Criminal defense attorney and former Plainfield, NJ Mayor Mark Fury filed a $50 Million lawsuit against Columbia University, Viking Press and the estate of Manning Marable regarding Marable’s posthumously published biography, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.”
Fury is representing former Nation of Islam Minister Linward X Cathcart in the lawsuit filed in Newark federal court. In his book, Marable suggests Cathcart “may have been involved in the murder” or worse, physically supervised the assassination of Malcolm X on the night of February 21, 1965 in the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
“This book is a libelous, slanderous attack on several of the most important figures in American history (the writer also raises serious questions about the motives and credibility of the co-author of “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” Alex Haley). Everyone should feel cheated and attacked, not just Malcolm enthusiasts or even just African Americans. This is an attack on all of us,” Fury said.
Ed. I suggest that people take the time to read Marable’s book.
While the book may not justify a court suit, it is rather poorly written. Much of the content is about rumors about Malcom’s sex life. While these may be grist for tabloids, Marable makes little distinction between likely fact and the agendas of stakeholders. Preoccupation iwht Malcom’s sex life .. even about his sexual skills … obscure any serious discussion of whether Malcom’s conversion to Islam was a sincere epiphany or a matter of political convenience as he tried to build ties to African and Arab leaders with the resources to fund an alternative to the Nation of Islam.
Even the question of “who murdered” Malcom is left hanging. Perhaps this is because the effort to publish the biography, much of which was suposedly written three decades earlier, was rushed due to Professor Marable’s terminal illness. I was unhappy not to have a last chapter … an epilogue covering the heritage Malcom left behind (good or had) in the lives of his wife Betty, his protege Farrakhan, or Islam in the modern African American community.
I am not alone in these concerns. Recently Al Jazeera hosted an impressive panel of scholars. The panel, including one of Marable’s co authors, discussed many things .. especially the critical issue of whether Malcom was a sincere convert to Islam and how this affects Muslims today. Since then one of the panelists has been trying to get a counter review of the book published but has met with opposition that seems more like political correctness than it does a real concern for the truth.
UPDATE:
This post was also sent to the AAUP listserv at the University of Washington where it was censored by Galya Diment who claimed it was a form of “advertising.”
It is tragic, but all too common, to find academic liberals all to willing to adopt censorship as a tactic they themselves deride when it comes from the totalitarians of China or the corporate bosses at Fox News.
I’ve commented on this issue in some of the other list-serves which are far removed from Seattle and the University of Washington. One must remember that this place is “White City” and any such open commentary on such a matter of race and sex scare these people.
I have not read the book… not yet. But much of the criticism of it seems to be on the alleged sloppy methods Marable employed which has ed to the kind of gossip we see published in super-market tabloids. Still, from what I’m reading about what others have said, any such speculation about Malcolm’s homosexuality that is real or imagined is really no big deal. Also, what was supposed to have gone on between he and his wife Betty was their business. So what if any of it is true; it takes nothing away from the man just as marital infidelity took nothing away from JFK or Martin Luther King Jr. I’m not excusing such behavior, but it seems for more irresponsible if Marable did not seek out proper confirmation of such claims 9as insignificance as they still would be in my view) and instead relied on rumors, as I understand he actually did.
But we also cannot forget that Alex Haley, at least in ROOTS, did plagiarized parts of the “so-called non-fiction novel.” Who knows, he probably did not tell the full story about Malcolm in THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X either. Recall that Bruce Perry did report in his biography, MALCOLM, about the hustling and pimping Malcolm did before prison and his conversation and this lifestyle did include homosexual acts. However, I would think that Malcolm’s exploitation of women would be viewed as much more scandalous.