Malcolm X (El Hajji Malik el-Shabazz) was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 at 10:25pm (CST), in Omaha, Nebraska. He was born with the Sun in Taurus, the Moon in Aries, and his time of birth gives him Capricorn rising. In other words, Malcolm is a Taurus with an Aries personality, who saw the world through the eyes of a Capricorn...

With the Sun in Taurus, Malcolm was stable, well balanced, calmly confident, strongly sensual, with a powerful appetite for life. He loved simplicity and serenity, and a slow tempo, but he suffered occasional rages and violent reactions. Some keywords for the earth sign Taurus are: faithfulness, steadfastness, industriousness, obstinacy, stubbornness, grudge bearing, patience. Malcolm had a practical and realistic mind, and he loved common sense. Politically, he was peace-loving and protective toward the interests of those of similar status.

With the Moon in Aries, Malcolm found it difficult to fully integrate with his social environment, but at the same time he does not easily disengage himself from a society that he would like to rid himself of. In the last two years of Malcolm’s life, he was caught up in this conflict between his individual and collective tendencies. Others find it easier to join with others, or to maintain their relationships with their social environments. But those with the Moon in Aries are forced to attempt to blend with a sign whose main tendency is to distinguish itself from the crowd.

Aries is a cardinal fire sign, and the Moon in this sign is forced to accommodate or compromise the singularity of its persona due to the lunar influence, so the pioneer must adjust his freedom-loving ways. Malcolm’s Mars in Cancer was in mutual reception with his Moon in Aries (i.e., Mars is in Cancer, the sign that the Moon rules, and the Moon is in Aries, the sign that Mars rules). His Mars, then, faced similar conflicts, as by nature the planet of initiative tends to move away from the path of least resistance that might otherwise be favored by a Moon-related sign. But Mars is in the sign of the home and family…in circumstances that can cause it to boil over.

Here the impulses are at times too keen, and when the "chickens" in such an individual’s life “come home to roost,” they don’t just sit in their nests. Malcolm said that if a racist grade-school teacher hadn’t discouraged him from pursuing law, he might have turned into a “complacent bourgeois.” Impossible! With this configuration, no matter what path he chose, he would have shaped and reshaped the concept of that path…

The prominence of his Aries Moon made his nurturing instincts and his need to preserve and protect very strong. While he was daring, he was not reckless. This is borne out by the fact that even though he felt it necessary to question the direction of the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad’s morality, it wasn’t his primary aim to destroy either one. It wasn’t until he could no longer restrain his strong sense of justice – and that he had no choice – that he opposed Mr. Muhammad and the Nation. When he finally confronted his former mentor, he approached the situation cautiously.

Malcolm was a communicator, thinker, and philosopher. His natal Moon in late Aries conjuncts Mercury in Taurus, and this aspect gave him a fast, responsive, flexible, determined, even militant mind. Uranus in Pisces gave depth to his good mind by giving him an intuitive, experimental, unorthodox outlook. In particular, it points to an ability to see beyond the personal and to arrive at a more universal perspective.

While the Moon conjunct Mercury is a strong indication of someone who is a natural communicator, Uranus in Pisces in the 3rd house emphasizes this further by giving prominence to the mental faculties and imbuing them with a sense of purpose, honor and power. This made him less the “media manipulator” some said he was, and more like an instructor or a professor, especially if you consider his 1st-house Jupiter in Capricorn. His ability to study for long periods of time is due to Mercury opposite Saturn (his life ruler) in Scorpio in the 10th house.

Mercury trines (120-degree aspect) Malcolm’s Capricorn Ascendant, making the planet of the mind and communications one of the strongest in his chart. Such Mercury placements and aspects can contribute to a certain amount of instability, but they also confer adaptability, and even a tendency to adopt (or adapt) the behavior patterns of others. For example, it has been noted that he studied the speech patterns of Paul Robeson closely while was incarcerated.

This Mercury-Saturn aspect helped to stabilize and discipline the potentially inconsistent Mercury, Moon and Uranus placements. Mercury opposite Saturn is conservative in nature, and can have a refining, taming effect, usually by presenting difficult obstacles or hardships that can lead to a maturing of one’s mental skills and viewpoint. It is excellent for the “heavier” or practical forms of science.

