Fifty years later, a legacy that still resonates

“The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America” by Mark Whitaker

c.2025,

Simon & Schuster                                         

$30.99                                    

448 pages

Who will remember you in 50 years?

A handful of friends – at least those still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to attend her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to accompany their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen that night? Surely he was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three accused men didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that white America “’ needed his voice even more than blacks did.’”

However, although Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential in its beginning. He never knew the first Kwanzaa or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president…

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life and legacy or a “murder mystery”?

It turns out it is all three, but the timeline isn’t always smooth, and that may take some getting used to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed, in this book to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it is a big part of this book, and readers need to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy but adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”  For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.