#malcom x
Khalid Albaih (@khartoon) just finished a road trip across the US. He took the trip because he wanted to visit places that played a key role in the civil rights movement.
And at the end of the day, he wanted to explore how American civil rights heroes could provide models for change back home.
Albeh is a satirist who uses cartoons to fight for civil rights and human rights across the Arab and Muslim world. He hoped the trip would lift his spirits.
His cartoons rarely have captions. In many ways, he’s trying to convey what he can’t — or isn’t allowed to say with words.
During his road trip, he visited Freedom Rider stops, and the place where Stokely Carmichael broke ranks and made a speech about black power. But the site that meant the most was the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center in New York City.
Growing up black, African and Muslim, he says Malcolm X was a hero to him.
“We don’t really have heroes in the Arab world right now,” he says. “We don’t have that character that young people can look up to. Our heroes have only been religious heroes, which are holy figures that never make a mistake.”
