The dead are arising : the life of Malcolm X / Les Payne and Tamara Payne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Payne, Les, 1941-2018, author.

Payne, Tamara, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

X, Malcolm, 1925-1965.

X, Malcolm.

Black Muslims--Biography.

Black Muslims.

African American Muslims.

Black nationalism--United States.

Black nationalism.

United States.

African American Muslims--Biography.

African American civil rights workers--Biography.

African American civil rights workers.

African Americans--Biography.

African Americans.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xix, 612 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Liveright Publishing Corporation, [2020]

Summary:

"An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative. Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X-all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the twentieth century's most politically relevant figures "from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary." In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary. With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations-from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder "Fard Muhammad," who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom. Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle"-- Provided by publisher.

In 1990 Payne embarked on a nearly thirty-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X. All living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal: to transform what would become over a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations. A riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle. -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I 1925

1939

ch. 1 Born Against the Current

ch. 2 Storms of Racism

ch. 3 The Anchor Is Lost

ch. 4 Pulling the Family Apart

pt. II 1939

1946

ch. 5 East Lansing Red

ch. 6 Lighting Out for His Territory

ch. 7 Chased Out of Seventh Heaven

ch. 8 Luck Runs Out

ch. 9 Learning to Fight with Words

pt. III 1946

1963

ch. 10 Birth of the Nation of Islam

ch. 11 Building Temples in the East

ch. 12 Hartford: "The Dead There Are Rising"

ch. 13 "Meet with Them Devils"

ch. 14 Malcolm, the Media, and Martin Luther King

pt. IV 1963

1965

ch. 15 The Split

ch. 16 The International Stage

ch. 17 The Week Before: A Dry Run

ch. 18 The Hit

ch. 19 Back at the Mosque.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/Autobiography, Winner, 2021

ISBN:

9781631491665

1631491660

OCLC:

1137810018