Many movies and stage plays have attempted to tell the story of Malcolm X’s evolution from a street hustler to a human rights activist. However, a new project headed up by an independent studio promises to portray the civil rights icon in a totally different light. Critical Content has optioned Manning Marable’s book, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, with plans to turn it into a scripted television drama.
The BIG Problem:
While no network has yet been pegged, David Matthews (Boardwalk Empire, Tyrant) has signed on to write the script as well as co-executive produce the series along with others on the studio’s team. The bigger problem here is that although Marable won the Pulitzer Prize for this work, many in the conscious Black community are outraged at the way Malcolm X was depicted. They allege that the book contains blatant lies and should have never been published.
Author #KarlEvanzz petitions to demand apology from publisher of Manning Marable book on #MalcolmX https://t.co/Wthni0E1h3 @MarableLegacy pic.twitter.com/iLdR7BZ09P
— Richard Prince (@princeeditor) August 30, 2017
A Change.org petition started by author Karl Evanzz is demanding a public apology from Viking Press and Zaheer Ali, the primary spokesman for the book. Two allegations in particular, Evanzz says, are “outright lies.”
“That Malcolm X, the married father of six children, was romantically involved with 18-year old Sharon 6X Shabazz (Poole) at the time of his death and that Malcolm X was involved in a homosexual relationship with a middle-aged white man in the late 1944,” the petition reads.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWXoYt-Fgt0/?hl=en&tagged=manningmarable
Unadulterated Slander?
Evanzz is not the only one who believes that Marable’s book amounts to pure unadulterated slander. In 2012, Dr. Jared Ball spoke to the San Francisco Bay View about the book he helped edit called A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X. He says that the issue is bigger than just factual error.
“What has come from Marable and Viking Press is a corporate product, a simple commodity to be traded, but for more than money,” Ball said. “It is a carefully constructed ideological assault on history, on radical politics, on historical and cultural memory, on the very idea of revolution.”
Writer and poet Amiri Baraka also refuted claims in Marable’s book in an interview on Democracy Now!:
Critical Content’s project is still very much in the planning phases. Therefore, it is quite possible that those who challenge the accuracy of the content in Marable’s book may be able to pressure studios to pass on the proposed television drama. When it comes to preserving the legacy of Black historical figures, there are some people who will fight to the bitter end. Keep your eye on this one, folks.
