The Temple Murals: the Life of Malcolm X by Florian Jenkins

THE TEMPLE MURALS: THE LIFE OF MALCOLM X BY FLORIAN JENKINS HOOD MUSEUM OF ART | CUTTER-SHABAZZ ACADEMIC AFFINITY HOUSE | DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PREFACE The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X by Florian Arts at Dartmouth on January 25, 1965, just one month a bed of grass, his head lifted in contemplation; across Jenkins has been a Dartmouth College treasure for before his tragic assassination. Seven years later, the room, above the fireplace, his face appears in many forty years, and we are excited to reintroduce it with the students in the College’s Afro-American Society invited angles and perspectives, with colors that are not absolute publication of this brochure, the research that went into Jenkins to create a mural in their affinity house, which but nuanced, suggesting the subject’s inner mysteries its contents, and the new photographs of the murals that they had just rededicated as the El Hajj Malik El Shabazz and anxieties, reflecting our own. illustrate it. Painted during a five-month period in 1972 Temple, after the name and title that Malcolm X had The murals also point out how starkly we differ from in the Cutter-Shabazz affinity house at Dartmouth, the adopted in 1964 after returning from his pilgrimage in Malcolm, who is rendered in contrasts in color, especially mural speaks to a potent moment in American history, Mecca. Now under the care of the Hood Museum of Art, above the door threshold. A white-masked specter one connected to events both in the life of civil rights The Temple Murals are powerful works that remind us of stands behind a black gunman, holding the gun toward leader Malcolm X and the moment of Dartmouth history the strength of individual activist voices, which Jenkins Malcolm as a horrified, blurred-face bystander watches in which the mural was created. The themes are relevant memorialized in his paintings to inspire Dartmouth’s as streaks of blood leap out in the spray of gunfire. today as we reflect on the past half century, and well students for generations to come. Jenkins’s accusation is bold and clear: America’s violent beyond, of the fight for equal rights. history of oppression, filled with legacies of slavery, white There are many people to thank for bringing this Michael Taylor men lynching black men, segregation, bombs thrown brochure to fruition. It began as an idea launched at Director, Hood Museum of Art through windows of Black homes and churches—not just the fortieth reunion of the Black Alumni at Dartmouth Malcolm X’s black gunman—is responsible for the death Association (BADA) on October 27, 2012, when Jenkins of Malcolm X. It’s a message hard to swallow just as paint tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt returned to the College as an invited guest of BADA. I is hard to swallow, and its vigil above the entrance and wish first, therefore, to thank the artist for this astonishing exit reinforces its cautionary strokes. work of art that he created. The accompanying preface I couldn’t count how many times I’ve been told I look like The mural’s placement couldn’t be more fitting. by recent Dartmouth graduate Aaron Colston ’14 on this the subject of Jenkins’s mural in Cutter-Shabazz, El Hajj Cutter-Shabazz is home to a Living-Learning Community page attests to the powerful legacy of his vision to create Malik Shabazz, popularly referred to as Malcolm X. I think (residential education program) for Black students and a series of murals for the benefit of Dartmouth students. part of it has to do with being a young man of color who allies. It is also home to the Afro-American Society, an I also wish to thank the brochure authors Stefan Bradley, likes books. But, I will finally admit, part of it is actually organization that serves and advocates for the academic, Director of African American Studies and Associate Pro- true. I see similarities in jawline, wide shoulders, and in cultural, social, and political needs of Black students. I fessor of History at Saint Louis University, and Crishuana the right lighting, hair color. It doesn’t help that I often can proudly attest that many groundbreaking moments Williams, Dartmouth Class of 2012, who conducted an wear thick-rimmed glasses. In some ways when I look at in the recent history of the College were planned at important oral history project with Florian Jenkins in the mural, it’s like looking in a mirror. Cutter-Shabazz, and I hope that Malcolm’s familiar brown October 2012. Finally, I wish to thank Provost Carolyn But I think to look any further for a physical resem- eyes piercing through his thick-rimmed glasses will be Dever for her support of this publication through Dart- blance would be to miss the point of Jenkins’s mural. In faithful witnesses for years to come. mouth’s Public Art initiative. fact, a great many of us share qualities similar to those Malcolm X delivered a powerful speech on the stage depicted in the mural’s numerous portrayals of Malcolm Aaron Colston ’14 of Spaulding Auditorium in the Hopkins Center for the X. On one end he’s quietly reading a book, reclined on Afro-American Society Vice-President, 2013–14 s 3 t Black in Green: students, who desired to make the College an institution in the United States.5 As part of the committee, Dickey The Murals of Florian Jenkins that recognized all American heroes, helped school offi- was well aware of the struggles of black people when at Dartmouth College cials understand the significance of the murals and build- he took the helm of the College, and he worked to make ing. