Let’s see, where do I begin?  Since July 4, 2004 this country is now 228 years into
existence. During that span of time, men have walked on the moon, planes have broken
the barrier of sound and the automobile is as common as the common cold.  Let’s also
note that these states that we call united, began with a gentleman named Washington,
that is if you can call anyone who didn’t find it particularly unsettling or out of the
ordinary to buy, trade and sell people of color, a gentleman.  Count up and you come
up with the odd number of forty-three.  Now, let’s see, out of that number, how many
were men of color?  Remember, Clinton doesn’t count? Tell you what, I’ll give you three
guesses, or maybe not, let’s just try zero. Well, that’s what their history book, polls and
registers submit and wish us to believe.  Differ is what I wish to beg.  The books I’ve
read, the polls I’ve taken tell me that there has been a black president.   O.K. I really
haven’t solicited anyone’s opinion other than my own, but if you can’t trust yourself, who
can you trust? He was not afforded the courtesy common to a position of such
elevation, that is being sworn in on the step of The Capitol and more than likely his left
hand would have been on a Koran rather than a bible, with right hand closed and
raised in the air like some cats we call black whose names were Bobby and Stokely.
This man of color, that would be president, was born May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska
to Louise and Earl Little.  He was not an only child, in fact he was one of seven, with
siblings whose names are Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Reginald, Yvonne, and Wesley. The
family would eventually settle in Lansing, Michigan.  The year is 1931 and there would
be an evening when our future president’s father would not return home.  He would be
found just a short distance from home, dead near the local railroad tracks.  It would be
ruled an accident...Case closed.  That could be believed, if the town that they
considered themselves residents of, was not home to men whose use of the letter K
repeated itself three times as a threat to people of color.
Only six at the time and unseen to the naked eye, the death our future president's
father would indeed affect him in many ways.  Soon after, his mother’s mental and
emotional state would begin to unravel to the point in which she would have to be
placed in an institution.  Our president and his siblings would be placed in foster
homes.  Soon signs of delinquency began to come forth to the point that he would be
made a ward of the state and sent to a school of reform in Mason, Michigan.  This
seems to have had an effect that was settling.  Progression is evident; he will graduate
from junior high at the very top in fields of both academics and athletics.  Unfortunately,
do to institutionalize academic confinement, due to his race he did not progress pass
the eighth grade.  Instead he decides to leave Michigan and seize the opportunity to
live with his sister Ella and her husband in Roxbury, Boston.
Moving to Roxbury proved to be no more advantageous than remaining in Michigan.  
The only form of employment that he was initially able to secure was the shining of
patron's shoes in an area of Boston called the Bay Back Area at what was then called
the Roseland Ballroom.  The year had turned to 1942 and this would be the
seventeenth year of someone who must have felt three times as old.  Roxbury began to
be too limited in size for the things he wanted out of life.  There in Roxbury is where he
would learn what would both build and destroy lessons that most books, if any don’t
contain, “How to be a Hustler”.
He would soon become an attendant on one of Boston’s railroads.  He would settle in
the positions of the porters in the railroad’s dining cars.  It would take him from Roxbury,
Massachusetts to Harlem, New York.  It's not a stretch of reason to say there was an
almost immediate attraction to the life that was present in Harlem. He would make
Harlem his home.  In Harlem, a fascination for elements criminal would surface, and a
wishing to live that lifestyle as well.  Observation would change to participation.  He
would no longer wish, he would become.  Engaging in activities that were considered
outside the law he had become a prostitute, a felon, and a peddler of narcotics.  After
more than a year had elapsed, there would be a return to Boston and an attempt to
prove that what was done in Harlem, could be done in Boston.  Well, his arrest and
subsequent conviction in February 1946 would end his exercise of free enterprise.  His
wants and ambitions would total to seven years of forced restraint.  This detainment
would prove to be beneficial to him.  Confinement caused in him a need to expose and
confront his deficiencies.  His perspective began to broaden and a looking within
promoted change.  Now, at this time the teachings of  “Islam” began to be filtered
through the facility.  At the very same time his brother Reginald and sister Ella had
begun to be exposed to these teachings of Islam. Their conversion proves to be the
catalyst for the transformation of the individual they knew and loved as their little
brother.  Malcolm Little to a man who would be loved and equally feared as MALCOM X-
AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK PRESIDENT.
There will be those that read this and view my words as nothing other than miswritten
fiction.  I will present this in my defense.  Wait, "to defend" is a term I don’t agree is
appropriate.  What I will present to you is this nation’s “Presidential Oath” and it reads:
“I do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the
United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States.” Of these things, where did Malcolm fail?  Did he not
to the best of his ability preserve, protect and defend?  The key word here is ability,
ability to lead and to not be led.  He could not be controlled and didn’t want anything
from anyone. What he fought for, what he demanded was the recognition of equality
and not to be prohibited from opportunity.  He did not seek assistance but resistance to
inequality.  Through planned assistance they could control and continue to confine.  He
envisioned interdependence, absolute and complete.  He worked for a level playing
field for all and the cards fall where they may.  He concluded, that you must stand, not
be braced or buoyed.  Is not that the very fabric of the Constitution? The qualities that I
don’t want to be lost and to go unrecognized are; His strength of character, his talent to
lead, and foremost, his intelligence and comprehension of what was relevant.  No way
was he always right but in most ways he was never wrong.
Anniversaries are remembered by dates and dates are remembered by
anniversaries.  On February 21, 2005, forty years will have passed since the jealousy
and fear came to a repulsive and horrible climax in 1965.  During what had become a
routine of construction, in front of a room filled to capacity in the Audubon Ballroom,
along with his wife and their six little girls, several men stood, approached and
assassinated America’s First Black President.  WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER?