Legacy of X
by Kira Hooks
This past Saturday, February 19, FMO’s Political Action Committee, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., African American Freshmen Activities Board, and The Living Wage Campaign cosponsored the annual Legacy of X: Living the Legacy, a Harmonic Convergence of Talent. The event included brief lectures from Northwestern professors Martha Biondi and Ivy Wilson, a performance from African American Theater Ensemble and Soul4Real, and concluded with the showing of Spike Lee’s hit film, “X.”
In keeping with the theme of the event, Professor Biondi spoke about the student movements birthed after the biography of Malcolm X was released. These students sought to refocus their political trajectory along the same ideas in the biography, seeking to reclaim the institutions in their neighborhoods, and reassert their African heritage as a global majority. The result was major changes that included the renaming of Creighton College to Malcolm X College in Chicago, and schools like City University of New York producing as many Black, college graduates as Southern HBCUs.
What can we learn from these students’ continued legacy of X? In living the legacy, we are shown the importance of reclaiming institutions of higher learning in our communities to make sure they are serving our needs as the constituents. After Malcolm X’s death and the release of his biography, the students not only borrowed from his ideas, but also created their own to achieve measurable change. Whether it be restructuring curriculum to not solely include a European centered course collection like the students in the 60s or implementing a living wage at our very own university today, we should show no hesitation in trying to change our school so that it best serves our needs and addresses what we hold most important.
