‘He gave us a sense of pride’: Rev Al Sharpton on Malcolm X’s 100th birthday

Veteran activist reflects on Malcolm's legacy and decades of progress now rolled back by Trump and white supremacy on steroids'

When African Americans protested police brutality in New York, they were portrayed as rioters, Malcolm X told an audience at the London School of Economics. When shop windows were smashed in the Black community, he said, the press gave the impression that hoodlums, vagrants, criminals" wanted to break in and steal merchandise.

But this is wrong," Malcolm contended. In America the Black community in which we live is not owned by us. The landlord is white. The merchant is white. In fact, the entire economy of the Black community in the states is controlled by someone who doesn't even live there ... And these are the people who suck the economic blood of our community."