Les Payne’s new biography of Malcolm X already has made waves, revealing a clandestine meeting between the incendiary civil rights activist and an armada of Ku Klux Klan leaders in the 1950s to explore a shared interest: the formation of a separate, all-Black state. 

It also reinforces the question of whether the wrong men were convicted of gunning down Malcolm X in a New York City ballroom in 1965. Manhattan District attorney Cyrus Vance is reviewing the case. 

Payne, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for New York’s Newsday, spent nearly 30 years reporting and writing the authoritative account of the life of the former Malcolm Little. Payne’s daughter and principal researcher, Tamara Payne, finished the book after his death of a heart attack in March 2018. 

She discusses its findings and the story of the iconic and controversial Malcolm X in a special online Library presentation. It marks the release of the book – against the backdrop of the Black Lives Movement – that day.