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 Rochelle Brock and Richard Greggory Johnson III
Executive Editors

Vol. 40

The Black Studies and Critical Thinking series is part of the Peter Lang Education list.
Every volume is peer reviewed and meets the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York • Bern • Frankfurt • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
 RICHARD D. BENSON II

FIGHTING FOR OUR

PLACE IN THE SUN
MALCOLM X AND THE RADICALIZATION OF
THE BLACK STUDENT MOVEMENT 1960–
1973

PETER LANG
New York • Bern • Frankfurt • Berlin
Brussels • Vienna • Oxford • Warsaw
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Benson, Richard D. II.

Fighting for our place in the sun: Malcolm X and the radicalization of the Black student movement, 1960–1973 /
Richard D. Benson II.
pages cm. — (Black studies and critical thinking; v. 40)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. African American student movements. 2. African American college students—Social conditions. 3. African
American college students—Political activity—History—20th century. 4. X, Malcolm, 1925–1965. 5.
Black power—United States. I. Title.
LC2781.B355 378.1982996073—dc23 2014022620
ISBN 978-1-4331-1771-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4331-1770-1 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1315-4 (e-book)
ISSN 1947-5985

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic
data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.

Cover design concept by Kori Miller

© 2015 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York

29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com

All rights reserved.

Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset
strictly prohibited.
 About the author

Scholar, author, advocate, RICHARD D. BENSON II earned a Ph.D. in educational

policy studies from the University of Illinois-at Urbana Champaign. He travels
frequently as a guest lecturer speaking on topics such as the black student movement,
and school-community advocacy. Benson resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is
Assistant Professor in the Education Studies Program at Spelman College.
 About the book

In Fighting for Our Place in the Sun, Richard D. Benson II examines the life of
Malcolm X as not only a radical political figure, but also as a teacher and mentor. The
book illuminates the untold tenets of Malcolm X’s educational philosophy, and also
traces a historical trajectory of Black activists that sought to create spaces of liberation
and learning that are free from cultural and racial oppression. It explains a side of the
Black student movement and shift in black power that develops as a result of the student
protests in North Carolina and Duke University. From these acts of radicalism, Malcolm
X Liberation University (MXLU), the Student Organization for Black Unity
(SOBU/YOBU), and African Liberation Day (ALD) were produced to serve as
catalysts to extend the tradition of Black activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Scholars, researchers, community organizers, and students of African-American studies,
American studies, history of education, political science, Pan-African studies, and more
will benefit from this provocative and enlightening text.
 ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

FIGHTING FOR OUR

PLACE IN THE SUN
“Richard D. Benson II’s Fighting for Our Place in the Sun: Malcolm X and the
Radicalization of the Black Student Movement 1960–1973 makes a major contribution
to the evolving scholarship on the Civil Rights Movement, especially its
underresearched Black Power phase, and both Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism.
This meticulously researched book also contributes to our understanding of Malcolm X
whose legacy has not garnered the scholarly attention it deserves beyond several
important biographies. What distinguishes Benson’s treatment of Malcolm X is the focus
on his educational philosophy, his impact on SNCC and the broader student movement
of the sixties, his evolving gender politics, and his profound influence on the
development of Black independent educational institutions.”
—BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL, Founding Director, Women’s Research & Resource Center, and Anna Julia Cooper
Professor of Women’s Studies, Spelman College; Co-Author (with Johnnetta Betsch Cole), Gender Talk: The
Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities

“Richard D. Benson II’s book will ground oft-misguided declarations about the purpose
and future of historically Black colleges and universities.… He connects the political
and educational philosophies of Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam, SNCC, SOBU,
YOBU, and a constellation of Black organizations to fashion a new interpretive lens.…
This remarkable and long-awaited corrective by a teacher/scholar operate[es], as
Brother Malcolm did, in Black pedagogical spaces where intergenerational and Pan-
African internationalist intellectual work was and is undertaken for broader human
transformation. Benson has done our ancestors and current generation proud.”
—GREG CARR, Chair, Afro American Studies Department, Howard University

“Richard D. Benson II is passionate about his subject and it shows. His book is a part of
the growing body of literature on students in the Black Power movement, their
intellectual influences, and the complex political legacy of Malcolm X.”
—BARBARA RANSBY, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO; AUTHOR, ELLA BAKER
AND THE BLACK FREEDOM MOVEMENT

“This is a valuable, well-written, and well-researched book that makes a significant

contribution to various fields, including Pan-Africanism and the legacy of Malcolm X.”
—GERALD HORNE, AUTHOR, THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION OF 1776: SLAVE RESISTANCE AND THE
ORIGINS OF THE USA
 This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end
of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the
word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally
a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
 Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mother, Janice M. Benson; I can never repay you for your
patience and love. Thank you for believing in me and for always supporting my efforts
(when the rubber hits the road).
This book is also dedicated to Rosa Mae and Carl Thomas Carpenter (Grandma and
Grandpa). I miss you all dearly and not a day goes by that I don’t think about the three of
you. I thank the Most High for the blessing of having had the three of you in my life.
Thank you for all that you ever gave me in life and love.
To the Most High God, Yeshua/Jesus, through whom all things are made possible,
thank you for the strength and fortitude that allowed me to endure the through the
toughest of times. I am forever grateful.
 Contents

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations Used in the Text
Abbreviations Used in Notes
Introduction

1 Malcolm X and/as Social Pedagogy: A Critical Historical Analysis

2 Sowing the Wind to Reap a Whirlwind: Ideological Shifts and Radical Expressions
in the Black Student Movement, 1963–1966
3 Purges, Proscriptions, and New Directions: Black Student Protests and a Call for a
Black University, 1966–1969
4 Uhuru Na Kazi (Freedom and Hard Work)! The Historical Developments of
Malcolm X Liberation University, 1969–1972
5 Malcolm X Liberation University: Planning, Curriculum, Projects, and Institutional
Objectives
6 Working for African Liberation with the Student Organization for Black Unity:
Historical Developments, Programs, and Activity, 1969–1971
7 A Movement of the People … African People: African Liberation Day, the Decline
of MXLU, and Left Pan-Africanism of YOBU, 1972–1973

Epilogue
Illustrations
Index
 Acknowledgments

This book extends from the many individuals who provided their selfless contributions
to ensure its success. To the Most High God, Yeshua/Jesus, through whom all things are
made possible, thank you for the strength and fortitude that allowed me to endure
through the toughest of times. I am forever grateful.
To my series editors Richard Greggory Johnson III and Rochelle Brock, acquisitions
editor Chris Myers, production supervisor Jackie Pavlovic, and the entire production
staff at Peter Lang, thank you for all of your great work and support throughout this
process.
My time spent in the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) as a graduate student was life changing and
significant in my quest to become a critical historian. Thank you to James D. Anderson
(Doc), Laurence Parker, and Chris Span for challenging me and for providing a space to
think and grow. To Yoon Pak, my dissertation chair and good friend, thank you for never
discouraging my ideas and for allowing me to test the boundaries of history and
research in my work. I am forever grateful to my EPS mentors. To David O. Stovall,
Chamara Jewel Kwakye, and Kamau Rashid, thank you for providing inspiration and for
always having an ear to lend for the many ideas that have come my way. To Sammie
Eames (God bless your life) you are sorely missed. I will forever cherish your words of
wisdom and your ← ix | x → tutelage in my early years of teaching at Francis Parkman.
Thank you for always being a friend. To Abdul Alkalimat of the UIUC Department of
African American Studies (DAAS), thanks for your time and resources on this project;
your mentoring on this work really meant a lot. To Sundiata Cha-Jua, thank you for your
support through my time at UIUC. DAAS always provided a home and a space for
critical scholarly engagement.
To Bob Brown, thank you for being a valuable mentor and for adding to my scholarly
and life’s development. This project greatly improved due to our many conversations.
Thank you good brother. Thank you to William Macklin for your editing expertise on
this project. This project benefited greatly from your countless reviews of the drafts of
this work.
To the faculty and staff of the Jacob Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies and the
former Communiversity of Chicago: Conrad Worrill (thank you for the major push),
Robert Starks, Yvonne Jones, Lance Williams, and Rosetta Cash, thank you for all of
your time and for my grounding in this work through my time spent at the Center. I am
forever grateful to the academic grounding I received at CCICS. To Anderson
Thompson of the CCICS, your guidance and wisdom have been critical in my work. I
can never repay you for all the aid you provided me through this entire process, but I
will always remain dedicated to the tradition of educating our people in the legacy of
the “Communiversity” way. To the ancestors Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers and Professor
Leon Harris of the Center, my time spent in your courses remains highlights of my time
at the Center, thank you.
I would like to thank to my colleagues at Spelman College in the Education Studies
Program: Andrea Lewis, Venetta Coleman, Nicole Taylor, Christine King-Farris,
Barbara Prince, Addie Sopshire-Rolle, Adesi Canaglia-Brown: I thank you all for
supporting my work. To the administrative assistant of the Education Studies Program,
Laurisa Claytor, thanks so much for your helping to keep me organized during this
process. To my student research assistants, Jamie Gray, Chardenay Davis, Rashad
Moore, thank you for being diligent and organized assistants during the many phases of
this work. You are greatly appreciated. Thank you to my colleagues and friends at
Spelman College who provided encouragement during the many phases of this project:
Myra Burnett, Cynthia Spence, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, M. Bahati Kuumba, Desiree
Pedescleaux, Geneva Baxter, Marionette Holmes, Dallia De Sousa-Sheppard, Bruce
Wade, Erica Williams, Mona Phillips, Charnelle Holloway, Abayomi Ola, Veta Goler,
Donna Akiba Harper, Michelle Hite, Opal Moore, Calaya Reid, Kathleen Phillips-
Lewis, Dimeji Togunde, Joycelyn Wilson, Rosetta Ross, Al-Yasha Williams, Dorian
Crosby, Marilyn Davis, Tinaz Pavri, Angela Farris Watkins, Juanchella ← x | xi →
Grooms Francis, Kai McCormack, Kesi Miller, and Shani Harris. Thank you to the
support staff of UNCF/Mellon housed on Spelman’s campus, Ada Jackson and
Gabrielle Samuel-O’Brien; you both helped tremendously since my time at Spelman.
Thank you to the provost’s staff who provided great support at Spelman: Sonya Morris,
Dianne Whyte, Beverly Walker, Karla Williams, Cynthia Hudson, and Joya Marshall. To
President Beverly Daniel Tatum and Provost Johnnella Butler, thank you so much for all
of your support with my work. My time and development at Spelman have been
invaluable and I have grown immensely because of you all, thank you.
To my family at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture: Stephen
Fullwood and Andre Elizee/Daniel Simidor (God bless your life, you will be missed so
much, good brother), thank you so much for all the help you gave me on my countless
visits to the archives. To Sister Nurah-Jeter, I owe you so much for all the help you have
given through the data collection process at the Schomburg. Thank you, Stephen and
Andre for being very genuine people. Very special thanks to Joellen ElBashir of
Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Research Center.
I applaud my community that stood by me through this journey and continues to keep
me accountable in my scholarship and teaching: Dionne Danns, Mary Ann Reed, Otima
Doyle, Kimberly Johnson, Cherise Boulware, Ingrid Benson-Brown, Regina Walton,
Zada Johnson, Chandra Gill, Brent G. Grant, Rashid Robinson, Julie Griffin, Robert
Anthony Ward, Clarence Lang, Nick Gaffney, Edward Mills, Olanipekun Laosebikan,
Mirelsie Velazquez, Melba Schneider, Jon Hale, and Crystal Thomas. To Joycelyn
Landrum-Brown Manvel Robinson, Natasha McPherson, Rocio Contreras, Jacqueline
Tabor, Richard Smith, Jamila Canady, Betty Strickland, Sheri Davis-Faulkner, Sis. Eshe
Faizah, Ronelle DeShazer, Medina Nance, Linda Hollomon, Veronica Anthony, Fox
Brown Fox, Fredara Hadley, Maria Armstrong, Tangee Allen, Stan Thangaraj, Steve
Paris, Andrea Jackson, David Hooker, Dedra Thornton, Georgene Bess, Rabiyah
Karim-Kincey, William Eaglin III, Jonathan Eaglin, Jennifer Armstrong, Eboni McGee,
Wallis Baxter III, C. Omishade Richardson, Zandra Jordan, Caletha Powell, Courtney
Russell, Darius Bright, Patricia and Frank Caston, David Miller, Dedra Thornton,
Anthony and Nicole Winburn, Cherita Perry, Derrick Allen, Wanakee Trask, Lasana
Kazembe, Kerry Ann Rockquemore, Kevin and Jennifer Lam, Lauren Akousa Lowery,
Kori Miller, William Dubose, Olatunji Obio Reed, Nzingha Samuel, Rashida Govan,
Rahmeek Rasul, Jaha and Masud Assante, Brandon K. Evans, Allen Henson, Keanna
Henson, Jasmine Porter, Joy Brooks, Marissa Mahoney, Jonelle Myers, Anne Aviles,
Erica Davila, Jacqueline Spruill, and Harvey ← xi | xii → Hinton III. I have been more
than fortunate to encounter a very supportive community of scholars who have supported
my efforts and this work. Many thanks go to Lawrence Jackson of Emory University,
Akinyele Umoja of Georgia State University, and both Claude P. Hutto and Samoya
Livingston of Morehouse College for their encouragement and support during the
writing process. It is with great gratitude and respect that I acknowledge those
individuals who have been supportive through their conversation and for allowing me to
inquire about their work that relates to the Black Freedom Struggle: Abdul Razzaq,
Harold Pates, Askia Toure, Bill Ayers, Nathan Garrett, Bernadine Dohrn, Sam
Greenlee, Cleveland Sellers, Roz Pelles, Howard Fuller, Robert Rhodes, Fannie T.
Rushing, Greg Carr, Fanon Wilkins, William Sales, Charles Payne.
 To my church home, The Israel of God (IOG) in Chicago, Atlanta, and all IOG camps
domestic and international, may all physical and spiritual Israel continue to awaken for
the improvement of all of the sons and daughters of the creation. Shalom. ← xii | xiii →
 Abbreviations Used in the Text

AIS African Information Service

ALD African Liberation Day
ALDCC African Liberation Day Coordinating
Committee
ALSC African Liberation Support Committee
AMM American Muslim Mission
ASM Afro-American Student Movement
BEDC Black Economic Development Conference
BLF Black Liberation Front
CAP Congress of Afrikan People
CBC Congressional Black Caucus
CBE Center for Black Education
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CIAA Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
CIBI Council of Independent Black Institutions
COFO Council of Federated Organizations
COINTELPRO Counter Intelligence Program
CORE Congress of Racial Equality
CSC Central State College
FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation ← xiii | xiv
→
FCD Foundation for Community Development
FOI Fruit of Islam
FRELIMO Mozambique Liberation Front
GAPP Greensboro Association of Poor People
GCSP General Convention Special Program
GOP Grand Old Party; Republican Party
HNIC Head Nigger in Charge
IBW Institute of the Black World
IFCO Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organization
LCFO Lowndes County Freedom Organization
MFDP Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
MMI Muslim Mosque Inc.
MXLU Malcolm X Liberation University
NAAAE National Association of African American
Education
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People
NAG Non-Violent Action Group
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCBC National Committee of Black Churchmen
NCF North Carolina Fund
NCYOBU North Carolina Youth Organization for Black
Unity
NOI Nation of Islam
NSA National Student Association
NSM Northern Student Movement
OAAU Organization of Afro-American Unity
OAU Organization of African Unity
OBT Operation Breakthrough
OEO Office of Economic Opportunity
PAIGC African Party for the Independence of
Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands

PAMP Pan-African Medical Program

PASOA Pan-African Student Organization of the
Americas
PASP Pan-African Skills Project
PMI Palmer Memorial Institute
RAM Revolutionary Action Movement
SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference
SDS Students for a Democratic Society
SFSC San Francisco State College
SGA Student Government Associations ← xiv | xv
 →
SNCC Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee
SOBU Student Organization for Black Unity
UCLA University of California Los Angeles
UNIA Universal Negro Improvement Association
UNITA African Liberation Organization of
FRELIMO (Angola)
UOCI United Organizations for Community
Improvement
UoI University of Islam
YES Youth Educational Services
YOBU Youth Organization for Black Unity
YUBS Youth for the Unity of Black Society
ZANU-ZAPU African Liberation Organization of
FRELIMO (Zimbabwe) ← xv | xvi →
← xvi | xvii →
 Abbreviations Used in Notes