During his early teens, he had desired to become a lawyer, yet with this aspect he could have been a scientist or involved in any discipline that requires long periods of observation or research. Indeed, with Saturn in Scorpio and Uranus in Pisces, he was able to unlock many doors, to be able to search and to reclaim the “unknown” and the “lost.” This perhaps indicates a mystical sort of curiosity, though combined with discriminating thinking.

That he was forceful and controversial in his way of thinking and speaking is due to his Moon in Aries in mutual reception with Mars and Pluto in Cancer. He could be flamboyant, yet able to dig deeply – to an unsettling degree – into areas others considered controversial. This configuration shows that he would have been a great challenge to any status quo, no matter what he chose to do with his life. The Capricorn Ascendant with Mercury opposite Saturn in the 10th house shows an attitude that can range from honesty to shrewdness, while his natal Sun in the 5th house indicated a diplomatic potential…

During his early years, he often felt awkward around others due to the prominence of Capricorn rising and an accidentally dignified Saturn in the 10th house. He was distinctly different and – with Uranus in the 3rd house – unconventional, compared to other children. Some of this awkwardness was the result of instability at home (the Moon conjunct Mercury in the 4th house, opposite Saturn) due to the death of his father and the subsequent disintegration of the family.

That he had a strong capacity for social life is borne out by the positions of Venus (his ruling planet) and Jupiter in his horoscope. These two planets helped him make fortunate contacts with influential people and persons of authoritative standing throughout his life. Along with Saturn, they also helped to advance him very quickly in the Nation of Islam. The conjunction between the Sun and Venus in the 5th house can give a sunny, charming disposition, with Venus in Gemini giving him a variety of acquaintances, in addition to being admired by many females...

The Sun trine Jupiter in Malcolm’s horoscope bestowed leadership capabilities. Jupiter’s position adds generosity, but its Capricorn placement disciplines this possibly excessive aspect, also giving organizing ability. Mars conjunct Pluto probably characterizes his social life more than any other single factor, not only because of its angular position, but because of its intense, non-compromising quality. The dynamic force indicated by these two planets shouldn’t be overlooked, as they direct and channel energies of great potency, showing that behind his Saturn-in-Scorpio reticence lay an active, challenging, keen individual. Early in his life he was too often directed by his impulses, yet he finally learned to temper and focus these energies through constructive group enterprises. In other words, he was able to devote his personal resources to a wider self.

As a result of this Mars-Pluto conjunction in the 7th house, he had a need to blend his personal and individual needs. It has been said by many that even those who did not agree with Malcolm were still changed by having come in contact with him. The reverse is true with this aspect also, as people and events around him could influence and shape him…in some cases drastically. Mars conjunct Pluto can denote a compelling force related to the area of life highlighted by its house placement. The 7th house is the house of marriage, intimate relationships, business partnerships and open enemies, so the conjunction thus describes the element of danger he often faced in his life, as well as his tireless, total commitment in the areas denoted by the 7th house.

One of the symbols for Pluto is the “Phoenix,” the ancient representation of metamorphosis. The angular placement of Mars and Pluto is a major indicator of the evolution Malcolm underwent at different times in his life. The powerful momentum of this combination, which kept him on an unswerving course, was re-enforced by his own unambiguous choices. Its effect can be seen most clearly in the mental and spiritual transformation that took place after his early years, when a life of crime led first to self-degradation, then to prison. The most important point in his personal evolution, however, occurred when his progressed Sun conjoined his natal Mars in the 7th house, at which time he broke with the Nation of Islam.

Another facet of Mars and Pluto conjunct in an angular house (and Mars in mutual reception to the Aries Moon) was its effect on Malcolm’s personal energy, which could be described as alert, obsessive, determined, unbridled, challenging, restless and direct. His Sun in Taurus gave this electric combination of forces sustaining power, but its conjunction with Venus also lent a touch of grace to an otherwise dynamic picture.

