The night Malcolm X spoke at the Oxford Union : a transatlantic story of antiracist protest

289 Pages·2014·2.01 MB·English

by  Stephen Tuck & Henry Louis Gates Jr:

The Night Malcolm X Spoke
at the Oxford Union

The Night Malcolm X Spoke
at the Oxford Union
A Transatlantic Story
of Antiracist Protest
Stephen Tuck
with a foreword by
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
University of California Press
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous s upport of the
African American Studies Endowment Fund of the University
of California Press Foundation, which was established by a
major gift from the George Gund Foundation.
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing
scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic
contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit
www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2014 by The Regents of the University of California
All quoted speeches by Malcolm X are from Malcolm X: Collected Speeches,
Debates and Interviews (1960-1965), edited by Sandeep Atwal, and are available
online at http://malcolmxfiles.blogspot.co.uk/p/malcolm-x-e-book.html.
CIP data for this title is on file at the Library of Congress.
isBn 978-0-520-27933-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and
sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures
Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the mini-
mum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48– 1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper).
For my mother, Norah, and in memory of my
father, George (1930-2013)
Yes. One thing . . . travel always broadens one’s
scope. Travel does.
— Malcolm X, interview with Les Crane,
December 27, 1964
Brother Malcolm was our manhood, our living,
Black manhood! . . . our own Black shining Prince,
who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.
— Magazine of the Black Eagles, a British
Black Power group, 1965 (quoting eulogy
to Malcolm X by Ossie Davis)
Contents
Photo section follows page 106.
Foreword, by Henry Louis Gates Jr. xi
Acknowledgments xxi
Prologue:
A Black Revolutionary Meets Historic Oxford
1
1. A Life of Travel and Discovery:
Malcolm X, 1925– 1964
9
2. Oxford, Britain, and Race, 1870– 1964
50
3. Antiracism Protests in Oxford, 1956– 1964
93
4. The Debate, December 3, 1964
142
5. After the Debate, 1964– 1968
165
Epilogue
197
Notes 205
Index 243
foreword
This year, the American public is commemorating the fifti-
eth anniversary of the Beatles’ “British Invasion,” broadcast on
CBS’s Ed Sullivan Show, which delightfully electrified the spirit
of a heart-heavy nation, still in shock and mourning over the
assassination of John F. Kennedy. But 1964 also witnessed the
reverse transatlantic journey of a man once known as Malcolm
Little— better known as Malcolm X— in a revolutionary and
more substantive performance at the legendary Oxford Union,
an Oxbridge staple that has been showcasing another form of
entertainment since long before Ed Sullivan hit the air. In fact,
the Union, now in its 190th year, has hosted figures as diverse as
Gladstone and the Dalai Lama, with Einstein, Churchill, Rea-
gan, and Tutu in between. On the night of December 3, 1964,
Malcolm X arrived to debate the topic of “extremism in the
defense of liberty,” in a world swirling with social struggle in
the United States, a nascent war in Vietnam, and the awkward
birth of independence in postcolonial Africa. His performance
is as iconic as any in the Oxonian pantheon of great debates, and
ix