Michael X

Michael X , right Michael de Freitas (* 1933 in Trinidad and Tobago , † May 16, 1975 in Port of Spain ), was a self-proclaimed black revolutionary and civil rights activist in London in the 1960s . He was also known as Michael Abdul Malik and Abdul Malik . 1972 as a murderer condemned it in 1975 in the prison of Port of Spain hanged .

Life

Michael de Freitas was the son of a Portuguese shopkeeper, his mother was from Barbados . In 1957 he emigrated to Great Britain , where he settled in the area around Notting Hill Gate . He became a pimp , drug dealer , arcade operator and thug for Peter Rachman , a real estate shark of Polish descent.

Michael X became a Black Power leader in the UK. In 1965 Colin McGlashan called him "the authentic voice of black bitterness" in the Observer . After the UK's first Race Relations Act was passed that year to protect blacks and Asians from discrimination , Michael X was the first non-white person to be convicted and imprisoned under this law in 1967: For publicly demanding that every black woman be shot, who is seen with a white man, he received 18 months in prison.

Under the name of Abdul Malik, he founded the 1969 Racial Adjustment Action Society and was a self-proclaimed leader of the Black-power community Blackhouse in the Holloway Road . The community was financed by the young millionaire and dropout Nigel Samuel , son of the founder of the retail chain H Samuel Jewelers Howard Samuel . Michael X said: “You made me the archbishop of violence in this country. But that get-a-gun rhetoric is over. We're talking about creating real things in this community that the community needs. Because "we have a healthy approach. . John Lennon and Yoko Ono donated a bag of hair up for auction to help support the Black House . In what the press called the "slave chain affair", businessman Marvin Brown, who was connected to the Black House , was beaten up and forced to walk through the house with a spiked collar while Michael X and others tried to extract money from him. The underfunded and maintained through voluntary cooperation Blackhouse completed in autumn 1970. Under mysterious circumstances was burning it off, and soon after Michael X and four other people were charged with extortion detained. The bail was paid by John Lennon in January 1971.

In February 1971 Michael X fled to Trinidad, where he founded a rural commune 26 km east of the capital Port of Spain to raise blacks. "The only politics I ever understood are the politics of revolution, the politics of change, the politics of a completely new system," he said in the Trinidad Express .

He founded another commune called the Black House , which also burned down in February 1972. Michael X was charged with the murder of Joseph Skerritt in 1972 . Skerritt was a member of the Black Liberation Army and had defied Michael X's instructions to attack a police station. The indictment alleged that an accomplice struck down Skerritt with a cutlass at Michael X's behest . His body was discovered along with that of Gale Ann Benson when police were investigating the area around the Black House. The bodies had been cremated and were in a shallow grave. Benson, also known as Hale Kimga , was the daughter of the Conservative House of Commons MP Leonard F. Plugge . Michael X fled to Guyana a few days after the fire in his commune , where he was arrested.

A Save Malik Committee asked for a pardon. The committee included Angela Davis , Dick Gregory , Kate Millett, and radical lawyer William Kunstler , who was paid to do it by John Lennon . Michael X was hanged in 1975.

legacy

Michael X's portrayal in British politics was exaggerated. Stewart Home wrote: “The Malik-led black power group RAAS (Radical Adjustment Action Society) existed largely on paper. The membership has been massively exaggerated for the benefit of the press. Malik as a horror figure provided a good template. Stories about him drove sales and ultimately showed that the fact that his organized following was actually tiny was not on the agenda of the journalists who gave him space in the columns. "

author

As Michael Abdul Malik, Michael X published the book From Michael Freitas to Michael X in 1968 by André Deutsch . He also left a fragment of a novel about a black hero who wins the admiration of the narrator - a British woman named Lena Boyd-Richardson, who is impressed to find on his bookshelf the dust-free novel Salambo , the masterpiece of Gustave Flaubert . “I discovered that not only did he own the books, he read and understood them too. I was literally stunned, absolutely. I took a chair and stared at this miracle. "

media

• VS Naipaul : Michael X is the subject of his essay "The Return of Eva Perón and the Killings in Trinidad" (1980) and probably the character of Jimmy Ahmed in his novel Guerrillas (1975).
• Michael X is one of the characters in The Bank Job , the plot of which is based on an actual bank robbery in 1971. The film alleges that Michael X kept compromising photos with Princess Margaret in a safe deposit box to protect himself from police prosecution. His files in the National Archives are still under lock and key until 2054.

literature

• Derek Humphry, David Tindall: False Messiah. The Story of Michael X. Hart-Davis, MacGibbon Ltd., London 1977.
• Michael Abdul Malik: From Michael de Freitas to Michael X. André Deutsch, London 1968.
• VS Naipaul : The Return of Eva Perón. With the Killings in Trinidad. André Deutsch, London 1980, ISBN 0-233-97238-2 .
• James Sharp: The Life and Death of Michael X. Uni Books, Waterford 1981, ISBN 0-85606-093-3 .

swell

1. ^ ^{A b c} Didion, Joan (June 12, 1980) "Without Regret or Hope." New York Review of Books.
2. ↑ Eds. (November 10, 1967) "Black Muslim Gets One Year in Britain." New York Times
3. ↑ Eds. (January 29, 1970) "London Getting a Black Cultural Leader." New York Times .
4. ↑ ^{a b} Home, Stewart (October 23, 2005) Article in Mute Magazine
5. ↑ ^{a b} Bill Harry - The John Lennon Encyclopedia
6. ↑ Reuters (August 22, 1972) " Michael X Doomed in Trinidad Murder. “ New York Times .
7. ^ UPS (May 17, 1975) "Militant is Hanged in Trinidad After Long Fight for Clemency." New York Times .