Plymouth Rock reversals
Malcolm X guards his family in an iconic Ebony magazine photo.
“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us.’’
— Malcolm X (1925-1965), American Muslim cleric and human-rights figure during the Civil Rights Movement. He lived in Boston’s predominately African-American Roxbury neighborhood from the age of 14 to 21.
He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam. But members of that group assassinated him after a period in which he challenged bad behavior by its leadership.
Legendary urbane composer and lyricist Cole Porter (1891-1964) during his 1930s heyday. He was educated at Worcester Academy, Yale and briefly at Harvard Law School.
The above reminds us of the great 1934 Porter song “Anything Goes,’’ which starts off with saying that if the “Puritans’’ tried to land now, “stead of landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock would land on them.’’
— From “Anything Goes” (1934), by Cole Porter
Little old Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims probably did not land but it remains a major tourist site