 | The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America is a must-read for anyone interested in American history. The book starts with Malcolm X’s horrific assassination and the botched investigation afterwards that railroaded two innocent men. Defiant, well-spoken, and intellectually ahead of his time, Malcolm attributed his philosophical clarity to his Muslim faith. Many Black Americans hid their true feelings from whites to avoid conflict and try to assimilate into American culture. Not Malcolm. “By my being Muslim,” he said, “I’m not interested in being American, because America has never been interested in me.” |
Physically, Malcolm cut a "mesmerizing figure in the dark suits that cloaked his tall, slender physique, and the scholar’s glasses that framed the handsome face with its fringe of reddish hair, high mocha cheekbones, and intense light eyes.”
A reporter who knew him well also described his physical presence: “He was a tall, coppery man, six-foot-three and long muscled, with close-cut hair, cool gray-green eyes, and the straight-up bearing of a soldier, or a priest.”
A reporter who knew him well also described his physical presence: “He was a tall, coppery man, six-foot-three and long muscled, with close-cut hair, cool gray-green eyes, and the straight-up bearing of a soldier, or a priest.”
The book traces the different ways Malcolm was idolized (or demonized) in American culture in the decades after his death. A wide array of people drew inspiration from Malcolm’s words and life, and the book highlights these groundbreaking people and movements:
- Alex Haley, who helped write Malcolm’s best-selling autobiography;
- The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
- Muhammad Ali
- the Black Arts Movement
- rappers Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Tupac Shakur
- director Spike Lee
- President Barack Obama
- Black Lives Matter
The author explores the personal background of each person featured in the book and how their lives intersected and reflected Malcolm’s message, for example:
 | Civil-rights activist Stokely Carmichael listened to Malcolm’s speeches on the streets of Harlem as a high school student. At Howard university, he joined an activist group, and asked Malcolm to debate a mainstream integrationist speaker. He was inspired by Malcom’s forceful speaking style, which he later adapted: “The dramatic African tradition of the spoken word” which required the speaker to be “highly skilled in poetic and rhetorical terms, and flawless in crowd psychology. To hold, inspire, and work their audience, they had to be powerfully persuasive and quick-witted and sure-footed.” |
Seeing Malcolm in person transformed him into an activist: “What Malcolm demonstrated that night … was the raw power, the visceral potency, of the grip our unarticulated collective blackness held over us.”
 | Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was also galvanized by Malcolm’s message: “I was riveted by Malcolm’s intimate story of how he came to realize he’d been the victim of institutional racism, which had imprisoned him long before he’d landed in an actual prison. That’s how I felt: imprisoned by an image of who I was supposed to be.” He had experienced racism from his coaches and society at large. Embracing Malcolm’s philosophy helped him forge his own path in the world. |
Olympic athlete John Carlos grew up listening to Malcolm on local radio in New York. He noted the difference between Malcolm and other civil rights leaders: “Malcolm wasn't speaking to the best angels of our nature. He was speaking to the distance we had to travel if we are going to be seen and respected as human beings, not animals, servants or slaves.”
 | Inspired by Malcolm, he and fellow elite athletes staged a boycott of the Mexico Olympics unless racially oppressive South Africa and Rhodesia were barred from the games. The Olympic Committee agreed to this demand. At the event, Carlos and his fellow American medalist Tommie Smith raised their fists on the medal podium to protest the continued oppression of blacks in the US and Africans abroad. Carlos later said of his life-long activism: “Seize your moment in time. The only true regrets in life come from inaction.” |
 | Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas attributes his stance against affirmative action to Malcolm’s message of self-reliance and the “false promise of integration.” Thomas was also heavily influenced by the grandfather who raised him to be stoic and self-disciplined, a self-made man who disdained welfare. Says Thomas: “I don’t care how educated you are, how good you are at what you do—you’ll never have the same contacts or opportunities, you’ll never be seen as equal to whites.” He supports Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as a better choice for Black students than integration at white-majority institutions. |
Two threads weave through the entire book: Malcolm’s relationship with the Nation of Islam (NOI), and the mystery of who orchestrated his assassination.
 | Malcolm initially credited Elijah Muhammad, founder of NOI, with giving his life direction during his incarceration (a harsh ten-year sentence for breaking and entering). Malcolm’s older siblings had converted and he also embraced Muhammad’s teachings, writing him letters and traveling to Chicago to meet him upon his release. Malcolm was later appointed leader of the Harlem mosque and became the Nation’s spokesperson. Their relationship soured when Malcolm learned Elijah Muhammad had sex with young women of the faith. |
On March 8, 1964, Malcolm officially severed ties with Elijah Muhammad, forming his own organization.
 | A bitter fight over the home Elijah Muhammad had gifted Malcolm and his young family followed. The following month, Malcolm flew to Mecca and embraced traditional Islamic faith. Upon his return, he began publicizing Elijah Muhammad’s predatory sexual behavior. That February, his home was fire-bombed, the family was evicted, and Malcolm received death threats from the Nation of Islam. During his speech at Barnard College on February 18, 1965, Malcolm said, “I would rather be dead than have somebody deprive me of my rights.” Three days later, he was assassinated in front of his family and four hundred supporters. |
One shooter, Thomas Hagen of New Jersey, was caught and beaten by the crowd, but the other two gunmen escaped. Hagen would later confess that he was hired to assassinate Malcolm, but refused to name other conspirators. Two local men from the Nation of Islam were charged and convicted of the murder (along with Hagen).
A journalist named Peter Goldman, a friend of Malcolm and his family, publicized irregularities in the court case. He and other journalists learned the FBI withheld information to protect informants within NOI. They also uncovered evidence a mosque in New Jersey was the source of the assassination plot, but it was more than twenty years after their imprisonment that the two innocent local men were finally exonerated.
A journalist named Peter Goldman, a friend of Malcolm and his family, publicized irregularities in the court case. He and other journalists learned the FBI withheld information to protect informants within NOI. They also uncovered evidence a mosque in New Jersey was the source of the assassination plot, but it was more than twenty years after their imprisonment that the two innocent local men were finally exonerated.
The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America provides an in-depth, nuanced account of Malcolm X’s life and legacy written in an engaging style. Highly recommended.
Read other books on US racism: How to be an Anti-Racist, Broken Heart of America
Read fiction exploring prejudice: So Many Beginnings, The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin series),
City of Stairs (Divine Cities Trilogy), The Word for World is Forest, A Closed and Common Orbit,
The Witch’s Heart, The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fischer, Remnant Population,
Pledging Season, The Bone Marrow Thieves, Light from Uncommon Stars, The Bruising of Qilwa
Read fiction exploring prejudice: So Many Beginnings, The Dragon’s Path (The Dagger and the Coin series),
City of Stairs (Divine Cities Trilogy), The Word for World is Forest, A Closed and Common Orbit,
The Witch’s Heart, The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fischer, Remnant Population,
Pledging Season, The Bone Marrow Thieves, Light from Uncommon Stars, The Bruising of Qilwa