College and University Archives, Special Collections,

Campus Periodicals, Community Periodicals, and
Research Venues

ARC CCC Avery Research Center for African

American History & Culture at the College
of Charleston
ABTC Allen Building Takeover Collection,
1969–2002, Rubenstein Library Duke
University Archives
AURCRWL Atlanta University Research Center,
Robert W. Woodruff Library
BB The Bennett Banner
BPRO Black Power and Revolutionary
 Organizations
CBE Center for Black Education
CDD The Chicago Daily Defender
CO The Charlotte Observer
CSC Cleveland Sellers Collection
CT The Chicago Tribune
DC The Duke Chronicle
DMH The Durham Morning Herald ← xvii |
xviii →
DS The Durham Sun
EOPII Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial
Crossroads, 1965 to 1985. Washington
University Libraries, Film and Media
Archive, Henry Hampton Collection
FCD Foundation for Community Development
GDN The Greensboro Daily News
GR The Greensboro Record
IFCO RECORDS Interreligious Foundation for Community
Organization Records
JFP James Forman Papers
JHCC John Henrik Clarke Collection
MC The Milwaukee Courier
MD LOC Manuscript Division, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.
MM The Milwaukee Magazine
MS Muhammad Speaks
MXLU Malcolm X Liberation University
NCCCF UNC North Carolina Collection Clipping File
through 1975, University of North
Carolina Library, Chapel Hill
NCFR North Carolina Fund Records, 1962–1971
ND/BW Negro Digest/Black World
NYAN The New York Amsterdam News
NYT The New York Times
PASOA Pan African Students Organization of the
Americas
PASP Pan African Skills Project
PASPC Pan African Skills Project Collection
RAM Revolutionary Action Movement
SFV Search for a Vanguard: A Series of
Anthologies Covering the Black Liberation
Movement in the 1970s, SOBU-YOBU-
FFM 1969–1976
SHC UNC Southern Historical Collection at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
SNCC NL The SNCC Newsletter
SNL The SOBU Newsletter
SOBU Student Organization for Black Unity
TAC The Asheville Citizen
TAW The African Warrior
TES The Evening Star
TAFP Thomas Augustus Fraser Papers ← xviii |
xix →
TNO The News and Observer
TWP The Washington Post
UNCG GVC University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, Item #1.10.575,
GreensboroVOICES Collection
YOBU Youth Organization for Black Unity ← xix
| xx →
← xx | 1 →
 Introduction

This work examines the history of the Pan-Africanist educational institution Malcolm X
Liberation University as an extension of the educational and social philosophies of
Malcolm X. This narrative centers on the period from 1960 to 1973 during the decline
of the traditional Civil Rights Movement and the rise of Black Power activism. It also
explores the educational influence of Malcolm X as a proponent of Black Nationalism
and the ideological evolution of the Black Student Movement.
Malcolm X Liberation University (MXLU) was founded in Durham and Greensboro,
North Carolina in the late 1960s as a by-product of the national Black Student
Movement that had begun during the Civil Rights Movement.1 During this same period,
the Nation of Islam (NOI), a Black Nationalist organization whose activities extended
the legacy of the Pan-Africanist movement led by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s, was
making inroads in the urban North. The NOI, which was founded in 1930, would
eventually produce a spokesman who would reinvigorate Black Nationalism and
influence Black thought far beyond the organization’s secular limits.2 That person was
Malcolm X.
For many, Malcolm represented the unspoken aspirations of millions of Black folks
who wanted social, political, and economic empowerment as opposed to the social
integration proffered by the Civil Rights Movement. As national spokesman ← 1 | 2 →
for the Nation of Islam and later founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity
(OAAU), Malcolm was a decisive figure in the rise of Black Nationalism and the
emergence of the Pan-Africanist movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Many historians
regard him as the spiritual architect and the intellectual foundation of the Black
Nationalist revival.3
Although he is widely credited as a natural pedagogue with a gift for direct and
effective instruction, Malcolm never provided an explicit philosophy of education.
However, Malcolm’s words and ideas, which have been preserved in countless texts,
audio clips, and film documentaries, reveal that he crafted a precise and functional
educational philosophy that grew and evolved from his childhood to his assassination
on February 21, 1965. In the years that followed, Malcolm’s pedagogic emphasis on
Black interdependence and self-determination, Pan- Africanist effort and expression,
spiritual self-awareness, and evolutionary-revolutionary ideation provided a theoretical
framework for the Black Student Movement and the development of independent Black
educational institutions.
This study explores how Malcolm’s pedagogical influence helped shape the
development of Malcolm X Liberation University and attempts to answer the following
questions:
What were the educational philosophies and ideals of Malcolm X and how
did these philosophies come to fruition and evolve during his career?
How did Malcolm X’s philosophies and influence impact the Black student
movement?
What were the ideological shifts that took place in Black student organizations
in the context of the Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements and why?
Did MXLU’s school operations engage the educational philosophies of
Malcolm X in the context of a changing Black Power era?
Finding answers to these questions and many others required an excavation of
Malcolm’s impact on the Black Student Movement and his position as a “profound
external force for the radicalization of students within the crucible of the Black Struggle
for human rights.”4 “Malcolm’s encounters with grassroots and student activists spoke
directly to this solidarity and reveal the force of a dialectical relationship that helped
propel the Black Power phase of a larger freedom struggle.”5 Malcolm’s work with the
NOI and later as chairman of the OAAU enabled him to engage a wide range of student
audiences. He seemed to revel in his involvements with young people and exhibited a
passion for self-education. This ← 2 | 3 → work provides a revisionist reading and
historical analysis of Malcolm’s legacy as a teacher by examining his impact on
educational initiatives rooted in the Black Power era. In Sum, Fighting for Our Place
in the Sun, aims to concretize Malcolm’s often-underrated importance as a force for
social pedagogy.
Notes
1 Merrill Proudfoot, Diary of a Sit-In (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), xxiii; Claybourne
Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s (Cambridge & London: Harvard University
Press, 1995), 1, 4, 215.
2 C. Eric Lincoln, Black Muslims in America (Boston: Beacon, 1973); Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and
Fall of Elijah Muhammad (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999).
3 William L. Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–
1975 (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
4 Winston Grady-Willis, Challenging U.S. Apartheid: Atlanta and Black Struggles for Human Rights 1960–
1977 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006).
5 Ibid. ← 3 | 4 →

←4|5→
 1

Malcolm X and/as Social Pedagogy

A Critical Historical Analysis

It had been ten months since his break with the Nation of Islam, nine since his
pilgrimage to Mecca, and seven since he had announced the formation of the
Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU); clearly Malcolm X had much on his
mind. And yet, on January 26, 1965, as he spoke into a microphone for a Dartmouth
College radio station, Malcolm seemed unconstrained by the exigencies of the Black
Nationalism he hoped to foster through the OAAU or by the doctrinal demands of the
Islamic orthodoxy he had embraced during his journey to the Ka’aba. Instead, he spoke
as Malcolm X the revolutionary educator, Malcolm X the populist pedagogue, Malcolm
X the teacher.
“Education is first,” he said during the Dartmouth interview. “Education is the first
step towards solving any problem that exists anywhere on this Earth which involves
people who are oppressed.”1
Although Malcolm’s public persona had been shaped—for good and ill—by his
allegiance to Islam and his commitment to a radical revision of the means and methods
of securing progress for African Americans, his actions reflected a professorial pre-
occupation with a social pedagogy that had as its chief aim the expansion of knowledge
throughout a global academy. Still, despite his stated belief in the power of education
and his emergence as a forceful teacher with an international profile—during his 1964
trip to Africa, he had been greeted by thousands of young people during lectures in
Nigeria and Ghana—Malcolm’s ← 5 | 6 → importance to education remains obscured
by competing, often erroneous, perceptions of his work.
In life and in death, Malcolm has been variously interpreted as the spirit of a
revitalized Black Nationalist tradition, as the embodiment of a Black urban psyche that
roared with aggression and pain, and as the preeminent champion of Black militancy in
opposition to the social assimilation, integration, and passive action often attributed to
the Civil Rights Movement. He has been cast as a “firebrand” and an apostle of hate not
only toward White America but toward an old guard Civil Rights leadership that
seemed more concerned with securing a place for African Americans in the house of the
American establishment than with confronting the racism that is the cornerstone of that
establishment. And for those who had grown dissatisfied with marching, singing, and
only pseudo-gain for a small segment of the African American masses, Malcolm had
been the defining figure in the fight for Black liberation, the high commander and
unquestioned leader in an ongoing struggle by those seeking freedom—by any means
necessary.
These competing visions of Malcolm have yielded decades of social, political, and
historical cross-talk that has fueled extensive critical scholarship. Scholars who have
examined Malcolm’s life and legacy and found it a viable commentary on the American
scene have been countered by scholars who concluded that Malcolm’s affirmative
efforts had either been overstated or were somehow void and meritless. For example,
Manning Marable’s unflattering depiction of the Civil Rights leader in Malcolm X: A
Life of Reinvention (2011) has been challenged by a plethora of pro-Malcolmist
scholars, including Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs, editors of A Lie of
Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X (2012).
Academic tit-for-tat aside, for countless scholars, Malcolm’s life and work have
served as a master class on Advanced Black Nationalism, an intellectual catalyst for
their critiques of the American system, and as an impetus to their personal pedagogies.
Dr. John Henrik Clarke, a writer, historian, and professor widely credited with the
propagation of the Africana Studies movement, suggested that Malcolm helped him see
the connection between classroom instruction and the Black Nationalist ethic. Even after
his assassination in 1965, Malcolm continued to exert a powerful influence over
Clarke’s approach to teaching.
“The whole year after his death I always got the feeling that we were having our
usual conversation and I would always end it ‘What can I do?’” said Clarke, during an
interview for the documentary A Great and Mighty Walk. “And finally I got the feeling
that he had said, ‘Do your best work.’ I was a good teacher before that. I was a better
teacher and better human being after that.”2 Conversely, some scholars have contended
that Malcolm is a quixotic nonstarter unworthy as either a role model or ← 6 | 7 → as a
topic of serious scholarship. Dr. Adolph Reed, a political scientist and professor at the
University of Pennsylvania, argues as much in his book, Stirrings in the Jug: Black
Politics in the Post-Segregation Era (1999). “Because Malcolm has no agency at all,
he is now even more a hologram of social forces than he was for my generation,” writes
Reed. “The inchoate, often apparently inconsistent trajectory of his thought makes him
an especially plastic symbol in the present context.”3
Reed and others who have made a veritable pastime of attacking Malcolm’s legacy
are engaged in a form of scholarship that conveniently understates or ignores Malcolm’s
critical role in guiding the Civil Rights Movement toward the era of Black Power and in
establishing a pedagogical foundation for that Movement. Other scholars have avoided
this pitfall and assessed Malcolm’s unparalleled importance in establishing the
ideological motivation for this critical segment of the Black Freedom Struggle. “More
than any other person, Malcolm X was responsible for the new militancy that entered
the movement in 1965,” wrote Frederick D. Harper in his 1971 article “The Influence of
Malcolm X on Black Militancy.”4
This “new militancy” was a direct outgrowth of specific efforts reflecting Malcolm’s
educational philosophy, notably the establishment of pedagogically centered
organizations intended to revitalize traditional Black Nationalism based on Malcolm’s
powerful influence on educational and nationalist institutions. As a result, Malcolm’s
emergence during the Civil Rights Movement represented much more than the idle catch
phrases and context-devoid sound bites too often associated with the Civil Rights
leader. It marked a quantum shift in the way young African American learners viewed
themselves and the oppressive conditions around them.
Critics may contend that Malcolm was an elusive try-do-well whose efforts
produced little real progress, pedagogically or otherwise, but the facts belie that
argument. Malcolm, the revolutionary educator, Malcolm, the populist pedagogue,
Malcolm, the teacher, changed forever the nature of education by effectuating a call for a
national elevation of consciousness and self- reliance that was actualized in the Black
Student Movement, through Black Studies programs, and in the growth of a Black
Nationalist cultural aesthetic in the postsecondary arena.

A Malcolm X Philosophy of Education: A Critically

Interpretive Historical Methodology
The story is well known, but it is worth repeating.
In the late 1930s, Malcolm Little, an intelligent, thoughtful African American child,
propels himself to the top of his junior high school class. The ambitious ← 7 | 8 →
young man opens his heart to a trusted teacher, a Mr. Ostrowski, revealing that one day
he’d like to become a lawyer. The teacher, who is white, tells the child that the law “is
no realistic goal for a nigger.”5 Shattered, young Malcolm forsakes school and
eventually turns to crime.
Some years later, when the child had become an adult, he noted that his lack of
formal education had not precluded him from attaining other important personal
qualities. “I am not educated, nor am I an expert in any particular field—but I am
sincere, and my sincerity is my credentials,”6 said Malcolm X during a 1964 press
conference.
To fully understand the ideological underpinnings of Malcolm’s philosophy of
education, it is important to critically examine how his views of himself and of formal
pedagogy evolved between his departure from that Michigan junior high school and his
death in 1965. It has been suggested that Malcolm’s sense of self (and his concomitant
view of education) developed along a clear and identifiable path defined by a series of
critical life events.
In The Transformational Leadership of Malcolm X, Dr. Najee E. Muhammad of
Ohio University posits that “Malcolm X manifested five stages in the development of
his transformational legacy.” According to Muhammad, the stages were as follows:
Stage 1: School leader (1932–1940)
Malcolm excels in school, is voted class president, and has a tragic and life-altering
encounter with his grade school teacher, Mr. Ostrowski.
Stage 2: Street leader (1940–1948)
Malcolm becomes a hustler and develops the savvy and ability to “code switch,”
which will enhance his future leadership skills and his appeal to the masses.
Stage 3: Prison leader (1948–1952)
Malcolm is reinvigorated as an intellectual and scholar in prison. He hones his
oratorical skills as a prison debate team member.
Stage 4: National Spokesman for the Nation of Islam (1952–1964)
As a minister for the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X consistently refers to his
intellectual development as a product of Elijah Muhammad. His high-profile position in
the NOI affords him a social and political platform that earns him national prominence
and allows Malcolm to exert himself as an eminent educational influence over an
emerging Black Power Movement. ← 8 | 9 →
Stage 5: International Pan-African leader (March 1964–February 1965)
Malcolm establishes two organizations, both with pedagogical components: the
Muslim Mosque Inc. (MMI) and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).
Malcolm’s domestic and international appeal enables him to have a transformative
impact on a global audience.7
Muhammad’s model is an effective basis for understanding Malcolm’s educational
philosophy. However, a complete analysis demands that each stage of development be
fully correlated to bona fide pedagogical outcomes. In other words, a dynamic process
of critical investigation, including an in-depth analysis of Malcolm’s speeches, video
documentation, and archival data found in text form is necessary to show not only that
Malcolm subscribed to a specific educational philosophy but also that it yielded
tangible programs, organizations, and institutions.
There are attendant challenges to such a critical investigation. Dr. Muhammad
summed up the problem when he observed that “very little is written about the
educational Malcolm, or the genesis of his educational development, his educational
philosophy or, further, his influence on African education in the United States and Pan-
African thought.”8
Although Malcolm spoke extensively at educational institutions around the world,
leaving a trail of documentary and oratorical breadcrumbs for scholars to follow, an
elucidation of Malcolm’s educational philosophy has remained elusive. In historical
works, such as William Sales’ From Civil Rights to Black Liberation: Malcolm X and
the Organization of Afro-American Unity (1994) and Louis A. DeCaro’s On the Side
of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X (1996), the Civil Rights leader is
discussed as a scholar and educator, but there are oversights regarding his educational
philosophy. In addition, scholarship that examines the educational impact of Malcolm X
is nearly non existent.
Even so, there have been valiant efforts to accurately convey Malcolm’s profound
importance to the development of a Black Nationalist ideal and a related educational
philosophy. Scholar and activist Maulana Karenga ably tackles the subject in his
[insightful/groundbreaking] article “The Socio-Political Philosophy of Malcolm X”,
which was published in the Western Journal of Black Studies in the winter of 1979.
This work critically interprets the social and political aspects of Malcolm X’s
philosophy for Blacks throughout the African diaspora. Karenga analyzed four
components of Malcolm’s educational legacy:
1. Model Maulana/Model Master-Teacher
2. Model Student ← 9 | 10 →
3. Critical Thinker
4. Accent on Youth
While Karenga’s analysis shows the great potential for a meaningful exploration of
Malcolm’s educational impact, it does not sufficiently outline an educational
philosophy. Therefore, an analysis of Malcolm X’s influence through his own
educational and scholarly endeavors must be undertaken to consider Malcolm’s
educational influence beyond the Nation of Islam and into the larger frames of Black
Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. It also would counter the pervasive and wrong-
headed view that Malcolm X did not articulate a set of educational beliefs that
correlated to an educational philosophy. Moreover, much of the work that credits
Malcolm X’s scholastic ability is not translated as a major element in helping to raise
consciousness for the subsequent generations that espoused Black Power. Muhammad
argues, “Lack of information on the educational Malcolm could be interpreted to mean
that people of African descent from the United States are void and incapable of having
an educational philosophy and are ahistorical entities.”9 Again, it is critical to assert
that not only did Malcolm have a clear and identifiable educational philosophy but also
that educational philosophy elevated Black consciousness on a domestic and
international scale and continues to be a vibrant pedagogical force.
To fully understand Malcolm’s educational genesis, it is important to consider the
outcome of his profoundly negative encounter with the middle school teacher Mr.
Ostrowski. The experience placed Malcolm on a downward trajectory that would lead
to his incarceration in 1946. At age twenty, Malcolm was convicted on burglary charges
and sent to Boston’s Charleston State Prison.10 There he would gain a reputation for his
outspokenly atheistic sentiments. “I would pace for hours like a caged leopard,
viciously cursing aloud to myself,” Malcolm recalled. “And my targets were the Bible
and God…. Eventually, the men in the cellblock had a name for me: ‘Satan.’ Because of
my anti-religious attitude.”11
Malcolm entered prison with a drug habit and while incarcerated continued to feed
his addiction for narcotics, DeCaro writes: “He continued to pursue his former pastime
of getting high, sometime by purchasing nutmeg (which, in the right quantity, would
produce a ‘high’ comparable to the use of marijuana), and sometimes by obtaining drugs
that were smuggled in and sold by correction officers.”12
However, after spending a little over two years incarcerated, Malcolm would begin
a metaphysical transformation, eventually leading to his religious conversion to the
Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. This transformation began
with Malcolm’s educational reincarnation. Investigative journalist and historian Karl
Evanzz notes that “with nothing but time on his ← 10 | 11 → hands, Malcolm X had
spent the last two years of his incarceration reading books on classical literature,
philosophy, psychology, and history. He had been aided by some of the best minds in the
nation, students at Harvard who taught classes at the Norfolk Prison Colony during his
stay.”13
In 1948, Malcolm’s brother Philbert wrote him a letter in which he explained “he
had discovered the natural religion for the black man.” He had joined something called
“the Nation of Islam,”14 and asked Malcolm to pray to Allah for deliverance. Shortly
after, Malcolm would receive a letter from another brother, Reginald. That letter
included the following instructions: “Malcolm, don’t eat any more pork, and don’t
smoke any more cigarettes. I’ll show you how to get out of prison.”15 Malcolm did not
immediately take his brothers’ advice but eventually figured that there might be an angle
of sorts that he could work to “hustle” his way out of prison if he listened to them.
 Malcolm soon discovered the sincerity of the information provided by his family and
not long after converted to the Nation of Islam. Under the guidance and teachings of
Elijah Muhammad, who was considered to be the “Messenger of Allah,” Malcolm
wrote dozens of letters pledging himself to the teachings of the Nation of Islam.16 Evanzz
writes: “Beyond swearing off alcohol, cigarettes, and narcotics, [Malcolm] also
stopped eating pork. By 1950, he was a new man. His faith put him on the front page of
an issue of the Springfield Union that year after he and several other Muslims staged a
protest over the poor quality of the food in the Norfolk Prison Colony and the denial
there of religious freedom.”17
In 1951, Malcolm was denied parole because he sent letters to state officials
condemning the domestic and international practices of the United States government,
but he was released a year later. However, the man who had entered prison was not the
man who earned parole. The social deviant Malcolm Little was gone. What remained
was the young Nation of Islam minister, Malcolm X.18

