The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X is a 2020 book by Les and Tamara Payne. Les Payne spent over thirty years compiling the research that comprises the book, including interviews with family members and access to rare documents. Les Payne died before the book was completed. His daughter Tamara finished the writing and saw The Dead Are Arising win the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Summary

The book unfolds in four parts, spanning the years 1925-1965. It begins with a brief biography of Malcolm’s parents, Louise and Earl Little. They flee the South to Omaha because of growing racial tensions. In the book’s opening scene, a group of Ku Klux Klan members visit Louise at their home to intimidate her into leaving town. The Littles instill a strong work ethic into their children.

By the time Malcolm is thirteen, he is smoking and occasionally selling marijuana. He is more inclined to grifting for easy money than to buckle down and work. Malcolm is an attention-seeking daredevil. A job with the railroad allows him to visit New York frequently, where he embeds himself in the city’s nightlife and makes the acquaintance of several criminals.

Malcolm forms a burglary ring that gets caught after a couple of weeks of successful heists. The court sentences him to eight years in prison. While incarcerated, Malcolm evolves from an angry, atheistic youth to an passionate, committed devotee of Islam. He meets an inmate named John Bembry, an erudite man well-versed in philosophy, history, statistics, and theology. When Malcolm leaves prison, he goes by the name of Malcolm X and becomes a minister of the Nation of Islam (NOI).

Malcolm’s expansion of the NOI is largely successful as it runs alongside and sometimes in opposition to Martin Luther King Jr’s efforts in the civil rights movement. Malcolm’s eventual fallout with Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the NOI, leads to his expulsion from the church. He learns that Muhammad is an adulterer who has altered some of the church’s doctrine to enlarge his own mythology.

After leaving the NOI, Malcolm becomes a target. Elijah eventually orders that Malcolm be assassinated. Several assassins shoot him while he addresses a crowd at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on February 21, 1965.

The Dead Are Arising is the most comprehensive biography of Malcolm X to date. It includes new material about his long-rumored meeting with a leader of the Ku Klux Klan, fills in some omissions in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and showcases meticulously documented research on the FBI’s surveillance of the NOI and the death threats against Malcolm. It is highly recommended for students of American history, the civil rights movement, and anyone wishing to learn more about race relations in modern America.

Note

Les and Tamara Payne primarily use lower case “black” to refer to people with dark skin of African descent. For consistency’s sake, this study guide follows their example. Other terms referring to ethnicity and race will typically appear within a quote from one of the book’s key figures.