The Sun’s beneficial aspect to Jupiter adds a fair measure of stability, allowing him to respond to the adversity that he often faced with a good deal of poise and confidence. Another possibility in this aspect is that Malcolm could be perceived as a threat to the hypocrisy of others. Thus, this configuration is certainly responsible for the controversial quality in Malcolm. However, the profound sense of honor, duty, and love for his people, symbolized by Venus in the 5th house and the trine between the Sun and Jupiter…and the fact that the intense energies these and other aspects imply were devoted to a constructive purpose should not be overlooked.

Where nurturing instincts are concerned, it should also be mentioned that Malcolm had a lot of children! Looking at his 5th house of children, we find his Sun conjunct Venus, with Venus inconjuncting (150-degree aspect) both the Ascendant and Saturn, his life ruler. This configuration is called the “Finger of God” aspect, and is very powerful in the lives of profound spiritual people. He had six children with his wife Betty.

Even though the Sun is accidentally dignified in the 5th house, it doesn’t always bestow children, due to the fiery, barren quality of that body. However, Malcolm’s Taurus Sun trines Jupiter and sextiles (60-degree aspect) Uranus. These aspects, along with the Venus aspects, gave him intellectual offspring as well. He founded mosques for the Nation of Islam in major cities around the country at an incredible rate. That he is an ideological and intellectual father to many ideas and movements is one of his enduring legacies.

Malcolm was certainly not a conformist, but beyond that there is an inherent element of conflict present in the dynamic, even nurturing, qualities noted so far in his horoscope. For example, the Mars-Pluto conjunction in the 7th house points to the possibility of involvement in factionalism, or perhaps of a schism playing a major role in his life. In any case, when Malcolm broke away from the Nation of Islam, it was not a simple matter for him, as he had so heavily invested himself in the Nation and Elijah Muhammad that it was painful – he himself was splitting apart as he was splitting apart from them. He knew he could not continue within the Nation, and that the next stage in his personal transformation might prove to be his “final” one. Malcolm often alluded to his dying a violent death because he was realistically aware of the possibilities of the situation.

Malcolm’s progressed Sun was making a conjunction to his natal Mars, the planet of firearms, on the day of his death. This aspect had been forming since Dec. 1, 1963, beginning precisely at the time of his “chickens-coming-home-to-roost” comment about Kennedy’s assassination. This aspect not only can designate physical danger to the person receiving it, but can also involve that person in conscious actions that often put him or her at risk.

This would suggest that Malcolm had a purpose in making that pronouncement, and it would certainly have been out of character for him to talk loosely. This is reinforced by the fact that Elijah Muhammad had given orders for his ministers not to make any statements about Kennedy’s death. More than this, his comment was made in the presence of Captains Joseph and John Ali, two Muslim officers with strong animosity towards Malcolm himself, thus making it seem almost like a dare.

Along with his facing the potentially fatal progressed Sun conjunct natal Mars, it should be noted that Neptune is posited in the 8th house at birth, the house of death. Neptune’s placement in the 8th house suggests the possibility of assassination and conspiracy as a cause of death. It should also be noted that his progressed Sun had crossed into the 7th house of open enemies, around March of 1962, but didn’t approach that fatal conjunction with Mars until the period preceding his silencing and suspension by Mr. Muhammad.

The transit chart for Feb. 21, 1965, the day of the assassination, touches on sensitive points of the progressed chart previously mentioned. We find a T-square that involves Neptune transiting Scorpio, and almost exactly square the progressed Ascendant, opposed by Jupiter in Taurus with Venus squaring that opposition and conjunct the progressed Ascendant. While this Neptune-Jupiter-Venus configuration in itself is a “poetic” one, its effect is wholly different, due to the points that are aspected. Transiting Mars’ close opposition to his natal Uranus – which often signifies something of a shocking, sudden nature – along with a square from transiting Saturn in the 8th house to the progressed Midheaven, pose danger and can denote a sudden block to the vital functions.

The same aspects that pointed towards new initiatives in Malcolm’s life also were those that led to his death. He was in the middle of a promising and momentarily bewildering transitional phase. This was symbolized by his progressed Sun conjoining his natal Mars, an aspect the effect of which would have ended on January 3, 1966.

From his progressed horoscope it appears that he was stopped because precautions that might have gotten him through a rough time (astrologically and otherwise) weren’t taken. While the love he had for his people inspired the cause that was now being articulated in new ways, it also made it difficult for him to shield himself from the unrelenting enemies trying to eliminate him. An example of this was his growing refusal to search people for weapons as they came to his gatherings, not to mention his rejection of police security (which was cynically offered in any case) when an assassination attempt seemed imminent.

