Malcom X

The site of the assassination of Malcolm X will be preserved as a museum and memorial to the black leader. Under an agreement announced Wednesday, Columbia University will also use half of the building as a biotechnology center. The university had wanted to tear down the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, where Malcolm X was slain 25 years ago, but agreed to the compromise under pressure from a citywide coalition of black activists.

The site of the assassination of Malcolm X will be preserved as a museum and memorial to the black leader. Under an agreement announced Wednesday, Columbia University will also use half of the building as a biotechnology center. The university had wanted to tear down the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, where Malcolm X was slain 25 years ago, but agreed to the compromise under pressure from a citywide coalition of black activists.

When more than 1,000 black students at Howard University stormed the main administration building earlier this week to force the resignation of Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater from the school's Board of Trustees, their intensity, resolve and sense of purpose seemed more reminiscent of the '60s than the '80s.

When more than 1,000 black students at Howard University stormed the main administration building earlier this week to force the resignation of Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater from the school's Board of Trustees, their intensity, resolve and sense of purpose seemed more reminiscent of the '60s than the '80s.

Peace activist Dick Gregory has begun a fast to protest military action in the Persian Gulf and said he'd maintain it until all U.S. troops are returned home. Gregory began the fast Thanksgiving morning with a prayer vigil at Plymouth Rock. "Thanksgiving is the day that we in America set aside to be thankful for the abundance of our land," Gregory said. "It is hard to be completely thankful with war in the Persian Gulf casting a shadow across our country."

The favorable movie review of "Malcolm X" and related stories in The Times are contributing to an incredibly disgraceful episode in American life. A man of hate makes an epic film deifying another hater and the targets of this hate celebrate the film! Malcolm X spent his life as a criminal until he could focus and politicize his hate on whites under the aegis of the Black Muslims, leaders in racist hate. Despite the active myth-making by the media, anybody who has read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" knows he never relinquished his hatred of whites, even if he broke with the Muslims.

The Movie: "Cobb." The Setup: Baseball great Tyrus Raymond Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones, pictured) reflects on his career as his personally anointed biographer (Robert Wuhl) listens. The Costume Designer: Ruth Carter, whose credits include "What's Love Got to Do With It," "Malcom X," "Do the Right Thing" and "School Daze." The Look: Cobb's sporting nature shines through long after his baseball days are over. Seen here near the end of his life in 1960, he is a hunter and a gambler.

Re "Young Offenders Learn ABCs the Hard Way: Caged," Nov. 8: I work with young kids in our tough central Hollywood neighborhood, and one of the most painful realities of that work is that many of them end up in jail multiple times. But in recent years I have noticed something new when they come out: increased confidence based on reading and other skills they have picked up in jail, at Juvenile Hall and county fire camps for offenders. Richard Colvin's article was a very moving one for me. The Times is doing an extremely important public service by leading all of us to a deeper appreciation of the importance of reading.

Video companies are celebrating Black History Month with the release of African American-themed movies and documentaries.

It was the culmination of two years of anticipation when a group of visually impaired students from Ventura County gathered at the Ventura Harbor, boarded an Island Packers charter boat and headed out for a day in the Santa Barbara Channel. The 17 students, ages 5 to 14, came from the Oxnard, El Rio, Hueneme, Oceanview and Pleasant Valley school districts. And only two had ever been out on the water before. While the students were on the water, several whales played nearby.

What began as a nighttime rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the battle to save People's Park ended in a violent early-morning rampage Saturday in which 3,000 young people looted dozens of stores, set off numerous bonfires and overturned two firefighting vehicles. Twelve people were arrested and six demonstrators were treated at Alta Bates Hospital for minor cuts and bruises. An unspecified number of police officers and firefighters suffered minor injuries. Police reported that 28 businesses had been damaged and at least 10 stores had been looted of thousands of dollars of merchandise.

In Jeff Stetson's one-act play "The Meeting," Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X arm-wrestle three times: Malcolm X wins the first contest; King, the second; the third match ends in a draw. After their final encounter, with both men physically spent and no victor determined, King makes a poignant observation: "Just imagine what we could have accomplished if we joined hands in the same direction."