Malcolm X was one of the most prolific leaders of the African-American freedom and human rights movements, said Dr. Rosemari Mealy as she remembered the 57th anniversary of his assassination in New York on February 21st.

By Deisy Francis Mexidor

Malcolm X was one of the most prolific leaders of the African-American freedom and human rights movements, said Dr. Rosemari Mealy as she remembered the 57th anniversary of his assassination in New York on February 21st.

Although some corporate media in the United States have refused to admit it, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, as he was also known, was one of the greatest and most influential figures in the history of my country, Dr. Mealy told Prensa Latina.

In an interview via WhatsApp, the author of the book "Fidel and Malcolm X, Memories of an Encounter" (Black Classic Press/Letras Cubanas) referred to the need to protect Malcolm's legacy for present and future generations.

"The teachings we inherited from him are like tools of liberation," she said and stressed that with "words and deeds Malcolm demonstrated that men cannot be dehumanized because of the color of their skin."

He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925 with the given name Malcolm Little, which he decided to change later for the X that alluded to the unknown surname of the slaves, he argued.

Regarding the book, Mealy explained that it was the result of a conference organized by Cuban institution Casa de Las Americas from May 22 to 24, 1990.

"I was asked to write it using the conference proceedings and first-hand interviews and so I tried to do so, because the text gathers the memories of those who witnessed or in some way were involved from our two countries," she added.

I never met Malcolm, but there are first-hand testimonies of people who, with the exception of one or two, are no longer around", confessed the journalist, who received in 2016 with the Medal of Friendship awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba at the proposal of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.

The text compiled in its pages the Black leader's welcome to Cuban President Fidel Castro and the island's delegation attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, in September 1960.

When Fidel and his companions were refused accommodation at the Manhattan hotel, Malcolm invited them to the Hotel Theresa, owned by an African-American friend in Harlem, where - as he assured him - they would be welcomed with open arms and open hearts.

For Mealy it was of utmost importance to record that historical fact of which little was known and for Cuban youth and the world to get a little closer to the life of two great men.

On February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, Malcolm X was speaking at a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when he was shot at least 16 times in the chest.

Despite differing accounts of where the order to eliminate him came from, the CIA's Office of Plans, the division engaged in the overthrow and assassination of various Third World rulers, was already uneasy about Malcolm X and spied on his activities right up to the day of his death.

Last year, new evidence of the crime against the civil rights activist came to light, pointing to the New York police and the FBI.