Malcolm was usually cautious and focused in his words and actions. However, in the last year and a half of his life, he felt it necessary to pursue the course he had set for himself even though it meant the breaking of his many bonds with the Nation of Islam, perhaps with resulting danger to himself. This conflict was due in part to the way his Moon in Aries and Mars in Cancer expressed themselves.

In retrospect, Malcolm’s chart speaks of more than his being a martyr. Martyrdom’s emphasis is too strongly centered on death, and to cast him in this role would imply that his death at the hands of others was the most significant aspect of his life. But the larger picture can be seen by looking at Malcolm’s natal Moon, which is in the balsamic phase, or “seed” phase. This phase signifies the formation of the future by gathering collective consciousness, and producing a seed to be sown and germinated at the time of the New Moon in Taurus.

Malcolm X was gathering a sense of himself and his people from previous experience, and was also looking forward to tomorrow. He was able to fulfill his destiny and produce his seeds, and we must nurture those seeds to fruition...

The occasion for the split between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad was a remark made by Malcolm at a New York meeting on Dec. 1, 1963, nine days after the assassination of then-President John Kennedy. In an answer to a question from the floor, Malcolm attributed Kennedy's death to the climate of hate and violence that white people had created or tolerated: "Chickens coming home to roost."

This would suggest that Malcolm had a purpose in making that pronouncement, and it would certainly have been out of character for him to talk loosely. The account that appears in Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X does not mention the fact that Malcolm added:

"Being an old farmboy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they always made me glad."

Malcolm X Papers Go to New York Library

NEW YORK (AP) - A collection of Malcolm X's papers that had been the subject of an ownership dispute has been placed on long-term loan with the New York Public Library, officials said Tuesday.The slain Black leader's family members, who will own the documents, approved their placement in the library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The announcement comes 10 months after a lawsuit prevented the collection from going on the auction block.

"We don't mind sharing Malcolm. We're proud of Malcolm,'' his eldest daughter, Attallah Shabazz, said at a news conference. The collection includes handwritten speeches and journals kept during Malcolm X's travels to Africa and the Middle East in 1964, a year before his assassination.

The journals, kept in small, spiral notebooks, are of particular importance because they cover the period when Malcolm X broke from the Nation of Islam and renounced racial separatism. "You get to see the real weave of what went into a human being,'' Shabazz said.

In one of the journals, Malcolm X wrote: "Never in America had I received such respect and honor as here in the Muslim world, just upon their learning I am a Muslim. People with blue eyes and blonde hair, bowing in complete submission to Allah, beside those with black skin and kinky hair.''

The majority of the collection arrived at the Harlem center Dec. 31, with additional materials due to arrive later this month. The center plans to exhibit the items in the spring of 2004. The Schomburg Center is to be the depository for the collection for 75 years, subject to renewal by mutual consent of both parties. "It is significant that the collection will be located in Harlem - on Malcolm X Boulevard - in the neighborhood where much of the drama of Malcolm's life unfolded,'' said the center's director, Howard Dodson.

The collection, valued as high as $500,000, was scheduled for auction last March through Butterfields auction house when the battle over ownership erupted. The collection had been in a storage unit rented by Malikah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's six daughters. The contents of the unit, put up for sale because she had failed to pay some fees on the unit, had been purchased by a man named James Calhoun, who wanted to auction them off.

Joseph Fleming, an attorney representing some family members, said Tuesday that an agreement involved Calhoun; the auctioneers; and the estate of Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz. The deal granted the family ownership of both the physical documents and the intellectual property rights. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Schomburg Center: http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

In one of the journals Malcolm wrote:

"Never in America had I received such respect and honor as here in the Muslim world, just upon their learning I am a Muslim. People with blue eyes and blonde hair, bowing in complete submission to Allah, beside those with black skin and kinky hair.''

continue as i am reading
learning and see forth knowledge
da wisdom inside the walls of workmanship

Thanks A................................................. ....

Our Shining Black Prince would have been 78 today. We give honor to one who honored us...

