malcolm X.

Les and Tamara Payne are especially good in detailing these early years of delinquency and rebirth. Like Robert Caro’s life of Lyndon Johnson, The Dead Are Arising delves deeply into the wider context of Malcolm’s world, sometimes leaving Malcolm himself on the sidelines.

The book shows better than any previous biography the extent to which the NOI’s outlook was rooted in Marcus Garvey’s ‘Back to Africa’ movement of the 1920s. Malcolm’s parents had worked for Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and Malcolm was a natural heir to this tradition of black power.

Garvey believed in racial separation so fervently that in 1922 he held a secret meeting with the KKK to discuss how to make it happen. The meeting went nowhere, but it set a precedent for Malcolm’s own clandestine meeting with the Klan 40 years later.

Malcolm was uneasy about sitting down with white supremacists, but he’d been ordered to do so by ‘the Messenger’ Elijah Muhammad, the NOI’s spiritual leader and chief executive. The encounter, covered in a riveting 63-page chapter that’s based on a wealth of new evidence, is the Paynes’ showstopper.

It was probably inevitable that Malcolm would have a falling out with Elijah Muhammad and the NOI establishment, which ultimately ended in Malcolm’s assassination in February 1965. But his more enduring rivalry, one that continues to shape African American identity, was with King. One was a voice of peace and integration, the other a voice of resistance and separatism; both wanted justice, but Malcolm vowed to get it ‘by any means necessary’.

Both were assassinated, though ironically King was gunned down by a white man and Malcolm by fellow black radicals. Perhaps fittingly, though tragically, not long before they died they had each come to appreciate the other’s point of view. This potential synthesis of ‘Martin and Malcolm’ has provided the civil rights movement’s elusive lodestar ever since.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
×