The Malcolm X Suit and How it Became a Part of My Black History
So, it is February, which means it is Black History Month. Now usually, I would start with different black fashion designers who have made an impact in the fashion industry, but this year, I want to do things a little differently. So, I just finished watching “Soul of a Nation: X/onerated- The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice” on Hulu, and this specific memory kept coming to me.
It was summer 1992, and Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” was in theaters. Malcolm X baseball suits were very popular during this time, and you could purchase them from anywhere.
They were seen on TV, in magazines, on the news, etc.
There was a summer event going on in my hometown at the local park (formerly Westside Park, now J.L. King Memorial Park) and there were Malcolm X baseball suits everywhere. I begged my mom to get me one of those suits, and when she did, you couldn’t tell me anything! Everything was great until the start of my fourth-grade year. I was at a new school, and there was a new principal. Now, let me give you a historical background about this school. It was one of three schools in our area that was not only founded and named after a local black educator, but it was one of the three schools that black students attended during the Jim Crow era. This information is very important because the new principal was Caucasian.
I didn’t wear my Malcolm X baseball suit on the first day of school, but I knew I was going to wear it during that week. We all went to our classrooms and are greeted by our teacher. My teacher was African-American, and her mother was my head start teacher years ago (Head Start is funded by the federal government and is available free of charge to low-income families who have 3- to 5-year-old children. https://www.theclassroom.com/differences-between-head-start-preschool-7893034.html). She started to teach, and then, a voice came on the intercom. It’s the new principal. She’s greeting everyone and going over the morning announcements. When we thought she was finished, she said, “🔊 Oh, and by the way, STUDENTS CAN NOT WEAR MALCOLM X SUITS!!” I didn’t hear anything else she said after that because I was stuck on the fact that she said loudly over the intercom that we couldn’t wear these suits. There was nothing in the handbook that stated these suits couldn’t be worn so why would she say this? My teacher kind of shrugged it off and continued teaching. When I came home from school, I didn’t think about anything the principal said. Everything was a blur. Before bed, my mom asked if I wanted to wear my Malcolm X baseball suit to school the next day, and I said yes. She ironed it, and I went to bed.
The next day, I wore my Malcolm X baseball suit to school, and everyone looked at me with this worried look on their faces. One of my friends came to me and said, “you really wore your Malcolm X suit to school?” I said yes. When I came into the classroom, my teacher smiled at me, greeted everyone, and started teaching. It was now recess time, and I’m playing outside with my friends. We walked into the building, and all of a sudden, I felt someone forcefully grab my arm. I look, and it was a teacher that I’d never seen before. She was Caucasian and her hair looked like the Jan Brady wig.
She asked me for my name, and I asked for hers so I can report her for forcefully grabbing my arm. She wouldn’t tell me her name, but I have an excellent photographic memory, so I knew how to describe her. She asked for my name again; I tell her, then asked for hers again. Not only did she not tell me her name, but she asked, “Didn’t the principal tell you not to wear Malcolm X suits? I told her that the principal didn’t buy any of my clothing, and it did not state in the handbook that these suits are not supposed to be worn. She then let my arm go, and there was a red mark on my arm. By the time I came into my classroom, my classmates had told my teacher what happened. My teacher questioned me, then asked for the other teacher’s name, and because she never told me, I had to describe her. When I started describing her horrible hair hat, she knew immediately who I was talking about. When I came home, I told my mom what happened, and she was furious. When I told her the principal told us this, she then asked “What does she have against Malcolm X for her not to want any children to wear these suits?!” She then said, “Don’t worry because you will be able to wear that suit.”
The next day, after lunch, the principal gets on the intercom and says, “🔊Students. I want to tell you all that I was wrong for telling you all that you cannot wear Malcolm X suits. I shouldn’t have said that, and I want to apologize to you all. Also, I want to tell you all that you can wear Malcolm X suits.” My teacher and I looked at each other, and she smiled at me. When I came home and told my mom what happened, she said “I know because I had a talk with her about how wrong she was for not allowing you all to wear those suits.” What I did not know until later that day was that my mom went to the school, and schooled the principal on who Malcolm X was, why he was important in Black History, and why she was wrong for saying these suits couldn’t be worn in school. She and the principal had a heated debate, and she found out the reason the principal didn’t want the suits worn at the school was because he was…………….mean to white people! My mom asked if she remembered how mean white people were to everyone else around the time he was alive, and she had nothing to say. So, because of my mom, we were able to wear Malcolm X suits to school again.
Although it has been a long time since I’ve worn a Malcolm X suit, I still have that memory of my mom as the reason that we could wear Malcolm X suits to school when I was in the fourth grade. So, in honor of Black History Month, not only do I want to continue to celebrate and discuss black designers, how black people influenced fashion, but I also want to celebrate my mom and the Malcolm X suit for being a part of my personal black history moment.