Minister Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam (NOI):

Organizational Growth and Educational Structure
In July 1952, a newly paroled Malcolm X left prison to reside with his brother Wilfred
in Michigan. During this time, Malcolm took a job at a local factory and became a
student minister in the Nation of Islam.
Relying heavily on his gift for oratory and a virtually limitless reservoir of personal
charisma, Malcolm was able to move the Nation of Islam into the mainstream of Black
urban life in Detroit and Chicago. By 1954, he had tripled the ← 11 | 12 → membership
in the Detroit mosque. His success at “fishing” for converts led to his elevation to
assistant minister at the Holy Temple of Islam, the NOI’s Detroit mosque.
Malcolm’s energy and determination were so apparent that Elijah Muhammad
quickly appointed him to build temples and attract converts nationwide. Like a desert
sirocco, Malcolm swept across the country, preaching, teaching, and building in Joliet,
Illinois; Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; and Camden, Patterson, and Jersey City, New
Jersey. Within three years of his release from prison, Malcolm had established more
than twenty-seven temples.19 Karl Evanzz writes:
Not only was membership expanding; its quality was improving noticeably. For the first time in the twenty-five
year history of the Nation of Islam, the sect was attracting followers who reflected the demographics of the
African American community—scores of college students, teachers, policemen and firemen, and skilled
laborers needed by the Nation of Islam. These new, better-educated converts, Malcolm X had hoped, could
educate and help find employment for the hundreds of former prisoners and high school dropouts groping for a
way out of poverty.20
 The education that Malcolm hoped for would be produced as a component of the
Nation of Islam’s organizational infrastructure. The NOI would establish schools not
only for the youth membership of the Nation but also would create a critical adult
educational component for the effective reinforcement of NOI doctrine.
A key element of this effort would be the strengthening and propagation of the
University of Islam (UoI). At the time, the UoI was a combined elementary and
secondary school in Detroit that had been established as an extension of the early work
of NOI founder Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. The aims and objectives of the
school were to provide a curriculum for NOI members that focused on higher level
mathematics, astronomy, and the “ending of the spook civilization.”21 It also included
teachings specifically designed for women, writes theologian and sociologist C. Eric
Lincoln: “He, Elijah Muhammad, had created the Muslim Girls Training Class, which
taught young Muslim women the principles of home economics and how to be proper
wives and mothers.”22
The UoI (which eventually grew into a system of schools attached to local NOI
mosques) became attractive to both members and nonmembers of the organization
mainly because of the alternative education it provided. Lincoln’s seminal 1961 work,
The Black Muslims in America, documents the early history of the organization and
includes a number of revealing interviews with NOI members. These interviews offer
firsthand insight into the powerful appeal of the NOI’s ← 12 | 13 → education efforts to
a generation of African Americans who had often been denied both academic and
cultural understanding. During an interview, a Chicago woman summed up the NOI’s
appeal when she was asked if she was sending her children to a Nation school:
Well, no sir … But my husband, he’s been talking about it. Whatever he says. They teach the children how to
behave up there and they teach them something about ourselves, too—all about what the black people have
done in the world, not just the white. You ought to know something about your own people, don’t you think?
Especially if you’re going to live in a free country.23

The Nation of Islam’s organizational structure, educational requirements, and financial

and human resources enabled the organization’s members to utilize racial and cultural
pride as tools to increase consciousness and instill the motivation to learn. As for
Malcolm, he was both a student of the NOI educational system and one of its chief
proponents. His educational philosophy reflected the cultural, political, and spiritual
concerns of the NOI. However, as Malcolm matured intellectually and personally, his
own educational philosophy exceeded the limits of his early NOI training and became a
distinct scholarly paradigm.

Malcolm X: Scholar and Educational Philosophy

 “I finished the eighth grade in Mason, Michigan. My high school was the black ghetto of Roxbury,
Massachusetts. My college was in the streets of Harlem and my master’s was taken in prison.”24
—Malcolm X

“When you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him to
stand here or go yonder. He will find his ‘proper place’ and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the
back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special
benefit.”25
—Carter G. Woodson

The birth of Malcolm X as a scholar is often attributed to his aggressive approach for
satisfying his own thirst for knowledge. Malcolm is often cited as an individual who
read voraciously. Reading was the basis of his intellectual development, and Malcolm
expected the same commitment to scholarship from his colleagues.26 However,
Malcolm’s affinity for learning is often viewed as an innate quality rather than as an
intentional conjunct of an educational philosophy. In the same way, Malcolm’s repeated
assertions about the importance of education are often ← 13 | 14 → viewed as part of a
package of sociopolitical stances rather than what it was: a distinct educational
viewpoint that could and did motivate subsequent generations of Black students.
Therefore, it is important to examine Malcolm’s maturation as a scholar and the
evolution of his distinct educational philosophy.
During his imprisonment, Malcolm attributed the decline of his academic skills to the
time that he had spent as a street hustler. Paradoxically, in the Autobiography of
Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley, Malcolm speaks extensively on how his time in
prison had reinvigorated the enthusiasm for learning that had been extinguished by the
“advice” of Mr. Ostrowski. Malcolm mentions a fellow inmate by the name of “Bimbi”
for whom he had considerable admiration. Bimbi’s sheer intellectualism awoke an
excitement in Malcolm that motivated his own quest for knowledge. Malcolm describes
Bimbi’s influence this way:
He would have a cluster of people riveted, often on odd subjects you would never think of. He would prove to
us, dipping into the science of human behavior, that the only difference between us and the outside people was
that we had been caught. He liked to talk about historical events and figures … I wasn’t the first inmate who
had never heard of Thoreau until Bimbi expounded upon him. Bimbi was known as the library’s best customer.
What fascinated me with him most of all was that he was the first man I had ever seen command total respect
… with his words.27

As mentioned earlier, Malcolm’s academic regression resulted from his days on the
street. He notes, “The streets had erased everything I’d ever learned in school; I didn’t
know a verb from a house.”28 According to other sources, Malcolm may not have given
himself enough credit here, the implication being that he overemphasized the Nation of
Islam’s role in his education out of a sense of indebtedness to the organization. In fact,
during his time behind bars, Malcolm’s aptitude for learning had already been
confirmed.
According to the results of a test he took in the first few months of his incarceration, his reading ability was
evaluated as “good” and his arithmetical ability (even though he seems to have disliked math) was “high
average.” In addition …his abstract reasoning and his “range of information” skills were rated “superior.”29

Malcolm’s academic approach (notably his belief in and reliance on formal

instruction) was also fully developed long before his departure from prison. Acting on
the advice of his sister Hilda, Malcolm had spent part of his time in prison taking
correspondence courses to improve his writing and had undertaken a study of how Latin
influenced English vocabulary.30 ← 14 | 15 →
Malcolm would also study and copy the entire dictionary as a tutorial reference for
his scholastic advancement and to improve his reading comprehension, “I’d never
realized so many words existed!” he recalled. “I didn’t know which words I needed to
learn. Finally, just to start some action, I began copying … I was so fascinated that I
went on—I copied the dictionary’s next page … during the rest of my time in prison I
would guess I wrote a million words.”31
Malcolm’s love of language and reading would form the basis on which he would
expand his oratorical style and learning aptitude. He claimed that “anyone who has read
a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from
then until I left prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I
was reading in my bunk.”32
Malcolm’s readings were extensive and varied and included Will Durant’s Story of
Civilization, H. G. Wells’s Outline of History, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk,
Carter G. Woodson’s Negro History, J. A. Rogers’s three-volume Sex and Race, and
Gregor Mendel’s Findings in Genetics.33 Malcolm made extensive use of the Norfolk
Prison Colony library as well as the classes taught at the prison by instructors from
Harvard and Boston University.
Malcolm’s addiction to learning became so heightened that when the prison library
was unable to quench his desire for new material, he would have his older sister Ella
smuggle in books. Malcolm’s nephew, Rodnell P. Collins, recounts in Seventh Child: A
Family Memoir of Malcolm X that his mother would stuff books into his pants for his
uncle Malcolm, who had taken a keen interest in studying law.34
Malcolm’s love affair with books and reading would continue long past his days of
incarceration. According to Malcolm:
I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading
had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long
dormant craving to be mentally alive. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status
symbol upon its students. My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit
more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America. Not
 long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was “What’s your alma
mater?” I told him, “Books.”35

The “homemade” prison education or unconventional training to which Malcolm

refers is best described through the theoretical lens of Julius K. Nyerere’s philosophy of
“Education for Self-Reliance.” Nyerere states
that [because] pre-colonial Africa did not have “schools”—except for short periods of initiation in some tribes
—did not mean that the children were not educated. They learned ← 15 | 16 → by living and doing …
education was thus “informal”; every adult was a teacher to a greater or lesser degree. But this lack of
formality did not mean that there was no education, nor did it affect its importance to the society.36

Malcolm X’s scholarly endeavors equate with an educational philosophy of self-

reliance. As the prototype for that philosophy, Malcolm typified all the qualities he had
learned as a graduate of “Books,” including a dogged belief in the active transmission
of acquired knowledge.
That quality was evident when, as a Nation of Islam leader, Malcolm developed a
public-speaking class for younger ministers who aspired to head their own temples.37
Benjamin Karim, a former Nation of Islam member and a founding member of the
Organization of Afro-American Unity, described Malcolm’s approach this way:
The curriculum was ancient history broken down into the Hittites, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and
Babylonians all the way up through the Persians and Rome, the Crusades and the Moors in Spain. We had to
read every newspaper, the N.Y. Times, the U.S. News and World Report, the Chinese Peking Review,
London Times. Every week we had to keep abreast and see historically how everything came to this point, the
history of slavery …This was the class that he set up. There is no college class, calculus, trigonometry that
was as rough as that Public Speaking Class.38

As always, Malcolm expected more of himself than he demanded of those around

him. He required that his NOI ministers read the newspaper; he himself would create
one. Citing a need for a news organ that could articulate the NOI message and desiring
to extend his emerging pedagogic concerns in print, Malcolm took steps to create what
would become the Muhammad Speaks newspaper. An eager student of the news
business, Malcolm took an ad hoc apprenticeship at the Los Angeles Herald Dispatch
in the late 1950s. He then turned his attention to New York where he made that city’s
Black-owned newspapers his classroom. Peniel Joseph writes, “Malcolm took note
stalking the offices of the Amsterdam News and other publications determined to find a
national organ to disseminate the NOI’s world view.”39
Muhammad Speaks was launched in 1960 just four years before Malcolm’s split
with the NOI. In that short time, the paper became a fixture in any city where the Nation
had a mosque and members who could sell it on the street or distribute it through Black-
owned retailers. Inevitably, Malcolm’s departure from the Nation called into question
each and every contribution he had made to the NOI, including his role in the founding
of Muhammad Speaks. Many in the Nation argue that Elijah Muhammad conceived the
newspaper and that Malcolm ← 16 | 17 → merely handled the administrative details.
However, Malcolm recalled the matter differently: “I am the founder of the paper, the
originator of the paper. Few people realize it—I was the one who originated
Muhammad Speaks newspaper. The initial editions were written entirely by me in my
basement.”40

Malcolm X’s Educational Philosophy: The Importance of

History
For Malcolm, the critical study of history was a way to connect to contemporary
phenomenon. He believed that “by studying the history of contemporary oppression …
its origins would be exposed, contemporary problems diagnosed and solutions
advanced.”41
Malcolm would synergize a speaking style that related history to the current issues of
the masses and use metaphors and parables to engage his audience in critical thought.
When Malcolm addressed an audience, he would use the time allotted as a time of
instruction and not mere sensationalism. For example, on January 24, 1965, Malcolm
roused a gathering of the Organization of Afro-American Unity with the following
observations:
When you deal with the past, you’re dealing with history, you’re dealing actually with the origin of a thing.
When you know the origin, you know the cause. If you don’t know the origin, you don’t know the cause. And
if you don’t know the cause, you don’t know the reason; you’re just cut off, you’re left standing in mid-air. So
the past deals with history or the origin of anything—the origin of a person, the origin of a nation, the origin of
an incident. And when you know the origin, then you get a better understanding of the causes that produce
whatever originated there and its reason for originating and its reason for being.42

Malcolm excavated history for a better understanding of the conditions that Blacks
faced because he understood that the conditions were not isolated from a larger societal
context. His educational philosophy, which included the discipline of history, went
beyond Malcolm’s lectures to practice. As head of the Nation of Islam’s Temple 7 in
Harlem, Malcolm used his understanding of the traditional ways in which Black people
communicate political attitudes to attract followers and turn informal encounters into
future alliances or learning, teachable moments.43
Because Malcolm respected and understood the traditional methods of African
American alliance building, he was able to move people. “Malcolm defined ← 17 | 18
→ history not just as what was in books but also as that which could be validated by the
collective experiences of Black people.”44
To keep himself abreast of the ever-changing nature of that experience, Malcolm
often consulted with what John Henrik Clarke describes as a “shadow cabinet.” This ad
hoc collection of scholars, activists, and artists was based in Harlem and included
Clarke, Lewis Michaux, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Ossie Davis, Queen Mother Moore,
Ella Collins, Vicki Garvin, and Shirley Graham Du Bois. While all the members of the
cabinet were clearly attracted by Malcolm’s message, most were also drawn by
something else: Malcolm’s embracing charisma and his powerful ability to speak
directly to an individual’s heart.45

Malcolm X’s Philosophy of Education: Personal Appeal

Malcolm X became significant to many African Americans because of his ability to
relate to the Black community, not as a vague political utility but as a collection of
individuals with highly personalized needs. He understood the language of a people on
the social periphery and who, in many cases, like him, aggressively opposed the cultural
assimilation that was central to the integration ethic of the Civil Rights Movement. More
importantly, Black folks needed an individual who could voice the frustrations of the
masses in a language and style that was relatable. Historian John Henrik Clarke argues
that Malcolm’s style of speech—which was rooted in an intensive understanding of how
the great mass of Black folks view themselves and their history—made it possible for
many African Americans to not only hear Malcolm’s teachings but to internalize them.
This distinction becomes especially clear when Clarke juxtaposes Malcolm’s speaking
style with that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
When in inquiring of some the next day who had heard Dr. King, they would typically respond as to how
moved they were by his oratory. When asked, however, what did King say they usually could not remember
the specifics of his discourse. On the other hand, those who had heard Malcolm X speak, when asked the next
day about the experience would typically respond “Malcolm said” and then recall the specifics of Malcolm’s
line of argument and his factual verifications.46

