The X Factor : Black Youths, Eager to Claim a Role Model, Embrace Slain Leader

“Brother,” he said to me, “do you realize that some of history’s greatest leaders never were recognized until they were safely in the ground?”

--Malcolm X to Alex Haley

Nearly three decades after his assassination, Malcolm X’s words ring with prophecy.

The radical black leader--whose short, fiery life ended in a blizzard of gunfire in 1965--has been reborn as a compelling symbol and teacher for a new generation of African-Americans. In multiple reincarnations, Malcolm, slain in Harlem when he was 39, exists as a pop culture trend, role model, political alternative and the subject of scholarly debate.

He is the “X” on ubiquitous, colorful baseball caps, a face on T-shirts and the inspiration of rap songs. Last year, a Detroit photo exhibition of his life, scheduled for a three-week run, was extended to five months. Later this year, his life will be chronicled in a widely anticipated movie by celebrated, controversial filmmaker Spike Lee.

In black communities across the country, Malcolm’s life story--a former convict who redeemed himself through discipline, self-education and soul-searching--is held up as an example for young people.

His brand of defiance of the status quo and pride in African roots are political beacons among blacks who are “questing about for solutions and heroes,” says Walter Allen, a UCLA sociologist specializing in African-American studies.

And his life is proving fertile ground for publishers and academics. More than 20 books about Malcolm--as he is familiarly known because of his chosen last name--are in print, and a biography published last year has sparked intense debate.

Black-oriented magazines are mining the Malcolm trend too. For example, the current issue of Essence features a previously unpublished photograph of an intent Malcolm X. Inside, the magazine carries an article by Betty Shabazz, his widow, about their courtship and marriage, including the revelation that she left her husband three times. Still, Shabazz says of his killers: “I offer forgiveness on one condition: They have to bring back my husband.”

The resurrection of Malcolm X--adherent of the Muslim religion, black nationalist, challenger of racism--springs in large part from social ferment and frustration among black Americans, experts say. Many African-Americans feel pressured by problems in their own communities, such as education, health and drugs, while at the same time they are worried by a resurgence of racism and discrimination in society at large, says Allen. He adds that Malcolm X appeals especially to young people because he “connotes for them this youthful exuberance and defiance . . . of the status quo.”

Meanwhile, Malcolm’s emphasis on establishing links to Africa fits in with the swing toward “Afro-centrism” among many blacks, says Pam Porter of USC’s black student services department. Allen, Porter and others agree that Malcolm’s latest manifestation is a complex melding of popular phenomena and politically charged ideas.

To some extent, Malcolm X is a surrogate, a dead leader filling in for a scarcity of cutting-edge black leaders, asserts E. Ethelbert Miller, director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University in Washington.

“The culture is nationalist and radical, but the leadership is mainstream,” Miller says. Malcolm has emerged as an important figure, he says, because his life and example speak more directly to some areas of black life than that of another revered black leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“King is pretty much a Southern phenomenon, and Malcolm is pretty much a northern, urban phenomenon,” Miller explains. (He and others downplay conflict between Malcolm X and King, saying their disagreements have been overemphasized. In “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” written in collaboration with the late Alex Haley, Malcolm admitted a grudging respect for King. For a time, however, he also criticized King’s nonviolent strategy.)

Although Malcolm X’s image is omnipresent, the man behind the facade remains a puzzle, partly because of lingering white perceptions of him as a dangerous militant and partly because Malcolm himself went through so many personal transformations: At various stages he was a poor boy, a hipster, a criminal, a convict who spent 77 months in prison, a zealous religious convert and a black separatist. By the end of his life, he was engaged in a bitter dispute with his religious mentor and had moved toward an ethic of racial inclusion and tolerance.

“I think the reason he remains a compelling figure for me is his unusual capacity for constructive growth and change,” says Paul Lee, technical consultant on Malcolm’s life for Spike Lee’s movie. (The Lees are not related.)

Lee adds that Malcolm X’s transformations seem to have speeded up shortly before he was killed. “He made quantum leaps in consciousness, especially after his travels (to Africa and the Middle East),” he says. “. . . He even looked different. . . . He had an extra added wisdom and assurance.”

Moreover, Malcolm X was adept at displaying different facets to different audiences.

“You can get a roomful of Malcolm’s associates together and almost have a cat fight over who he was,” says Lee, who has studied Malcolm X’s life for 18 years. “. . . His legacy has been distorted because of these competing perceptions of who he was.”

A recent biography illustrates the controversy that Malcolm X can still generate. Published last year, “Malcolm: A Life of the Man Who Changed Black America” by Bruce Perry was warmly reviewed in The Times as “a rich, full and fair portrait.”

But others, including UCLA’s Allen, think the book’s psychoanalytic elements are flawed. “The heart and soul” of Malcolm X “just escapes” the author, Allen contends, adding that the book also fails to understand his childhood within the context of “the socialization of children in the black community.”

Near the end of his life, Malcolm X spoke of the conflicting ways in which he was seen, Lee adds. Malcolm told a friend: “For the Muslims, I’m too worldly; for other groups, I’m too religious; for the militants, I’m too moderate, and for the moderates, I’m too militant. I feel like I’m on a tightrope.”

For Lee, though, Malcolm X’s followers and recent converts have one thing in common. “I think everyone has underestimated him,” he says, adding that he believes Malcolm was “one of the seminal figures in this century.”

Whatever guise Malcolm X may assume politically, most observers agree that his intellect and ascetic lifestyle--no drugs, alcohol or tobacco and a strict diet--is an example for young people.

Malcolm is the “chief model for young African-Americans in a way that Martin Luther King never has been and probably never will be,” Lee maintains. “ . . . Malcolm’s example serves almost as a constructive catharsis for the anger and frustration of youth, especially African-American youth.”

For example, James Williams III, a 22-year-old USC graduate student, says he became influenced by Malcolm X when he read Malcolm’s autobiography in high school. He has since read “everything published that he wrote. . . . Intellectually, (Malcolm X’s thought) provides a framework for thinking. . . . I can actually start to think for myself.”

Another USC student, 18-year-old freshman Shabazz Moye, says he came under Malcolm X’s sway last year when he read the autobiography for a high school class. “Black people now need something good to identify with,” he says.

As for the baseball caps and other street fashions, many see them as teaching tools. For instance, at a barbershop near his Detroit-area home, Lee says, two youngsters recently showed up wearing the X caps and were immediately asked by the older men present what they knew about Malcolm.

He adds with a laugh: “(With) someone who’s wearing a Budweiser hat or a Raiders hat, that’s not likely to happen.”