cover image From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcom X and the Organization of Afro-America Unity

From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcom X and the Organization of Afro-America Unity

William W. Sales, JR., Jr. Sales. South End Press, $14 (247pp) ISBN 978-0-89608-480-3

There has been a long running debate in the intellectual and religious communities about what is fact and what is supposition surrounding Malcolm X's break with the Nation of Islam and of his formation of Muslim Mosque Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Sales intelligently argues why he considers Malcolm X more than an icon for revolutionary African American youth; he asserts that he is a ``multi-faceted thinker and organizer who is worthy of serious study by scholars, activists, and anyone else looking to understand our world today.'' Throughout the book, he discusses in great detail how Malcolm X's political thinking matured from a simple form of Black nationalism, under the aegis of the Nation of Islam, to a more developed direction of Pan-African internationalism through his own organization, the OAUU. Sales includes many excerpts of Malcolm X's speeches which provide a strong argument for his assertion that Malcolm X spent the remainder of his life in the 1960s trying to internationalize the struggle of African Americans. However, he tends to jump randomly throughout the text addressing Malcolm X the icon, the revolutionary and the man. Perhaps if his points had more of a progressive and gradual direction, it would make for more enjoyable reading. (May)