Penn State students, community members honor Malcolm X’s legacy, ‘words of wisdom’

Penn State students, scholars and community members joined together Tuesday to celebrate the centenary of civil rights activist Malcolm X’s birth.

Held at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, the event was organized by a range of contributors including the Borough of State College, Penn State’s Department of African American Studies and Webster’s Bookstore Cafe. It featured panel discussions, poetry readings, refreshments and more.

Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925, and events across the country have been held to celebrate the 100th anniversary year of his birth. He was assassinated in 1965 while speaking at a Muslim Mosque, Inc. rally in New York.

Upon entrance Tuesday, attendees were greeted with an exhibition titled “X Files: Malcolm X’s Intellectual Genealogy in the Archive,” curated by Keisha Oliver.

Oliver, a research assistant for the Charles L. Blockson Collection of African Americana and The African Diaspora, said the materials were necessary for visitors to contextualize the human rights activist’s legacy.

The pop-up exhibit featured political ephemera, newspaper clippings and various primary sources collected from the Ken Lawrence Collection, the New Left pamphlet collection and Pasquerilla Spiritual Center’s Eisenhower chapel records.

“Having those primary sources there in the flesh, I think really resonates in a different way than reading a contemporary book that you source in the library,” Oliver said. “This is something that’s coming from the ‘60s ... which is inspiring.”

Among the materials was a recording of Malcom X’s public speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” which Oliver said she finds “fascinating” partly because of his frankness.

“He spoke his mind, and I think that’s something that I stand by,” Oliver said. “I think it’s very important to speak your mind, particularly as a Black woman in a predominantly white institution.”

Though she said she and Malcolm slightly diverge on how to appropriately handle controversial speech, his philosophy of being frank and firm is one she resonates with. Oliver was a keen listener throughout the event and said she was particularly struck by remarks from Keith Gilyard, a professor of African American Studies, who spoke about Malcolm X’s connection to the arts.

“Seeing Malcolm X’s appreciation for the arts makes me realize that there’s certain human qualities to who we are, no matter how we work or where we were, the personal always kind of intersects with the professional,” Oliver said. “The human element of who he was is what really resonates with me.”

Ellen McLarney, a professor of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, began her remarks with an apology addressed to Malcolm X. McLarney said she was honored by the invitation to speak, but had personal worries about the optics of a white woman presenting information about the Black revolutionary.

“There’s the problem of cultural appropriation ... going into communities and extracting knowledge for my career or something, ” McLarney said. “I worry about that stuff. I want to make sure that my scholarship is ethical.”

Though McLarney had these qualms and has had them for the majority of her career in academia, she continues because she feels a calling to scholarship.

“I had done my own self education in Black Studies, and that for me was like a way of ... decolonizing my own education that was very white,” McLarney said.

The scholar discussed the role of music in Malcom X’s activism and played snippets of songs such as “Oh Lord, How Long,” by the Famous Ward Singers and “A White Man’s Heaven is a Black Man’s Hell” by Louis Farrakhan throughout.

Tuesday’s event also featured a student panel with a representative from Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Students Association and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Committee.

Roua Daas, SJP’s representative, said she saw the event as an opportunity to highlight the conflict in Gaza and honor the impact Malcom X’s legacy has on the advocacy group.

“His legacy in the Black liberation struggle ... the lessons that he gives are lessons that we try to really embody as an organization,” Daas said, “especially as an anti-imperialist and internationalist organization.”

During the panel, Daas read some of Malcolm X’s writing, shared her interpretation of his works and expressed how she hopes globally people can begin to understand the intersection of their struggles.

“Malcolm X’s words of wisdom teach us that we must come together to fight the common oppressor,” Daas said.

Malcolm X is more than just a guiding figure for the student group, he is also of great importance to Daas personally.

“When I think of Malcolm X, I think of someone that is really courageous, and someone that in his time refused to be silent about what is right,” Daas said. “That is a lesson that I carry with me every day.”

Following the afternoon of events, a reception was held in the Hintz Family Alumni Center.

This story was originally published October 1, 2025 at 11:44 AM.