If they decided membership to the Nebraska Hall of Fame based on the discussion devoted to a candidate, Malcolm X would have gotten in Tuesday.

Instead, the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission unanimously inducted botanist, researcher and author Charles Bessey.

While Bessey’s professional achievements certainly merit the honor, Malcolm X dominated the discussion. And the decision to pass him over was bitterly disappointing to supporters, several of whom attended Tuesday’s meeting at the State Capitol.

The law restricts commissioners to one Hall of Fame induction every five years. The commission voted 5-0 for Bessey.

Backers of the civil rights firebrand saw the decision as a failure to recognize a significant African American figure in a state that has long upheld the achievement of white men. Of the 23 members of the hall, 18 are men and three are Native, the only minorities.

The five commission members who attended the meeting Tuesday are all men.

“It’s what we expect,” said Charles Parks of Omaha, who is African American. “Maybe it’s time for black folks in this state to use different strategies … to get a little radical. Maybe we should try a little separation, tell our children not to play on the university’s football team or basketball teams.”

The other nominees were Grover Cleveland Alexander, major league baseball player from St. Paul; Georgia Arbuckle Fix, first woman graduate of the Nebraska State Medical School in Omaha; Andrew Higgins, born in Columbus, inventor of landing craft used extensively by Allies in World War II; William Jeffers, born in North Platte, former Union Pacific president and World War II “rubber czar”; and Evelyn Sharp, a flying phenom from Ord who trained World War II pilots.

While the commissioners did not fill out ballots or rank each nominee, they all said Bessey was at or near the top of their lists. Several said he should have been inducted long ago.

Bessey was born in Ohio but joined the University of Nebraska in 1884 as a professor of botany. He involved students in experimental plant research and established a system for the study of plant structures and forms still used today.

He also proved that trees could grow in the Nebraska Sandhills by leading the creation of the only hand-planted forest in the National Forest system near Halsey. He wrote or contributed to eight books on botany.

He was dean of the Agricultural College and three times served as interim chancellor. He died in Lincoln in 1915.

Harold Andersen of Omaha, chairman of the commission, said in addition to his international significance, Bessey made all of his most significant contributions while living in Nebraska.

Several commissioners pointed out that Malcolm X spent only a short time as a child in the state and never returned or cited  Nebraska  as an influence.

Nonetheless, commissioner Ron Hull of Lincoln initially ranked Malcolm X as his top choice because he battled racism. Hull said he considers racism a scourge that prevents America from realizing its full potential as a nation.

Hull acknowledged Malcolm  had a criminal past and he espoused violence and “incendiary rhetoric” as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam. But before his murder, Malcolm was rethinking many former positions, including the idea that all whites were evil.

Inducting Malcolm X might encourage all Nebraskans to consider that history can be seen from different perspectives, Hull said.

“It is not merely the majority’s history, it’s everyone’s history,” he said.

In the end, Hull supported Bessey so the commission’s vote would be unanimous.

Andersen offered a different opinion of Malcolm X. Not only did he despise whites and advocate a separate black state, he called Martin Luther King Jr. a traitor, Jackie Robinson a tool of the white man, and he celebrated the assassination of President John Kennedy, Andersen said.

“He also denigrated Christianity,” he said. “The right way was the Muslim way.”

Andersen questioned whether schools teach children the full story of Malcolm’s character.

That point angered Lela Shanks, an African American and civil rights leader from Lincoln. Do schools teach children that George Washington was a slave owner or that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with one of his slaves?

“He’s seeing it only from a conqueror’s point of view of history,” she said of Andersen.

As for Malcolm’s short time in Nebraska, Shanks said his family  had received threats from Ku Klux Klan members in Omaha because his father was an outspoken clergyman. The threats prompted the family to move.

If Malcolm X’s supporters want to nominate him again, they will have to wait until 2010.

In the meantime, as is customary, the supporters of Bessey will raise money to commission a bronze bust for display in the Capitol. He will be officially inducted in 2009.

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.