How many pages is autobiography of malcolm x

I call these mistakes, but the reality of the situation is that they were merely pitfalls. When Malcolm entered prison, it was only because the situation created by the white man lead him to the cell. And at this moment in his life, arguable the lowest, when he sat in a prison cell bored to tears and full of rage; he realised what true power was and where he could get it: books. He had become what the white man wanted him to be, so he changed rapidly. He transformed himself drastically.

He learnt his full history- that of the African American and then what he could of the African. He embraced Muslim faith, slowly at first, but when he did he became incensed with the clarity it gave his mind. Christianity, for him, became nothing more than a mode of control the white man used on the blacks.

It forced them to their knees and made them worship a white god. He wanted no part of it. When he got out of prison he quickly became one of the most important men in The Nation of Islam. He converted hundreds, and gave many speeches to the press. He was second only to their leader. He worked diligently for twelve years, and then was ungracefully thrown out.

Where did he go wrong? He never did. He would have died for the nation. He was forced to leave because the leader was jealous and afraid of him- even after he continued to serve him after he found out about his hypocrisy. Simply put, Malcolm put all his faith into a false bastion, twelve years of faith, and he still had the strength to carry on afterwards.

He did not let it destroy him. He truly was a great man. But what of all his hate? Malcolm hated the white man. And from this power he drew his early success.

His hate was justified, but it was very generalised. The white man committed terrible crimes in history, but it was also the general man on the street that would stick his nose up in the air and act superior on a day to day basis that would get Malcolm angry.

It was out there. There were genuine white people who felt as Malcolm did, and perhaps they could have helped each other. The wasted potential of X Malcolm X did wonders for black pride in America; he did wonders for the civil rights movement despite his hatred, but the true tragedy is we will never know how much more he could have done.

After he became a full Muslim, in the traditional sense, after his pilgrimage to Mecca, he realised that Allah should have been his true guide not the false Elijah Mohamed. He was ready to face the world, this time himself.

He was ready to throw his true heart out there. But he was cut short, and the world weeps. He is often criticised for his hatred, but rarely recognised for what he became in the end. We will never know how far he could have gone with his Muslim Mosque Inc group. Could he have rivalled The Nation of Islam? Could he have sped up black rights even further?

We shall never know, and that is why his potential was wasted. He always knew he would die by violence, and perhaps as he grew older he would have developed even further.

Malcolm X is a contentious figure even today, but he is a man who must be studied to be understood. Hearing his words, his anger, is not enough. We need to know where it came from and why it was born. This autobiography is honest, brutal and, above all, simply an outstanding piece of writing.

View all 18 comments. Dec 03, Wes Morgan rated it really liked it. As are most white people in this country, I was led to believe that Malcolm X was just an angry, militant racist who wanted to kill white people in the same way that angry, militant racists in the South want to kill black people.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This book, more than any other I've read, opened my eyes to see how the innate racism in our country works and affects the people it is mos This is the life story of Malcolm Little, later Malcolm X, later El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. This book, more than any other I've read, opened my eyes to see how the innate racism in our country works and affects the people it is most sharply targeted at: African Americans.

It's one thing to understand that it exists amazing that this is still debated and empathize with its victims, but quite another to see it through their eyes. Malcolm X, as he points out, grew up in the "tolerant" North. His battle was not with lynch mobs and Jim Crow laws, but with the death-by-a-thousand-cuts brand of racism that, I would argue, now constitutes the mainstream dynamic between blacks and whites in this country. By the time he becomes a Muslim in prison, it's easy to see why he was angry which he was and why he fought back.

The amazing thing, though, is that while the very book was being written, Malcolm X is undergoing a personal transformation that is leading him away from anger and hatred towards white people and towards a realization that it is the culture in America, and not inherent evil in white people, that creates the racism he's fighting against.

This transformation costs him 12 years of his life's work, his house, his family's safety, and eventually his life.