According to Benjamin Karim, Malcolm “had the ability to hold the minds of
thousands of people … even in the rain I have seen thousands of people stand in the rain
and listen to Malcolm and nobody would leave.”47 Writer Sonia Sanchez ← 18 | 19 →
suggested that Malcolm understood audience dynamics and capably managed the
expectations of those who gathered to hear him:
The joy of Malcolm is that he could have an audience of college professors, school teachers, nurses, doctors,
musicians, artists, poets and sisters, ah who were housewives, sisters who worked for people in their houses,
brothers who, ah were just hanging on the streets, whatever, or were waiting outside the temple to get inside.
The point is that I’ve never seen anyone appeal to such a broad audience, and the reason why he could do that
is because he understood the bottom line is that if you tell people the truth, then it will appeal to everyone.48

Malcolm knew that the way a person speaks defines how he or she is perceived and
that the way a teacher instructs defines what his or her students understand. “I had
learned early one thing … and that was to always teach in terms that people could
understand.”49 While other leaders and teachers at the forefront of the Civil Rights
Movement taught an integrationist reality that seemed increasingly detached from the
mass’s fundamental hopes for economic justice and self-determination, Malcolm
weaved a narrative that Black people could retain for future reference. He informed his
audience in a way that motivated and edified. According to Malcolm, the impersonal
relationship between the Black masses and the leadership of the “big named Negro
leaders was [due to] their lack of … any true rapport with the ghetto Negroes.”50
Like a historian who had excavated the key to some long misunderstood language,
Malcolm relied on his own experiences to connect to Black people in the ghetto and to
inform those outside it. He observed that “because I had been a hustler, I knew better
than all whites knew and better than nearly all of the black leaders knew, that actually
the most dangerous black man in America was the ghetto hustler.”51
Malcolm’s deep understanding of “ghetto Negroes”—especially those at the margins
—was the bedrock of his social narrative and the foundation of his educational
approach:
I knew that the ghetto people knew that I never left the ghetto in spirit, and I never left it physically any more
than I had to. I had a ghetto instinct; for instance, I could feel if tension was beyond normal in a ghetto
audience. And I could speak and understand the ghetto’s language. There was an example of this that always
flew to my mind every time I heard some of the “big name” Negro “leaders” declaring they “spoke for” the
ghetto Black people.52 ← 19 | 20 →

That Malcolm’s educational philosophy was not only beneficial but also
comprehensible is apparent from the national demand for Malcolm to give college
lectures. In fact, Malcolm would develop a preference for speaking on college
campuses: “The college sessions never failed to be exhilarating. They never failed in
helping me to further my own education.”53
While a minister of the Nation of Islam and during his short period free from the
confines of the NOI, Malcolm worked at a frenetic pace to keep engagements at colleges
and universities across the country:
When the New York Times poll was published, I had spoken at well over fifty colleges and universities, like
Brown, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Rutgers in the Ivy League and others throughout the country. Right now,
I have invitations from Cornell, Princeton and probably a dozen others, as soon as my time and their available
dates can be scheduled together. Among Negro institutions, I had been to Atlanta University and Clark College
down in Atlanta, to Howard University in Washington, D.C. and to a number of others with small student
bodies.54

According to Harry Edwards in his work Black Students, “Malcolm X’s message to
Black students was clear, concise and unmistakably explicit.”55 He encouraged students
to focus on the Black community and the control and maintenance of its resources and
institutions; to reject any effort to restrict their academic and intellectual liberty; to
develop an ethic (Malcolm proposed Black Nationalism) that would unify the Black
community and make it immune to outside control; to connect with Black people in
Africa and other parts of the world; and to recognize that their primary enemy was, is,
and has always been the legally established institutions and government of the United
States, whose efforts were to maintain the status quo through psychologically
oppressive measures.56
These directives would have a profound effect on untold numbers of students and
would eventually ignite the Black Student Movement. They would also prove an
immediate and compelling influence on individuals who met Malcolm and were
impressed by the directness of his ideas and the uncluttered persuasiveness of his
instruction. Poet Sonia Sanchez states:
The reason why Malcolm was so effective was because the moment that he came into an audience, he told
them exactly what he intended to do with them. He began to tell us and explain to us in a very historical
fashion just what our enslavement was about. The moment he did that, he always had some new information
for you.57

While some were swayed by Malcolm’s ability to absorb detailed scholarly information
and repackage it as ground-level instruction, others were taken by his ← 20 | 21 →
professorial knack for presenting the unvarnished realities of Black urban life as a type
of humanistic classwork. Malcolm’s long-time friend and associate Peter Bailey recalls
how Malcolm’s every word seemed to contain pedagogic import:
We began to listen and every time he would mention an article, magazine, or book, we would go and try to find
that article and magazine and book to read … In every sense of the word for me, it was a University of the
Streets. You know that term is overused but I think literally, ah, it was a University of the Streets … It was a
learning experience in the absolute, most, ah most, the best sense of that term learning. And for about five or
six Saturdays I felt as though I learned how, ah the system worked in this country than I had learned in all the
years, you know, prior to that, just listening to his analysis. So to me it was ah, it was the beginning of my
higher education though I had already had two years of college by the time this happened.58

Malcolm X: An Expansive Educational Philosophy

The quest for knowledge can lead to the opportunity to inform others of information that
one has encountered. Absolutely crucial to this search for truth is the ability to be self-
critical. Malcolm X exemplified this kind of scholarly humility; his life’s lessons
enabled him to be liberal in thought and action. In addition, he was courageous enough
to disclose his errors publicly and show that not even those held in the highest regard
are infallible and that no train of thought should be viewed as immutable. This
component of Malcolm’s educational philosophy, that is, his own self-critique, was
invaluable because it enabled him to grow as an intellectual as well as forge domestic
and international alliances based on the universal need to improve human life regardless
of cultural, political, and even racial differences.59 According to Malcolm,
All of us should be critics of each other. Whenever you can’t stand criticism you can never grow … I think
that we accomplish more when we sit down … and iron out whatever differences that may exist and try and
then do something constructive for the benefit of our people … I don’t think that we should be above criticism.
I don’t think that anyone should be above criticism.60

A critical example of Malcolm X’s expansive self-educational experience correlates

to the evolution of his disposition regarding white people. Many Malcolm X historians
will disagree with this point based on Malcolm’s speeches, which may come across as
ambivalent. At a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, for example,
shortly before his death, Malcolm was challenged to “‘tell us where you’re at with them
white folks.’ His response was, ‘I haven’t changed. I ← 21 | 22 → just see things on a
broader scale.’” Later in the same statement, he referred to the white man as “the
snake.”61
For many, that statement is irrefutable proof that Malcolm X never abandoned his
negative view of whites. However, a more thorough reading of his comment suggests
that Malcolm was not as narrow as some believe him to be. The fact is that much of
Malcolm’s rhetoric is not contextualized in a larger discourse that would allow a full
evaluation of his stance on certain subjects.
An example of Malcolm’s amended attitude toward whites comes from a moment that
Malcolm recalled during his interviews with Alex Haley for his autobiography.
Malcolm spoke candidly regarding his reassessment of white America and the social
and political forces that constructed the dynamics of racialized thought in all Americans.
For a long time Malcolm had reasoned that if a white person assisted him, that person
had selfish motives, so his instinct was to thoroughly investigate the reasons and
tendencies of that individual. However, this attitude was challenged during Malcolm’s
religious pilgrimage to Mecca. Malcolm’s accommodations while abroad were
provided by a cadre of individuals who invested their hope for the Black masses in
Malcolm. Among those who aided Malcolm during his journey was Dr. Abd-Al-
Rahman Azzam who, according to Malcolm, would have been considered white in
America.62
Malcolm would speak extensively of Dr. Azzam’s hospitality and note that the
physician had nothing to gain and possibly everything to lose by assisting him. Malcolm
recognized that those in the Eastern Hemisphere had followed his progression closely
through the press and were well aware of the American media’s propaganda about him.
Nonetheless, he was still assisted by one who he himself would have considered to be
phenotypically white. After spending one night in the home of his host, Malcolm began a
dramatic reassessment:
 That morning was when I first began to reappraise the “white man.” It was when I first began to perceive that
“white man,” as commonly used, means complexion only secondarily; primarily it described attitudes and
actions. In America, “white man” meant specific attitudes and actions toward the black man, and toward all
other non-white men. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more
genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. That morning was the start of a radical alteration in my
whole outlook about “white” men.63

Throughout Malcolm’s post-Hajj conversations regarding the state of American

racial conditions, he continued to evaluate the stance he had taken regarding white
America in his previous comments and speeches. Because of his broadened ← 22 | 23
→ insight, he was able to gain a panoramic view of race that included an international
perspective.
Malcolm’s willingness to reassess his own ideas marked him as a “Master Teacher”
according to Peter Bailey, who recognized Malcolm’s ability to apply an interpretative
analysis to society.64 This analysis was ongoing and led Malcolm to constantly evaluate
and reevaluate the world around him and to find a way to convey what he had learned to
other people.
Malcolm’s need to instruct was expansive and included a desire to educate all
people. During the writing of his autobiography, Malcolm reflected on a regrettable
moment that occurred while his self-educational experiences were still maturing. A
white woman from New England had flown down to New York and had sought Malcolm
out to ask what a sincere white person could do to help him. Malcolm’s reply:
“Nothing.”65 Malcolm later regretted his handling of the situation, noting that all
Americans have a role to play in confronting the nation’s racism:
On the American racial level, we had to approach the black man’s struggle against the white man’s racism as
a human problem, that we had to forget hypocritical politics and propaganda … both races, as human beings,
had the obligation, the responsibility, of helping to correct America’s human problem. The well-meaning white
people, I said, had to combat, actively and directly, the racism in other white people. And that the Black people
had to build within themselves much greater awareness that along with equal rights there had to be the bearing
of equal responsibilities.66

Malcolm’s expansive self-education wasn’t limited to a reassessment of white

people. It included a broad reconsideration of the very nature of truth, and how it is
disseminated: “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda … I’m for truth, no
matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being
first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a
whole.”67
Malcolm’s expanding and changing educational philosophy included an early, if not
entirely perfected, attack on the sexism and chauvinistic behavior so prevalent in the
Black Freedom Struggle. Critics of Malcolm’s gender politics maintain that his stance
remained consistent with the dogmatic teachings of the Nation of Islam. And by no
means did Malcolm’s gender politics render him a saint; however, in the context of his
own introspective critique, you find an individual who was not afraid to admit that his
initial ideation may have been flawed. In addition, he was courageous enough to
publicly admit that he taught others in error. An educational philosophy that can concede
← 23 | 24 → to error is valuable because through error one can make the personal
amendments necessary for future progress. A letter that Malcolm X wrote to his cousin-
in-law on the eve of his death in 1965 illustrates this principle:
I taught brothers not only to deal unintelligently with the devil or the white woman, but I also taught many
brothers to spit acid at the sisters. They were kept in their places—you probably didn’t notice this action, but it
is a fact. I taught these brothers to spit acid at the sisters. If the sister wanted to have her husband at home
with her in the evening, I taught the brothers that the sisters were standing in their way; in the way of the
Messenger [Elijah Muhammad], in the way of progress, in the way of God himself. I did these things brother. I
must undo them.68

Publicly, Malcolm didactically and audaciously attacked the American media—

including segments of the Black press—for fostering images and ideals that denigrated
Black women and their physical attributes. In so doing, Malcolm was again elucidating
an element of the Black narrative that had been ignored or undermined by the Black
elites and the mainstream Black media. The problem that Malcolm confronted was
clearly identified by scholar Farah Jasmin Griffin who notes, “Pages of black magazines
were filled with advertisements for hair straightening and skin lightening products; most
sex symbols were café au lait at best: Lena Horne, Dorthy Dandridge, and Eartha
Kitt.”69
As Malcolm began to condemn Eurocentric hierarchies of beauty imposed on African
American women, he gained admiration for addressing and attacking issues that Black
women faced on a continual basis. In the 1970s, Malcolm’s critique of the Eurocentric
standard would lead to a heightened appreciation of “darker beauties like Abbey
Lincoln, Cicely Tyson, and Nina Simone.”70
Even if Malcolm had not articulated a more sensitized view of women, his affinity
for the wisdom, insight, intelligence, and courage of the opposite sex was evidenced
through his reliance on the help and counsel of the women in his shadow cabinet,
including his sister Ella Collins, Queen Mother Moore, Vicki Garvin, Fannie Lou
Hamer, Yuri Kochiyama, Sonia Sanchez, Gloria Richardson, Vicki Garvin, and Shirley
Graham Du Bois, to name a few.
Like his ideas on race, Malcolm’s expanding attitude toward women would also
progress due to his travels, his involvement with the Pan-African Movement, and his
engagement with other African people throughout the diaspora. This is substantiated by
a statement Malcolm made during an interview in Paris in November 1964. The
statement is presented here in its entirety: ← 24 | 25 →
One thing that I became aware of in my traveling recently through Africa and the Middle East in every
 country you go to, usually the degree of progress can never be separated from the woman. If you’re in a
country that is progressive, then the woman is progressive. If you’re in a country that reflects the
consciousness toward the importance of education, it’s because the woman is aware of the importance of
education. But in every backward country you’ll find the women are backward, and in every country where
education is not stressed it’s because the women don’t have education. So one of the things I became
thoroughly convinced of in my travels is the importance of giving freedom to the woman, giving her education,
and giving her the incentive to get out there and put that same spirit and understanding in her children. And
frankly I am proud of the contributions women have made in the struggle for freedom and I’m one person
who’s for giving them all the leeway possible because they’ve made a greater contribution than many of us
men.71

Clearly, Malcolm’s philosophy of education must be regarded not only as historically

centered, intellectually expansive, and self-reliance based, it also must be viewed as
inclusive and open to all who seek social change. This philosophy of a “non-formal
community education”72 is not centered on race or gender but is based on a belief in
nationalism, community development, and the securing and protection of the rights of all
people.

Malcolm X: Education as a “Call to Work”: Organization

of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)
Upon his split from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm established Muslim Mosque Inc.
(MMI) and then the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), patterned after the
Organization of African Unity (OAU). Malcolm’s main objective was to establish a
nonsecular organization for individuals who were eager to aid him in the Black
Freedom Struggle but who were not committed to his religious beliefs. While the
OAAU would not mature to its full potential due to Malcolm’s assassination, its
influence is definite and far reaching.
Malcolm’s educational philosophy was deeply imbedded in the aims and objectives
of the OAAU platform. The goal of the educational prospectus of the organization was
to work for more parental inclusion and aggressively demand that major amendments be
made to school curricula nationwide.73 The educational component also stressed “the
need for adult education and for job training programs that will emphasize a changing
society in which automation plays a key role.”74 Malcolm X and the OAAU foresaw
education as a liberating tool that could be used to elevate ← 25 | 26 → “people to an
unprecedented level of excellence and self-respect through their own efforts.”75
The OAAU established a school as the practical educational component of the
organization. Modeled after the freedom schools that had sprung up in the South at the
height of the Civil Rights Movement, the OAAU Liberation School provided a
curriculum in African and African American history, political education, and consumer
information. The school also administered adult education classes in which the average
age of the students was thirty-five.76
The OAAU’s internationalist aims, its expression of Malcolm’s expansive outlook,
and its eventual influence on the nascent Black Student Movement might be better
understood through the experience of Yuri Kochiyama. Often under-acknowledged or
omitted from Malcolm X scholarship, Kochiyama was the OAAU’s lone Asian member.
A Harlem resident and Malcolm’s close friend, Kochiyama, who is of Japanese descent,
was one of the few individuals that Malcolm wrote to while on his travels abroad.
Attracted to Malcolm’s anti- imperialist teachings, Kochiyama joined the OAAU after
Malcolm’s first African tour in 1964. She attended OAAU meetings regularly and was
also a fixture at the OAAU’s Liberation School. Kochiyama’s exposure to the OAAU’s
diverse teachings, which ranged “from the Marxism of James Campbell and Richard B.
Moore to the Black Nationalism of historian John Henrik Clarke and the Egyptologist
Yosef ben-Jochannan,” shattered Kochiyama’s early belief in nonviolent direct action
and assimilationist thinking. She began to internalize lessons on self-determination,
anticapitalism, and prosocialism culled from required OAAU readings, including Frantz
Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1965), Kwame Nkrumah’s Consciencism (1965),
and Herbert Aptheker’s American Negro Slave Revolts (1943). Kochiyama became
thoroughly inculcated with the history of Black people and also the importance of
reconsidering her earlier positions based on the effects of the policies of the United
States on her native land and other Asian peoples.77
Yuri Kochiyama’s experience exemplifies how Malcolm and the OAAU were able to
exert a powerful and formative influence on young minds—even those with little vested
interest in the Black Nationalist cause. Further, Malcolm was able to directly address
the growing disenchantment of young people that gave rise to the Black Student
Movement. Scholar William Sales argues, “As much as it has been suggested that
northern urban street people were Malcolm X’s natural constituency, a good case could
be made that students served that purpose for Malcolm X also.”78 ← 26 | 27 →

Malcolm X and the Black Student Movement

“One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and
listen for yourself and think for yourself. Then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. If you can
form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about
someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west
when you think you’re going east, and you will be walking east when you think you’re going west. This
generation, especially, of our people has a burden, more so than any other time in history. The most important
thing that we can learn to do today is to think for ourselves.”
—Malcolm X79

