11:21:21 The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a book review

While alive, Malcolm X (1925-1965) was often portrayed as a firebrand Black Muslim minister with a criminal past. But in his own words, The Autobiography of Malcolm X shows a life of obstacles overcome to reach an inspiring, if tragic, success in America. All recounted in interviews with Alex Haley, who edited the book.


Malcolm X

What hand was Malcolm dealt? Age six, his father Earl died under suspicious circumstances. Age twelve, his mother Louise suffered a nervous breakdown and authorities sent her to a state mental hospital. Malcolm, his siblings were in foster care. Age fourteen, he went to Boston to live with his half-sister Ella. A successful Black woman for her time.

Ella suggested Malcolm explore Boston before taking a job. Earlier in eighth grade, Malcolm told his teacher he was thinking about becoming a lawyer. The teacher said, "a lawyer--that's no realistic goal for a nigger." Malcolm never understood why his white classmates could be any thing. One day in his Boston exploration, Malcolm stood before the Harvard University campus. "Nobody that day could have told me I would give an address before the Harvard Law School Forum some twenty years later."

Malcolm started work as a shoeshine boy at the Roseland State Ballroom. Other jobs followed, like selling sandwiches on the train from Boston to New York. But eventually, age eighteen, he was in Harlem, a small-time hustler who put people in touch with dope, women, whatever.

At age twenty back in Boston, Malcolm got involved in burglary and armed robbery. At age twenty-one, started serving time in prison. Malcolm had a monk-like setup to educate himself. He read nonstop. Before long he would be better-read than many college graduates. And like other convicts, he converted to Islam.

Leaving prison, age twenty-seven, Malcolm was reformed. A Puritan in his yearning for salvation. Utterly purged of teen-year vices. He knew drugs and alcohol kept Blacks down, destroyed his friend the singer Billie Holiday. And in the years until he met his wife and married her at age thirty-three, he never "touched a woman." Malcolm X became an awakened Black man for America.

Malcolm would go to Mecca, be King Faisal’s guest, and come back to America, amid persistent rumors of assassination plots. He did not go into hiding. He knew his cause: Human rights. We’re left with the image of a bespectacled Black man, left index finger held by his temple. His words still speak a thoughtful analysis of the race problem we have in America.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X, One World Books, Random House, New York, 1964, e-ISBN 9781101967805

Image credit: modernghana.com


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Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:

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