Black Heritage Stamp to Honor Malcolm X

WASHINGTON —  The image of Malcolm X, one of the most controversial African American leaders of the 1960s, will join the official ranks of Americana by way of a U.S. postage stamp early next year.

He becomes the 22nd person honored in the Postal Service’s Black Heritage series.

An Associated Press photograph of Malcolm X answering a question at a 1964 news conference in New York will be featured on the 33-cent stamp. It also contains the name he used at the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Among those praising the stamp’s issuance was Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles). “Far too often, society does not recognize leaders who may have been controversial, that are important specifically to black Americans,” she said in a recent interview. “Honoring Malcolm X breaks that kind of thinking.”

Russell Adams, chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University in Washington, added: “The approval of this stamp represents an improvement in America’s perspective of Malcolm’s significance and positive impact on the American scene, not only within the black community but the entire community.”

Born Malcolm Little in 1925, he changed his name after embracing the Nation of Islam while serving a prison term. Upon his release, Malcolm X emerged in the early 1960s as the leading spokesman for the religion’s doctrine of racial separation, putting him at odds with the mainstream civil rights movement.

Eventually, Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam and, especially after a pilgrimage to Mecca, emphasized an ethic of racial inclusion and tolerance.

He was shot to death by a group of gunmen while delivering a speech in New York City’s Harlem section Feb. 21, 1965. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the shooting.

A U.S. Postal Service statement announcing the stamp’s issuance described his philosophy at the time of his death as a “more integrationist solution to racial problems.”

“It definitely makes our family feel good,” Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s six daughters, said of the new stamp. Noting that many people viewed Malcolm X as “too angry, the reality is that he was fighting for humanity.

“I’m very happy, very pleased, and I know my mother would be too.”

Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, died of burns suffered in a fire set by her grandson in 1997.

The 20-year-old Black Heritage stamp series commemorates the individual achievements of African Americans, with past honorees ranging from inventors to musicians.