There are aspects of Malcolm X's philosophy that I cannot empathize with, however. His view of women, in particular, represents an ironic denial of their humanity. You almost want to scream at the pages, "How can you not see that you're viewing women the same way white people view you!? I now believe, after having read this autobiography, that had he lived longer, Malcolm X would today be as revered as Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ozzie Davis, Malcolm X's eulogist, said that he sometimes needed reminding that he was a man something he suspected white people didn't need , and that Malcolm X did that for him, and for many other black people as well. View all 15 comments. Jun 30, carol. Shelves: auto-biography , multi-culti , male-lead , non-fiction , on-blog. It starts simply, with solid, familiar flavors, something like a brandy old-fashioned complete with fruit decorations, and a little bowl of candied pecans.

Malcolm X begins by setting the scene of his parents, and his birth on May 19, He was killed under very suspicious circumstances that allowed insurance agents to deny payment to a woman with eight hungry children. Taking welfare checks meant social worker after social worker dropping by the house as the kids would act up out of hunger, desperation, and being kids until the day Malcolm agreed to live with another family.

He found his place for a while, but recalls the institutionalized racism that had him being elected eighth-grade class president at the same time he was told being a lawyer was beyond his reach, but perhaps carpentry was a possible career. A chance to visit his half-sister Ella in Boston set his life on the next path.

Zoot suits If we were to continue with the food metaphor, this would be the stuffed egg appetizer, the crunch of radishes in dill, the chipped beef and sardine roll straight out of the s: hints of flavor, spice; food that snaps in the mouth, not melts into ephemera. This was the section that surprised me the most: young Malcolm was a hustler. He found a cohort, Shorty, who became his homeboy and schooled him on the ways of the street.

He got his first conk and first zoot suit. After leaving a shoe-shine job, he had a short term working as a soda-jerk in a drugstore, where he met Laura, one of his favorite dancing partners. One night at a dance with her, he met Sophia, a white girl who was a bit older than he, and from the rich area of Beacon Hill.

Only sixteen, Ella took steps to get him out of the influence of his circle by getting him a job on a railroad dining car. Eventually, he pulled his own strings and made his way to New York, and to Harlem. The Malcolm I expected was barely to be seen in these pages. He waited tables, picked up tips from the local power-brokers, became an avid movie-goer, and gambler. Because of his love of dance, he was in contact and friends with many of the musicians of his time.

Eventually he was caught and moved into selling reefer. His scene attempting to get a 4-F draft classification was astounding. Graduating to burglaries with a friend, he soon went armed with a couple of guns. Eventually, he brought his brother Reginald into the life when Reginald left the Merchant Marines. It was nothing I had expected and lasted only four short years until he was caught pawning loot from a job done with old pals Shorty, Sophia and her cousin.

Behind bars, a man never reforms. He will never forget. He never will get completely over the memory of the bars. Solid, meaty, and not altogether unexpected. As with everything, Malcolm committed wholeheartedly and was soon preaching to the Christians in the prison, as well as joining the debate team to hone his skills. Malcolm X This is a section that is so fascinating, and yet still somewhat disappointing.

Malcolm did so much reading in the prison library, tutoring himself on a vast array of topics, learning about American history and oppression.

At the same time, he was spreading the word of Fard through the Messenger Elijah Muhammad, who included a history of Islam that included one man breaking off to form the white race out of the seeds of the black and brown race as a form of revenge against Allah. I found it hard to reconcile his willingness to embrace what seemed to be a rather wild offshoot of Islam called Nation of Islam with the man who studied Kant.

With his passion and energy, he was soon drawing followers to the temple, and before long, was traveling to other cities to spread the word. His life became that of a dedicated evangelist, until he encountered Sister Betty in one of the temples and married her. Even then he continued to travel, building the Nation of Islam.

He spoke at colleges, on the radio, television programs and even overseas, spreading the word about the black man in America. And, much like a small bittersweet cayenne chocolate truffle for dessert, there is a final, bittersweet end. As Malcolm makes his break and continues to dialogue more and more with world leaders, he ends up embracing a more traditional form of Islam that embraced the brotherhood of man. Unfortunately, word comes that the Nation would really prefer him dead, and his interviews make it clear it is weighing on his mind at the same time he is trying to provide for his family.

