Genius: MLK/X: Polar-Opposite Civil Rights Icons Contrast Seamlessly in National Geographic Series

By Liam Lacey

Rating: B+

Ambitious and sensitively acted, the eight-part historical series, Genius: MLK/X, offers a fresh dramatic take on familiar history with the dual biography of ‘60s civil rights’ activists, Martin Luther King Jr. (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) and Malcolm X (Aaron Pierre).

Their contrasting philosophies on American racism continue to resonate in the post-Black Lives Matter era. 

It’s the fourth season of the National Geographic anthology series (previous subjects were Einstein, Picasso and Aretha Franklin) and it is based on the 2020 history book The Sword and the Shield by Peniel E. Joseph, and Jeff Stetson’s 1987 play, The Meeting.

Aaron Pierre plays Malcolm X in Genius: MLK/X

As the series touches on the key political events in each man’s life, the script ping-pongs back and forth in parallel scenes, showing their common experiences as sons, husbands, fathers and clergymen.

Over the eight hours, the script works to reveal the common ground between Martin “I have a dream” Luther King, with his vision of racial equality and non-violence and the militant Malcolm “by any means necessary” X, who emphasized Black power, pride and identity.

Though he never accepted the strategy of non-violence, Malcom X, in the last two years of his life, became more open to alliances in the cause of civil rights. In his later years, King grew more radical in his criticism of American capitalism and militarism. 

To help humanize and expand our perception of these ideological idols, the series gives lots of screen time to the two men’s spouses, Coretta Scott King (Weruche Opia) and Betty Shabazz (Jayme Lawson), as well as parents and confidants as they rose from obscurity to international prominence.

The opening episode begins with a clip of Alabama Governer George Wallace’s 1963 “segregation now, segregation forever” speech, followed by a montage of protests and segregation signs in the South. We jump ahead a year in separate scenes with King and Malcolm X and their wives, picking out ties before their visits to Washington to witness the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act.

Here, we witness the only meeting between the two men, on March 26, 1964, when they crossed paths in the Senate building, shook hands and briefly posed for a photo op. 

From there, the series shifts back and forth following each man’s childhoods in the 1930s, beginning with Martin’s parents’ involvement in the Civil Rights movement and Malcom’s parents as a follower of Black nationalist, Marcus Garvey. While King, enjoyed a middle-class upbringing and was a prodigy as an orator, but he was sensitive, attempting suicide in his teens when he thought his selfishness had contributed to his grandmother’s death.

Malcolm X, neé Little, was a bright kid, elected class president in his mostly white school, but had his education ended when his father died and his mother was committed in a psychiatric hospital. He subsequently drifted into petty crime.

Both men ended up in Boston in the early 1950s, King as a doctoral student at Boston University, where he met his future wife, Malcolm X as a prisoner in Charlestown State Prison where he was introduced to the Nation of Islam philosophy, and eventually, to its’ leader, Elijah Muhammad

The film focuses on the so-called “heroic era” of the civil rights movement covering key moments, from the Montgomery bus boycott on, Coretta Scott King’s pivotal phone call with then presidential candidate John Kennedy, King’s stabbing in a Harlem book store.

On Malcom’s side, we see his embrace of the Nation of Islam, bringing national focus to police brutality and other forms of systemic racism, and his dramatic break from the Nation of Islam. Both are shown as flawed men, struggling with stress, aggravated by FBI surveillance and racist death threats.

The sexism of both the Nation of Islam and the civil rights movement are both treated frankly: In episode five, “Matriarchs,” focusing on Coretta King and Betty Shabazz, the nurse who Malcolm married, and who chafed at Malcom’s idea of what a good Muslim wife should do.

The series can’t entirely escape the pitfalls of biopic genre, including the tendency for chunks of exposition to substitute for anything resembling credible dialogue; it’s a show short on small talk. As well, as the series progresses, the repeated back-and-forth structure can feel more mechanical than illuminating.

Also iffy is the decision to mix contemporary music with period music on the soundtrack. Period music is too useful a tool to remind us of an era, sometimes a specific year, a convention that the producers here ignore to their detriment.

What works are the empathetic performances, portraying real, warm characters, living real lives lived in extreme precarious conditions. Both Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Aaron Pierre (they’ll reunite as voice actors in director Barry Jenkins upcoming prequel to The Lion King) excel, managing to go beyond the familiar physicality of their characters.

Pierre, the star of Jenkins’ Amazon series, The Underground Railroad, is especially good at capturing Malcolm X’s mixture of gravity and self-deprecating humour, which you can see in some of Malcom X’s video clips. Though Harrison doesn’t consistently employ King’s round baritone, he delivers it well in the speeches, and his gentle playfulness in domestic scenes provides a believable contrast to the idealized public figure.

Both Opia and Lawson as the supportive Coretta, and Lawson as the determinedly independent Betty, leave strong impressions as women who were partners in activism. In supporting roles, the standout is the late Ron Cephas Jones, who stands out as the shrewd, magisterial Nation of Islam leader, Elija Muhammad. (Malcolm X eventually renounced him, when he found out the esteemed leader had fathered children with his teen-aged secretaries.)

In a series designed to raise hypothetical questions, it’s striking that both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were both assassinated, three years apart, at the age of 39.

That seems painfully young and green by today’s geriatric political standards, though they were already old guard in an era where the hippies said you shouldn’t trust anyone over 30.

Genius: MLK/X. Starring: Kelvin Harrison Jr., Aaron Pierre, Weruche Opia, Jayme Lawson and Ron Cephas Jones. The first two episodes of Genius: MLK/X are available on National Geographic streaming service on Feb. 1 with two new episodes each week. The series will also premiere on ABC at 9 pm on Feb. 1 and on Feb. 2 on Disney + and, in the U.S. on Hulu.