Thankz yes indeed
forth i laid out the carpet
with the Malcolm X poetic flow

our brutha in our struggle upon freedom

Malcolm's Taurus Sun conjuncts Venus (his ruling planet) in the 5th house of love, creativity, children (he had six), and social pleasures. Venus is in Gemini, giving him a variety of acquaintances, in addition to being admired by many females. Karl Evanzz, author of The Judas Factor: The Plot to Kill Malcolm X, states that Malcolm's wife Betty was not his first choice...his first choice was a young woman named Evelyn, whom he introduced to Elijah Muhammad. She became impregnated by him (Elijah) during one of Malcolm's trips out of the country...

Our Shining Black Prince would have been 79 today. We give honor to one who honored us...

Happy Birthday, Malcolm...

ditto...He would have been 80 on May 19th...

Happy Birthday again Malcolm...

Malcolm the Thinker Brought Into Focus...

By Felicia R. Lee
May 14, 2005

As she surveyed the letters from prison, an eighth-grade notebook and dozens of photographs, Ilyasah Shabazz remembered growing up with her dead father's shoes. She was 2 when her father, Malcolm X, died, and the shoes were among the possessions that her mother, Betty Shabazz, kept scattered about the family home in Mount Vernon, NY, hoping to keep Malcolm a vivid presence for his six daughters. "They were so big," Ms. Shabazz, now 42, said with a laugh. "I stuck my feet in those shoes. They were a size 14."

The memories surfaced the other day at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where a major exhibition on Malcolm X will open on Thursday. The exhibition, a public look at his personal and professional papers and other artifacts, represents the opening of a vast trove that many scholars say will prompt new interpretations of the life and thinking of the onetime Nation of Islam leader, assassinated 40 years ago in Washington Heights, who was one of the most important Black figures of the 20th century.

For the members of the Shabazz family, the exhibition also represents an end to a wrenching public struggle over their ownership of Malcolm X's personal effects. After almost being auctioned in 2002, most of the items were reclaimed by the family, which deposited them with the Schomburg in 2003. "I think people will find something in the objects to provoke new levels of interest and new levels of scholarship," Howard Dodson, chief of the Schomburg, said in an interview. "We've consciously tried to stay away from putting a heavy interpretative line on it and to let Malcolm X speak for himself."

Since his death, Malcolm X has largely become an iconic figure, ending up on a postage stamp in 1999. But he was highly controversial during his lifetime and feared by some blacks and whites because of his calls for black separatism and his advocacy of wresting rights "by any means necessary." Toward the end of his life, Malcolm X parted with the Nation of Islam and denounced racism.

Ms. Shabazz said scrutiny of her father's letters and journals would show scholars that his thinking was rooted in experiences that predated his appearance on the political stage in his 20's. They also show the seeds of his conversion to Islam, around 1948. Ms. Shabazz pointed to a Dec. 12, 1949, letter that her father wrote from prison "to my dear brother" that reads in part: "We were taught Islam by Mom. Everything that happened to her happened because the devils knew she was not 'deadening' our minds."

Malcolm X was shot down at age 39 at the Audubon Ballroom on Broadway between 165th and 166th Streets on Feb. 21, 1965. Ilyasah Shabazz was in the audience with her family. The opening of the 250-item exhibition, "Malcolm X: A Search for Truth," coincides with the 80th anniversary of her father's birth in Omaha.

In addition to family-owned material, some of the property in the exhibition comes from a collection at Washington University in St. Louis and from the Charles H. Wright Museum of African-American History in Detroit. The items in the exhibition represent only a tiny percentage of the cache of thousands of pages of documents donated by the family, a trove that will be available in its entirety at the Schomburg in the fall, Mr. Dodson said. "It will give a much broader and deeper view of the man and his development as a thinker and as an activist," said Cheryll Y. Greene, the curatorial and research consultant for the exhibition. Ms. Greene is the former managing editor of the Malcolm X Project at Columbia University, a multimedia endeavor to develop a comprehensive biography and education website.

