With his appreciation of the power of words, Malcolm helped change the very names people called themselves, turning “black” from an insult among so-called American Negroes—fighting words, in many cases—to a proud affirmation. Later, after his sojourn in Africa and his conversations with black American expatriates there, he helped popularize the term “Afro-American,” embracing an Africa that had been seen only as an embarrassment by the Nation of Islam, as well as by many Christian Negroes. “You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not the tree,” he would say as he directed African American eyes
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