Since 1968, here in Omaha, Nebraska, the birthday of Malcolm X has been celebrated by North Omaha residents on May 19th. Historically, this was an official citywide holiday and documented well by the Omaha Star and Omaha World Herald newspapers. Before the establishment of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, it was the Wesley House that led the efforts and collaborated with local organizations to host the annual birthday celebration. The North Omaha residents connected over a few days of parades, dinners and special lectures or discussions around the contributions and legacy of Brother Malcolm.
As the decades carried on, our organization has helped maintain community awareness around the birthday celebration. However, it has seen a few years of ignored efforts especially in the 90's and early 2000's. This year, we were excited to bring people together once again for a 4-day event series including a luncheon with Karen Wells, the mother of Amir Locke, Gus Newport (a true friend of Malcolm X) and Bobby Seale, Co-Founder of the Black Panther Party. We are also currently featuring images from the Omaha Star archives of past photos and articles documenting this moment in history. If you weren't able to join us in person, please keep reading below for the recap.
Event Recap
If you were not able to attend any of our birthday celebration events, we've shared a few recap images below. Also here is a link to the Facebook live video stream featuring Gus Newport, Bobby Seale and Karen Wells. Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=519002496615597.
Special gratitude to our volunteer committee for their efforts working with the vendors and community to pull this off! And if course we want to also thank the visitors and donors who gave their time and funds throughout the busy weekend!
