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Name: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Rating: 4.6 (123 reviews)
Author: Alex Haley, Malcolm X

Alex Haley, Malcolm X

As told to Alex Haley

4.6 (123 Bewertungen)

17 Min.

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Political Figures Autobiographies

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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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What’s in it for me? Get to know one of the twentieth century’s most influential Americans.

With the exception of Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X is probably the most well-known name in the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. But whereas King’s “I have a dream” speech and his tragic murder are common knowledge, many people know little of what Malcolm X said or wrote or the story of his life.

In these blinks, we get to know the man from his own perspective: where he came from, how he joined the Nation of Islam, his travels to the Middle East and Africa. These are all crucial pieces of the puzzle behind one of the most influential African-Americans of the last century.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

what the X stands for and how Malcolm came to adopt it;
how Malcolm X’s life changed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; and
why he broke with the Nation of Islam.

Note: The following blinks contain strong, offensive language. A racist term is used to illustrate the author's experience, which is central to his story.

Malcolm lost his father and his mother at a young age.

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925.

His father, Reverend Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher who helped spread the teaching of Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

Malcolm was the seventh of eight children and his mother, Louise, struggled to look after them all. Louise was born in the West Indies, the product of her mother’s rape by a white slave master, which meant that Louise had very fair skin that sometimes resulted in her being mistaken for a white woman.

This also meant that Malcolm was born with reddish hair and a light complexion – the lightest of any of his siblings. Malcolm believed it was this difference in his appearance that led his mother to be harsher on him than her other children. In her eyes, he was a living reminder of the white rapist in the family’s past.

Meanwhile, perhaps because of this same difference, his father favored Malcolm, frequently taking him to UNIA meetings.

But his father’s efforts to create a sense of pride and identity in the Black community led to a tragic end.

One of Malcolm’s first memories dated from when they were living in Lansing, Michigan. He woke up in the middle of the night in a panic. A white supremacist group, The Black Legion, had set fire to the Littles’ house, but luckily the family escaped unharmed.

Predictably, it got worse: When Malcolm was six years old, his father was murdered. Despite having been fatally beaten, the police called his death an accident.

After that, Louise struggled to keep the family together as a single mother. She was prideful and didn’t like resorting to government aid, but eventually had to.

This meant dealing with the government’s child welfare officers, who were especially cruel to Louise, trying to turn the children against her. They finally succeeded, putting Louise in a state mental hospital when Malcolm was 12 and sending the kids to live with different families.

Malcolm’s rocky school years exposed him to racism, but Boston revealed another world.

Malcolm didn’t have an easy time in school, and at the age of 13, got into trouble after pulling a prank on one of his teachers.

After being scolded for wearing a hat in class, he placed a tack on his teacher’s chair when the teacher wasn’t looking.

Malcolm was introduced to modern Black culture in Roxbury and Harlem.

Luckily, his sister Ella was able to make herself Malcolm’s legal guardian, allowing him to move to Roxbury, where he quickly learned about street life.

By coincidence, one of the first people Malcolm met was a man named Shorty, who just happened to be from Lansing, Michigan.

After losing his job, Malcolm took up a life of crime in 1940s Harlem.

Working at Small’s Paradise offered Malcolm the chance to quickly learn how lots of people made a living on the streets of Harlem: by hustling. Malcolm discovered who to trust, who to avoid, and the ins and outs of all kinds of criminal activities, including robbery, pimping and gambling.

Malcolm would soon put this knowledge to work when he lost his job at Small’s Paradise after making the mistake of offering a sex worker’s number to an undercover cop.

Malcolm’s criminal activities finally landed him in prison, where he had a profound awakening.

By 1945, 20-year-old Malcolm was falling into the same trap as many hustlers: he was taking more dangerous chances to make money and increasing his drug intake in order to boost his confidence.

Things began to get truly bad when a gambling dispute forced him out of Harlem.

Malcolm left prison dedicated to the Nation of Islam and ready to spread its message.

Prison proved to be a good training ground for Malcolm to find his public speaking voice. While there, he took part in staged debates in which two people would argue opposing sides of an issue.

In these debates, Malcolm found many opportunities to spread the message of the Nation of Islam and what he was learning in history books. He would condemn the atrocities that the white man had committed on the nonwhite people of the world in the name of Christianity and profit.

As a Nation of Islam minister he became Malcolm X and gained national attention.

Malcolm was quickly made an official minister of the Nation of Islam. Like other ministers, he was given the last name of X, which stood for the true ancestral family name that had been forever lost.

Malcolm X soon began establishing new Nation of Islam temples around the country.

The attention Malcolm X received eventually led to him being at odds with the Nation of Islam.

By 1961, the Nation of Islam was flourishing. Huge rallies were being held and, as the press were drawn to Malcolm’s passionate personality, he used interviews to get his message across.

Malcolm wanted to set the record straight about the Nation of Islam. The Nation wasn’t about “black supremacy,” it was about empowering the Black man and giving him a sense of pride and dignity in his identity.

A pilgrimage to Mecca opened up Malcolm’s eyes to Muslim brotherhood.

Malcolm X had to reassess everything at this point. The man to whom he’d dedicated his life had let him down and was now prepared to kill him. When Malcolm’s assistant told him that he’d been asked to plant a bomb in his car, X knew it was serious.

To escape the threats and reaffirm his spiritual beliefs, Malcolm decided to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

Malcolm X returned to the United States with a new agenda.

Malcolm returned to New York on May 21, 1964, two days after his 39th birthday. The press had many questions upon his arrival.

Malcolm quickly elaborated on his newfound perspective.

Though Malcolm X was at peace with the possibility of dying, his murder was a tragic loss.

The death threats that surrounded Malcolm X gave all his actions an urgency. After all, his father and four out of six of his uncles died as a result of violence and Malcolm believed he would be killed by a white racist or the Nation of Islam.

While he was at peace with this possibility, he was not at peace with his family being threatened.

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Worum geht es in The Autobiography of Malcolm X?

The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) is a profound and personal account of one man’s journey from dropping out of school and entering a life of crime and drug addiction to finding redemption through human rights activism. These blinks tell the story of a curious and evolving mind: a man who dedicated his life to helping African-Americans gain identity and freedom from oppression by any means necessary.

Bestes Zitat aus The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Soon the state people were making plans to take over all my mothers children.

—Alex Haley, Malcolm X

Wer The Autobiography of Malcolm X lesen sollte

Human rights activists
Historians
People interested in the civil rights movement

Über den Autor

Malcolm X was one of the most important activists in the history of African-American rights. Malcolm X Day is celebrated on 19 May each year in many cities including Berkeley, California, where offices and schools are officially closed. He has been portrayed in numerous movies by actors such as Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington.

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Alex Haley wrote Roots: The Saga of an American Family. He was also senior editor of Reader’s Digest, a respected journalist and groundbreaking interviewer. He ghostwrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X from extensive interviews with his subject.

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