As a British person living in
America I often find it hard to relate to many of the discussions in class. One
that I felt particularly hard to engage with was a conversation regarding the
significance of the local American area and how politics and individuals
utilised this within the Civil Rights Movement.
Studying Malcolm X has changed
this. In 1965 X travelled to the little known town in the West Midlands called
Smethwick. His international responsibility to stop racism “by any means
necessary” brought him to this unspectacular area to prevent the re-election of
Conservative MP Peter Griffith. Just nine days before his assassination, it was
one of X’s final acts.
As a Labour supporter, I have
always been fiercely critical of the Conservative Party in England. However
they are not as bad as they once were. The 1960s had to content with
politicians such as Enoch Powell who infamously stated in his 1968 Rivers of Blood speech:
“I seem to see 'the River Tiber foaming with much blood'. That tragic and intractable
phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but
which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself,
is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect.”
These inherently racist views
were apparent at the time of the 1964 general election in Smethwick, with
Conservatives chanting “if you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Liberal
or Labour”. Although not segregated by law, X noted the comparisons between
this area and not only the Southern US but also Nazi Germany. He claimed that
he had “heard they are being treated as the Jews under Hitler”.
The footage recorded by the BBC
was perhaps the last footage recorded of X.
Malcolm
X’s trip the UK makes me feel numerous things. It makes me feel ashamed that
similar views were being politically justified in the country of my birth. However
the fact that X viewed a small town in the West Midlands as significant enough
to put on the map in the context of the struggle for worldwide black equality
makes me feel proud. What also gives me hope, although X did not live to see
it, is that in 1966 the racist Griffith lost the election and was replaced by a
Labour candidate.
To mark
the anniversary of his assassination, the BBC has posted an article about the
visit and how its legacy is still remembered by residents to this day:
Also if anybody is interested
here is the Rivers of Blood speech in
full. I know it’s not American history but I think it gives an interesting international
insight into how extremism affected British politics in the 1960s. The text is
ironically printed by the UK’s most conservative paper, The Daily Telegraph.
To see further what X was up against, check out the video below. All visions of England being quaint and whimsical are pretty much crushed by this video, I'm afraid. It's definitely worth a watch.
Dear Scarlet,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this archival footage. It is amazing to think of Malcolm in this context, and really enriches our understanding of his work as an advocate for people facing discrimination around the world, as well as for his own belief in the power of unity. On a very basic level, it strikes me that we can examine Powell's speech as an example of the kind of conservative fear of immigration that we have heard espoused quite frequently in the U.S. during the 2000's.
I wonder how it might change or affect our understanding of Malcolm to think of him as an international figure in the year prior to his death. He traveled to Egypt in 1959 as Elijah Muhammad's emissary to the Nasser administration. Nasser's government invited Muhammad to travel to Egypt and to make the hajj, but did not go because, according to Marable, "he encountered some difficulties from the U.S. government regarding overseas travel" (165). Thus, Malcolm was sent. In his application for a passport it is clear that he also intended to visit the UK on that trip as well as Germany, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan (166). Malcolm did ultimately make it to Saudi Arabia on this journey in 1959, and through this experience realized, again according to Marable, that the Black Freedom Movement must include an international perspective.
As Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin each experienced and wrote about following their travels to Paris, race and racism are often nationally contingent, bound by certain borders and histories. However, Malcolm realized that international solidarity could help promote awareness of and support for reform abroad as well as the promotion of the rejection of U.S. imperialism.