Williams painted Malcolm on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X.
The haunting image of Malcolm's face emerges from an array of abstract lines, forms, and patterns, intermixed with symbols, all painted in the iconic, AFRICOBRA "coolade colors." The words "lives" and "is alive" repeat throughout the
composition. Many people today misunderstand the final legacy of Malcolm X, but by memorializing his image, AFRICOBRA artists connected him to their progressive vision of positive Black images and strong, unified communities. Just days before being assassinated, Malcolm X said in an interview with the writer Gordon Parks: "Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant — the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together — and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days — I'm glad to be free of them. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument."