Lomax, Louis Emanuel

Impact on the world

Lomax’s access to Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam — granted because Malcolm X refused to be interviewed by white reporters — made The Hate That Hate Produced a landmark, if controversial, moment in American television journalism, catapulting Malcolm X to national prominence even as critics later described the documentary’s framing as one-sided. From 1964 to 1968 Lomax hosted his own twice-weekly interview program on Los Angeles station KTTV, one of the first Black-hosted television talk shows, where he debated topics from Black Power to the Vietnam War and became an outspoken critic of what he considered the NAACP’s overly cautious approach to civil rights. He authored several influential books, including The Negro Revolt (1962) on the emerging civil rights movement and When the Word Is Given (1963) on the Nation of Islam, and was writing a documentary on the FBI’s possible role in Malcolm X’s assassination at the time of his own death.

Life & background

Born August 16, 1922, in Valdosta, Georgia, Lomax attended Paine College and claimed advanced degrees from American University and Yale that biographers later determined he never completed; he began his journalism career at the Baltimore Afro-American and Chicago Defender before entering television in 1958. He hosted his Los Angeles talk show through 1968 while lecturing widely and supporting civil rights organizations including CORE and SNCC, and died on July 30, 1970, in a car accident near Santa Rosa, New Mexico, at age 47, while returning from a lecture tour.

Sources

1. BlackPast.org; Face2Face Africa; AAIHS