I found the entire book a meal worth hours and hours of digestion. There's so much here. Political moments happening today have their genesis in that period, and Malcolm X provides a number of fascinating angles to the discussion. I do think he showed unusual ability to connect early events in his life to perceptions and viewpoints later, yet he seemed to remain hamstrung by his views on women and on other races. View all 43 comments. I worked for 8 hours on this video and I am very proud of it.

I hold Malcolm in high esteem and getting this personal insight i I worked for 8 hours on this video and I am very proud of it. I hold Malcolm in high esteem and getting this personal insight into his life, thoughts and struggles, is something that I will never forget. I absolutely love his autobiography and can recommend it wholeheartedly Read, kids, read. It's as simple as that. He was arrested on larceny charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison. In fact, prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college.

I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?

He read a range of authors including Englishman H. Wells, sociologist W. Du Bois, geneticist Mendel, and historian Will Durant. Having forgotten much of his elementary education by the time he found himself in prison, Malcolm first focused on self-education, initially by way of reading, writing and memorizing the dictionary. The long hours Malcolm spent in this process paid hugely, as he went on to become a masterful communicator, so gifted in speech.

Going from a promising student in his early years, to a dropout and full time hustler, prison forced Malcolm to reexamine his life.

His path lead him initially to the Nation of Islam, ultimately rejecting it and opting to convert to orthodox Islam, partly inspired by his experience in Mecca while performing the Hajj. On realizing that rabble-rousing and hate speeches had no part to play in the teachings of real Islam, nor had it any benefit in promoting healthy societies, Malcolm publicly and vocally rescinded the radical views that he had for years been promoting. He describes himself at this time as being animalistic and cutthroat, ready to die for no reason at all.

Professor Michael Eric Dyson makes the point that had he been murdered at 25, he would have been just another forgotten about criminal. Strike the puppeteer. If we cannot help change the environments of the oppressed, we should at the very least avoid being dismissive and judgmental of them.

Malcolm himself in his autobiography lamented how the hustlers that he used to engage in criminality with might have been mathematicians or brain surgeons had the environment not been as rigged against them from their early childhood. Define Yourself! Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little. The black race here in North America is in extremely bad condition. He must demonstrate that anger can be productive, empowering, and serve as a way to connect to others.

When he talks about horrific events in his life such as the death of his father, the institutionalization of his mother, and the betrayal he experienced by the Nation of Islam, he knows that he is A justified in his anger, but also B that he must use his anger to fuel his hunger for action and creating change.

My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry.

So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise. Reading Malcolm's autobiography shook me. I felt so connected to him and his fight. I laughed. I cried. I smiled. I screamed. Malcolm was many things—controversial, angry, loud, hungry, ambitious, confident—but above all, he was real, and he was humble. Only the mistakes have been mine. Rest in Power. Jan 15, Trevor I sometimes get notified of comments rated it it was amazing Shelves: religion , biography , history , race.

And I think you should read this because this book is a great read. Now, obviously, the fact this is well-told would have been helped along by it being co-written by Alex Haley. But while that could hardly have hurt, it is also clear that Malcolm X was no Donald Trump in the writing of this book — this is a book, I am certain, that is much more an autobiography than many books that go by that name on the lives of other significant figures.

This book is told with candour, sometimes painfully so, and with the kind of dispassion that I guess only someone who has experienced a number of epiphanies and significant reversals in how they understood their life can muster.

This digression on the origins of a word helps to confirm many of the things that Malcolm X had to say. That every aspect of white society is designed to make black people feel uncomfortable in their own skins and to loath themselves. The discussion of this self-loathing, and particularly how this eats away at the very soul of those constructed as not fitting the social ideal whiteness, is powerfully told in this book.

