Malcolm X commemorative lecture on centenary of his birth

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of world-renowned Pan-African black nationalist Malcolm X.

To mark this occasion the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) Division in Jamaica, in association with the Department of Sociology at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, will be hosting a special commemorative Malcolm X lecture today, at 6 p.m. in the Multi-Functional Room near the main Library on the Mona campus.

The Keynote speaker is Reverend Kobi Little, Dean of Justice Chapel in the USA. The lecture will also feature event organisers Dr. Michael Barnett, senior lecturer at UWI, and Steven Golding, UNIA president in Jamaica.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, the son of American Reverend Earle Little and Grenadian Louise Langdon who were ardent followers of Marcus Garvey and officers of his global UNIA organisation. Earle met Louise in 1919 while accompanying Marcus Garvey to a UNIA meeting in Montreal, Canada where she served as secretary of the UNIA division there.

The two fell in love and were married shortly after meeting. Together they had six children the youngest of whom was named Malcolm. In 1931, Earle Little was murdered by a faction of the Ku Klux Klan in Michigan, USA for his strident work as a UNIA organiser on behalf of Marcus Garvey. The fullness of this story has never been told but more on this will be mentioned at the upcoming commemorative lecture event.

In salute to the centenary of the birth of Malcolm ‘X’ Little, the commemorative lecture will seek to shine a light on the significant impact that Malcolm-X had on the fight for equal rights and justice, during the 1960s and beyond, not only in the United States, but globally. It will also highlight the enormous influence that Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Garvey, had on Malcolm X’s psyche, and his overall philosophical and ideological orientation in terms of his activism.

Reverend Kobi Little, a member of Little family, will be flying into Jamaica for the commemorative lecture to share his overall impression of Malcolm and how he has shaped his own personal life’s journey.

Admission to the event is free to the general public.