The Dead Are Arising

The definitive biography of Malcolm X- “fascinating and essential” (Washington Post), this is a new portrait which vividly rewrites much of the known narrative

The Dead Are Arising is a penetrating and riveting work that affirms the centrality of Malcolm X to the African American freedom struggle and the story of the twentieth century. Renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne paints vivid and dramatic scenes from start to finish, from Malcolm’s clandestine meeting with the KKK in 1961 to a minute-by-minute account of his murder in 1965, in which Payne reveals the complicity of the American government.

Payne interviewed everyone he could find who had known Malcolm X in a nearly thirty-year-long quest – including siblings, classmates, friends, cellmates, FBI moles and cops, and political leaders. Conjuring a never-before-seen world of one of the twentieth century’s most compelling figures, this magisterial work sets his life not only within the political struggles of his day but also against the larger backdrop of American history.

Author Biography

Les Payne (1941-2018), born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and a former editor at Newsday. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, Payne also wrote an award-winning syndicated column. Tamara Payne served as Les Payne’s principal researcher. She lives in New York.