The Panels
Florian Jenkins painted seven panels for the series The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X. The first three murals, located in the public hallway on the first floor, provide an introduction that features uplifting themes of the civil rights movement: leadership, endurance, and legacy. The remaining four, located inside the first-floor lounge, chronicle the life of Malcolm X and his family through these same three themes.
The Leader
Panel one from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
The Leader
Installed just beyond the entryway of the building, The Leader is the first panel Jenkins completed. Inspired by Migration, the first of José Clemente Orozco’s Baker Library mural sequence The Epic of American Civilization,[i] this panel shows the human race moving toward the future, led by a large male figure pointing the way for the others to follow. Jenkins shows the importance of communities moving forward together under the leader by depicting a group of men, one woman, and a child, all—with one exception—facing the same direction with determination in their faces. They seem to be in deep contemplation of the future ahead, yet the composition does not include a particular image that represents the future; it is left open to the viewer’s imagination. On the other hand, a figure the artist described as the “Individual Personality”[ii] appears at the bottom left of the panel wearing an uncertain gaze. With the background of the image blurred and the future unspecified, Jenkins makes clear that this mural is meant to be timeless and to suggest the ongoing importance of leadership and community.
Tribes
Panel two from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
Tribes
Though not physically connected, it seems the main figure in The Leader points toward this next panel in the series, Tribes. Spreading across the panel is the shape of the African continent, populated with faces and masks that represent the diversity of the tribes of Africa. Jenkins paints each mask near its area of origin. The panel is densely populated with faces, masks, and other images: though they are all individual motifs, they are portrayed as a collective. These faces flood out of Africa’s borders and into the frame of the larger mural. Here, Jenkins shows how the continent gave rise to the diversity of the African Diaspora. Many of the faces were modeled after the students on campus in the summer of 1972.[iii]
Dance
Panel three from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
Dance
The last of the panels outside of the study/lounge, this mural depicts several figures dancing and twisting in almost surreal gestures. Dance was named explicitly without the article “the” to define the word as a verb, an expression of an action.[iv] Here, Jenkins pays tribute to dancing as an important act of freedom. The mural shakes and moves in time with the parties of the basement.
The Assassination
Panel four from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
The Assassination
Stepping into the lounge, we encounter the panel The Assassination . This dynamic panel depicts the sudden fear and emotions experienced during the assassination of Malcolm X. The timeline of the panel begins just a few seconds before the gunshot. Reportedly, two men at a rally in the Audubon Ballroom started shouting about a pickpocketing between them. The commotion led to disarray among the crowd, and suddenly an attendee rushed toward the stage with a shotgun and began to shoot at Malcolm. These scenes are depicted on the left side of the doorway. On the right side we see two bodyguards looking out toward the audience at the event. We see the path of their heads as they turn quickly and notice the gun pointed at Malcolm. The murderer holds a gun and is guided by another figure—the only distinctly white figure in the murals—to point straight at a saddened Malcolm X. Here, Jenkins uses repetition and densely packed images to portray the chaos of the event and the great force of the gunshots, both their physical impact on Malcolm, and also the emotional turmoil the shooting caused.
Betty Shabazz
Panel five from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
Betty Shabazz
This panel was painted to honor Betty Shabazz, the wife of Malcolm X, who after her husband's death was left to raise their six children. In this panel we see portraits of their children below Betty, who looks into the distance with a slight smile as if to symbolize hope, despite the tragedy of her husband’s untimely death. Her arms are crossed and she stands up tall, painted in bright colors. This more prominent portrayal contrasts with the smaller figure on the bottom left, who represents Betty as a mourning widow. She stands tall as a strong black woman.
Malcolm: A Lifestyle
Panel six from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
Malcolm: A Lifestyle
Here we see a representation of Malcolm’s life and legacy portrayed from left to right. First, the colorful rays of sunshine rise up over the tenements leading us to see the pregnant woman above—a symbol of birth and the beginning. Below the woman, a young boy grows through different stages of life, framing a central cluster of portraits that reveals the boy’s identity as the future Malcolm X. The sequence of portraits concludes with the head of a woman, Betty Shabazz, marking the subject’s marriage as an important stage in Malcolm’s life.[v] Finally, on the far right, we see a ghostly or spiritual form that can be understood as a symbol of the future. The form takes the shape of a black woman’s figure with a face partially illuminated by the moon. Her silhouette blends into the shapes of the mosques in the foreground.
The Way of Malik
Panel seven from The Temple Murals: The Life of Malcolm X
June 15–October 15, 1972, acrylic on cotton canvas and linen canvas. Commissioned by the Afro-American Society, Dartmouth College; P.972.231.
The Way of Malik
The Way of Malik was the last panel completed during Jenkins’s visit to campus. The challenge in completing this panel was to create a final representation of Malcolm that was distinct from the others. Here Malcolm is seen relaxing with a book in a field under the peaceful light of sunset. He is depicted lounging on the floor, but looks up with a facial expression that suggests he is preoccupied with something. His exact thoughts are unclear, and leave us to wonder about the imagined future for the Malcolm in this panel. Or perhaps he is reflecting on the past.
[i] Florian Jenkins, “The Temple Murals,” 1972; reprinted in Life of Malcolm X by Florian Jenkins, Stefan Bradley and Crishuana Williams (Hanover, NH: Hood Museum of Art, 2014).
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Nelson Armstrong (Class of 1971), telephone interview by author, February 24, 2018.
[iv] Jenkins, "The Temple Murals."
[v] Ibid.