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The Legacy of Malcolm X

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska to Earl and Louise Little. Like all black Americans, his family experienced violent racism even from before his birth. Malcolm’s mother was threatened by the KKK while pregnant with him. The Klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because of Malcolm’s father’s political activities with the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Three of Malcolm X’s uncles died violently at the hands of white men and his grand uncle was lynched. When he was 4 years old, after his family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they were harassed by a white supremacist group called The Black Legion; two years later, his father died a violent death under suspicious circumstances.

When Louise Little, Malcolm X’s mother, had a nervous breakdown in 1938, he and his siblings were separated and sent to live in different foster homes. He dropped out of school after graduating at the top of his Junior High School class and being discouraged by a racist teacher. Eventually, he wound up in a detention center. In 1942, at age 17, he lived in Boston and became a part of the city’s crime underworld. He lived in New York, briefly earning a living as a shoe shiner and then began dealing drugs in Harlem. Eventually he returned to Boston and was imprisoned for 8-10 years for burglary.

It was in prison that Malcolm X learned about the Nation of Islam and converted. Once released from prison, he became active alongside Elijah Muhammed. More than ten years later he left the Nation of Islam, converted to Orthodox Islam, and traveled to Mecca. On February 21st, 1965, exactly 43 years ago yesterday, Malcolm X was assassinated during a speech in Manhattan. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral in Harlem.

What is remarkable about this man who became one of the most controversial figures in American civil rights history, is how little documentation there is about his words and life. His entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography with Alex Haley, published after his death. His militant stands against non-violence, on white racism and black nationalism, made him all at once loved and loathed across America.

The Malcolm X 6 CD set, consisting of a number of Malcolm X’s most famous and compelling speeches, is one of the most popular audio pieces from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

CD 1: The Ballot or the Bullet – his best known speech given on March 29, 1964 in Harlem
CD 2: Black Muslims Vs. The Sit-Ins – a discussion with James Baldwin and Leverne McCummins
CD 3: The Prospects for Freedom – Part 1 – lengthy 2-hr speech in New York on January 7, 1965
CD 4: The Prospects for Freedom – Part 2
CD 5: Friends and Enemies – a speech given on February 15, 1965 in Detroit, MI, the day after his house was firebombed, and a week after he was killed.
CD 6: A speech by Malcolm X on December 20, 1964 about the treatment of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, plus a presentation by John Henrik Clarke, history professor and friend of Malcolm X, on Malcolm’s contribution to the black struggle in the US.

Click here to make a pledge to KPFK for the 6 CD Malcolm X box set: http://kpfk.org/pledge/catalog/product_info.php?
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The Black Panther Party

Following on the heels of Malcolm X and his vision of black nationalism, came the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California by Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense as it was originally called, was established to promote the civil rights and self-defense of African Americans. The party initially espoused a doctrine calling for armed resistance to oppression in the interest of African-American justice and attracted national attention through their open and militant confrontation of law enforcement officers. Although its leaders openly espoused socialist ideology, the party’s black nationalism attracted a broad and ideologically diverse constituency.

The Black Panther Party became well known for their Ten-Point Program, a document that called for “Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace”, as well as exemption from military service for African-American men, among other demands.

Over time, the party became more focused on socialism and instituted a variety of community programs to alleviate poverty and improve health. While the party retained its all-black membership, it recognized that different minority communities needed to organize around their own set of issues and encouraged alliances with such organizations.

In 1968, founder Huey P. Newton was tried for manslaughter in a case that caught national attention and rallied panthers across the US. Subjected to an intense campaign of surveillance and discrediting by the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, the Black Panther Party eventually collapsed in the early 1970s.

The Black Panther Party 6 CD set is a new set of audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives and contains some of the most important audio moments from the party’s tenure.

CD 1: Features original founders of the Black Panther Party: Bobby Seale and Huey P Newton
CD 2: Other famous leaders in the party: H Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, and Eldridge Cleaver
CD 3: Women in the Party: Kathleen Cleaver and Elaine Brown
CD 4: Police Actions against the Black Panther Party including a documentary on Fred Hampton
CD 5: Trials and Tribulations: The BPP and the Justice System with a focus on Huey Newton’s trial
CD 6: Legacy of the Panthers with Angela Davis and Bobby Seale