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, those students’ Dartmouth more accessible to students of color. Although Stefan Bradley efforts reflected the struggle of African Americans on and the new president’s emphasis on admissions provided a off campus. welcome change for black students, life for African Ameri- artmouth College, the first of its Ivy League peers Acknowledging American icons was not a problem cans once on campus proved trying at times. Dto graduate an African American, has played a for Dartmouth, as it had already named a building after In an attempt to create a more welcoming atmo- noteworthy role in the Black Freedom Movement of the the great orator, U.S. Secretary of State, and Dartmouth sphere for black people on and off campus, black alumni twentieth century.1 Although traditional and conservative alumnus Daniel Webster. Webster’s biographer noted that and white students who were part of the Dartmouth by nature of its age, location, and history, the College the American nationalist was particularly elitist and con- Christian Union (DCU) took action. By the early 1960s, has at times displayed a brand of progressivism that has servative in his approach to society and politics.3 Perhaps Dartmouth had graduated enough black students to allow placed the exclusive New Hampshire educational center the decision to name a building in Webster’s honor fit well for a Black Alumni Association. Members of the associ- ahead of most of institutional America. The 1971 dedica- with the traditionalism of the College. Dartmouth, how- ation worked for the Ford Foundation and the National tion of the El Hajj Malik El Shabazz Temple was a prime ever, astounded the world of higher education by naming Scholarship and Service Foundation for Negro Students example of Dartmouth’s push towards progressive action an edifice for a twentieth-century Black Nationalist, who that sought to expose schools like Dartmouth to a wider on behalf of black people. The Black Freedom Movement not only had not attended Dartmouth (or any other col- pool of black applicants.6 Those black alumni lent their manifested itself in different ways on campuses across lege) but had spent time in prison. The Jenkins murals talents to black student recruitment. At the same time, the the nation. At Dartmouth, beautiful murals of the shining only shined more light on that notable act. mostly white participants in the DCU went to the South black prince of the movement, Malcolm X, showed the Under the influence of Dartmouth’s evolving lead- to help the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee expanse of the push for African American freedom. ership, the conservative culture of the College steadily (SNCC) register voters in states like Mississippi.7 They Shortly after its dedication, the Afro-American Soci- shifted toward liberalism in the decades after World War returned to campus to share what they learned about the ety at Dartmouth College commissioned Florian Jenkins, II. Alumnus John Sloan Dickey, Class of 1929, became civil rights movement with their peers. a New Jersey artist and director of the MID-Block Art the College’s twelfth president after a short stint in the To assist with black life in the Ivy League institu- Service, to transform the walls of the first floor of Cutter corrections field and in the U.S. State Department. Under tion, one white alumnus took a unique approach. In the Hall into a series of murals celebrating Malcolm X (El Hajj the Dickey administration (1945–1970), Dartmouth world beyond campus, wars raged over the treatment Malik El Shabazz). Jenkins started the murals in June doubled its black student population and increased the of black people and over the expansion of democracy in 1972 and completed the project in October.2 Inside the resources available to students of color.4 Black students, foreign lands. On a smaller scale, neighborhood gangs building, which became known as the El Hajj Malik El however, still faced problems because of the reaction of in cities around the nation skirmished over “turf.” The Shabazz Temple, the acrylic and plastic-based water- fellow Dartmouth students and affiliates to their race and Conservative Vice Lords attempted to carve out space soluble painted images still adorn the inner walls of the backgrounds.

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