February 1, 1960: four Black freshmen from North Carolina A&T sit down at a
segregated lunch counter at a Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.
The courageous actions of these four Black young men sparked a wave of resistance
throughout the South. “During the next two weeks, sit-ins spread to fifteen cities in five
southern states. Within the following year, over 50,000 people—most were Black, some
were white—participated in some kind of demonstration or another,”80 Ahmad recounts.
As a result of student protests—most resulting in the arrests of the young protestors
—hundreds of segregated lunch counters were desegregated throughout the South.
During that same period, Ella Baker, a founding member and key organizer for the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), called a conference to bring the
student sit-in leaders together. Baker knew she had to act quickly because of the
possibility that an established civil rights organization might co-opt the students and
their movement. Baker had a different idea: keep the students at the vanguard.81
An alumnus of Shaw University in North Carolina, Baker was able to get the SCLC
to underwrite a grant to pay for the conference at her alma mater. The meeting took
place April 15–17, 1960—Easter weekend. The meeting attracted “over two-hundred
people … one hundred twenty-six of them student delegates from fifty-eight different
Southern communities in twelve states.”82 The conference led to the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which was constructed to be the organizing epicenter
for student activity in the 1960s based on the nonviolent philosophies of the SCLC.
The next year, SNCC launched a successful organizing effort that led to the start of
the Congress of Racial Equality’s (CORE) freedom rides. This innovative form of
protest began on May 14, 1961, and was intended to test the compliance of southern
jurisdictions and businesses with the Supreme Court’s decision ← 27 | 28 → outlawing
segregation in transportation terminals. In response to the efforts of CORE, white
violence increased and death tolls mounted.83
Embarrassed by the violent spectacle unfolding in the South, Attorney General
Robert F. Kennedy “suggested that civil rights organizations jointly sponsor a campaign
to register Southern Black voters.” So the drive-by organizations like SNCC was due to
the federal government’s willingness to provide a level of protection, probably to
benefit many of the white students who had joined in the grassroots efforts in the South.
And because of federal assistance, by the fall of 1962, SNCC had become successful in
its mass voter registration efforts, especially in rural communities throughout
Mississippi and Georgia. Not only did these efforts gain national attention, thus they
also provide a recruitment tool for young people on a national basis.84
In northern cities, the Nation of Islam was making its own inroads, in part because of
aggressive sales of its news organ, Muhammad Speaks, but largely because of the brash
intellect and visibility of its national spokesman, Malcolm X. Many young people of
both high school and college age gravitated toward the NOI as they heard Malcolm
championing the tenets of Black Nationalism with a continuous mantra for a united
Black front against oppression and for the uplift of Black folks in the United States and
worldwide.
Exemplifying the magnetic attraction to Malcolm’s brashness, candid speaking style,
and witty intellect were the students of the Non-Violent Action Group (NAG) in
Washington, D.C. A friend of SNCC affiliate, NAG was born through the nonviolent
direct action protests in the Washington, D.C. area and later formally organized and
established on the Howard University campus on June 26, 1960. NAG was founded to
assist in raising funds for SNCC, hold demonstrations in D.C. for voter’s rights, send
food and clothing to Mississippi for disenfranchised Black folks, and to organize in and
around the D.C. area. NAG members evolved as a critical force of young activists by
literally “nagging” the Washington area establishment through nonviolent direct action.
Never comprised of more than fifty members, NAG’s activism at Howard led to the
establishment of Project Awareness as a pedagogical mechanism that brought speakers
to the Howard campus to stimulate ideas among the students and faculty. Most
importantly, Howard University gained recognition as the premier academic space in
Washington, D.C. for intellectual activity related to the civil rights struggle. The
activists of NAG and Howard publicly reinforced its reputaion by scheduling the first
Project Awareness debate between Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin. Malcom’s previous
debate confirmation on Howard’s Campus was met with scepticism by ← 28 | 29 → the
administration, but since the historically Black university had already received
accolades for the event, the administration had no choice but to allow the debate.85
The debate took place on October 31, 1961, at Howard’s Cramton Auditorium
before a packed audience with hundreds of more eager students and community persons
waiting outside to catch a glimpse of the two intellectual titans. Moderated by the
sociologist E. Franklin Frazier, the debate was titled “Integration or Separation.”
Sparing like champion prizefighters, Malcolm and Rustin engaged the question of the
usage of nonviolence in the Movement and the roles of integration versus Black self-
reliance for the liberation of Black people. While the debate was stimulating and
captivating, the event marked the beginnings of a relationship that would endure the
shifts of movement and forever arrest the attention of a critical mass of the NAG
membership. Many of the NAG membership expected Rustin to win the debate without
any real challenge from the NOI spokesman; however, the result was quite the opposite
and enlightening for all of those in attendance. Stokely Carmichael recalled some
decades later in his own autobiography that Malcolm unquestionably won the debate
and also gained stature with the NAG members due to Malcolm’s interaction with the
students.86 Carmichael, who was a NAG member and a chief organizer for the Malcolm-
Rustin debate, remarked that “it was from this point that it can be dated, when
nationalism took its firm root and became dominant inside of the nonviolent action
group. It was from Malcolm’s debate.”87
Captivated by Malcolm’s rhetoric and the paramilitary discipline of the NOI’s Fruit
of Islam (FOI), two Black college students traveled from Philadelphia to New York’s
Harlem Temple 7 to meet the man himself. It was Thanksgiving Day, 1962, and Max
Stanford and Wanda Marshall, both students at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland, Ohio, wanted nothing less than to meet Malcolm X and gain his approval to
join the Nation of Islam. The two couldn’t believe their good fortune when they were
not only introduced to Malcolm, but also they were able to engage him in a lengthy
conversation; or rather, they received one of Malcolm’s lectures on African-centered
world history. The two also received a second lecture on mathematics from Minister
Benjamin 2X. After listening to Malcolm lecture further on Black history, Stanford
urgently asked if he could join the Nation of Islam. Malcolm promptly replied, “No, you
can do more for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad by organizing outside of the Nation.”
Within a few months, Stanford, Marshall, and a host of other Black students had begun
conceptualizing a new organization: the Revolutionary Action Movement, better known
as RAM.88 ← 29 | 30 →
In a very real sense, RAM’s historical antecedent wasn’t the Nation of Islam: it was
the white radical youth organization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Stanford, Marshall, and a small group of African American SDS members who had
become interested in the work of the NOI and Malcolm X began to further their
ideological stance around the tenets of Black Nationalism and Black consciousness. By
the fall of 1961, the students had formed a Black Nationalist group called Challenge.
Donald Freeman, another Case Western student, spearheaded the mobilization efforts of
other Black students at college campuses who were familiar with SDS but whose
ideological leanings had been more nationalist. Freeman recruited them to join
Challenge.89 “Several of the members had been expelled from Southern schools for
participating in Civil Rights demonstrations. Others were members of the Nation of
Islam and other Black Nationalist organizations.”90 Because of their political maturity
and grassroots organizing backgrounds, many of the new Challenge membership were
primed to push the radicalism of the student movement into northern cities and
potentially influence the sociopolitical actions of more moderate groups like SNCC in
the South.91
Challenge members would later be significantly influenced by the work of scholar-
activist Harold Cruse. In the Spring 1962 issue of Studies on the Left, Cruse published
a significant article titled “Revolutionary Nationalism and the Afro-American.”
Stanford made the article required reading for Challenge members. He sensed that the
radical politics espoused by Cruse would provide a roadmap for Challenge as it steered
the Black Student Movement in the direction of revolutionary Black Nationalism. Acting
on that impetus, Challenge members—most of whom were students at three Ohio
universities, Central State (CSC), Wilberforce, and Case Western Reserve—decided
that their next move would be to take over the student government at CSC.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 Muuan mrs Tickit, joka toimi keittäjänä ja taloudenhoitajana, kun
perhe oli kotona, ja pelkkänä taloudenhoitajana sen ollessa
matkoilla, täydensi talouden. Mr Meagles pahoitteli, että mrs Tickitin
tehtävät olivat senluontoiset, ettei hän voinut sillä hetkellä ilmestyä
heidän seuraansa, mutta hän toivoi voivansa esittää hänet uudelle
vierailijalle seuraavana päivänä. Hänellä oli tärkeä asema huvilassa,
ja kaikki mr Meaglesin ystävät tunsivat hänet. Hänen muotokuvansa
oli tuossa nurkkaseinällä. Kun perhe lähti matkalle, pukeutui hän
aina silkkipukuun ja sysimustaan tekotukkaan, joka oli edustettuna
muotokuvassakin (keittiössä hänen tukkansa oli punertavan
harmaa), ja asettui aamiaishuoneeseen, pisti silmälasinsa kahden
määrätyn lehden väliin tohtori Buchanin Kotilääkärissä ja istui päivät
pitkään katsellen ikkunaverhon takaa ulos, kunnes he palasivat
kotiin. Perheen piirissä otaksuttiin, että olisi mahdotonta keksiä
keinoa, jolla mrs Tickit saataisiin taivutetuksi jättämään
vartiopaikkansa ikkunan ääressä, viipyköötpä he kuinka kauan
tahansa matkallaan, tai luopumaan tohtori Buchania palvomasta; mr
Meagles oli muuten aivan varma siitä, ettei eukko vielä eläissään
ollut kysynyt sanankaan verran neuvoa oppineen lääkärin
tutkielmasta.

Illalla pelattiin vanhanaikaista wistiä, ja Pet istui väliin isänsä

vieressä katsellen hänen kortteihinsa, väliin pianon ääressä laulaen
pätkän silloin, toisen tällöin. Hän oli hemmoiteltu lapsi; mutta kuinka
saattoikaan olla toisin. Kukapa voisi kauemmin elää sellaisen
rakastettavan ja kauniin olennon kanssa joutumatta hänen
herttaisen vaikutuksensa lumoihin? Kukapa voisi viettää täällä illan ja
olla rakastamatta häntä pelkästään hänen suloisen ja viehättävän
läsnäolonsa tähden? Näin mietiskeli Clennam huolimatta yläkerrassa
tekemästään lopullisesta päätöksestä.
 Näiden mietiskelyjen tähden unohti hän tunnustaa väriä. »No,
mitä ajattelette, hyvä herra?» kysyi mr Meagles, hänen
vastapelaajansa, ihmeissään. »Anteeksi, en mitään», vastasi
Clennam. »Ajatelkaa jotakin ensi kerralla; olettepa te mainio!»
päivitteli mr Meagles. Pet otaksui nauraen, että hän oli ajatellut miss
Wadea.. »Minkätähden miss Wadea, Pet?» kysyi hänen isänsä. »Niin
todellakin, minkätähden?» ihmetteli Arthur Clennam. Pet punastui
hiukan ja palasi pianon ääreen.

Kun he olivat aikeissa erota yöksi, kuuli Arthur Doycen pyytävän

isännältään puolen tunnin keskustelua seuraavana aamuna ennen
suurusta. Mr Meagles vastasi myöntävästi, ja Arthur jäi Doycen
jälkeen hetkeksi, sillä hänelläkin oli jotakin sanottavaa samaan
asiaan.

»Mr Meagles», aloitti hän heidän jäätyään kahden, »muistatteko,

että neuvoitte minua menemään suoraan Lontooseen?»

»Aivan hyvin.»

»Ja että annoitte minulle toisenkin hyvän neuvon, jota tarvitsin

silloin?»

»En voi sanoa, minkä arvoinen neuvo oli», vastasi mr Meagles,

»mutta sen muistan kyllä, että keskustelimme hauskasti ja
tuttavallisesti».

»Olen seurannut neuvoanne; ja vapauduttuani ammatista, joka

monesta syystä oli minulle kiusallinen, tahdon nyt antautua
voimineni ja varoinani toiseen tehtävään.»
 »Hyvä. Ryhtykää siihen mahdollisimman pian», kehoitti mr
Meagles.

»Katsokaas, kun tulin tänne tänään, kuulin, että ystävänne mr

Doyce etsii liikekumppania — ei koneellisten keksintöjensä
ymmärtäjää, vaan miestä, joka tietäisi neuvoja ja keinoja hänen
liikkeensä kehittämiseksi mahdollisimman tuottoisaksi.»

»Aivan niin», myönsi mr Meagles, kädet taskuissa ja vaakojen ja

rahalapion aikainen liike-ilme kasvoilla.

»Mr Doyce mainitsi sivumennen keskustelumme kuluessa, että hän

aikoi pyytää teidän arvokasta neuvoanne tämän liiketoverin
valinnassa. Jos arvelette meidän mielipiteittemme ja
olosuhteittemme vähänkin sopivan yhteen, niin ehkä antaisitte
hänen tietää, että minä voisin olla hänelle hyödyksi. Puhun tietysti
tuntematta yksityisseikkoja, ja nehän saattavat kummaltakin puolen
tehdä asian mahdottomaksi.»

»Epäilemättä, epäilemättä», myönsi mr Meagles, varovaisena

kuten ennen, seistessään vaakakuppien ja rahalapion ääressä.

»Mutta ne koskevat etupäässä numeroita ja laskelmia…»

»Aivan niin, aivan niin», arveli mr Meagles, laskuopillisesti

varmana kuten ennen, seistessään vaakakuppien ja rahalapion
ääressä.

»— Ja minä olisin hyvin halukas liittymään tähän liikkeeseen, sillä

ehdolla tietysti, että mr Doyce suostuu ja että te katsotte asian hyvin
käyvän päinsä. Jos siis sallitte, niin jätän asian teidän huostaanne, ja
olen kiitollinen, jos tahdotte puhua puolestani.»
 »Clennam, otan mielelläni vastaan luottamuksenne», vastasi mr
Meagles, »ja kajoamatta edeltäpäin niihin kohtiin, joita te
liikemiehenä tietysti parhaiten ymmärrätte arvostella, otan kuitenkin
vapauden lausua mielipiteenäni, että tämä yritys kyllä menestyy.
Eräästä asiasta voitte olla täysin varma. Daniel on rehellinen,
kunniallinen mies.»

»Olen niin varma siitä, että heti empimättä päätin puhua teille
asiasta.»

»Teidän täytyy johtaa häntä, teidän täytyy ohjata ja taluttaa

häntä; hänellä on kaikenlaisia oikkuja», sanoi mr Meagles,
tarkoittaen nähtävästi vain sitä, että hän keksi uusia koneita ja kulki
uusia teitä; »mutta hän on yhtä kirkkaan vilpitön kuin aurinko; ja nyt
hyvää yötä!»

Clennam palasi huoneeseensa, istui taas takkavalkean eteen ja

arveli iloitsevansa päätöksestään olla rakastumatta Petiin. Tämä oli
niin kaunis, niin rakastettava, hänen lempeä luontonsa ja viaton
sydämensä olivat niin alttiit kaikille vilpittömille vaikutuksille, että se
mies, joka sai hänet omakseen, olisi maailman onnellisin ja
kadehdittavin ihminen; ja tämän tähden Clennam iloitsi
päätöksestään.

Mutta koska tämä kaikki olisi voinut olla syynä päinvastaiseen

päätökseen, pohti hän asiaa vielä edelleen. Puolustaakseen
menettelyänsä, kenties.

»Otaksukaamme, että mies», näin mietiskeli hän, »joka on ollut

täysikasvuinen jo kaksikymmentä vuotta, joka onnettoman
lapsuutensa tähden on käynyt araksi ja epäröiväksi, jonka luonteen
perussävel on raskas ja vakava, joka tietää itseltään puuttuvan
monta pientä viehättävää muissa ihailemaansa ominaisuutta, hän
kun on viettänyt monta vuotta kaukaisissa maassa, vailla lempeätä,
herkkämielistä seuraa; jolla ei ole kilttejä sisaria esitettävänä
vaimolleen eikä herttaista kotia, johon voisi tutustuttaa hänet; joka
on vieras isänmaassansa; jolla ei ole omaisuutta, mikä edes jossakin
määrin voisi korvata nämä puutteet; jolla ei ole juuri muuta
puolestaan puhuvaa kuin vilpitön rakkautensa ja yleinen halunsa
tehdä oikein — otaksukaamme, että sellainen mies tulisi tähän
taloon ja antautuisi tämän suloisen tytön viehätyksen lumoihin ja
luulottelisi itselleen voivansa voittaa hänet omakseen; kuinka suurta
heikkoutta se olisikaan!»

Hän avasi hiljaa ikkunansa ja katseli rauhalliselle joelle. Vuosi

vuodelta kuluu niin ja niin paljon voimaa lautan kuljettamiseen, niin
ja niin monta peninkulmaa vierii virta tunnissa, täällä kaislaa, tuolla
lumpeita, ei mitään epävarmaa eikä levotonta.

Miksi tuntisi hän suuttumusta tai sydänkipua? Eihän tämä kuviteltu

ja otaksuttu heikkous ollut hänen. Eikä se ollut kenenkään,
kenenkään hänen tuntemansa heikkous; mitäpä hän siis surisi sitä!
Ja kuitenkin hän suri sitä. Ja hän ajatteli — kukapa ei joskus
hetkittäin olisi ajatellut niin — että olisi parempi joen tavoin virrata
edelleen yksitoikkoista uomaansa, tuntematta tuskaa enempää kuin
onneakaan.
SEITSEMÄSTOISTA LUKU

Ei kenenkään kilpailija

Aamulla ennen suurusta lähti Arthur kävelemään ja katselemaan

ympäristöä. Koska aamu oli kaunis ja hänellä oli tunnin verran aikaa,
meni hän lautalla joen yli ja käveli sitte niittyjen poikki johtavaa
polkua pitkin. Palatessaan lauttauspaikalle tapasi hän siellä
herrasmiehen, joka huuteli vastaisella rannalla olevaa lauttaa ja
odotti ylipääsyä.

