Selling Malcolm: Black history on the auction block

New Crisis, The, Sep/Oct 2002 by Marable, Manning

Some years ago, I was hired by the National Park Service to assist in the reconstruction of the household furnishings of "The Oaks," the magnificent mansion owned by Booker T Washington and Margaret Washington on the Tuskegee Institute campus in Alabama. The Washington children had sold off most of the family's furniture and valuable household items.

Alex Haley, the author of Roots and co-- author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, died a decade ago, and his priceless original manuscripts and texts were purchased by various investors. Consequently, it would now be almost impossible to construct a comprehensive archive of the full correspondence, papers and key documents reflecting Haley's enormous legacy to Black America.

The near-tragedy of the intellectual property of Malcolm X may provide African Americans with a new appreciation and understanding of why personal documents have such value, monetary and otherwise. All of us are the archivists of our own history. In order to shape the future of Black America, we must take practical measures to invest and preserve our own culture and history. That process begins with how we maintain the records of our daily lives. What is not carefully preserved ultimately will be destroyed. Future generations of African Americans should not be denied an essential part of their cultural birthright that would enable them to understand where we as a people have been and what we hope to become. The greatest struggle of any oppressed people is the effort to reclaim both memory and identity. The successful battle to take Black history off the auction block can preserve our heritage for future "Malcolms" yet to be born.

Manning Marable is a professor of history and political science at Columbia University, where he is also director of the Institute for Research in AfricanAmerican Studies and editor-in-chief of The Malcolm X Project.