Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Reimagining the Revolution: Four Stories of Abolition, Autonomy, and Forging New Paths in the Modern Civil Rights Movement is sponsored and published by North Atlantic Books, an educational nonprofit based in the unceded Ohlone land Huichin (Berkeley, CA) that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives; nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing; and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.
North Atlantic Books’s publications are distributed to the US trade and internationally by Penguin Random House Publisher Services. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lehman-Ewing, Paula, author.
Title: Reimagining the revolution : four stories of abolition, autonomy,
and forging new paths in the modern civil rights movement / Paula
Lehman-Ewing.
Description: Berkeley, CA : North Atlantic Books, [2024] | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Strategies for
abolition and liberation from four activist groups of the modern civil
rights movement”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023057126 (print) | LCCN 2023057127 (ebook) | ISBN
9798889840794 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9798889840800 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Discrimination in criminal justice administration--United
States. | Racism--United States. | Civil rights--United States. |
Equality--United States.
Classification: LCC HV9950 .L45 2024 (print) | LCC HV9950 (ebook) | DDC
323.173--dc23/eng/20240108
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023057126
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023057127
Dedicated to my children: May you strive to make the world a better place.
Foreword by Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz
February 21, 2025 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of my father’s political assassination. Sixty years ago, Malcolm X became a martyr for the millions to whom he dedicated his life. The gravitas of the name Malcolm X carries the same weight today as it did when my father met with global leaders and revolutionaries about liberty, justice, and the oneness of humanity. I worry, however, that the years have not been as kind to him as he was to us. Perhaps in our lifetime, the reader will learn just why his story was so inaccurately portrayed and why his message was so misconstrued.
The most devastating mischaracterization of Malcolm X is that he was a violent man. While the “radical” moniker may not carry the same weight as it did in my father’s heyday, the mere invocation of “by any means necessary” has often been used to undermine his mission to liberate oppressed people the world over from the systemic oppressor.
Malcolm X first used the phrase “by any means necessary” in a speech given at the founding rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity: “We declare our right on this earth to be a man,” he said. “To be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, on this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.”
Since that oration, the phrase has been used to pit my father against the nonviolence of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when, in fact, they both shared the same goal: the elimination of systemic oppression. My mother, Dr. Betty Shabazz, once said that “by any means necessary” is not a violent statement but rather a “comprehensive” one. My father preached self-assurance, self-determination, and, if necessary, self-defense. Achieving humanity, however, should not require defending. Humanity is ordained by God.
After publishing my first book, Growing Up X, I felt the need to defend my parents for how I was raised—the extracurricular activities I participated in and the private schools and summer camps my sisters and I attended where we were among the few Blacks—and my father’s legacy, until someone told me I never have to defend my father. All I have to do is share the beauty of Malcolm, the beauty he gave the world when he spoke about his belief in humanity and the oneness of all people, and the beauty that he gave to his wife and six daughters. Among my favorite speeches are his Message to the Grass Roots, his Letter from Has, and his remarks at Oxford University. There, you see him as a man who loves—who loves humanity, who loves truth, and who loves the power of education. It is this profound love that was truly revolutionary.
The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center in New York City gathers people from all walks of life together to continue his revolutionary legacy of collective love and liberation. Located in the Audubon Ballroom, the historic site of my father’s martyrdom, the center incubates social, racial, and global justice movements. More than merely memorializing the martyrdom of Malcolm X and the educational vision of Dr. Betty Shabazz, the center is also a gathering place for community organizers and educators who are training the next generation of leaders in the movement for racial equity and global justice.
I appeal to your humanity to love deeply and to move forward together to heal the wounds of corruption and oppression. The people you will meet in this book embrace this philosophy and embody the desperation that Malcolm X captured in his “by any means necessary” sermons. These fellow brothers and sisters are willing to start over and create anew, bringing about a world entirely different from what they have known. They are determined to step up as the next generation of liberators at a time when our efforts are under constant threat.
In an era marked by renewed struggles for justice and unrelenting calls for change, the legacy of Malcolm X reminds us of the importance of confronting deeply ingrained racial injustice. His unapologetic advocacy for the rights and empowerment of people of the African diaspora coupled with his uncompromising stance against systemic racism resonates deeply in contemporary discourse on racial inequality.
In the following pages, you will discover the impact of Malcolm X on contemporaries, such as Angela Davis and Ambassador Andrew Young, as well as on incarcerated freedom fighters Ivan Kilgore and Heshima Denham. These men and women embraced my father’s call for action beyond protest and demonstration. My appeal to you is this: organize with strategy so that sixty years from now, we will not find ourselves in the same space as we were sixty years ago when my father was alive, simply insisting on liberty and justice for all.
Self Portrait by Scotty Scott aka Scott W. Smith
Author’s Note: About the Artists
I think what draws me to art is the same thing that draws me to journalism: Ultimately, they are both an attempt to share untold stories in a way that people will take notice of.
I met my husband James in recovery. We were both trying our best to deal with everything life had to throw at us, and stay sober despite it all. At times it was exhausting: showing up in ways we hadn’t before (usually because we were too inebriated to move); rushing off to meetings; putting out fires that arose from sparks ignited during a messier time. But other times it was boring. When it came to fun, we only knew one way, which had stopped being fun long before we stopped doing it.
This common experience among newly sober individuals translated very acutely to James, to the point that it made him jittery. His hands had primarily been used to move a drink from a bartop to his mouth for so long that they ached to go back to his old routine. At one point, his mother told him he used to doodle as a child when he was bored in school. Maybe he could try that.
James began to draw in charcoal. He did a self-portrait, a drawing of his mother with her dog, a classic car, and scenes from movies with captivating scoundrels, like Daniel Day-Lewis as William Cutting in Gangs of New York. Within a year, he had enough to display in a brief gallery run. We called the exhibit See the Light in Black and White.
I firmly believe that art saved my husband in these early years of sobriety, just as the art of writing saved me. As the actor Stella Adler once said, “Life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one.”
