The past half-century of African-American history has been a debate over the legacy of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Is reconciliation or conflict the best way forward? When the jury at the OJ Simpson trial — perhaps the most potent test of race relations since the civil rights era — chose to ignore the mountain of police evidence and deliver a not guilty verdict, it was choosing Malcolm over Martin.
In popular culture, too, it is Malcolm who cuts the cooler, more streetwise figure. More than 50 years after it was published, his autobiography — the story of how a petty criminal, born Malcolm Little, found religion, turned his life around and became the lost prophet of black America — still wins over new
