Rodnell P. Collins

The last year of Malcolm's productive life was filled with an overt barrage of vicious verbal attacks from several key Nation of Islam officials, including the loquacious Louis X (now Louis Farrakhan), of Temple Eleven in Boston, and equally vicious, more covert attacks from conniving FBI and CIA operatives. I was among those family members and supporters who were frustrated, enraged and disgusted because of our inability to protect him. As late as the early morning of February 21 1965, Ma and I were discussing with him possible actions he should take to protect himself. They mostly involved leaving the country with his family. Uncle Malcolm appeared to listen, but when we last saw him, near sunrise that morning, he still hadn't decided exactly what to do about safety concerns. Our last gesture was to wave goodbye to one another as he drove away. Later that afternoon, now back in Boston, we heard about the assissination.

"I already knew what I had to do", Ma told me later. "I had constantly prodded Malcolm to write his autobiography. 'Get something out there for Black people to use as guide and a historical document', I told him. 'Also, it will help provide for your children. Don't leave them financially strapped like our father did you, your mother and your brothers and sisters when he was murdered by white supremacists'. Now people used that same argument on me. Because Malcolm's life was cut short, there were important things around his life not included in the autobiography. I had information about many of those things because he confided in me". She felt a responsibility to document them.

Hardback
238 pages
Birch Lane Press
ISBN: 1559724919