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The latest installment of Genius: MLK/X season 4, presented by National Geographic, follows parallel stories about the lives of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The series collectively provides an extensively detailed retrospective of the civil rights movement, which initially struggled with its alternating split-screen structure before gaining momentum.
Released on National Geographic on Thursday, Feb. 1, Damione Macedon and Raphael Jackson Jr. are the executive producers and showrunners for Genius: MLK/X. The meeting scene details the encounter between the two leaders who, despite having profoundly divergent perspectives on the way forward, remained connected.
Did Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr meet?
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, two civil rights activists who adopted completely opposing stances, encountered each other for the very first and only time in person as a result of the Civil Rights Act. Both King and X were in Washington on March 26, 1964, for the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act.
According to Peter Louis Goldman, the author of a book about Malcolm X, he sneaked into the back row of one of King's press conferences. As King exited through one entrance, X exited through another and apprehended him.
Is Genius: MLK/X based on a true story?
Episode 1 of Genius: MLK/X provided a highly enlightening account of the early years of Civil Rights legends Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Minister Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre).
This story focuses on the childhoods of the two men, whereas many television and film depictions of the legends tend to overlook this period. This may cause a certain amount of disorientation among those who do not identify as historians.
Highlighted scenes that depict the differences between fiction and facts:
1) Martin Luther King's real name
Fiction: Michael King Jr. (Ryder Wynn) is a little child enjoying supper with his family when his father, Michael King Sr. (Lennie James), tells him about his uncles Martin and Luther in Genius: MLK/X. In respect of his uncles and his father's desires, Michael King Sr. changes his and his son's names to Martin Luther.
Michael King and Michael King Jr. become Martin Luther King and Martin Luther King Jr. Alberta Williams King (LisaGay Hamilton) asks her husband whether his trip to Berlin and passion for Martin Luther influenced this choice. He says his choice is all that counts, not his reasons. Young Michael hates the name change.
Fact: According to a report in The Washington Post, King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, with the name Michael King listed on the original birth certificate. The Civil Rights leader's name was not changed on the document until 1957, at the age of 28. It is also accurate to say that an adolescent named Martin Luther King Jr. found his new name unappealing.
2) Martin Luther King's suicide attempt
Fiction: In Genius: MLK/X, before leaving for Morehouse College in 1941, Martin Luther King Jr.'s parents urged their adolescent son to help his grandmother put up the Mount Olive Church women's day celebration. He wants to attend the fair's closing day, but his parents demand he prioritize family.
King (Jayln Hall) quickly defies his parents and goes to the fair. He arrives home to see his folks crying after learning his grandmother died. A heartbroken King rushes upstairs to his bedroom, looks out the window, and jumps at the funeral repast. After hearing a bang, his dad rushes outside to find King comatose.
Fact: According to Psychology Today, King allegedly suffered from severe depression on multiple occasions and attempted suicide twice as a youth. The death of his grandmother from a myocardial infarction predates his thirteenth birthday, according to Columbia University, which documents one such attempt.
He sneaked out to observe a parade in violation of his agreement to remain at home with her. Weary with remorse, he leaped from a second-story window upon his return home and the discovery that his grandmother had passed away.
3) What happened to Malcolm X's father?
Fiction: When Malcolm X's father, Earl Little (Gbenga Akinnagbe), opens the door where his family is home in Genius: MLK/X, two white guys on the porch tell him the Little family lives in a white-only area. Earl fights back, and his wife, Louise (Parisa Fitz-Henley), dresses them down.
The guys depart, but a Molotov cocktail is hurled into the house, and a crucifix is torched in the front yard later that night. Earl leaves the house and walks along train tracks at night. After the two people who knocked on his door approach him, the story switches to Earl's burial.
Fact: The West Philadelphia Collaborative History of the University of Pennsylvania stated:
"1931, Earl Little was killed by a Lansing streetcar, a bizarre and gruesome mishap that the Lansing coroner ruled accidental, though Malcolm believed his father was murdered by a Ku Klux Klan-like hate group, the Black Legion."
Episodes of Genius: MLK/X airs on Thursdays on National Geographic and become available on Fridays on Disney+ and Hulu.