Herrasmies näytti tuskin kolmikymmenvuotiaalta. Hän oli

hyvinpuettu, kaunisvartaloinen; hipiä raikas, tumma, ilme vilkas ja
hilpeä. Kun Arthur astui jalkaportaan yli ja veden partaalle, vilkaisi
odottelija häneen ohimennen ja potki sitten edelleen aikansa kuluksi
kiviä veteen. Siinä tavassa, jolla hän korollaan kaivoi kiviä esille ja
asetti ne sopivaan kohtaan potkaistaviksi, oli Clennamin mielestä
jotakin julmaa. Useimmat meistä ovat joskus tai ehkä useinkin
saaneet samanlaisen vaikutelman katsellessamme millä tavalla
ihmiset suorittavat vähäpätöisiä asioita: poimivat kukan, poistavat
esteen tieltänsä tai hävittävät jonkun tunteettoman esineen.
 Herrasmiehen kasvoista näkyi, että hän oli hajamielinen, eikä hän
kiinnittänyt mitään huomiota kauniiseen newfoundlandilaiskoiraan,
joka tarkkaavasti katseli häntä ja jokaista lentoon potkaistua kiveä,
valmiina hyppäämään jokeen saatuaan herraltaan merkin.
Lauttavenhe tuli kuitenkin toiselta puolen koiran saamatta merkkiä,
ja kun se pääsi rantaan, tarttui herra sen kaulanauhaan ja talutti
venheeseen.

»Ei tänä aamuna», sanoi hän sille. »Ei sinun sovi vettä valuvana
esiintyä naisten seurassa. Makaa siinä.»

Clennam astui miehen ja koiran perässä venheeseen ja istuutui.

Koira totteli ja paneutui pitkäkseen. Mies jäi seisomaan, kädet
taskuissa, Clennamin ja näköalan väliin. Kohta kun lautta karahti
rantaan, hyppäsivät sekä mies että koira keveästi maihin ja menivät
matkaansa. Clennam oli iloinen päästyään heistä.

Tornin kello löi juuri aamiaistuntia, kun hän astui pienen

aukeaman poikki, jonka reunassa puutarhaportti oli. Samassa kun
hän soitti kelloa, kuului muurin takaa äänekäs, karkea haukunta.

»En kuullut koiranhaukuntaa eilen illalla», ajatteli Clennam. Toinen

punaposkisista palvelustytöistä avasi portin, ja Clennam näki
äskeisen miehen newfoundlandilaiskoirineen seisovan pihassa.

»Miss Minnie ei ole vielä tullut alas, hyvät herrat», ilmoitti

punastuva portinvartija, heidän kaikkien saavuttua puutarhaan.
Sitten esitteli hän Clennamin koiran isännälle: »Mr Clennam, sir», ja
sipsutteli tiehensä.

»Omituista, mr Clennam, että tapaamme taas täällä», sanoi mies,

minkä jälkeen koira taukosi haukkumasta. »Sallikaa minun esittäytyä
— Henry Gowan. Tämä on kaunis paikka ja kerrassaan ihastuttava
tänä aamuna!»

Hänen käytöksensä oli vapaata, ääni miellyttävä; mutta siitä

huolimatta ajatteli Clennam, että ellei hän varmasti olisi päättänyt
olla rakastumatta Petiin, olisi hän saanut vastenmielisyyden tätä
Henry Gowania kohtaan.

»Paikka lienee aivan uusi teille?» kysyi Gowan, kun Clennam oli
ylistänyt huvilaa.

»Aivan uusi. Tutustuin siihen vasta eilen iltapäivällä.»

»Ah! Tietysti se ei nyt esiinny enimmin edukseen. Keväällä se oli

ihastuttava, ennenkuin he viimeksi lähtivät matkoille. Silloin olisin
suonut teidän näkevän sen.»

Ellei tuota monesti mainittua päätöstä olisi ollut, olisi Clennam

toivottanut hänet Etnan kraateriin kiitokseksi hänen
kohteliaisuudestaan.

»Minulla on ollut onni nähdä se monessa eri hahmossa viimeksi

kuluneiden kolmen vuoden aikana, ja se on todellinen — paratiisi.»

Oli (ainakin olisi ollut ilman tuota viisasta päätöstä) hänen

kekseliään häikäilemättömyytensä kaltaista nimittää tätä paikkaa
paratiisiksi. Hän sanoi niin vain siksi, että ensin näki Petin lähestyvän
ja tahtoi hänen kuultensa saada sanotuksi, että hän oli paratiisin
enkeli. Hiisi vieköön miehen!

Ja kuinka säteilevä, kuinka iloinen tyttö olikaan! Kuinka hän hyväili

koiraa ja kuinka tämä tunsi hänet! Kuinka ilmeikästä olikaan
kirkkaampi puna hänen kasvoillaan, hänen hämminkinsä, hänen
maahan luotu katseensa, hänen epävarma onnellisuutensa! Milloinka
Clennam oli nähnyt hänet sellaisena? Eipä siksi, että olisi
olemassakaan syytä, jonka tähden hän joskus olisi saanut, voinut,
saattanut nähdä hänet sellaisena tai että hän milloinkaan
sydämessään olisi toivonut näkevänsä hänet sellaisena; mutta
sittenkin — milloinka hän edes oli luullut Petin esiintyvän sellaisena!

Hän seisoi vähän matkan päässä heistä. Tämä Gowan oli,

puhuessaan paratiisista, mennyt ja tarttunut Petin käteen. Koira oli
laskenut ison käpälänsä hänen käsivarrelleen ja päänsä hänen
rinnalleen. Pet oli nauranut ja toivottanut heidät tervetulleiksi ja
aivan liiaksikin hyväillyt koiraa, aivan, aivan liiaksi — ottaen
huomioon nimittäin, että sitä katseli kolmas henkilö, joka rakasti
häntä.

Pet irtautui nyt heistä ja tuli Clennamin luo, laski kätensä hänen
käteensä toivottaen hyvää huomenta ja tarttui herttaisesti hänen
käsivarteensa tullakseen talutetuksi sisälle. Tämä Gowan ei
osoittanut mitään tyytymättömyyttä. Ei, hän tiesi olevansa varma
asiastaan.

Ohimenevä varjo synkensi mr Meaglesin hyväntuulisia kasvoja,

kun he kaikki kolme (neljä, kun koira laskettiin mukaan, ja se olikin,
lukuunottamatta erästä, seuran sietämättömin jäsen) tulivat
aamiaiselle. Clennam pani merkille sekä tämän että mrs Meaglesin
lievän levottomuuden, kun hän huomasi pilven miehensä otsalla.

»No, Gowan», sanoi mr Meagles, tukahduttaen huokauksen,

»mitäs teille nyt kuuluu?»

»Ei mitään erikoista, sir. Lion ja minä päätimme, ettemme hukkaisi

hetkeäkään jokaviikkoisesta vierailustamme, jonka tähden läksimme
aikaisin liikkeelle Kingstonista, nykyisestä pääkortteeristani, jossa
olen maalannut pari luonnosta.» Sitte kertoi hän tavanneensa mr
Clennamin lautalla ja kuinka he yhdessä tulivat joen yli.

»Mrs Gowan kai voi hyvin, Henry?» kysyi mrs Meagles. (Clennam
kävi tarkkaavaksi.)

»Äiti voi varsin hyvin, kiitos.» (Clennamin tarkkaavaisuus

herpaantui.) »Olen rohjennut tuoda tänne yhden vieraan lisää
perhepäivällisillenne ja toivon, ettette te eikä mr Meagles pane sitä
pahaksi. Minun oli vaikea menetellä toisin», selitti hän kääntyen
viimemainitun puoleen. »Tämä nuori mies kirjoitti minulle ja ilmoitti
aikovansa tulla luokseni; ja koska hän on hyvästä perheestä, arvelin,
ettette pahastuisi, jos tuon hänet mukanani tänne.»

»Kuka tämä nuori mies on?» kysyi mr Meagles erikoisen

hyväntahtoisesti.

»Hän on Barnacleja. Tite Barnaclen poika, Clarence Barnacle, joka

on isänsä virastossa. Voin ainakin taata sen, ettei hänen käyntinsä
vahingoita jokea; hän ei sytytä sitä palamaan.»

»Vai niin, vai niin?» sanoi mr Meagles. »Hän on Barnacleja siis?

Me kyllä tiedämme yhtä toista siitä perheestä, eikö niin, Dan?
Totisesti; he ovat puun latvassa, totta vie! Malttakaas! Kuinka tämä
nuori mies on sukua loordi Decimukselle? Hänen ylhäisyytensä nai
seitsemäntoista sataa yhdeksänkymmentä seitsemän lady Jemima
Bilberryn, joka oli toinen tytär kolmannesta aviosta — ei! Siinä
erehdyin! Se olikin lady Seraphina — lady Jemima oli ensimmäinen
tytär viidennentoista jarli Stiltstalkingin toisesta aviosta
kunnianarvoisan Clementina Toozellemin kanssa. Hyvä. Sitte tämän
nuoren miehen isä nai erään Stiltstalkingin, ja hänen isänsä nai
serkkunsa, joka oli Barnacleja. Tämän isän, joka nai Barnaclen, isä
nai Joddlebyn sukuun kuuluvan naisen. — Olen mennyt hiukan liiaksi
taaksepäin ajassa, Gowan; tahdoin saada selville, millä tavoin tämä
nuori mies on sukua loordi Decimukselle.»

»Se on helposti selvitelty. Hänen isänsä on loordi Decimuksen

veljenpoika.»

»Loordi — Decimuksen — veljenpoika»; mr Meagles oikein

herkutteli toistaessaan näitä sanoja, silmät ummessa, jottei mikään
häiritsisi hänen nauttiessaan sukupuun tuoksusta. »Totisesti, olette
oikeassa, Gowan. Niin juuri on asia.»

»Tietysti, loordi Decimus on hänen isänsä setä.»

»Mutta malttakaas!» huudahti mr Meagles avaten silmänsä ja

tehden uuden keksinnön. »Äidin puolelta siis lady Stiltstalking on
hänen äitinsä täti.»

»Tietysti.»

»Vai niin, vai niin!» huudahti mr Meagles erittäin innostuneena.

»Tosiaankin, tosiaankin! Hyvin hauskaa tavata häntä. Otamme hänet
vastaan pannen parastamme, yksinkertaisissa oloissamme; ei hänen
tarvitse ainakaan nähdä nälkää täällä.»

Tämän kaksinpuhelun alussa oli Clennam odottanut mr Meaglesin

puolelta samanlaista valtavaa, viatonta vihanpurkausta kuin
verukevirastossa hänen taittuessaan Doycen niskaan. Mutta hänen
kelpo ystävällään oli heikkous, jota ei meidän kenenkään tarvitse
hakea naapurista saakka ja jota ei minkäänlainen verukevirasto-
kokemus voi pitemmäksi aikaa tukahduttaa. Clennam vilkaisi
Doyceen; mutta tämä tiesi kaikki jo ennakolta ja katseli vain
lautaselleen silmää räpäyttämättä, sanaa virkkamatta.

»Olen hyvin kiitollinen teille», sanoi Gowan lopettaakseen

keskustelun tästä aiheesta. »Clarence on tosin suuri aasi, mutta
samalla herttaisin ja paras toveri maailmassa.»

Jo ennen kuin aamiainen oli päättynyt, kävi selville, että kaikki,

jotka tämä Gowan tunsi, olivat joko jossakin määrin aaseja tai
jossakin määrin veijareita, mutta siitä huolimatta erittäin herttaisia,
miellyttäviä, vaatimattomia, luotettavia, kilttejä, rakkaita ihmisiä,
maailman parhaita. Mr Henry Gowan olisi selittänyt menetelmän,
jolla hän saavutti muuttumattomasti saman tuloksen huolimatta
erilaisista edellytyksistä, jotenkin tähän tapaan: »Minua huvittaa
pitää kirjaa, erittäin tarkkaa, jokaisen ihmisen ominaisuuksista, ja
merkitsen huolellisesti muistiin hänen sekä hyvät että huonot
puolensa. Teen tämän niin tunnollisesti, että voin ilokseni kertoa
teille huomanneeni, kuinka kunnottominkin mies samalla on mitä
herttaisin kelpo ihminen ja saatan antaa teille sen tyydyttävän
tiedon, että kunnon miehen ja konnan välillä on paljoa pienempi
erotus kuin mitä olette taipuvainen otaksumaan.» Seurauksena tästä
ilahduttavasta keksinnöstä sattui olemaan, että kun hän tunnollisesti
koki löytää hyvää useimmista ihmisistä, alensi hän sen siinä, missä
sitä todella oli, ja maalasi sitä sinne, mistä sitä puuttui, mutta tämä
oli menetelmän ainoa epämiellyttävä tai vaarallinen puoli.

Mutta se ei kuitenkaan tuottanut mr Meaglesille yhtä suurta

tyydytystä kuin Barnaclein sukuselvitys. Pilvi, jota Clennam ei
milloinkaan ennen tätä aamua ollut huomannut hänen kasvoillaan,
palasi nyt alituisesti; ja sama levottoman tarkkailun varjo asui hänen
vaimonsa miellyttävillä kasvoilla, kun hän katsoi mieheensä. Monta
kertaa, kun Pet hyväili koiraa, huomasi Clennam isän olevan
pahoillaan siitä; ja varsinkin kerran, kun Gowan seisoi koiran toisella
puolella ja kumartui samalla kertaa sen yli, kuvitteli Arthur
näkevänsä kyyneleitä mr Meaglesin silmissä, kun hän riensi pois
huoneesta. Joko oli asia todella niin tai hän kuvitteli sen sellaiseksi
perästäpäin, mutta hänestä tuntui, että Pet itse kyllä huomasi kaikki
nämä pienet tapahtumat, että hän koetti tavallista hellemmin
osoittaa hyvälle isällensä, kuinka paljon hän rakasti häntä, ja että
hän samasta syystä jäi muiden jälkeen sekä kirkkoon mentäessä että
sieltä palattaessa ja tarttui isänsä käsivarteen. Arthur olisi voinut
vannoa, että hän myöhemmin kävellessään yksin puutarhassa näki
vilahdukselta, kuinka Pet isänsä huoneessa hellästi syleili
vanhempiansa ja itki isänsä olkapään varassa.

Loppupäivä oli sateinen, jonkatähden he pysyttelivät sisällä,

katselivat mr Meaglesin kokoelmia ja kuluttivat aikaansa
keskustelemalla. Tällä Gowanilla näytti olevan paljon sanottavaa
itsestään ja hän sanoi sen suorasukaisesti ja hauskasti. Hän tuntui
olevan taiteilija ammatiltaan ja oleskelleen jonkun aikaa Roomassa,
mutta hänen kevytmielinen, huoleton tapansa ilmaisi, että hän
oikeastaan oli vain harrastelija — sekä hänen taidepalvonnassaan
että hänen luonteessaan oli jotakin selvästi ontuvaa — jota
Clennamin oli vaikea ymmärtää.

Apua saadakseen kääntyi hän Doycen puoleen heidän seistessään

yhdessä ikkunan ääressä.

»Te tunnette mr Gowanin?» kysyi hän matalalla äänellä.

»Olen tavannut hänet täällä. Hän tulee tänne joka sunnuntai, kun
he ovat kotona.»
 »Hänen puheestaan olen ollut ymmärtävinäni, että hän on
taiteilija?»

»Niin on, jonkinlainen», vastasi Daniel Doyce happamesti.

»Minkälainen?» tiedusteli Clennam hymyillen.

»Noo, hän astelee taiteen tietä yhtä kevein askelin kuin Pall-Mall-
katua», vastasi Doyce, »enkä luule, että näitä polkuja käy
maleksiminen aivan yhtä huolettomasti».