So much so that it seems hard to imagine someone could read this book and not be moved by the horror our society imposes upon people due to the arbitrary quantity of melanin in the skin of some. The utter absurdity of such a distinction seems only matched by the absolute horror piled upon horrors that have been perpetrated against black people by white people throughout history.

Of how hard it had been to convince fellow black people of the savage barbarism that was slavery. The terror for me lies in how it becomes clear that black people have been conditioned to love their oppressor, to cheer-on the white couple in a film, even while the black character is sacrificed as a pawn towards the greater drama.

The whole thing is sickening. There is a natural tendency for such figures to want to make their early life sound as depraved as possible so as to support the true miracle that God, or Elijah Muhammad, wrought on their lives.

So, a grain of salt is often recommended when reading the exploits of the early lives of most converts. Again, I suspect this concern could be overstated in this case. He does this at least three times in the book — and each time the consequences to him in these conversion experiences were not only life altering, but life threatening.

One of the things Haley says that helped to break down the barriers that stood between him and Malcolm, and that were killing the book as he was interviewing Malcolm, was getting him to speak about his attitude to women. And this attitude was anything but progressive. Firstly, I would dearly love to believe that someone so keenly aware of the harm done by defining away entire populations upon an arbitrary feature of their physical construction, would get that this is always a problem.

So, while reading his rants on how women need to be kept under a firm hand or need to be ruled over by men as the head and so on — I found it impossible not to wonder how a clearly intelligent man who had been surrounded and supported by any number of insanely capable and strong women could possibly hold such clearly foolish ideas. I also found much of the history he quoted that supposedly proved the superiority of pre-European African societies to be all a bit daft. I also found his calls for segregation a dead alley — and I think he come to this conclusion too at the end of his life.

Malcolm rejects this suggestion out of hand, but it is clear Haley is making a valid comparison here. I want to start by stressing that I feel it is a significantly different thing for a black man to speak of segregation compared to a white man speaking of the same thing — even if the outcome of them getting their way would be the same.

In a society that sees black men purely in terms of the threat they pose, a black man saying black people need to be segregated from white people for their own protection tells us a truth about our society that is usually shrouded when a white man says he needs to be protected from black people. Being exploited by a black man, rather than a white man, is ultimately of little comfort. As someone who is not religious at all, I found this book incredibly interesting for the passion his religious convictions brought to his ability to focus his energies.

But I also think his devotion, especially to Elijah Muhammad, was problematic on too many levels to be ignored. I know he comes to this same conclusion shortly before he is murdered, and it is possible this might otherwise have resulted in another major shift in his thinking — I was left feeling that whatever good had come out of his religious convictions was ultimately overcome by the negatives.

But I also want my reservations noted. I think it would be very hard to read this book and come away not liking Malcolm X — you might not come away agreeing with him on everything, but there is a naked honesty about him that it would be inhuman to not respect and to like. But his sexism troubled me more than I was expecting — and I get it, he was a religious person, I really have no excuse for being surprised at his sexism, but it did surprise, as much as it also sadden me.

View all 29 comments. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between and Malcolm X's assassination. The Autobiography is a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. He described their collaborative process and the events at the end of Malcolm X's life Jun 30, Erin rated it it was amazing Shelves: movie , favorites , book-club , black-love , best-non-fiction , june , classics.

A masterpiece! The Autobiography of Malcolm X may be the most important autobiography ever written. I don't have the proper vocabulary to do this book its proper justice. A must read! View all 4 comments. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I love this book Alhamdulillah. This book was a must read! I think everyone should read this book. Trust me anyone will love this book. I would massively recommend anyone to read 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X'.

I need to tell people who haven't taught by Islam. Elijah might told them that he was the Messenger of Allah, he might have even believed that he was or he might have know that he wasn't we don't know but he told people that he was the Messenger of Allah and they believed him. I was really enjoying to see Malcolm X's life journey and how he transformed himself.

