Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks At The 93rd Birthday Celebration Commemorating Malcolm X

May 19, 2018

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. I want to tell you that for Chirlane and I, it is an honor to be here in the presence of this great family and in this place where we remember such an extraordinary man. At the beginning though I want to note that everything we do to change this city is in partnership and in the spirit of equality so I want to start by thanking and acknowledging and admiring the First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray.

[Applause]

And to this family that has given so much to all of us, I just want to offer gratitude because I think sometimes we underestimate what it means to a family that has traveled such a difficult path but has done so much good, left us all with such a powerful imprint, let’s thank them.

[Applause]

This is a day of celebration of a great life, a day of solidarity with the family and appreciation, and a day to think about what this world would have been like without Malcolm. And that really grips me because so many of us, our lives were changed because of Malcolm in one way or another. The way we think, the way we act, the way that people around us understand the world so much of it goes back to him. And I’m going to talk about my own personal experience but I know this is true of literally millions of people in one way or another, their lives were changed by his words and his thoughts and his actions and his willingness to stand up. And if he had not been there, our society would have be profoundly different and I fear profoundly worse.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have a long, long way to go. We do. But celebrate that Malcolm was here. I’m preaching to the converted, I know it. But this is what’s animating me today and why I really wanted to be a part of this. Celebrate he was here and that no one else – I believe this in my heart, no one else could have done what he did. Others did great things but no one had before and no one has since, spoken with the particular clarity, the particular ability to wake people up and give people a strong sense of their value. I don’t know of anyone who did that in our history better than Malcolm X. And we celebrate that.

I was reading about another great man recently. Chirlane and I went a couple days ago to the opening a wonderful institution in this city which is the Annual African Film Festival. And it just started and I urge everyone to partake in it because it’s so powerful and part of the film we say was in Burkina Faso which made me think of Thomas Sankara.

And so I spent a little time dwelling on his moment in history and what he did. And there’s this one quote – so powerful, so basic. He literally said it in a speech a week before he was assassinated, Thomas Sankara, great leader of Burkina Faso said, “While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas.”

The ideas of Malcolm are as strong and powerful today as they were that day decades ago when we lost him. And they are on the minds of so many in so many ways. The idea, the voice, the lesson never left us. In many ways it got proven more true with each passing year.

So, I just want to say this very simply – when each one of us has that moment of awakening in our life, for a lot of us it is one book that changes our way of thinking. For me, I was about 15 years old when I read the autobiography of Malcolm X and to me it was probably the single, most influential book I ever read.

And the amount of truth in that one book is inestimable but I can say for myself, and I know Chirlane has felt so much of this as well, we were fueled – not only educated, not only enlightened – fueled by the thoughts of Malcolm.

He would never get to know how many of us were deeply moved and deeply affected but I think in what we saw of his time on this Earth, he knew he had the ability to move people forward, the ability to show them their own power.

And one thing I think, if we’re going to live in the spirit of Malcolm, is never talk yourself out of your own power.

[Applause]

I think everyone will agree, there’s plenty of folks who will try to talk you out of your power, and plenty of institutions in our society, and maybe even more starkly in the last year or two than we’ve seen in quite a while. But the power people hold is intrinsic and elemental. It’s always been there. It always will be there. Thank God Malcolm showed us that.

And now we live it out. I was very moved by Yusef’s words. And Yusef, finally some justice came to you and your colleagues. And yes, we remember what Donald Trump put in the newspaper but don’t worry justice will be served to him as well one day.

[Applause]

Always say, it comes around and goes around.

[Laughter]

So I just want to offer thanks. I want to offer thanks to everyone here for remembering and celebrating Malcolm. I want to offer thanks to everyone who worked so hard for justice. I want to offer thanks to the family because for so many of us, we just couldn’t think the way we do, we couldn’t act the way we do, we couldn’t be as good humans if it weren’t for Malcolm X.

Thank you. God bless you all.