16 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2020LES PAYNE’S“The Dead Are Arising” ar-
rives in late 2020, bequeathed to an Amer-
ica choked by racism and lawlessness. The
book’s subject, Malcolm X, knows this
place well, though he died in 1965. Readers
may pick up this biography hoping for a
celebration of Black pride and resilience in
the midst of madness. Payne, a Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalist who devoted
nearly 30 years to the book before his
death in 2018, meets these needs intermit-
tently, but that is not his primary goal. Mal-
colm’s presence is beautifully rendered,
but “The Dead Are Arising,” which was ul-
timately completed by Payne’s daughter
and principal researcher, Tamara Payne, is
not a tribute or enshrinement of achieve-
ments. Instead, it reconstructs the condi-
tions and key moments of Malcolm’s life,
thanks to hundreds of original interviews
with his family, friends, colleagues and ad-
versaries. Nobody has written a more po-
etic account.
This book reveals more of Malcolm’s
childhood than we have ever seen. The
Paynes’ research elucidates a family his-
tory of American racial terror that pre-
ceded his birth in 1925. Malcolm’s middle-
class parents moved several times, often
into neighborhoods they knew were hos-
tile, confronting the Ku Klux Klan, local of-
ficials and bigoted employers. His father,
Earl Little, died when Malcolm (born Mal-
colm Little) was 6, the victim of a streetcar
accident that Malcolm later suspected was
a cover-up for the work of a racist mob.
His mother, Louise, kept the family to-
gether as long as she could, but eventually
succumbed to poverty and mental illness.
Malcolm, then 13, and his seven siblings
were scattered into foster care and other
arrangements. Still, the influence of his
parents, who were steeped in the teach-
ings of Marcus Garvey, cannot be over-
stated. They could not nurture Malcolm
through childhood, but they steeled him
with the truth: He owed white people noth-
ing. Not deference, or trust, or gratitude
for whatever comfort he might find in life.
Malcolm’s character and beliefs changed
over the years. Defiance of white suprema-
cy was his essence.
Les Payne wrote “The Dead Are Aris-
ing” in part to correct the record in Mal-
colm X’s autobiography, as is evident in his
treatment of Malcolm’s troubled adoles-
cence. Malcolm’s time as a hustler is sub-
ject to debate. The historian Manning
Marable’s award-winning biography, pub-
lished in 2011, argues that Malcolm’s auto-
biography embellishes his early crimes to
dramatize his later redemption. “The Dead
Are Arising” does not directly engage
Marable, but it refutes his interpretation
and fills in gaps in Malcolm’s own account.
Though he was rarely violent, Malcolm
was embedded in a social network of
thieves, drug dealers, racketeers and pros-
titutes as he split his late teenage years be-
tween Boston and New York City. His
tragic and frequently despicable behavior
marked him for early imprisonment, if not
death.
Incarceration at 20 was the pivot of Mal-
colm’s life. He accepted the teachings of
the Nation of Islam while behind bars,
thanks to evangelizing correspondence
from his brothers Philbert and Reginald.
Upon his release, Malcolm dedicated him-
self to his new religion and its captivating
and duplicitous leader, Elijah Muhammad.
He quickly became the group’s most effec-
tive and recognizable spokesman, with
fierce criticism of white America and a
gospel of Black self-respect. Malcolm’s po-litical celebrity and unapologetic approach
ultimately turned the leadership of the Na-
tion of Islam against him, and Muhammad
gave the assassination order that led to
Malcolm’s killing.
One possible criticism is that Payne does
not provide an exhaustive account of Mal-
colm’s political philosophy. The book con-
tains little analysis of Malcolm’s most cele-
brated speeches, debates or interviews.
Instead, Payne most fully presents Mal-
colm’s ideas in contrast to those of both
Muhammad and Martin Luther King Jr.
This discussion unfolds in one of the
book’s strongest sections, a retelling of a
bizarre arranged meeting between Mal-
colm and the leadership of the Ku Klux
Klan in Atlanta in 1961. Muhammad sent
Malcolm and his colleague Jeremiah X to
attend the meeting on behalf of the Nation
of Islam, and Malcolm never forgave him.
Payne puts readers in the room, and Mal-
colm’s disgust at being forced to negotiate
with terrorists is palpable. But Payne also
shows how enthralling it was to watch Mal-
colm improvise and argue. In this scene
and others, we are exposed to Malcolm’s
teachings within the rhythm of Payne’s
masterly storytelling.The portion of the book that may receive
the most attention is Payne’s account of
Malcolm’s assassination at the Audubon
Ballroom in Harlem. The details of the
killing have never been totally clear, but
Payne’s narrative is exacting. He spot-
lights key figures and examines the possi-
ble involvement of the F.B.I. and New York
City police. But I found myself less in-
trigued by the loose ends of Malcolm’s as-
sassination than devastated by the indig-
nity and simplicity of the killing. Malcolm
knew he was in danger and did little to pro-
tect himself. He had broken from the Na-
tion of Islam, dedicated himself to Sunni Is-
lam and begun experimenting with new
tools for a global, human-rights-based
movement for Black liberation. He was
forceful, fine and weary, but not finished.
And then three men rushed the stage, bul-
lets ripped through Malcolm’s flesh and he
bled to death on the floor. We lost him,
again.
It is hard not to want Malcolm back, be-
cause his charisma is undeniable. His
heroism grew from his courage, but also
from his delight in his Blackness and his
cause. Whenever I see footage of Malcolm,
he seems on the verge of smiling, no matter
how fiery his words or powerful his ene-
mies. He can’t help laughing at white
America’s hypocrisy, and mocking the calls
to bargain with a government that wanted
him silenced. There was an amused confi-
dence that attracted his followers, along
with his rhetorical genius and love for
Black people.
But Malcolm’s power was more than em-
bodied charm, and he need not rise from
the dead. His diagnosis of calamity is
enough to guide us. America has never
been a nation of laws for Black people, he
said. A country that is conditionally lawful
is not lawful at all. It is weak, and will even-
tually be exposed, no matter how much
wealth and military power it amasses. And
in such a country, he wondered, what good
is it for Black people to ask for trim legal
solutions to police violence, electoral theft,
segregation and poverty?
An epilogue to “The Dead Are Arising”
comments briefly on Malcolm’s legacy, but
it doesn’t take a Pulitzer Prize winner to
see Malcolm’s inheritance in the Black
Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Mat-
ter isn’t asking for anything. Like Malcolm,
it demands everything that Black people
deserve, by any means necessary. It does
not advocate violence, but will not abide
the sick moral logic that condemns de-
struction of property as “too extreme” a re-
sponse to the police shooting us in the
back. And thanks to the leadership of Black
women and Black L.G.B.T.Q. people, the
imagination of the current movement is
even more expansive than its predeces-
sors in the mid-20th century. This is the
promise they keep, and the idea that
pushed Payne to write until death took the
pen: We will exceed even Malcolm’s wild-
est dreams. 0By Any Means Necessary
A new life of Malcolm X rich with detail and feeling.
By MICHAEL P. JEFFRIES
THE DEAD ARE ARISING
The Life of Malcolm X
By Les Payne and Tamara Payne
Illustrated. 612 pp. Liveright. $35.
Malcolm X speaking at a Harlem rally, around 1962.PHOTOGRAPH BY O’NEAL L. ABELMICHAEL P. JEFFRIESis the dean of academic
affairs and a professor of American studies at
Wellesley College. He is the author of three
books on race and American culture.