'Malcolm X taught us to open our eyes and think for ourselves'

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Travis Mitchell: " ..tired of Blacks being treated like second-class citizens."

Following are excerpts from remarks by Jean-Claude Martineau, a well-known Haitian author and activist, at a Boston Socialist Action forum on Feb. 23. {See Socialist Action, March 1990.] The forum was titled, "The Legacy of Malcolm X: 25 Years After his Assassination.

I am not a scholar on Malcolm X. I cannot say that I've carefully studied his work, his life. When Malcolm X was alive I was already in the United States, but I didn't speak English, so I couldn't understand all that he was talking about.

But fortunately, I was not completely unaware of what was going on because I came from a struggle myself ... with the bloodiest dictatorship this hemisphere has ever known. So, I could understand what was going on here, even if I couldn't understand the words spoken by leaders.

What I'm going to talk to you about tonight is exactly this—leaders. That's what I learned from Malcolm X.

What is a leader? Where does a leader come from? First, a leader doesn't have to come from a well-known establishment of higher learning. He or she can come from anywhere. Nobody "learns" to be a leader. You feel it, and one day you say things and people agree, and follow.

There is no school for leadership.... A leader is not somebody who comes before the people, behind a microphone, and tries to get everybody excited. It is a little bit more difficult than that. A leader has to give you homework.

That means that every time he or she talks, you feel that you have something to think about, something to do. You have homework. It's not just coming and telling you things, and you feel like you are in "7th Heaven." You have work to do. Little by little, a leader starts changing the way that you have accepted a few things.

In the world there are a lot of injustices that people live with, because they have seen it since the day they were born. A lot of lies—that's what [the rulers] call values.

For instance, here in the United States Black kids grow up thinking that George Washington is that great guy who gave us the republic and freedom and everything, forgetting that in the equation he was a slave owner.

We speak about Christopher Columbus. He has a day here, a country with his name and everything, and we seem to forget that he was the first one after slavery was completely abolished in Europe to re-establish it. We don't even figure it into the equation, because it is not part of the "value" system.

"Think for yourself"

Malcolm X, more or less, came to teach: Think about the world for yourself, through your own eyes, and for your own interest. Don't let people tell you who to admire, what to think is great or not. Think for yourself. So a leader is not a shepherd, with a lot of sheep going "ba-a-a, ba-a-a" following behind. A leader opens your eyes and makes you think for yourself.

Malcolm was a leader. What happened to his legacy? Right now, a new interest in Malcolm is starting to emerge. That's very positive, very hopeful. But we have to understand that this guy was not only assassinated by bullets; he was assassinated almost every day of his public life.

We were scared of him at a certain time;

Jean-Claude Martineau we thought that he would bring death to all of us, that he questioned values that we had accepted. And after his death, a lot of Black people, although unhappy about the event, were more or less comfortable to forget that moment in our history. But fortunately, you cannot bury an idea. You cannot put an idea in jail. You cannot handcuff an idea.

So, Malcolm is coming back. He is in movies now, a lot of people are talking about him.

But what legacy do we have for him? A leader doesn't come from above, but from the suffering of his or her own people. That's where a leader is formed.

They cannot give you leaders-but we classes-but several athletes still participated in the protest.

At one point Richardson announced that Spring break would be cancelled unless students returned to class. Said one student, "We don't care about losing Spring break, what we care about is the survival of Morgan State. Hell, they don't even want us to come down to Daytona Beach anyway."

If their demands are not followed through, know that the American press has given us a lot of leaders. From time to time, this guy's a "leader of the Black community," this guy's a "leader of the Haitian community," this guy's a leader of this or that. But that constituency has never said anything about it.

Being able to change and grow It is not by jumping in front of the limelight that you become a leader. It is by working, day to day, on the problems facing your community and your constituency. That's how you learn to be a leader. To be speaking for them, but also speaking to them, because they have from time to time to give you new guidance.

To be a leader is to be able to change and grow, to abandon an idea that you find out in practice is wrong. So Malcolm started by thinking that every white person was an enemy. But even then, he knew that every Black cannot be a brother.

Then he started understanding that it is not a question of color. And when he started understanding that, and since he knew how to express himself to the Black community, he became extremely dangerous. And no matter who pulled the trigger, we know who killed Malcolm X.

I have a son who is 20. He has in his room a [table-size] picture of Malcolm X. I didn't ask him to put it there, but it is right there. I think that my duty is for that poster not to remain a picture on the wall, but to come out and be alive again.

LL.

the students have promised to resume the occupation and boycott.

The actions taken by the Morgan State students provide important lessons for all people who are fighting for their rights—in the labor movement, the antiwar movement, and the women's rights movement.

Only by uniting and taking control of the school were the students able to realize their demands.