Will They Do Me Like Malcolm?

Today would be Malcolm X's 85th birthday. Obviously, the former Nation of Islam leader is being remembered with articles like this:

"In the last years of their lives, they were starting to move toward one another," says David Howard-Pitney, who recounted the Capitol Hill meeting in his book "Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s."

"While Malcolm is moderating from his earlier position, King is becoming more militant," Pitney says.

More:

"It was his critique of America from the bottom up that was so shocking," says Young. "He was a young man with a Ph.D mind, but he was put out of school. He educated himself in jail by reading the dictionary."

A true visionary:

"King was a political revolutionary. Malcolm was a cultural revolutionary," Cone says. "Malcolm changed how black people thought about themselves. Before Malcolm came along, we were all Negroes. After Malcolm, he helped us become black."

The article is pretty interesting, I'll throw it up "On My Mind," so you all don't have to dig through this. Malcolm X was a very fascinating figure.

And Now You May Go

Those were the famous words that Virgil Sollozzo said to Tom Hagen in The Godfather Part I after telling him to convince Sonny to go along with the narcotics business that he proposed. Today, another Tom Hagen will be released; Thomas Hagen, the assassin of Malcolm X was paroled today:

Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted his role in the 1965 assassination of iconic black leader Malcolm X, was paroled Tuesday.

While controversy surrounds someone who took part in the assassination of such an iconic leader, Hagen has done his part in prison and earned the right to his freedom:

To win his release, Hagan was required to seek, obtain and maintain a job, support his children and abide by a curfew. He must continue to meet those conditions while free. He told the parole board he's worked the same job for the past seven years. He told the New York Post in 2008 he was working at a fast-food restaurant.

Others feel that Hagen should spend the rest of his life in prison:

"I personally find it strange that for a couple decades any person convicted in the assassination of such an iconic figure would be allowed such leniency," Ramadan said.

That's Zead Ramadan, Board Chairmen of The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. However, it appears that Hagen has the right mindset:

"My focus is to maintain my family and to try to make things a little better for them. It's upward mobility, and to encourage my children to complete their education because it's a must."

History must move on.