How the Angriest Black Man in America Inspired a Generation of Oxford Students
Union president Eric Abrahams led Malcolm X into the debating chamber on Dec. 3, 1964
Thursday 11 December 2014 in News
Oxford Times
FIFTY years ago, the man dubbed the “angriest black man in America” electrified the Oxford Union chamber with a speech that would go down in history.
But a new book reveals it wasn’t a chance coming together that led to the historic moment.
Stephen Tuck, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University and director of the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, has published The Night Malcom X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest, to mark 50 years since the events of December 3, 1964.
Just two months after standing up in the Oxford Union, the African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X, was gunned down in his home city of New York by Black Muslim assassins.
The book sheds new light on Oxford in the 1960s and the many years of anti-racism protests in the city.
Rather than being a chance coming together, Prof Tuck said: “By 1964 black students at Oxford needed Malcolm X to come and he felt it was urgent to go. Why that was so reveals much about Malcolm X’s life and thought and the university’s engagement with race and rights.”
Born Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925, his mother was a fair skinned well-educated Grenadian, while his father was a carpenter and occasional preacher. In search of a better life, Malcolm moved to Boston, where he was jailed after being part of a team on a stealing spree in a smart white area.
In prison he found the religion of Islam and his time behind bars would provide good preparation for the Oxford Union, with the Norfolk County inmates engaged in debate.
Upon release, he became the Nation of Islam’s most prominent spokesman, travelling extensively around the US. By 1953 the FBI had opened its file on Malcolm X, which grew in size as he embarked on travels to the Middle East, Africa and finally Europe.
For Prof Tuck the debate at Oxford marked his ongoing transformation “from a small-time hustler to the world’s most famous black nationalist”.
The invitation came from radical Jamaican student, Eric Abrahams, who had been elected president of the Union and viewed Malcolm X as a hero. Abrahams would later become the first black reporter with the BBC. Malcolm X accepted because he said students were “on fire” against racial discrimination.
Campaigning students had demanded that all landladies, who wished to remain on the Oxford’s delegacy list be required to sign a pledge to accept any student, regardless of colour.
The historic appearance, where Malcolm X’s main opponent was the Conservative MP Humphrey Berkeley, was filmed and we can see how close the revolutionary came to losing his temper after Berkeley mocked his “pseudonym” surname X.
His real name, Malcolm X replied, had been taken by Berkeley’s forefathers, who had raped and pillaged their way through Africa.
Prof Tuck believes the legacy of the visit was to undermine the system of university discipline, with students finding themselves at loggerheads with the proctors over the right to protest about apartheid.
But the time quickly arrived when even in Oxford, students would be heard to ask “Who was Malcolm the 10th.”
Thankfully, the new book will ensure others are not so mistaken, with Oxford’s place in Malcolm X story properly remembered, along with the effect this remarkable coming together had on Oxford.
Thursday 11 December 2014 in News
Oxford Times
FIFTY years ago, the man dubbed the “angriest black man in America” electrified the Oxford Union chamber with a speech that would go down in history.
But a new book reveals it wasn’t a chance coming together that led to the historic moment.
Stephen Tuck, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University and director of the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, has published The Night Malcom X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest, to mark 50 years since the events of December 3, 1964.
Just two months after standing up in the Oxford Union, the African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist Malcolm X, was gunned down in his home city of New York by Black Muslim assassins.
The book sheds new light on Oxford in the 1960s and the many years of anti-racism protests in the city.
Rather than being a chance coming together, Prof Tuck said: “By 1964 black students at Oxford needed Malcolm X to come and he felt it was urgent to go. Why that was so reveals much about Malcolm X’s life and thought and the university’s engagement with race and rights.”
Born Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925, his mother was a fair skinned well-educated Grenadian, while his father was a carpenter and occasional preacher. In search of a better life, Malcolm moved to Boston, where he was jailed after being part of a team on a stealing spree in a smart white area.
In prison he found the religion of Islam and his time behind bars would provide good preparation for the Oxford Union, with the Norfolk County inmates engaged in debate.
Upon release, he became the Nation of Islam’s most prominent spokesman, travelling extensively around the US. By 1953 the FBI had opened its file on Malcolm X, which grew in size as he embarked on travels to the Middle East, Africa and finally Europe.
For Prof Tuck the debate at Oxford marked his ongoing transformation “from a small-time hustler to the world’s most famous black nationalist”.
The invitation came from radical Jamaican student, Eric Abrahams, who had been elected president of the Union and viewed Malcolm X as a hero. Abrahams would later become the first black reporter with the BBC. Malcolm X accepted because he said students were “on fire” against racial discrimination.
Campaigning students had demanded that all landladies, who wished to remain on the Oxford’s delegacy list be required to sign a pledge to accept any student, regardless of colour.
The historic appearance, where Malcolm X’s main opponent was the Conservative MP Humphrey Berkeley, was filmed and we can see how close the revolutionary came to losing his temper after Berkeley mocked his “pseudonym” surname X.
His real name, Malcolm X replied, had been taken by Berkeley’s forefathers, who had raped and pillaged their way through Africa.
Prof Tuck believes the legacy of the visit was to undermine the system of university discipline, with students finding themselves at loggerheads with the proctors over the right to protest about apartheid.
But the time quickly arrived when even in Oxford, students would be heard to ask “Who was Malcolm the 10th.”
Thankfully, the new book will ensure others are not so mistaken, with Oxford’s place in Malcolm X story properly remembered, along with the effect this remarkable coming together had on Oxford.
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