Selma: One of Malcolm X’s Last Stops

The state of Alabama with its deep-seated allegiance to Jim Crow claimed the attention of both Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The two men were in Selma on the same day, February 4, 1965 addressing two different groups of young civil rights fighters. It turned out to be one of Malcolm’s last appearances.

For many the Oscar-nominated movie “Selma” uncovers the little known fact that Malcolm X and Dr. King were Selma at the same time. Malcolm spoke to a crowd at Brown Chapel AME Church in support of their efforts to register African American voters. The fact that most were unaware of this information underscores the lack of understanding of Malcolm X’s involvement in actively advancing the rights of African Americans. He founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

Saladin Ambar is an assistant political science professor at Lehigh University. In his book Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era, he writes that Malcolm X is largely ignored because “he doesn’t fit neatly into the conventional story of America having righted her wrongs during the Civil Rights era.”

Ambar views Malcolm as working with an international perspective. He says, “Malcolm recognized that the fate of colonized peoples all over the world was very much a part of the Black freedom struggle in America.” Ambar adds that Malcolm X saw the connections between what was going on with the Black struggle in Birmingham, Alabama and the struggle of Black immigrants in Birmingham, England.

Two months before his assassination at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, Malcolm gave a speech during a debate at Oxford Union which is part of England’s Oxford University. Ambar’s book focuses on that speech. “Malcolm’s speech at Oxford is, inmy eyes,the most telling document we have regarding his political philosophy and perspectives just before he died, ” he says.

That two powerful civil rights leaders met only once in their lives is quite remarkable. And that meeting was “brief and coincidental” according to noted theologian and author, Dr. James Cone. Cone writes in his book, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare, about the conversation between the two.

According to Cone, it went as follows:

Dr. King said,  “Well Malcolm, good to see you.”  

Malcolm X replied, “Good to see up.”

“Now, you’re going to get investigated,” Malcolm said as the two men departed.

Dr. Cone says the two men saw each other as fellow freedom fighters struggling against the same evil: racism. That one is celebrated and remembered more than the other might be an example of the very unjust narrative both dedicated their lives to eliminating.