Collectively, we’ve paid less attention to who Malcolm was as father. Yet, in our imaginations, and for at least three generations of Black men and fathers, Malcolm is the Black fatherhood we’ve aspired to. What we’ve known most about Malcolm as a father can be reduced to a single, well-known photograph of him sitting with two of his daughters and a third, sitting next to him on heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali’s lap. Malcolm’s wife Betty is also in the photo, sitting on his right, though in many reproductions of the photo, originally taken in January of 1964, she is cropped out.
The photo was taken in Miami, Florida, where Ali was training for his heavyweight championship fight against Sonny Liston. This was during Malcolm’s 90-day suspension from the Nation, which culminated with his break from them. That time in Miami was likely the most time that Malcolm spent with his then three daughters. When Ali invited Malcolm and his family to visit his training camp, it was the first (and last) vacation that he took with his family. The photo has resonated for many over the years because it offered a more humane view of a figure that most Americans, at one time or another, viewed as a militant agitator who hated white people.
The late historian Manning Marable reveals in his biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention that Malcolm viewed the vacation, and the photos taken through the trip as an opportunity to “recraft his image.” To be sure, it wasn’t an empty public relations gesture; with his break with The Nation, he would be without regular employment (the Nation, tried to take his home and car), and his ability to support his still growing family was premised on his ability to gain paid speaking engagements.
My point here is not to offer a cynical view of Malcolm as a father, but on the contrary, to suggest that he too was dogged by the guilt experienced by so many Black men about not being around enough, and not being able to do enough. That Malcolm did so with the specter of violence directed, specifically at him, made his circumstance somewhat exceptional — though so many Black men live with the reality of being visited by random violence. Malcolm was keenly aware that he would not live long enough to see his daughters reach adulthood.