Books by & About Malcolm X

Malcolm X: The Man and His Times  /  Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X  / Martin and Malcolm and America 

Ghosts in Our Blood: With Malcolm X in Africa, England, and the Caribbean

 The Black Muslims in America /  The Autobiography of Malcolm X  / Malcolm X Speaks / By Any Means Necessary

February 1965: The Final Speeches

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A Note To Yvonne

As ever and always, Rudy

Praises and blessings, I showed my friend Kinya the 4-page Malcolm letter to Elijah and told him I placed a link to it on the site. He didn't like that. Malcolm's "impotency" seemed to smear his political black hero and saint. Ain't it interesting how we all get hung up on the sex thang. Didn't the same thing happen to King and just lately to Jesse. We won't attempt to handle the countless others. But let us not forget the recent Catholic Bishops Conference in Texas. Keep in mind there are a lot of Catholics in Texas and they are gaining more and more power. So Texas is important.

I told him today I thought it was a most interesting letter on a number of counts. Not only Malolm's relationship with Betty, but that two men--two black men-- could talk about such an intimate matter. That says something very important and very necessary. So this situation, this exposure of a domestic argument, is progressive. And even more so when we keep in mind that Elijah was a father, more important still, a spiritual father and guide.  That kind of trust between two black men is rare and needs to be applauded. As my brother Kalamu says in his poem "my father is dead. again," dedicated to Tom Dent, "we do not kill our fathers/to prove that we have arrived." In this "Letter to Elijah," Malcolm  is not a dead, used- to-be Black Muslim minister, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, Pan-Muslim leader, Malcolm lives! now as a man.

But more. It exposes a man of deep thought and honesty about his own inner life. With respect to those who would conceal this knowledge of this letter, Malcolm becomes a greater man than that public Malcolm we have now idolized, frozen in time. The care he took with such an intimate issue is a lesson for the present. And so humble. . . .  Now you know, most men would have dragged Betty around the block a couple of times by her hair. And then after that exercise, many would tell her he's hungry and she'd better go into the kitchen and get it right. . . .  But Malcolm was right, he understood  you don't say everything that comes in your mind, even if it is the truth. Of course, your truth.

Malcolm was right again and very perceptive. Women today are not like yesterday's woman, like my 91-year-old grandmother who worked the fields like a man, who believes there are women's duties and men's duties and  a woman don't play around with her duties to a man, you don't play with men. Unless you asking for  trouble. You don't do it, tend to a woman's duties, because the man wants it. You do it because it's the right thing to do. That's part of the bargain of marriage. As a child I wondered why Mama and Daddy slept in different rooms. Was it the snoring, the flatulence?

I didn't understand why Daddy  threatened to kill himself, to shoot himself in the head with the shotgun and why she tried to wrestle the gun from him and then relented and let him have the shells. And when I cried for my daddy's life, she said, "Your daddy wants to live just like any man!. And sure enough he was alive the next day."

Malcolm. Oh, Malcolm. Poor Malcolm. And poor Betty. The things we do to get joy, and worst, the things we say. Hell, knows no fury . . . . Old folks say you got to watch your tongue. Don't get your little red wagon stepped on. No truer words been spoken.

So the link continues on ChickenBones: A Journal. I want people to know about the letter and everybody that might benefit by it I am gonna tell. Maybe somebody like me should write an editorial about it. You see! You inspire me! I will start on it in a moment.

So I am now typing Yusef's poems. I have devised a table so that they can be accessed from the opening page. I am getting ready to type "Woman, I Got the Blues." But I'll do that after I write the editorial on Malcolm's Letter to Elijah.

Enjoy the concert. As ever and always, Rudy 

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