Book Review: “The Dead Are Arising” by Les Payne and Tamara Payne

Les Payne spent the majority of his life researching the facts for his books in order to separate facts from fictions and in order to show us the people behind the myths. This is also true for his book on Malcolm X. Now, you all know that I am a huge fan of Malcolm X and that I have a poster of him on my bedroom wall. This book was something I just could not pass over. It starts off slightly before Malcolm X was born in Nebraska and then travels through until slightly after his death in Harlem. Through it, we meet people who knew him, we meet people who were related to him, the Nation of Islam figures, the cops and spies who marked him and even people who met him on the streets. The book turns out to be a factual account that splits the man from the myth and actually shows us how Malcolm X built himself up over the years as a person.

I love the fact that it goes through correcting the details of the myth and that it also goes through correcting the details we now associate with Malcolm X without really thinking about them. Especially the assassination. When we get to the assassination of Malcolm X, there are many details that seemed to be manipulated and skimmed over in cultural history, but Les Payne sets them straight. He sorts through over one hundred interviews to create a narrative that is possibly the most factual one I have read about Malcolm X and his assassination.

Over the years, I have read many books about Malcolm X, including his autobiography and the Penguin Collection entitled “The Portable Malcolm X” which covers his speeches. Not since his autobiography and the book by his daughter entitled “Growing Up X” have I read something that is so heartfelt, close and incredible about Malcolm X. When it comes down to it, I prefer reading something that doesn’t overtly politicise Malcolm X because god knows we have enough books and scholarly articles on that. Instead, I prefer to read something that makes light that this guy was a real man and that he had a real story. In the film by Spike Lee, he seeks to explore this as well. One thing that Spike Lee’s film does is sensationalises the death scene, which I was not overly fond of in comparison to this book. “The Dead is Arising” is basically Les Payne cleaning up what was left behind by other books who see Malcolm X’s death as some kind of martyrdom instead of a man got killed whilst he was trying to help people. Les Payne reduces this back to one man killing another man and then uses his research to build atop it. The reason why Spike Lee’s film sensationalises the death scene is because the death scene was not part of the source material that Spike Lee was using. Spike Lee used “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and obviously, this would end far before the death scene.

All in all, the book clears up so much and even though the autobiography is amazing, the book by his daughter is incredible and Spike Lee’s film is possibly the best film on a Civil Rights’ Activist you will find - this book is the closest thing you will find to research on the topic of separating man and legend. Les Payne’s research is incredibly written, stating that there was some hope in Malcolm X’s life early on even though his mother was being psychologically tormented by the Klan and that his father was killed by them. Malcolm X, constantly keeping his head above water is possibly the image that makes me more respect him than a legend that depicts him as a leader who came out of nowhere to help the people of Black Harlem. The story behind Malcolm X in which he is a normal person, witnessing the things that were constantly shown as regular treatments of Black people in America and witnessing yet another side of the coin in which he was arrested. He has an entire history behind him that is regularly missed out and Les Payne fills in those gaps with facts and anecdotes from the people who knew and loved him.