Constance Mitchell recalls Malcolm X’s February 1965 visit to Rochester

Posted by [email protected] | Sep 26, 2015 | History | 0 |

Democrat and Chronicle, February 17, 1965. Page 1

• February 21, 2015

In her story on the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, Erica Bryant has done impressive journalistic sleuthing by uncovering several new accounts of Malcom’s visit to Rochester only five days before his death.

democratandchronicle.com/story/news/local/columnists/bryant/2015/02/20/erica-bryant-malcolm-assassination-th-anniversary/23738471/

A while back, for a D & C Guest Essay, I also looked into Malcolm’s trip to Rochester. Like Bryant, I also came across the chilling Democrat and Chronicle headline in which Malcolm essentially predicted his own assassination: “Marked for Death, Says Malcolm X.” Tragically, he was correct.

I also learned that Constance Mitchell, the first African-American woman elected to the Rochester City Council, was a friend and frequent correspondent of Malcom’s. (If her memory serves, Malcolm stayed at her house that February night.)

As seen in essay, Mitchell, who was not surprised by the assassination, recalls Malcom as a humanist and peacemaker. Ultimately, Mitchell did not think Malcom died in vain. As she said: “There has been tremendous progress in the past 40 years. If Malcolm were alive today, he would probably say this progress is a message from God.”

SEE ALSO

51 years ago when Malcolm X was assassinated 5 days after his prophecy in Rochester. And his Speech to Mississippi Youth

Revisiting Rochester black history

About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.