The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Martin Luther King Jr is a name we’re all familiar with. The ‘I Have a Dream’ speech was played every month of January in school, we knew his teachings, what he preached, why he became who he became, most importantly we learned that he did everything he did peacefully. In learning all this though, we completely skip over the name ‘Malcolm X’. Why is that? Who is he? Why is he important? 

I know my description of him will do him no justice so I highly recommend you read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, every sentence written feels almost like we are reading his personal diary. He's able to describe his experiences in such profound ways it's hard not to be completely captivated by his words. Autobiographies are not necessarily my forte but this one falls into the categories of one of my favorite books.

Malcolm X was a human rights activist, a very key figure during the civil rights movement. He was also a minister and spoke on behalf of the Nation of Islam. He’s remembered as a powerful voice who advocated for racial equality, Black nationalism and challenged/ protested the non-violent approach that Dr. King had introduced. He stood strongly on the idea that African Americans should have a right to self defense.

In his early years, Malcolm was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska and was the fourth child of Louise Little. His father, Revrend Earl Little, was a Baptist minister, a follower of Marcus Garvey and a member of the Universal Negro Improvemnet Association. Malcolm was the fourth of nine children (three of which were not Louise’s), he describes his father as self-sufficient and his confidence often brought eyes when he stood up to the white man. Although Malcolm says his father was a proud man and took even more pride in his African heritage, he also felt as if he was ‘brainwashed’ because he favored the lighter skinned child over the others. Malcolm had felt his mother Louise was also a victim of this but she was light skinned and favored her darker skinned kids. Louis was born as the result of a rape, she hated the white blood in her and taught her children to love and value their color. Both Earl and Louise were strict parents, they fought over parenting and often fought violently but Malcolm describes this authority as what held their family together for so long. Until September 28, 1931 when Earl Little was hit by a street car. His death had been ruled as a suicide which meant the family wouldnt be able to collect any insurance money. Malcolm had always felt his fathers death was at the hands of the white man and ever since that day the Little family began to fall apart. 

During the year 1937 Louise Little was committed to the State Mental Hospital in Kalamazoo after suffering a mental breakdown. She fought for a long time to keep her family well, since she passed as white she was able to take up cleaning jobs at white people's homes. They had little money and were constantly being watched by welfare agents, for a moment she was in a relationship with another man and after that had come to an end she no longer had the strength and she remained in an institution until 1963. For 26 years. During this time each of Malcolm's siblings had been split up and sent to live in different foster homes. At the time Malcolm was already living with a different family, the Gohanna’s, due to the behavioral issues he’d been causing around the house. 

In 1938 Malcolm was at a detention home in Mason, Michigan, living with Mr. & Mrs. Swerlin. He did well here, he excelled in school and was elected class president in seventh grade. Education was one thing he had indulged himself in since being sent to the detention home and he seemed to quite enjoy it as he started partaking more in books than thievery. But during the eighth grade Malcolm had been suggested to take a different route rather than following his dreams of becoming a lawyer. Mr. Ostrowski, an english teacher, had told Malcolm that his dream was pretty much unattainable and should rather look into a position as a carpenter, only he said this in a much harsher way. And at the age of 15, Malcolm had dropped out of school and was transferred to live with his half-sister Ella in Boston. 

Reading about his life in Boston was so indulging, honestly you really didn't even need to see it in a movie visualization, he painted it in words so perfectly the image in your head is all you need. He spent a lot of nights out in the Harlem District and started out as a shoeshine boy. We end up getting introduced to some new faces also, for example there's Shorty, Sammy, Laura and Sofia. Each of which are such key influences in his life. After meeting Shorty, Malcolms entire attitude shifted. He had “conked” hair, meaning it had been chemically straightened. He changed his wardrobe and started wearing “zoot suits”, which were pretty common when going out, he started to fit himself into the crowd and soon enough was given the name “Detroit Red”. Shorty had introduced him to a whole different world when he got that shoeshining job at the Roseland Ballroom for him. Shorty and Malcolm had a close bond, they'd spend night out smoking and gambling and dancing, it was then when Malcolm had overhead some information about the selling business that he decided to switch his gig to hustling. From what he wrote he was pretty smart at selling, real careful. What gets him into trouble is a burglary ring. Going back to Laura, she had been a love interest of Malcolm’s. She was white and hung around late at the ballrooms when all the other white folks had left. She had a little sister who had been arranged to date Shorty. Malcolm ends up running into some trouble and arranges for him, Shorty, Laura, her sister and another man named Rudy to rob a house. This obviously takes a turn of events and Malcolm at 21 years, is sentenced to seven years in prison in 1946. 

His time in prison seemed to be a real reality check for him and he ended up going through a huge transformation period. He started spending time in the library and re-taught himself everything he had missed from school, trying to educate himself as much as he could. He was also in touch with his family and at their urge, was introduced to Islam. This is what made his transformation so pivotal, because he rejected this idea at first. He was a strict atheist but it wasn't until his brother, Reginald, had taken a turn. The approach this time wasn't even to mention the religion at all, instead Reginald told Malcolm to not eat pork or smoke any cigarettes if he wanted to get out of prison. Secretly, this was an introduction to Islam and he had then explained more to him when he had gone to visit him later on. Eventually, indulging more, Malcolm writes to the founder of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammed. After being released in 1952 after only 6 years, he was in the custody of his other brother Wilfred and his family in Detroit. Becoming more infatuated with their life after converting, he meets with Elijah Muhammed while on a pilgrimage. It was then that he had dropped his slave given last name and started being referred to as ‘Malcolm X’, the ‘X’ representing the loss of his family's original african name.

This pretty much sends him off into how we know him now. Elijah and Malcolm form an incredible relationship, together they advocated and spoke for those who couldn't, he had such a belief in Elijah that  he often thought he had more belief in him than Elijah did himself. A quote that I love that perfectly encapsulates his envy for him is:

‘My adoration of Mr. Muhammed grew, in the sense of the Latin root word adorare. It means that my worship of him was so awesome that he was the first man whom I had ever feared- not fear such as of a man with a gun, but the fear such as one has of the power of the sun’ (Pg 212).

That quote alone could get me into a whole other topic but this friendship they had quickly turned into jealousy. Elijah had grown an attitude toward Malcolm and sent him away from the group and even had a hitman hired on him. From then on Malcolm had gone off and spread his teachings on his own.

At the end of the book he reflects a lot on his life and the meaning of it. He emphasizes how he hopes his book will become something symbolic, how he hopes his words will show the true America, especially in the racial sense. I truly wish we had learned about him more because his book does stand as symbolic. In the book he describes himself as "the angriest black man in America”, and honestly a lot of people would describe him the same, the difference is there's a handful that knows and recognizes his anger and there's a handful that sees it as ‘criminal’ and ‘unjustified’. Read this book, take a look outside. He was angry for a reason and he would still be angry now.