Jatkaen tiedustelujaan sai Clennam tietää, että Gowanin perhe oli

hyvin etäinen haara Barnaclein sukua ja että isä Gowan aikoinaan oli
ollut jossakin ulkomaalaisessa lähetystössä, mutta sitte saanut
eläkkeen jonkinlaisena epämääräisenä virkamiehenä ja kuollut
paikalleen, nostettu palkka kädessään, sankarillisesti puolustaen sitä
viimeiseen saakka. Tämän erinomaisen yhteiskunnallisen palveluksen
tähden ehdotti silloin vallassa ollut Barnacle, että hallitus myöntäisi
hänen leskelleen parin tai kolmen sadan punnan vuotuisen eläkkeen,
johon seuraava vallassa oleva Barnacle lisäsi hyvin turvallisen ja
rauhallisen asunnon Hampton Courtin linnassa; siellä vanha lady yhä
asui ja valitteli aikojen huonontumista yhdessä useiden muiden
vanhojen, kumpaakin sukupuolta olevien ladyjen kanssa. Hänen
poikansa, mr Henry Gowan, joka oli isältään virkamieheltä perinyt
todella epäilyttävän elämäntuen, varsin vähäisen
riippumattomuuden, oli ollut vaikea sijoitettavaksi, varsinkin koska
silloin sattui olemaan niukalti täyttämättömiä virkoja ja koska hänen
neronsa hänen aikaisemman miehuutensa päivinä ilmeni yksinomaan
maanviljelyksen harrastuksena, hän kun etupäässä käytti aikansa
villin kauran kylvöön. Viimein oli hän selittänyt aikovansa ruveta
taidemaalariksi, osaksi koska hänellä aina oli ollut jonkun verran
senlaatuista kätevyyttä, osaksi ärsyttääkseen vallassa olevia
Barnacleja, jotka eivät olleet pitäneet huolta hänestä. Tästä oli
seurannut, että ensin muutamat hienot ladyt olivat tulleet kovin
järkytetyiksi; sitten oli pantu hänen töitänsä salkkumäärin
kiertämään iltakutsuissa, joissa ne oli otettu ihastuksella vastaan ja
julistettu todellisiksi Claudeiksi, todellisiksi Cuypeiksi, kerrassaan
ainoalaatuisiksi; sitte loordi Decimus oli ostanut häneltä taulun ja
kutsunut samalla esimiehen ja neuvoston päivällisille sekä lausunut
mahtavan juhlalliseen tapaansa: »Tiedättekö, minun nähdäkseni
tämä maalaus on todella äärettömän ansiokas.» Lyhyesti sanoen,
vaikutusvaltaiset henkilöt olivat todella nähneet vaivaa saattaakseen
hänet maineeseen. Mutta jostakin syystä yritys oli epäonnistunut.
Ennakkoluuloinen yleisö oli asettunut itsepäisesti poikkiteloin. Se oli
päättänyt olla ihailematta loordi Decimuksen taulua. Se oli päättänyt
pitää käsityksenään, että jokaisessa toimessa, paitsi heidän
omassaan, miehen tulee ansioitua ahertamalla aamusta iltaan,
tekemällä työtä koko voimallaan, täydestä sydämestä. Näin mr
Gowan, samoin kuin sadun vanha kulunut arkku, joka ei ollut
Mahometin eikä kenenkään muunkaan, riippui kahden pisteen,
kahden elämismuodon välillä: kateellisena ja katkerana sille, jonka
oli jättänyt, kateellisena ja katkerana sille, jota ei voinut saavuttaa.

Tämänsisältöisiä olivat ne tiedot, jotka Clennam sai tänä sateisena

sunnuntai-iltana ja myöhemmin.

Noin tunti varsinaisen päivällisajan jälkeen ilmestyi nuori Barnacle

silmälaseineen; hänen perhesuhteittansa kunniaksi oli mr Meagles
pannut hauskat sisäkkönsä viralta siksi päiväksi ja hankkinut heidän
sijalleen kaksi likaista miespalvelijaa. Nuori Barnacle hämmästyi ja
hämmentyi pahanpäiväisesti nähdessään Arthurin ja ennätti
tahtomattaan jupista itsekseen: »Kuulkaas! — Totta vie!» ennenkuin
tointui.
 Ja sittenkin täytyi hänen tarttua ensi tilaisuuteen vetääkseen
ystävänsä erään ikkunan luokse ja sanoakseen hänelle nenä-
äänellään, joka sekin oli hänen yleisen heikkoutensa ilmaus:

»Tahtoisin puhutella teitä, Gowan. Kuulkaas. Totta vie, kuka tuo

mies on?»

»Isäntäväkemme ystävä. Ei minun.»

»Hän on kauhea yltiöpää, tiedättekös», sanoi nuori Barnacle.

»Onko hän? Mistä te sen tiedätte?»

»No, äskettäin tuli hän virastoomme, sir, ja kävi väkemme

kimppuun peloittavalla tavalla. Hän meni kotiinikin ja kävi isäni
kimppuun niin raivokkaasti, että hänet täytyi ajaa ulos. Sitte palasi
hän virastoon ja hyökkäsi minun kimppuuni. Totta vie. Ette ole
milloinkaan nähnyt sellaista miestä.»

»Mitä hän tahtoi?»

»No, sir», vastasi nuori Barnacle, »hän sanoo tahtovansa tietää

jotakin, nähkääs! Tunkeutui virastoomme — kutsumattomana — ja
sanoi tahtovansa tietää jotakin!»

Moittivan ihmettelevä tuijotus, jolla nuori Barnacle lopetti tämän

paljastuksen, olisi rasittanut ja vahingoittanut hänen silmiänsä, ellei
kutsu päivälliselle olisi tullut sopivana vapautuksena. Mr Meagles
(joka erittäin huolestuneena oli tiedustellut hänen setänsä ja tätinsä
vointia) pyysi häntä taluttamaan mrs Meaglesin ruokailuhuoneeseen.
Ja kun nuori mies sitten istui mrs Meaglesin oikealla puolen, näytti
mr Meagles niin tyytyväiseltä kuin jos koko perhe olisi ollut hänen
vieraanaan.
 Edellisen päivän teeskentelemätön viehätys oli tykkänään poissa.
Päivällisen syöjät samoin kuin päivällinen itsekin olivat laimeita,
mauttomia, seuranpidon ja keittiötulen liikarasittamia — ja kaikki
tämä vain pienen, typerän, nuoren Barnaclen tähden. Tämän
keskustelutaito oli tosin aina kehno, mutta nyt hän sen lisäksi oli
aivan erikoisen, olosuhteista johtuvan heikkouden vallassa, jonka
aiheuttajana oli yksin Clennam. Hänen oli välttämätöntä ja pakko
alituisesti vilkaista tähän herrasmieheen, jonka tähden hänen
silmälasinsa loikahti vuoroin hänen liemilautaselleen, hänen
viinilasiinsa, mrs Meaglesin lautaselle ja roikkui useita kertoja kuin
kellonnauha hänen selässään, jolloin likaiset miehet aina pistivät
nöyryyttävästä sen hänen poveensa. Ymmällä tämän kapineen
alituisesta häviämisestä ja sen vastahakoisuudesta pysymään
silmäkulmassa ja joutuen yhä enemmän hämilleen alinomaa
katsahtaessaan salaperäiseen Clennamiin, asetteli onneton nuori
Barnacle milloin minkin pöytäkaluston esineen silmäänsä.

Huomatessaan nämä erehdyksensä tuli hän vain yhä

neuvottomammaksi, muttei voinut olla alituisesti vilkaisematta
Clennamiin. Ja kun tämä puhui jotakin, pelästyi onneton
nuorukainen ilmeisesti, luullen Clennamin jonkin ovelan käänteen
kautta alkavan taas kysellä ja tiedustella jotakin.

Epätietoista oli sentähden, oliko päivällisistä huvia kenelläkään

muulla kuin mr Meaglesilla. Mutta hän kyllä nautti nuoren Barnaclen
läsnäolosta. Samoin kuin sadussa pullollinen kultavettä maahan
kaadettuna tulvahti kokonaiseksi lähteeksi, samoin näytti mr
Meaglesin mielestä koko sukupuun tuoksu tulvahtavan hänen
pöytäänsä tämän pienoisen Barnacle-vesan mukana. Sen
läheisyydessä haalistui ja laimeni mr Meaglesin avomielinen, kirkas
ja vilpitön olemus; hän ei ollut vapaa, hän ei ollut luonnollinen, kuten
tavallisesti, hän pyrki johonkin, mikä ei kuulunut hänelle; hän ei ollut
oma itsensä. Kuinka outo omituisuus tämä olikaan mr Meaglesin
kaltaisessa miehessä ja voisiko ajatella mahdolliseksi toista
samanlaista tapausta!

Sateinen sunnuntaipäivä kului viimein sateiseksi illaksi, ja nuori

Barnacle ajoi kotiinsa vuokravaunuissa, poltellen mietoa savuketta.
Sietämätön Gowan käveli kotiinsa sietämättömän koiransa kanssa.
Pet oli koko päivän rakastettavasti pannut parastaan tullakseen
hyväksi ystäväksi Clennamin kanssa, mutta tämä oli aamiaisesta
alkaen pysynyt hiukan jäykkänä nimittäin olisi pysynyt, jos olisi
rakastanut Petiä.

Clennamin tultua huoneeseensa ja heittäydyttyä tuoliinsa takan

ääreen, koputti mr Doyce ovelle ja tuli sisään, kynttilä kädessä,
kysyäkseen, mihin aikaan seuraavana päivänä Clennam aikoi palata
kotiin. Kun tämä kysymys oli ratkaistu, sanoi Clennam jotakin
Gowanista, joka hyvinkin olisi askarruttanut hänen ajatuksiaan, jos
olisi ollut hänen kilpailijansa.

»Ne eivät ole erikoisen loistavia tulevaisuudentoiveita

taidemaalarille», huomautti Clennam sitten.

»Eivät», myönsi Doyce.

Tämä seisoi kynttilä kädessä, toinen käsi taskussa ja tuijotti

liekkiin, kasvoillaan tyyni tietoisuus siitä, että heillä vielä oli jotakin
sanottavaa tähän asiaan.

»Olin huomaavinani, että kelpo ystävämme muuttui ja että hänen

hyväntuulisuutensa katosi, kun Gowan ilmestyi tänne tänä aamuna»,
huomautti Clennam taas.
 »Niin kyllä», vastasi Doyce.

»Mutta niin ei käynyt hänen tyttärensä», sanoi Clennam.

»Ei», vastasi Doyce..

Molemmat olivat hetken vaiti. Mr Doyce, yhä tuijottaen liekkiin,

lisäsi hitaasti:

»Asia on niin, että hän kahdesti on vienyt tyttärensä ulkomaille,

toivoen voivansa erottaa hänet mr Gowanista. Hän luulee, että tytär
on hiukan taipuvainen mieltymään nuoreen mieheen, ja epäilee
tuskallisesti (kuten minäkin ja uskallanpa väittää, että teillä on sama
ajatus asiasta) tämän avioliiton onnellisuutta.»

»Kaiketi —» Clennam änkytti, yski ja vaikeni.

»Niin, kaiketi olette vilustunut», sanoi Daniel Doyce, mutta

katsomatta toiseen.

»Kaiketi he ovat kihloissa?» arveli Clennam huolettomasti.

»Eivät. Sen mukaan kuin minulle on kerrottu he eivät ole kihloissa.

Mies on kyllä kiihkeästi tahtonut sitä, mutta siihen ei ole suostuttu.
Viime kotiinpaluun jälkeen on ystävämme myöntynyt jokaviikkoiseen
vierailuun, mutta enempään ei. Minnie ei petä isäänsä eikä äitiänsä.
Te olette matkustanut heidän seurassansa, ja luulen teidän tietävän,
kuinka erinomaisen hellät siteet yhdistävät heitä, ulottuen tämän
elämän rajojen taaksekin. Olen varma siitä, ettei miss Minnien ja mr
Gowanin välillä ole muuta kuin mitä mekin näemme.»

»Ah! Me näemme aivan kylliksi!» huudahti Arthur.

 Mr Doyce toivotti hänelle hyvää yötä sellaisella äänellä kuin olisi
kuullut jonkun huudahtavan tuskaisesti, melkeinpä epätoivoisesti ja
koettaisi valaa rohkeutta ja toivoa tämän henkilön mieleen. Se kai oli
yksi ilmaus hänen omituisuudestaan, hän kun oli kovin merkillinen ja
oikullinen; sillä kuinka olisi hän voinut kuulla sellaista huudahdusta,
kun ei Clennamkaan mitään kuullut?

Sadepisarat putoilivat raskaasti katolle, tippuivat maahan ja

ropisivat murateille ja puiden lehdettömille oksille. Sade valui
raskaana, alakuloisena. Oli kyynelten yö.

Jos Clennam ei olisi päättänyt olla rakastumatta Petiin, jos hän

olisi ollut kyllin heikko rakastuakseen häneen, jos hän vähitellen olisi
tullut panneeksi koko sielunsa totisuuden, toivonsa voiman ja
kypsyneen luonteensa rikkauden tämän kortin varaan ja jos hän
sitten olisi huomannut, että kaikki oli menetetty, olisi hän tänä iltana
tuntenut itsensä sanomattoman kurjaksi. Mutta kuten nyt oli —

Kuten nyt oli, lankesi sade raskaana, alakuloisena.

KAHDEKSASTOISTA LUKU

Pikku Dorritin ihailija

Pikku Dorrit ei ollut täyttänyt kahdettakolmatta ikävuottansa

tapaamatta ihailijaa. Harmaassa Marshalsean vankilassakin oli iäti
nuori jousimies tuon tuostakin ampunut sulattoman nuolen
homehtuneelta kaareltaan yhden ja toisen vangin siipeen.

Pikku Dorritin ihailija ei kuitenkaan ollut vanki. Hän oli erään

vartijan tunteellinen poika. Hänen isänsä toivoi ajan tullen saavansa
jättää hänelle perinnöksi tahrattoman avaimen ja oli pojan aikaisesta
lapsuudesta saakka tutustuttanut hänet virkansa velvollisuuksiin ja
kiihoittanut hänen kunnianhimoansa pitämään vankilanavainta suvun
käsissä. Odottaessaan vallanperimystä auttoi poika äitiänsä tämän
pienessä tupakkakaupassa Horsemonger Lanen kulmauksessa (isällä
ei ollut perheasuntoa vankilassa), ja heillä oli tavallisesti paljon
ostajia vankilan asukkaiden joukossa.

Vuosia takaperin jo, kun hänen ihailunsa esineellä oli ollut tapana
istua pienessä tuolissaan korkean varjostimen vieressä oli nuori
John, sukunimeltään Chivery ja vuotta vanhempi tyttöä, katsellut
tätä ihaillen ja ihmetellen. Kun he olivat leikkineet yhdessä pihalla,
oli hänen mielikuviansa ollut muka vangita tyttö nurkkaan ja ottaa
häneltä suudelmia lunnaiksi. Kun hän kasvoi kyllin pitkäksi
ylettyäkseen kurkistamaan pääoven ison lukon avaimenreiästä, oli
hän monta kertaa jättänyt isänsä päivällisen tai illallisen oman
onnensa nojaan oven ulkopuolelle ja vilustuttanut toisen silmänsä
kurkistamalla tyttöä tästä ilmavasta tähystyspaikasta.

Jos nuoren Johnin uskollisuus mahdollisesti olikin herpautunut

hänen poikavuosiensa vähemmän tunteellisina kausina, jolloin
nuoriso unohtaa sitoa kengännauhansa ja elää onnellisessa
tietämättömyydessä ruuansulatuselimien olemassaolosta, niin hän oli
pian taas virittänyt sen ja kiristänyt tiukalle. Yhdeksäntoista ikäisenä
oli hänen kätensä liidulla kirjoittanut tytön ikkunaa vastassa olevalle
seinälle tämän syntymäpäivätervehdyksen: »Onnea keijukaisten
suloiselle suojatille!» Kolmenkolmatta iässä sama käsi vapisten
lahjoitti sunnuntaisin sikaareja Marshalsean ja hänen sydämensä
valtiattaren isälle.

Nuori John oli pienikasvuinen, heikkosäärinen, harva- ja

vaaleatukkainen. Hänen toinen silmänsä (kenties juuri se, jolla
hänellä oli ollut tapana kurkistaa avaimenreiästä) oli niinikään heikko
ja näytti isommalta kuin toinen, ikäänkuin se ei olisi voinut supistua.
Nuori John oli luonteeltaan lempeä. Mutta hänellä oli suuri sielu.
Runollinen, ylevä, uskollinen.

Vaikka nuori John olikin liian nöyrä sydämensä valtiattaren edessä

toivoakseen paljon, oli hän kuitenkin harkiten tarkastellut
kiintymyksensä sekä valo- että varjopuolia. Kuvitellen asian
onnellista ratkaisua oli hän, ilman itserakkautta, tullut siihen
päätökseen, että he sopisivat toisillensa. Mitähän, jos kaikki kävisi
hyvin ja he menisivät naimisiin, Marshalsean lapsi ja Marshalsean
portinvartija! Se soveltuisi hyvin. Ja jos hänestä tulisi portinvartija,
jolla olisi asunto vankilassa, niin Marshalsean lapsi saisi virallisesti
asua siinä huoneessa, josta hän pitkät ajat oli maksanut vuokraa.
Tämä ajatus oli kaunis ja erikoinen. Huoneesta saattoi nähdä muurin
yli, jos nousi varpailleen, ja jos sen koristaisi punapapusäleistöllä ja
hankkisi sinne kanarialinnun, tulisi siitä oikea lehtimaja. Tuo
kuvitelma oli ihastuttava. Ja kun he sitten olisivat kaikki kaikessa
toisillensa, niin olisi lukon takana olossakin jotakin viehättävää.
Porttien ulkopuolelle jäisi maailma (paitsi se osa siitä, joka oli niiden
sisäpuolella), ja sen surut ja ristiriidat he tuntisivat vain
kuulopuheina, kun pyhiinvaeltajat matkallaan vararikon pyhäkköön
viipyisivät hetkisen heidän luonansa ja kertoisivat kuulumisia
maailmalta; asuen ylhäällä lehtimajassa ja alhaalla porttikamarissa
liukuisivat he hiljalleen ajan virtaa pitkin, nauttien suloista kotoista
onnea. Nuoren Johnin silmiin kihosivat kyyneleet, kun hän
kuvitelmansa lopuksi vankilan yhteydessä olevalle hautausmaalle
aivan muurin viereen pystytti hautakiven, jossa oli seuraava
liikuttava kirjoitus: »Pyhitetty John Chiveryn muistolle. Oli
kuusikymmentä vuotta ovenvartijana ja viisikymmentä vuotta
pääoven vartijana lähellä olevassa Marshalsean vankilassa. Kuoli
yleisesti kunnioitettuna joulukuun ensimmäisenäneljättä, vuonna
kahdeksantoistasataa kahdeksankymmentäkuusi kolmenyhdeksättä
vuoden ikäisenä. Samoin kuin hänen hellästi rakastetun ja hellästi
rakastavan vaimonsa Amyn muistolle, jonka tyttönimi oli Dorrit, joka
eli vain kaksi vajaata vuorokautta miehensä kuoleman jälkeen ja joka
veti viimeisen henkäyksensä ennenmainitussa Marshalseassa. Siellä
hän oli syntynyt, siellä hän oli elänyt, siellä hän kuoli.»

