A. Peter Bailey (born February 24, 1938) is an American journalist, author, and lecturer. He was an associate of Malcolm X's and a member of the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

Biography

Alfonzo Peter Bailey was born in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

, on February 24, 1938, and raised in

Tuskegee, Alabama Tuskegee () is a city in Macon County, Alabama, United States. It was founded and laid out in 1833 by General Thomas Simpson Woodward, a Creek War veteran under Andrew Jackson, and made the county seat that year. It was incorporated in 1843. ...

. He was in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1959, and attended

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

until 1961. In 1962, Bailey moved to

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

. That June, he heard Malcolm X speak near Mosque No. 7. When Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Bailey became a founding member of his Organization of Afro-American Unity. Bailey served as editor of the group's newsletter, titled ''Blacklash''. He was a pallbearer at Malcolm X's funeral in 1965. Bailey served as associate editor at ''

Ebony Ebony is a dense black/brown hardwood, coming from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', which also contains the persimmons. Unlike most woods, ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely textured and has a mirror finish when ...

'' from 1968 to 1975. He was associate director of the Black Theatre Alliance (BTA) from 1975 to 1981, and he edited the ''BTA Newsletter''. In 1998, he wrote ''Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X'' with Malcolm X's nephew, Rodnell Collins. He wrote ''Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey'' in 1995 based on interviews he conducted with the choreographer in the years before his 1989 death. In 2013, he wrote a memoir titled ''Witnessing Brother Malcolm X: The Master Teacher''. Bailey has contributed articles to ''The Black Collegian'', ''

Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' is a black-owned multimedia company. Since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African-American businesses with a readership of 3.7 million. The company was founded in 1970 by Earl ...

'', '' Black World'', ''

Essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

'', '' Jet'', ''

The Negro Digest The ''Negro Digest'', later renamed ''Black World'', was a magazine for the African-American market. Founded in November 1942 by publisher John H. Johnson of Johnson Publishing Company, ''Negro Digest'' was first published locally in Chicago, Illi ...

'', the '' New York Daily News'', and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. He writes a bimonthly column for the Trice-Edney Wire Service. Bailey has lectured about Malcolm X at three dozen colleges and universities, and taught as an adjunct professor at Hunter College, the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

, and

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

Selected bibliography

*''Harlem: Precious Memories, Great Expectations''. . *''Revelations: The Autobiography of Alvin Ailey'' with Alvin Ailey. . *''Seventh Child: A Family Memoir of Malcolm X'' with Rodnell P. Collins. . *''Witnessing Brother Malcolm X: The Master Teacher''. .

References

External links

Bailey's website
by David Mills for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''
Interview with A. Peter Bailey
, June 26, 2013, March on Washington 50th Anniversary Oral History Project,

District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is the public library system for the District of Columbia, in the United States. The system includes 26 individual libraries including Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (the DCPL's central libr ...

A. Peter Bailey collection
at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, A Peter 1938 births Living people African-American activists 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics African-American journalists American male journalists African-American writers Howard University alumni Hunter College faculty Malcolm X University of the District of Columbia faculty Virginia Commonwealth University faculty Activists from Alabama Activists from Georgia (U.S. state) Academics from Alabama Academics from Georgia (U.S. state)