Malcom X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

Malcolm has finally received the book that his unique role in black and global resistance culture deserves. Long before multiculturalism entered the language of political discourse, Malcolm was busy exploring its logical endpoint of ethnic and cultural separation. He ardently believed in separation of the races up until almost the end of his life, believing that blacks could never be treated equally by whites, so he said different things to different people. He was adept at tailoring his message to different audiences, often blatantly contradicting on a Thursday what he had clearly and emotively stated on a Monday--he wouldn't have fared nearly as well in the age of Youtube and 24/7 news. The Daily Show would have shredded him.

Yet despite, the man who emerges from this book is in many respects admirable: brave, loyal, self-disciplined, quick-witted, charismatic, acutely intelligent and a public speaker of quite awesome power. While Malcolm correctly predicted that black culture would assume a central role in American life, he would never have foreseen the election of a black president. Manning presents a strong case that there was some form of FBI collusion in his murder, if only to the degree that the bureau, which had spies all over the NOI, failed to prevent the plot. He also floats the probability that at least one of the killers was an FBI informant. Whatever the truth, there is no disputing that Malcolm was shot dead by men who largely shared his beliefs. The book does not speculate much on how or why Malcolm X became the man he did--the book tells the story in a matter-of-fact manner, up to and including his murder, and what happened soon thereafter. A very good read.