The exhibition touches on lighter moments in Malcolm X's life, too. There is an eighth-grade notebook belonging to Malcolm Little, who was called "Harpy," in which his friends scrawled their opinions of him: "tall, dark, handsome" and "as a boxer, fooey, as a friend, swell." There are also letters from 1941, when he worked as a railroad waiter; his handwritten, spiral-bound journals from a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and to West Africa in 1964; heavily annotated copies of the Qur'an and the Bible; his briefcase; and photographs from the Audubon crime scene.

One of the more chilling items is a business card, torn and burned, that reads "Hajj Malik El-Shabazz." The card was found in Malcolm X's left breast pocket after his assassination. The part of the exhibition focusing on evidence from the trial of his accused killers includes an autopsy report, courtroom sketches and an envelope of shotgun shells from the crime scene.

The bulk of the exhibition consists of photographs, annotated with quotations from speeches, letters and the 1965 book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex Haley. There is a family tree, images from grade school, prison mugshots, and photographs of Malcolm X with figures like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Muhammad Ali, as well as his family. "It's emotional for the whole family," Ms. Shabazz said. "Now that we're adults, it gives another perspective on his work, on his humanity."

Remarking on his neat penmanship as she viewed his letters, Ms. Shabazz said she did not remember her father, but grew up with the memories passed down by her mother. She also grew up surrounded by her father's clothes in the family closets, his butterfly collection in the dining room, and his hat in the breakfast nook, she said. Ms. Shabazz's mother died as a result of a fire set by her troubled 12-year-old grandson, Malcolm Shabazz, in 1997.

The material now in the family's possession first turned up for auction in San Francisco and on eBay in 2002, enraging family members and alarming scholars who worried that it would no longer be available to them. After reading online descriptions of the documents to be auctioned, scholars declared that they were more extensive than anything in the public domain.

The auction house Butterfield & Butterfield, then owned by eBay, withdrew the items from auction after receiving a letter from a lawyer for some of Malcolm X's daughters, identifying their sister Malikah Shabazz as the renter of the Casselbery, FL, storage locker where the documents were found in September 2001. The material was put up for auction after she fell behind on the payments, Mr. Dodson said. A legal settlement, whose terms were not made public, returned the material to the family.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/14/arts/design/14malc.html?8hpib

The Personal Evolution of a Civil Rights Giant

By Edward Rothstein

In the 1940's, Malcolm Little (aka "Detroit Red," and later Malcolm X and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) wanted to impress co-conspirators in petty crime with his ruthlessness and daring. He loaded his pistol with a single bullet, twirled the cylinder, put the muzzle to his head and fired. The gesture demonstrated that he was unafraid of death and therefore not afraid of much else. And when he recounts the story in his 1965 autobiography (as told to Alex Haley), the reader is also impressed - though evidence of his brilliance, fury and self-destructiveness is, by then, hardly necessary.

A new exhibition about Malcolm X opens at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture today (which would have been his 80th birthday). And though it doesn't mention this theatrical gesture in its survey of one of the most significant Black leaders in American history, Malcolm's public displays of passion and position sometimes seem as courageous, dangerous, and even, yes, foolish, as his game of Russian roulette. The exhibition, "Malcolm X: A Search for Truth," seeks to map out the major themes of his life in a "developmental journey" reflecting his "driving intellectual quest for truth." It offers evidence that has been unavailable: personal papers, journals, letters, lecture outlines - rescued from being sold at auction in San Francisco and on eBay in 2002.

Those papers, which the Shabazz family had lost control of when monthly fees for a commercial storage facility were left unpaid, were returned to them, and then lent for 75 years to the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center in Harlem. The documents are lightly sampled in this first public showing, but they will eventually offer greater insight into Malcolm X's developmental journey: from a child of a Black Nationalist father murdered in his prime to a star elementary school pupil in a largely white school; to a hustler and criminal; to a convert, while in prison, to Elijah Muhammad's eccentric brand of Islam; to a radical minister who built Muhammad's Nation of Islam into a major national movement, declaring the white race to be the devil incarnate; and finally, to a political leader who, cut off by Muhammad, turned to traditional Islam and was rethinking his views, just as he was assassinated in New York's Audubon Ballroom in 1965 at the age of 39.

