FORTY YEARS AGO

On February 21, 1965, exactly four decades ago, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audobon Ballroom in Harlem, New York.
Here is one of his thousands of statements that still resonates today:
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.
- delivered November 10, 1963 in Detroit, Michigan. Complete text here.
More than forty years later, why have we yet to fill the shoes of Malcolm, Martin, and the other charismatic spokespersons of the 1960s who stood up against domestic racism and global imperialism to establish a global, third-world solidarity?
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