The Dead Are Arising

The Life of Malcolm X

By: Les Payne, Tamara Payne

Narrated by: Dion Graham

An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.

Les Payne, the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, embarked in 1990 on a nearly 30-year-long quest to interview anyone he could find who had actually known Malcolm X - all living siblings of the Malcolm Little family, classmates, street friends, cellmates, Nation of Islam figures, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders around the world. His goal was ambitious: to transform what would become more than a hundred hours of interviews into an unprecedented portrait of Malcolm X, one that would separate fact from fiction.

The result is this historic biography that conjures a never-before-seen world of its protagonist, a work whose title is inspired by a phrase Malcolm X used when he saw his Hartford followers stir with purpose, as if the dead were truly arising, to overcome the obstacles of racism. Setting Malcolm's life not only within the Nation of Islam but against the larger backdrop of American history, the book traces the life of one of the 20th century's most politically relevant figures from street criminal to devoted moralist and revolutionary.

In tracing Malcolm X's life from his Nebraska birth in 1925 to his Harlem assassination in 1965, Payne provides searing vignettes culled from Malcolm's Depression-era youth, describing the influence of his Garveyite parents: his father, Earl, a circuit-riding preacher who was run over by a street car in Lansing, Michigan, in 1929, and his mother, Louise, who continued to instill Black pride in her children after Earl's death. Filling each chapter with resonant drama, Payne follows Malcolm's exploits as a petty criminal in Boston and Harlem in the 1930s and early 1940s to his religious awakening and conversion to the Nation of Islam in a Massachusetts penitentiary.

With a biographer's unwavering determination, Payne corrects the historical record and delivers extraordinary revelations - from the unmasking of the mysterious NOI founder Fard Muhammad, who preceded Elijah Muhammad; to a hair-rising scene, conveyed in cinematic detail, of Malcolm and Minister Jeremiah X Shabazz's 1961 clandestine meeting with the KKK; to a minute-by-minute account of Malcolm X's murder at the Audubon Ballroom.

Introduced by Payne's daughter and primary researcher, Tamara Payne, who, following her father's death, heroically completed the biography, The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle.

©2020 Les Payne and Tamara Payne (P)2020 Recorded Books

Excellent 3rd party analysis with depth

First the one criticism in that the middle part of the story from Malcolm’s late childhood to his teen years saga a little with too much detail. We learn about his days as a school boy which sounds like almost any child’ experience and nothing there is enlightening.
Otherwise learning more about his parents and the connections to Marcus Garvey was fascinating.
And his criminal years were equally interesting and engaging. Having read the AOMX many years ago this version of X life story fills in many blanks. And I especially appreciate the epilogue with the Q and A.
This story is a little bit long but definitely worth it!!
5 stars!

one of my favorite books.. had to buy the audio

has info that Malcolm himself didn't know. like how his father Earl lost his eye.. Malcolm spoke briefly on this in the autobiography.. but didn't know the cause of his fathers glass eye... Les Payne.. does his research.. by talking to friends and family of malcolm.. great physical and Audio book...had to get both

Refreshing

Refreshing new insight into the life and thoughts of brother Malik El Shabazz; Malcolm X.

WEIGHTY

1. Superbly Written.

2. Great Narration.

3. Left me with a greater understanding of

Malcolm X; The Nation Of Islam; and "Those Times".

Inspiring and a page turner

I am astonished at how little I really knew about Malcolm X. I knew the basic outlines but not the depth of his experience, intellect and most of all his courage. It is a very dramatic story. Malcolm was brave enough to radically change his ideas and risk much. This biography contains lots of new research, particularly about his early life. There have been few like him in modern history. The fact that J Edgar Hoover and Elijah Mohammed collaborated on his death goes to show how powerful his ideas were. I highly recommend this well written book. It is long but moves at a fast pace, a page turner.