It was a very inspiring story. It was a very emotional book. If Malcolm X hadn't been assassinated then he would make a huge difference for the Muslim people and the black people but it was his destiny. I am not sure if anyone agreed with my opinion about this comment. I think there were two reasons that people didn't respect Malcolm X. Firstly, it could be because of his religion Islam and secondly, it could be because Malcolm X believed that the black people should have fought the white people for theirs freedom.

I love this book. I did have a favourite chapter. My favourite chapter of this book is Mecca. Malcolm X was a great man and he was a very interesting figure.

View all 25 comments. Reminiscent of certain responses to Twelve Years a Slave winning multiple Academy Awards at this year's Oscars, and this is nearly fifty years on. Within these pages, Malcolm X spoke of a hope that by the year , the white-washing of Jesus and other Biblical figures would be ended, and the true unresolved question of their physical aspects would be reflected by portrayals ranging all across the spectrum.

In the year , certain groups had conniptions over suggestions that Santa Clause could be black. The world goes on, and popular thought appropriates.

What is especially telling about that editorial first sentence up there is the overt interplay between prose and reader perception. This is important to consider when imbibing any text, but here, in context with racism, in context with classism, in context with the institutional ideologies' demand that all resistance be nonviolent while weighing it down with "sign of the times" murder, rampant lynching then and shotgunning teenagers now for reasons of "too loud music", in context with the autobiography of Malcolm X, ask yourself if a criminal record puts you off reading about a person, and then ask yourself why.

Ask yourself what constitutes the "abnormal psychology", the "messianic delusions", the "upside-down religion of 'brotherly hatred'", the CEO, the politician, any belief that preaches intolerance for the non-believer. Ask yourself what half-hearted bullshit constitutes "If Malcolm X were not a Negro", passing off the enormous debt the US has to its history of slavery as an embarrassing pathos, a ploy, an "Oh, they kicked the puppy and now it's telling its story, of course it'll get attention.

My beginning was a mention of a footnote of violence in a summary of the 20th century. It took me more than ten years too long to extend my thinking beyond this roadblock. It is interesting to note how his message as a living embodiment of hope for those who have slipped through the cracks of well-to-do society has been seen as a mark against him.

It is key to observe the contentions over the non-fictional aspect of this work, when the existence of Columbus Day renders the controversy not only absurd, but obscene. Either do not discriminate in your pointing of fingers at act and advocation of physical violence, or don't do it at all. Whatever your personal alignments with the beliefs conveyed in this book, it is and shall always be a gift to the world.

While it may be true that I would have to be restrained from punching Malcolm X in the face for his deriding of women, especially his "any country's moral strength, or moral weakness, is quickly measurable by the street attire and attitude of its women", my disagreement does not impact my appreciation of his importance.

What he believed in, he said, and the writing of this biography during the last few years of his life displays this dramatic evolution, all the more so because of Haley's keeping Malcolm X to his word of not changing the overarching message of any previous writing.

It is his willingness to speak and question that led him on his pilgrimage to Mecca, it is this overhaul of both belief and character that led him from disenfranchised boy to city slick teenager to convict to minister to a crisis of conscience in full throes up to the point he was shot down.

There is no point to freedom of speech if you don't want to hear disagreeable things. Communication is worth as much as the controversy it provokes, and it is worth even more if the person communicating is willing to change in accordance to what is received by an open mind. In that, Malcolm X was a rare, rare breed, decrying the patronizing "equality" of the North as harshly as the blatant discrimination of the South, sometimes regretting his words but never recanting them.

Just look at his main counterpart, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Even his proclaimed message of nonviolence doesn't save him from being condensed to a speech, a slogan, a "If Martin Luther King were alive today And this is how much the legacy of the "peaceful" civil rights activist has been twisted.

Before starting this book, I had a vague outline of race riots and Muslims. Today, I know Malcolm X to have been a reader, a thinker, a leader cut down in the midst of shifts from wholesale condemnation to broader platforms of acceptance, a man learning to hate the game of societal oppression, not the multitude of players.

