Of the great figure in twentieth-century
American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X.
Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader,
and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine.
Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of
thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities
while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African
American man. In death he became a broad symbol of both resistance and
reconciliation for millions around the world.
Manning Marable's new biography of Malcolm is a
stunning achievement. Filled with new information and shocking revelations that
go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a sweeping story of race and
class in America,
from the rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the struggles of the
civil rights movement in the fifties and sixties. Reaching into Malcolm's
troubled youth, it traces a path from his parents' activism through his own
engagement with the Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the
world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the never-before-told true story
of his assassination. Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of the
most singular forces for social change, capturing with revelatory clarity a man
who constantly strove, in the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.
Manning Marable, Professor of History and
director of the Institute for African-American Studies at Columbia University,
has written features in the New York Times and the Nation. His books include
Race, Reform, and Rebellion; Beyond Black and White; and Speaking Truth to
Power. His public affairs commentary series, "Along the Color Line,"
is featured in more than 275 newspapers and is broadcast by eighty radio
stations in the U.S. and internationally.
