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(File 1965/Associated Press) |
Globe Editorial
Popular views of Malcolm X long ago congealed into two contrasting stereotypes: To detractors, the black Muslim leader was a divisive racial separatist who preached violence and opposed Martin Luther King’s peaceful pursuit of civil rights; admirers, meanwhile, made him a mythic hero with unshakeable integrity and unchanging political principles. But enough time has passed that a new biography by Columbia University scholar Manning Marable stands a good chance of correcting the record.
While Alex Haley’s influential book “The Autobiography of Malcolm X’’ and Spike Lee’s biopic offered a romanticized version of their subject, Marable drew on documents and surviving sources in an effort to demystify Malcolm. He learned that Malcolm, while a minister in the Nation of Islam, exaggerated his criminal past to fit the pattern of the lost soul who could be redeemed by the sect and its leader, Elijah Muhammed. Most important for Marable was the constant questioning and revision that shaped Malcolm’s political thinking, particularly toward the end of a life cut tragically short by assassination.
Sadly, Marable isn’t available to publicize his book; he died last week, three days before it was published. Even so, his work of scraping away accreted layers of myth to show the complex, conflicted figure of Malcolm X was needed not only for history’s sake, but as an antidote to the twin maladies of demonization and hero worship.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.
