First, there is the upcoming Lee Daniels-directed movie that purports that Martin Luther King Jr. slept with scores of women and regularly solicited prostitutes during his many days on the road.
Now, we have Manning Marable’s exhaustive magnum opus, titled Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, that supposedly confirms that legendary black nationalist leader Malcolm X was just another brother on the “down low.”
What ridiculousness could possibly come next? That Medgar Evars laid down with animals? That Marcus Garvey enjoyed bestiality? That the founder of the Black Panthers, Huey P. Newton, sodomized the very children he provided free breakfast programs to? That Frederick Douglas, WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington all wore dresses behind closed doors? Where will this lunacy end? Next, we’ll be told that Nat Turner kill scores of slave masters because they wouldn’t give him any and that Harriett Tubman agreed to lead slaves to freedom in exchange for group sex.
More than just the accusations contained in Marable’s book is this nagging question dancing on my brain: what good could possibly come from this revelation, even if it were true? How does this remotely help advance the causes for which Malcolm X stood for such as self help, ethnic pride, knowledge of self, nutritional accountability, fatherhood and family, and fearlessness in the face of overwhelming odds?
Then there is one more important question raised by Marable’s book: If Malcolm X were gay or a brother on the “down low”, don’t you think that the nation’s intelligence community would have exposed Malcolm while he was alive? This explosive information would have destroyed Malcolm immediately, especially during the nation’s more homophobic era. During the peak of his powers, Malcolm scared white people and the American power structure more than any other human being, even more than Dr. King. The FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, unleashed the wickedly illegal “Counterintelligence Program” [COINTELPRO], which was established to “discredit” and “neutralize” and “prevent the rise of a black messiah who could unify the black masses” and lead them toward their true and legitimate aspirations of freedom, justice and equality.
Another good question: Why would J. Edgar Hoover, who knew of Dr. King’s sexual proclivities through his illegal surveillance of him, expose Dr. King as a “sexual degenerate tomcat”, but not try to expose Malcolm X as a gay man if Hoover had that information? If he did, it would have been easier and more pleasurable to destroy Malcolm that way as opposed to setting the atmosphere where he could be killed — and thereby making Malcolm a martyr who lives forever in our hearts.
While Malcolm X was at the peak of his powers, he was being followed around the clock and secretly recorded by the FBI, the CIA, military intelligence and even Robert F. Kennedy, the U.S. Attorney General and head of the Department of Justice. You mean to tell me that they had all of these separate investigations aimed at one person and they couldn’t find one trace of Malcolm’s supposed homosexuality?
One more thing: Black spies and stoolpigeons, as much as the U.S. government, are the ones who infiltrated and help bring down most of all the great black organizations and leaders. If someone had this inflammatory info on Malcolm, they would have given it to the government already.
It doesn’t make sense. That’s why I don’t believe it. –terry shropshire