His brief life stands as a challenge no matter one's perspective, an overwelming presence in the roiling currents of American racial debates. After all, Islam is a force in the American Black community, partly because of Malcolm X (who, after his 1964 hajj to Mecca, changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz). Advocates of reparations for slavery echo his arguments. Less radically, so do believers in the encouragement of Black-run businesses and schools. And by seeking to internationalize race - particularly in the mid-1960's - Malcolm X helped set the stage for the doctrines of Third Worldism, which asserts that Western enslavement of dark-skinned people is played out on a world scale.

Even those who dissent from such views can recognize in Malcolm X's fearsome intelligence and self-discipline - a kind of a developmental quest ultimately left incomplete. The exhibition, which also includes material from the Schomburg and other collections, tells that story chronologically, using textual summaries and photographs to create a context for the personal papers. Those papers include letters from Malcolm to his brother, Philbert Little, describing his first embrace of the Nation of Islam, as well as a disturbing sequence of letters about his final embrace, suggesting how Elijah Muhammad tried to rein him in.

And above the display cases the walls are lined with photographs chronicling his life: an elementary school photograph of Malcolm, glimpses of the bodies of Nation of Islam followers killed by Los Angeles police in 1962, views of halls packed with devoted listeners, and finally, glimpses of the fallen chairs and the stark disorder of the Audubon Ballroom after Malcolm X was murdered. An epilogue to the exhibition displays court drawings of the trial of the accused assassins, along with objects found on his body, including a North Vietnamese stamp showing an American helicopter getting shot down.

But despite the new personal documents, there is something familiar about the exhibition, which does not offer new interpretations and misses an opportunity to delve more deeply into the difficulties in Malcolm's quest. In his autobiography, Malcolm X spoke of the importance of speaking the "raw, naked truth" about the nature of race relations. He also recognized one of the tragic consequences of enslavement: the erasure of the past. The name "X" was provided to initiates as a stand in for a lost original name. Names could also be readily changed because they were little more than expressions of newly-formed identities.

In fact, invention became crucial. For Malcolm X it was a matter of control: mastering one's past, determining one's character, and, finally, controlling one's future. Documents describe how members of the Nation of Islam were expelled for any backsliding, including adultery. In one letter, Malcolm almost provides a motto for his kind of charismatic discipline: "For one to control one's thoughts and feelings means one can actually control one's atmosphere and all who walks into its sphere of influence."

But this also means that the truth can seem less crucial than the kind of identity being constructed, the kind of past being invented. After reading the autobiography, we learn from Alex Haley's epilogue that Malcolm actually confessed that his story of Russian roulette was not what it seemed: he had palmed the bullet! Everybody had been hustled - the readers included. The adoption of Nation of Islam ideology, with its invented history and its evil scientist named "Yacub" breeding the white race, was another kind of hustle.

Curiously, the exhibition itself doesn't make enough of such distinctions. In a wall display labeled, "Messengers of Hope and Liberation," major figures like W. E. B. Du Bois have no more stature than such figures as W. D. Fard Muhammad. Fard was the greater influence on Malcolm X, since he created the Nation of Islam mythology, but he may not have had any African heritage at all and, as Karl Evanzz argues in his recent book, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, he had even encouraged the practice of human sacrifice.

As if reluctant to be too judgmental, there is also not enough explanation of the quarrel with Elijah Muhammad, though the photographer Gordon Parks quoted Malcolm X saying just before his death: "I did many things as a Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then - like all Muslims - I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years."

That kind of statement is too blunt for this exhibition, which makes suggestions but seems reluctant to draw too many distinctions. But even the differing interpretations of Malcolm's final transformation might have been outlined with more clarity. It is intriguing to read - in one 1964 letter from Malcolm's office to Dr. Martin Luther King - an expression of apology for "unkind things" said in the past. And the trial of the accused assassins from the Nation of Islam merits more explanation, particularly because a conspiracy theory of FBI involvement has long simmered, even as Muhammad was known to have encouraged threats against Malcolm X, and had already sent one disciple to kill him. The quest for truth surely goes on, but part of it means facing squarely the extent of certain kinds of hustle.

("Malcolm X: A Search for Truth" is at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Lenox Avenue, at 135th Street, Harlem, (212) 491-2200, through Dec. 31.)

Our Shining Black Prince would have been 81 today. We give honor to one who honored us...
Happy Birthday, Malcolm...