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Nation & World

Why Malcolm X matters even more 60 years after his killing

New book by Mark Whitaker examines growth of artistic, political, cultural influence of controversial Civil Rights icon

Christina Pazzanese

Harvard Staff Writer

August 15, 2025

8 min read

Malcolm X was the provocative yet charismatic face of Black Nationalism and spokesman for the Nation of Islam before he was gunned down at an event in New York City on Feb. 21, 1965, after breaking with the group.

In a new book, “The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America” (2025), journalist Mark Whitaker ’79, explores how the controversial Civil Rights figure’s stature and cultural legacy have only grown since his death.

With dazzling verbal flair, Malcolm X’s advocacy for Black self-determination and racial pride stirred many of his contemporaries like Muhammed Ali, John Coltrane, Maya Angelou, and the founders of the Black Panther party, and helped spur the Black Arts Movement and the experimental genre known as “Free Jazz.”

Whitaker notes that even decades later Malcolm X’s words and ideas have continued to influence new generations of artists and activists, including NBA Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, playwright August Wilson, filmmaker Spike Lee, pop star Beyoncé, and rappers Tupac Shakur and Kendrick Lamar, among others.

Whitaker recently spoke with the Gazette about why Malcolm X continues to shape American culture. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

You say Malcolm X’s cultural influence is even greater than when he was alive. Why is that?

You have to start with “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” [co-authored by Alex Haley]. Many more people, even in the ’60s but certainly subsequently, have gotten to know him through “The Autobiography” than anything else. It’s an extraordinary book. There’s a reason why it’s one of the most read and influential books of the last half century. There are few books by public figures of his stature where you experience this extraordinary personal journey he underwent, from losing his parents at a young age to becoming a street hustler and going to prison, and then turning his life around through the Nation of Islam, becoming a national figure, but then becoming disenchanted with the Nation and with Elijah Muhammad, going out on his own, making a pilgrimage to Mecca, traveling the world, reassessing all of his thoughts and beliefs about white people and separatism and so forth. So that’s extraordinary.

“One of the things that’s interesting is he keeps getting rediscovered generation after generation by young people.”

One of the things that’s interesting is he keeps getting rediscovered generation after generation by young people. I think he spoke to young people for a variety of reasons. One is the reality of race that he described was closer to what they were witnessing than the “I Have a Dream” speech.

There was a hard-headed realism about his analysis of race relations that spoke to young people. Even before you get to politics, his emphasis was on psychology, on pride, and on self-belief and on culture. The belief that Black folks had to start with celebrating themselves and their own culture and their own history — that was extremely appealing to subsequent generations.

I also think there was just something about the way he communicated. There’s a reason that the pioneers of hip-hop thought that you could take snippets of his speeches and put them in the middle of raps, and it would still sound like it belonged. There was something incredibly direct and pithy and honest about the way he communicated.

You put those elements together — his hard-headed analysis, his emphasis on culture and self-belief and pride, and his extraordinary communication — generation after generation of people rediscover that and feel that all of those things are still very powerful.

So many important Black artists, writers, musicians, and activists of that period had either a personal relationship with Malcolm X or said they had an epiphany of sorts after listening to him speak. Why do you think that was?

Part of it was that he did believe, very strongly, that politics is downstream from culture. That was something that he very much believed and preached.

It was interesting because his parents were Black nationalists of the Marcus Garvey generation. And so followers of Marcus Garvey of their generation basically said, “Things are so bad for Black people in America that they have to go someplace else, whether it be someplace in Africa or the Caribbean.” There was this idea of a Black homeland, someplace else that everybody would get on ships and go to.

“In his view, the way Black folks should practice nationalism is by staying in America but demanding their own culture, which began with studying their own history.”

Malcolm explicitly said, “We are a nation, but we belong here.” In his view, the way Black folks should practice nationalism is by staying in America but demanding their own culture, which began with studying their own history. In his separatist era, it was literally we have our own networks of support. He was a big believer in Black business by and for Black people. That was a cultural project as much as a political project.

He lived in an era when a lot of Black culture, even though it was separate from white culture, sought to emulate white culture. A lot of the societies and the rituals were Black versions of white rituals. And he said, “That’s a form of brainwashing. We shouldn’t seek to be like white people. We should have our own culture.”

So, starting with the Black Arts Movement and the “Free Jazz” movement in the ’60s, and then later, the hip-hop generation and today’s artists like Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, all the great artists who still invoke him, that’s the message they’re picking up on as much as his political message.

There’s also something just so supremely confident about him that people relate to. He was unapologetically who he was. He’s preaching Black pride and so forth with such supreme elegance and confidence and humor. That’s always appealing.

One chapter looks at Malcolm X as a hero to the political left and right. President Barack Obama has talked about how influential the autobiography was on him as a teenager, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has also spoken about his attraction to Malcolm X and his message of self-determination when he was in college. Few political or cultural figures today have that kind of appeal. What do you attribute that to?

There are people on the left who revere Malcolm X who were appalled that Clarence Thomas would say he’s also a hero to him, and feel like Clarence Thomas just cherry-picked the parts of his message that are convenient to him — the emphasis on Black business, the skepticism about integration and so forth. I spent a lot of time researching that chapter and talking not to Thomas himself, but to his clerks and people who had written about his interest in Malcolm X, and I think it was sincere.

Malcolm X was a truth teller. I don’t think he was interested in being a hero to white people. He would go around saying things like, “I prefer the white racist who at least has his cards on the table to the white liberal who can’t be trusted.” And as we see today, people embrace people who attack the people who they oppose.

“Malcolm X came to Harvard in 1961 and then twice in 1964 to talk with Harvard Law School students and to debate faculty. He was known for his willingness to speak in all sorts of settings, whether a college campus, a street corner, or a TV talk show. ”

Would Malcolm X be surprised to find that he’s still so influential?

It’s a tricky thing for biographers to say what would he have thought. It’s presumptuous, but one of the things that is clear is that people at the time who were followers of his said his message and his influence will outlive him. Actor Ossie Davis said that in his eulogy. He said, “What we put in the ground now is only a seed which will rise up to meet us.”

Sociologist Harry Edwards, when he was organizing a Malcolm X day at San Jose State — this was a year after King’s assassination — people said, “Why all this fuss about Malcolm X and not about King?” And Harry Edwards said the thing about Malcolm X is it’s not so much what he did during his lifetime, it’s what he inspired in others, which will continue. There’s something about Malcolm that is still alive in the influence that he’s having on all these other people.