Malcolm X 100: Shaping Movements, Minds, and Memory with Mark Whitaker

IN-PERSON

In celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Malcolm X's birth, join us for an in-depth conversation with award-winning journalist and author Mark Whitaker, who will discuss his latest book, The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America. In this groundbreaking work, Whitaker examines how Malcolm’s legacy has grown and shifted in the decades since his assassination—shaping movements, minds, and memory across generations. Journalist and educator, Linda Villarosa, will moderate the conversation. Book signing will follow.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

PARTICIPANTS

Mark Whitaker is an Emmy Award-winning Contributing Correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and the former editor of Newsweek, the first African American to lead a national newsweekly. He then served as Washington Bureau Chief for NBC News and Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide. Whitaker's first book, My Long Trip Home (2011), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and he has since written four more books, all with Simon & Schuster. He is a judge for the Peabody Awards the John Chancellor Award, and was previously a juror for the duPont/Columbia Awards.

Linda Villarosa is an award-winning international journalist, host and media entrepreneur. She has built a distinguished career in television news and digital media with work that centers on reporting issues impacting the Black diaspora internationally.

ACCESSIBLILITY

Accessibility requests can be made by e-mail accessibility@nypl.org.

MALCOLM X 100 Continues

Join us on May 19th at 1 PM for Malcolm X: In His Own Words – As It Happened, is a powerful documentary that presents Malcolm X’s speeches, interviews, and appearances as they were originally recorded—unfiltered and in real time. The screening will be followed by a talkback to reflect on Malcolm X’s influence in today’s social and political landscape. Learn more and register here.

Learn more about the Schomburg Center at schomburg.org and more about the archives of Malcolm X housed at the Schomburg Center:

• Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division
• Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
• Other material across NYPL

GET THE BOOK

Copies of The Afterlife of Malcolm X will be available for purchase from the Schomburg Shop in Harlem.

ABOUT

Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the first major study of Malcolm X’s influence in the sixty years since his assassination, exploring his enduring impact on culture, politics, and civil rights.

Malcolm X has become as much of an American icon as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Martin Luther King. But when he was murdered in 1965, he was still seen as a dangerous outsider. White America found him alienating, mainstream African Americans found him divisive, and even his admirers found him bravely radical. Although Ossie Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X as “our own Black shining prince,” he never received the mainstream acceptance toward which he seemed to be striving in his final year. It is more in death than his life that Malcolm’s influence has blossomed and come to leave a deep imprint on the cultural landscape of America.

With impeccable research and original reporting, Mark Whitaker tells the story of Malcolm X’s far-reaching posthumous legacy. It stretches from founders of the Black Power Movement such as Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton to hip-hop pioneers such as Public Enemy and Tupac Shakur. Leaders of the Black Arts and Free Jazz movements from Amiri Baraka to Maya Angelou, August Wilson, and John Coltrane credited their political awakening to Malcolm, as did some of the most influential athletes of our time, from Muhammad Ali to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and beyond. Spike’s movie biopic and the Black Lives Matter movement reintroduced Malcolm to subsequent generations. Across the political spectrum, he has been cited as a formative influence by both Barack Obama—who venerated Malcolm’s “unadorned insistence on respect”—and Clarence Thomas, who was drawn to Malcolm’s messages of self-improvement and economic self-help.

In compelling new detail, Whitaker also retraces the long road to exoneration for two men wrongfully convicted of Malcolm’s murder, making The Afterlife of Malcolm X essential reading for anyone interested in true crime, American politics, culture, and history.

#SchomburgLive

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NOTICES

FIRST COME, FIRST SEATED Events are free and open to all, but due to space constraints registration is requested. Registered guests are given priority check-in 15 to 30 minutes before start time. After the event starts all registered seats are released regardless of registration, so we recommend that you arrive early. We generally overbook to ensure a full house.

GUESTS Please note that holding seats in the Langston Hughes Auditorium is strictly prohibited and there is no food or drinks allowed anywhere in the Schomburg Center.

E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed and recorded by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being filmed/photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at leahdrayton@nypl.org.

Please note that professional video recordings are prohibited without expressed consent.