Malcolm X is important because his experiences are typical of the experiences that transformed African Americans in the twentieth century - the move from rural peasantry to industrial proletariat to postindustrial redundancy - all of which prepared them for a truly revolutionary role. He is one of the two most important black leadership figures in the second half of the twentieth century. Along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X clarified the alternatives facing black people in the postindustrial period. Malcolm's intervention into the movement was primarily ideological. Tens of thousands of black people were energized by him to take action. He rearticulated their moods, feelings, and sensibilities in ways that helped them gain greater clarity as to who they were, what their problems were, and how they might go about building a movement to liberate themselves. He did this not through innovative thinking and ideas but through a down-to-earth rearticulation of the black radical tradition. / Exponent of the black radical tradition: ideology, culture, and class / The black radical tradition had roots in nineteenth-century Pan-Negro nationalism, twentieth-century Pan-Africanism and Garveyism, and the class struggle approach of the African Blood Brotherhood. Malcolm X came to understand more perfectly this black radical tradition in the last eleven months of his life.