Chivery-vanhukset eivät olleet tietämättömiä poikansa

kiintymyksestä — olipa tämä toisinaan poikkeustapauksissa saanut
hänet käyttäytymään kiukkuisesti ostajia kohtaan ja siten
vahingoittamaan liikettä — ja hekin olivat vuorostaan tehneet
laskelmia ja ratkaisseet asian toivottavia päämääriä silmälläpitäen.
Mrs Chivery, joka oli viisas nainen, oli toivonut miehensä ottavan
huomioon, että heidän Johninsa toiveet portinvartijantoimeen
nähden varmasti suurenisivat, jos hän naisi miss Dorritin, jolla oli
jonkinlaisia oikeuksia vankilayhteiskunnassa ja jota pidettiin siellä
suuressa arvossa. Mrs Chivery oli toivonut miehensä ottavan
huomioon, että jos toiselta puolen heidän Johnillansa oli varoja ja
varma toimi, niin oli toiselta puolen miss Dorritilla perhesuhteita, ja
että hänen (mrs Chiveryn) mielipiteensä oli, että kahdesta
puolikkaasta tulisi yksi kokonainen. Mrs Chivery puhui nyt äitinä eikä
valtioviisaana ja katsoen asiaa toiselta näkökannalta toivoi vielä
miehensä muistavan, ettei heidän Johninsa ollut milloinkaan ollut
voimakas ja että hänen rakkautensa oli rasittanut ja kuluttanut häntä
ilmankin, joten ei suinkaan pitänyt suotta kiusaamalla ajaa häntä
tekemään itselleen pahaa niinkuin varmasti kävisi, jos onnettomuus
kohtaisi häntä. Nämä todistelut vaikuttivat niin voimakkaasti mr
Chiveryyn, joka oli harvasanainen mies, että hän toisinaan
sunnuntai-aamuisin antoi pojallensa, kuten hän sanoi,
»onnenläimäyksen», joka merkitsi onnentoivotusta, kun poika sinä
päivänä valmistautui ilmaisemaan rakkautensa ja tulemaan
onnelliseksi. Mutta nuori John ei milloinkaan saanut kootuksi kyllin
rohkeutta siihen, ja varsinkin tällaisten tilaisuuksien jälkeen hän
palasi kiihtyneenä tupakkapuotiin ja ärisi ostajille.

Tässä asiassa kuten kaikissa muissakin kysyttiin viimeksi Pikku

Dorritin mieltä. Hänen veljensä ja sisarensa olivat selvillä asiasta ja
saavuttivat eräänlaisen arvoaseman käyttämällä sitä ripustimen
tapaisena, johon iänikuinen, surkea, resuinen tarina perheen
ylhäisyydestä ja hienoudesta ripustettiin tuuleutumaan. Hänen
sisarensa tehosti perheen ylhäisyyttä ja hienoutta ivailemalla poloista
moukkamaista nuorukaista, kun tämä kierteli vankilassa saadakseen
vilahdukselta nähdä lemmittynsä. Tip taas tehosti perheen hienoutta
ja omaansa samalla, esiintyen ylhäisenä veljenä, ja vetelehti pienellä
keilaradalla kehuskellen, kuinka muuan herrasmies, jonka nimi sai
jäädä mainitsematta, kyllä vielä tuivertaisi erästä pikkuruista
tolvanaa, jonka nimi niinikään saattoi jäädä mainitsematta. Nämä
eivät olleet ainoat Dorritin perheen jäsenet, jotka käyttivät asiaa
hyväksensä. Eivätpä suinkaan. Marshalsean isän otaksuttiin olevan
täysin syrjässä siitä, tietysti; hänen poloinen arvokkaisuutensa ei
voinut katsoa niin alas. Mutta hän otti kyllä vastaan sunnuntaisin
tarjotut sikaarit ja oli iloinen saadessaan ne; alentuipa toisinaan
kävelemään pihassa edestakaisin antajan kanssa (joka silloin oli
ylpeä ja toivorikas) ja hyväntahtoisesti polttamaan sikaarin hänen
seurassaan. Yhtä kernaasti ja alentuvasti otti hän vastaan
kohteliaisuuksia Chivery vanhemmalta, joka aina luovutti hänelle
nojatuolinsa ja sanomalehtensä, kun kävi porttihuoneessa
täyttäessään joitakin velvollisuuksiaan, ja joka oli huomauttanut, että
jos mr Dorrit joskus jonakin hämyhetkenä halusi hiljakseen kävellä
etupihassa ja katsella kadulle, niin ei siihen ollut suuriakaan esteitä.
Syynä siihen, ettei mr Dorrit käyttänyt hyväkseen tätä
kohteliaisuutta, oli vain se, että hän oli menettänyt halunsa siihen;
muuten otti hän aina vastaan kaikki, niitä hänelle tarjottiin, ja sanoi
joskus: »Hän on erittäin kohtelias, tämä Chivery, erittäin
huomaavainen ja kunnioittava käytökseltään. Nuori Chivery samaten;
heillä tuntuu todella olevan miltei hienotunteinen käsitys minun
asemastani täällä. Se on oikein hyväntapainen perhe, tämä Chiveryn
perhe. Olen varsin tyytyväinen heidän käytökseensä.»

Rakastunut nuori John katseli perhettä aina vain kunnioittavin

silmin. Hän ei uneksinutkaan kiistää heidän vaatimuksiansa, vaan
teki kunniaa heidän surkealle hölynpöly-paraatilleen. Hän kärsi
tyynesti kaikki loukkaukset hänen veljensä puolelta ja olisi pitänyt
kielensä terästämistä tai kätensä nostamista tätä pyhitettyä
herrasmiestä vastaan kerrassaan jumalattomana tekona, vaikkei
olisikaan ollut niin erinomaisen rauhallinen luonteeltaan kuin hän
todellisuudessa oli. Hän oli pahoillaan siitä, että tämä ylevä sielu
suuttui ja vihastui, mikä hänen ymmärtääkseen ei kuitenkaan
häirinnyt sen ylevyyttä ja hän koetti parhaansa mukaan sovittaa ja
lepytellä tätä ritarillista sielua. Ja lemmittynsä isää, onnettomuuteen
joutunutta herrasmiestä — hienosti sivistynyttä ja hienotapaista
herrasmiestä, joka aina oli kärsivällinen ja ystävällinen hänelle —
hän syvästi kunnioitti. Ja lemmittynsä sisarta hän tosin piti hiukan
turhamaisena ja kopeana, mutta silti kaikin puolin täydellisenä
nuorena ladyna, joka ei voinut unohtaa menneisyyttä. Mutta Pikku
Dorritin arvon ja ylemmyyden kaikkien muiden rinnalla tämä nuori
mies vaistomaisesti tunnusti rakastamalla ja kunnioittamalla häntä
yksinkertaisesti juuri sellaisena kuin hän oli.

Tupakkakauppa Horsemonger Lanen kulmassa sijaitsi

maalaismallisessa, yksikerroksisessa rakennuksessa, jonka
siunauksiin kuului Horsemonger Lane-vankilan pihoista tuulahteleva
raitis ilma ja tämän hauskan laitoksen muurinviereinen rauhallinen
kävelypaikka. Liike oli siksi vaatimaton, ettei sen sopinut
osoitekilpenä käyttää luonnollisenkokoista ylämaalaista, vaan se pani
ovenpieliselle olkakivelle vain pienoisen olennon; tämä muistutti
lähinnä langennutta enkeliä, joka oli huomannut välttämättömäksi
pukeutua mekkohameeseen.

Näin koristellusta ovesta ilmestyi nuori John eräänä sunnuntaina,

syötyään aikaisen päivällisen, jonka pääruokalajina oli ollut
lihavanukas, matkalle tavalliselle sunnuntaiasiallensa, ei tyhjin käsin,
vaan mukanaan lahjasikaarit. Hän oli komeasti puettu, yllään
luumunvärinen takki, jonka mustasamettinen kaulus oli niin leveä
kuin hänen pieni vartalonsa vain suinkin sieti, silkkiset liivit, jotka oli
kirjailtu kultalehvillä, kaulassa hieno, siihen aikaan erittäin muodikas
kaulahuivi, joka oli kuin sinipunerva eläintarha täynnä riikinkukkoja
nahanvärisellä pohjalla, jalassa housut, jotka olivat koristetut niin
moninkertaisilla raidoilla, että kumpikin lahje oli kuin kolmikielinen
luuttu, ja päässä juhlahattu, hyvin korkea ja kova. Kun viisas mrs
Chivery huomasi, että hänen Johnillaan, paitsi kaikkea tätä
komeutta, oli kädessä valkoiset säämiskähansikkaat ja tienviittaa
muistuttava kävelykeppi, jonka päässä oli norsunluinen käsi
ohjaamassa häntä matkalla, ja kun hän näki poikansa näissä
raskaissa varusteissa kiertävän kulman ympäri ja kääntyvän oikealle,
huomautti hän mr Chiverylle, joka sattui olemaan kotona siihen
aikaan, että hän luuli tietävänsä, minnepäin tuuli puhalsi.

Velkavangeilla kävi erikoisen paljon vieraita sinä sunnuntai-

iltapäivänä, ja heidän isänsä pysytteli huoneessaan mahdollisten
esittelyjen varalta. Tehtyään tavallisen kierroksensa vankilan pihassa
nousi Pikku Dorritin ihailija pamppailevin sydämin yläkertaan ja
koputti rystysillään isän ovelle.

»Käykää sisään, käykää sisään», kehoitti armollinen ääni. Hänen

isänsä ääni, hänen isänsä, Marshalsean isän! Tämä istui musta
samettilakki päässä pöydän ääressä sanomalehti kädessä; pöydälle
oli sattumalta jäänyt kolme shillingiä kuusi pennyä ja pari tuolia oli
valmiiksi asetettuna pöydän viereen. Kaikki oli järjestetty
vastaanottoa varten.

»Ah, nuori John! Kuinka voitte, kuinka voitte?»

»Varsin hyvin, kiitos, sir. Toivon, että tekin voitte hyvin.»

 »Kyllä, John Chivery, kyllä. Ei ole valittamisen syytä.»

»Olen rohjennut, sir, tuoda —»

»Kuinka?» Tähän tultaissa kohotti Marshalsean isä silmäkulmiaan

ja muuttui herttaisen ja hymyilevän hajamieliseksi.

»— muutaman sikaarin, sir.»

»Oh!» (Ylenmäärin hämmästyneenä.) »Kiitos, nuori John, kiitos.

Mutta pelkään todellakin olevani liiaksi — Eikö? No, en sano sitten
mitään siihen. Tehkää hyvin ja pankaa ne tuohon uuninreunalle,
John. Ja käykää istumaan, käykää istumaan. Ettehän te ole vieras
täällä, John.»

»Kiitos, sir, enpä suinkaan. — Miss», nuori John käänteli, käänteli

suurta hattuaan vasemmassa kädessään kuin hitaasti pyörivää
hiirenloukkua, »miss Amy kaiketi voi hyvin, sir?»

»Kyllä, John, kyllä; oikein hyvin. Hän on ulkona.»

»Todellako, sir?»

»Kyllä, John. Miss Amy on lähtenyt kävelylle. Minun nuorisoni

liikkuu paljon ulkona. Mutta onhan se luonnollista heidän iällään,
John.»

»Niin kyllä, aivan niin, sir.»

»Kävelylle. Kävelylle. Niin.» Hän naputteli hajamielisenä pöytää ja

vilkaisi ikkunaan. »Amy on mennyt kävelemään Iron Bridgelle. Hän
on viime aikoina erikoisesti mieltynyt Iron Bridgeen ja näkyy
kävelevän siellä mieluummin kuin missään muualla.» Sitte jatkoi hän
taas keskustelua. »Isänne ei lienekään nyt virantoimituksessa,
John?»

»Ei, sir, hän tulee vasta illemmällä.» Taas pyörähteli iso hattu
kädessä, ja nuori John virkkoi nousten seisomaan: »Minun kai on
sanottava hyvästi nyt, sir.»

»Joko nyt? Hyvästi, nuori John. Ei, ei», äärimmäisen alentuvasti,

»älkää välittäkö hansikkaista, John. Antakaa kätenne tänne vain
hansikkaineen päivineen. Ettehän ole vieras täällä.»

Ylen ihastuneena ystävälliseen vastaanottoon astui nuori John

portaita alas. Matkallaan tapasi hän vankilayhteiskunnan jäseniä,
jotka toivat vierailijoitaan esitettäviksi, ja juuri samassa sattui mr
Dorrit erittäin selvällä äänellä sanomaan kaiteiden yli hänelle:
»Paljon kiitoksia, John, pienestä muistolahjastanne.»

Pikku Dorritin ihailija laski kiireesti siltarahansa Iron Bridgen

verolautaselle ja astui sillalle katsellen ympärilleen ja hakien
hyvintunnettua ja rakastettua olentoa. Ensiksi pelkäsi hän, ettei tyttö
olisikaan siellä, mutta kävellessään edelleen Middlesexiin päin näki
lemmityn seisomassa paikallaan ja tuijottamassa veteen. Hän oli
ajatuksiinsa vaipunut, ja John aprikoi, mitä hän mahtoi ajatella.
Sillalle näkyi pinoittain kaupungin kattoja ja savupiippuja, jotka nyt
olivat vähemmin savun vallassa kuin arkipäivinä; sinne näkyi myös
kaukaisia mastoja ja torneja. Kenties hän ajatteli niitä.

Pikku Dorrit mietiskeli niin kauan ja oli niin hajamielinen, että

vaikka hänen ihailijansa seisoi, kuten luuli, pitkän aikaa hiljaa
yhdessä kohdin ja sitten pari kolme kertaa vetäytyi pois ja taas
palasi samaan paikkaan, hän yhä seisoi liikkumattomana. Paikka oli
rauhallinen, ja nyt tai ei milloinkaan oli aika puhua.
 Hän astui eteenpäin; eikä Amy näyttänyt kuulevan hänen
askeleitaan, ennenkuin tulija oli hänen kohdallaan. Kun hän sanoi:
»Miss Dorrit!» säpsähti tämä ja peräytyi, kasvoillaan säikähtynyt ja
vastenmielisyydeltä näyttävä ilme, joka sanomattomasti pelästytti
Johnia. Amy oli usein väistänyt häntä — niin, oikeastaan jo
pitemmän ajan. Hän oli kääntynyt pois ja liukunut tiehensä niin
usein, nähdessään toisen lähestyvän, ettei onneton nuorukainen
voinut pitää sitä satunnaisena. Mutta hän oli toivonut, että se oli
arkuutta, että se johtui hänen ujoudestaan ja siitä, että hän aavisti
toisen sydämen tilan; että se oli mitä hyvänsä muuta, muttei
vastenmielisyyttä häntä kohtaan. Nyt tämä hetkellinen silmäys oli
sanonut: »Tekö, juuri te! Mieluummin olisin kohdannut kenenkä
hyvänsä muun kuin teidät!»

Tällainen ilme viipyi vain hetken hänen katseessaan, sillä hän

hillitsi itsensä heti ja sanoi lempeällä, vienolla äänellänsä: »Oh, mr
John! Tekö?» Mutta hän tiesi, mitä oli tapahtunut, samoin kuin
toinenkin tiesi sen; ja he seisoivat katsellen toisiaan, molemmat yhtä
hämillään.

»Miss Amy, pelkään säikähdyttäneeni teitä äsken, kun puhuttelin

teitä.»

»Niin teitte. Tulin — tulin tänne saadakseni olla yksin ja luulin

todella olevanikin.»

»Miss Amy, rohkenin kävellä tänne päin, sillä mr Dorrit, jota kävin
äsken juuri tervehtimässä, sattui mainitsemaan, että te —»

Tyttö pelästytti häntä entistä enemmän kuiskaamalla äkkiä: »Oi

isä, isä!» sydäntäsärkevällä äänellä ja kääntyi poispäin.