Manning Marable Quotes

Hip-hop in the '90s began moving towards the Nation of Islam and the 5 Percenters, black nationalist movements; very much so, these movements embraced a form of Islam: Malcom X's form of Islam prior to his change.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love

Malcolm's X objective was actually to reingratiate himself within the Nation of Islam, that because he had emerged by the early 1960s as a very prominent figure outside of the N.O.I., there were critics within the organization that were saying to the patriarch of the N.O.I., the Honorable Elijah Mohammad, that Malcolm planned to take over the organization, which was not true.

I loved Elijah Muhammad with a love that I can't adequately describe.

As long as change is inevitable, then fundamentalism is inevitable.

Freedom implies change which implies friction.

I want tension in my business. Tension creates change. Change is necessary to evolve and prosper. I am never satisfied.

I got love for Damon Dash as I did before. I don't know if we can be around each other in that way because times have changed. He may be a totally different person. I know I'm a different person. But nothing can erase that era, those times, those memories, those fights to get 'Roc-A-fella' where it was.

I'm grateful for the fans who've been there from the beginning and am excited about how we've grown and how we've evolved now.

All I can tell everybody is, I'm the same guy, just on a different team.

MMI brothers were very resistant to women such as Lynn Shiflet and others who emerged as leaders within the OAAU, so one of the tensions that occurred was around gender equality and gender leadership inside of Malcolm's X entourage.

As teenagers, Marcus had been the muscle and Jake the brains. Marcus had beat up the kids who'd made fun of skinny Jake; Jake had convinced teachers not to punish him. Since then, Marcus had grown a brain (kind of) and Jake had developed muscles. But habits die hard.

The MMI brothers, who provided security for Malcolm X had been trained by Malcolm himself that inside of the Nation of Islam, whenever there is a diversion, you protect the principal. The principal, in this case Malcolm, clearly was not protected on February 21st [1965].

There were internal critics, sharp critics, who were very opposed to [Malcolm X], and who were very - some of them were members of Elijah Mohammad's family, such as Herbert Mohammad, Raymond Shareef, who was the head of the Fruit of Islam, the brother-in-law of - the son-in-law of Elijah Mohammad. They isolated Malcolm X and kept him out of the newspaper of the organization Mohammad Speaks for over a year, which is kind of curious.

What Malcolm X did not know is that back in 1962, a collaborator of Alex Haley, fellow named - a journalist named Alfred Balk had approached the F.B.I. regarding an article that he and Haley were writing together for The Saturday Evening Post, and the F.B.I. had an interest in castigating the Nation of Islam, and isolating it from the mainstream of Negro civil rights activity.

Everyone is constantly transitioning.

Anger is the noise of the soul; the unseen irritant of the heart; the relentless invader of silence.

The old world is quickly disappearing, and the new opportunities are opening up.

IF you don't change, you can become extinct!

The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.

Let the past abolish the past when -- and if -- it can substitute something better.

We are all in the process of becoming.

Change without continuity is chaos. Continuity without change is sloth-and very risky.

Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage!

Truth is neither alive nor dead; it just aggravates itself all the time.