100 Years of Malcolm: Black Migration, Global Solidarity, and Revolutionary Legacy
100 Years of Malcolm: Black Migration, Global Solidarity, and Revolutionary Legacy
At the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), we believe in the power of the global Black diaspora.
We know that Black freedom must be borderless, that our lives and struggles are deeply connected across nations, and that migration — forced and chosen — is a defining part of our story. We are here because we know: Black people have always moved, and we have always fought.
Few people embodied that truth more fully than Malcolm X.
On May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, a Grenadian woman named Louise Little gave birth to her fourth child: Malcolm. Louise and her husband Earl Little, a Baptist preacher and organizer, were members of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) — one of the largest and most visionary Black-led movements the world has ever seen. With over six million members and 900 chapters in more than 40 countries, the UNIA offered a bold vision: Africa for the Africans, those at home and those abroad.
That vision resonated with both immigrant and U.S.-born Black communities — just as it does today. And though the Little family would face devastating violence — the murder of Earl, the institutionalization of Louise, the separation of their children — the legacy of Pan-Africanism, resistance, and Black pride was passed on to Malcolm.
And he carried it into the world like fire.
“We are African, and we happen to be in America. We’re not American. We are a people who formerly were Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America. Our forefathers weren’t the Pilgrims. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock — the rock was landed on us.”
Malcolm X was not just a champion of human rights — he was an internationalist. He saw clearly that Black liberation in the United States could never be separated from the freedom struggles of Black people worldwide.
“As long as we think that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you’ll never get Mississippi straightened out. Not until you start realizing your connection with the Congo.”
These sentiments remain true today in 2025. That connection is the foundation of BAJI’s work.
We see the same threads that Malcolm named — in the detention of Haitian asylum seekers, in the underfunding of African and Caribbean communities in U.S. cities, in the surveillance of Black protestors, and in the global economy that exploits African labor while policing African movement.
Malcolm’s words are not history — they are instructions.
And this week, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, we are reminded not only of what was taken from us, but of what remains: Courage. Clarity. Connection.
A deep, disciplined love for our people — everywhere we are.
Malcolm X was known by many names.
Omowale — “The Child Who Has Returned Home.”
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz — a name taken after his pilgrimage to Mecca, symbolizing both faith and transformation.
And to many of us: our Shining Black Prince.
We lost him to violence.
We honor him by organizing.
By continuing the work he began.
By remembering that Blackness is global.
That our enemies are shared.
And that our liberation must move faster than the borders meant to contain it.
Happy 100th birthday, Malcolm.
We are still learning from you.
And we are still building in your name.