Malcolm X is a titanic figure in political history, but also one of the most misunderstood. Forever known as the violent Yin to Martin Luther King’s Yang, since his death he has been co-opted into the American project and marginalised by decades of governments, academics and activists. But on the centenary of his birthday, in a world shaken by decades of injustice and racism, Malcolm’s political mission is more urgent than ever.
In conversation with poet and actor Connor Allen, Kehinde Andrews – the UK’s first professor of Black Studies, at Birmingham City University – reveals Malcolm's real revolutionary programme. Malcolm’s activism was his philosophy, and paying attention to it reveals the true cultural icon – who, if he were alive today, would tell us to pick up the mantle and overturn this system for good.