Thirty-six years and a wide variety of beliefs both religious and otherwise separates his lifetime from mine, but we share a desire for true and ubiquitous equality, as well as a love for James Baldwin. For that, I am glad to have finally made his literary acquaintance.

Mar 27, C. I'm in such awe of this book and the man behind it that I don't think I can really give it a fair review. I came late to Malcolm X - I didn't pick up his autobiography until I was twenty-five, during my third year teaching in the Bronx. He manages to so clearly articulate the injustice and anger that results from racism in America, and at the same time is unflinchingly honest regard his own life and his own failings.

Following the progression of his thought and philosophy changed the way I thoug I'm in such awe of this book and the man behind it that I don't think I can really give it a fair review. Following the progression of his thought and philosophy changed the way I thought about race, class, and America.

He was murdered just as he was truly becoming a massive force in America and the World, and the potential that was lost with him is staggering. For everyone who thinks of Malcolm X only as violent and hating white people, you need to read this book; he was much more aggressive and uncompromising than Martin Luther King, but he was equally beautiful and inspiring.

View 1 comment. Shelves: biography-autobiography , lit-african-american , americana , have , reviews-liked , lit-american , afro-american-connections. Handler, a NYT reporter whom Malcolm X reportedly believed had "none of the usual preju "This book I dedicate to my beloved wife Betty and to our children whose understanding and whose sacrifices made it possible for me to do my work. Attallah Shabazz Alex Haley, the writer. Normally one would think that a review of an autobiography could just jump around when talking about the book and the protagonist.

One for each of those Z people, one that he believed about himself, and one that he really was. And the review will give you an idea of who I think he was. His father, who traveled between various Black churches within driving distance of their home, espousing the ideas of Marcus Garvey; who was reviled by local whites, and was probably murdered, when Malcolm was six.

His mother and siblings, who made do with almost no income for years, until the children were taken away and the mother put in an asylum when Malcolm was thirteen. The scattering of the children, to different foster homes. Malcolm lived with white families, whom he seems to remember fondly in the second chapter of the biography. His intelligence and popularity, his election as class president in seventh grade, one of the top students in school.

Then that fateful day when a white eighth-grade teacher asked him what he wanted to be in life. The stylish, tall, younger-than-he-looked manchild who, among many jobs, worked on a train so he could travel for free.

The next year he was arrested, convicted, sentenced to 8-to years in Charlestown State Prison, where he began reading and studying. The introduction, through fellow-inmates and letters from some of his siblings, to the Nation of Islam and the teachings of Elijah Muhammed.

The interesting aspects of those teachings: how people of the white race had been created as devils, how their abiding goal was to subjugate all non-whites; how the white man attempted to further these aims by foisting a religion Christianity on non-whites — a religion which would help satisfy natural desires in this world by promising rewards in another.

How Malcolm came to accept these views as an explanation of the behavior of whites toward Black people. The notoriety X gained, once the white world in the U. The silencing of X by Elijah, accepted with humility by X. Then the pilgrimage to Mecca, on which everything changed. See below, So.

Rowan, at that time Director of the U. Rowan became somewhat less vociferous about X with the passage of time. In fact, some of this may have started almost as soon as the book here reviewed was published, the year after his death. The New York Times reviewer described it as a "brilliant, painful, important book". Two years later, historian John William Ward wrote that it would become a classic American autobiography. In , Time named it one of the ten most important nonfiction books of the twentieth century.

Places that he lived are now adorned with Historic markers; many streets in Harlem, Brooklyn, Dallas, Lansing and schools have been named after him - grade schools, high schools, the El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus, located in the building where he attended elementary school.

Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated. And the U. Postal Service issued a Malcolm X postage stamp in I never really did before. But first, an aside At the time that X was beginning his mission to found mosques for the Nation of Islam, I, like almost all whites in the U. But my ignorance was much more long-lasting.

By , when I graduated from high school, X had achieved a good deal of public notoriety. But I have no memories from that time of having heard his name. I was raised in a small town in west central Minnesota.

Never a Black kid in school with me. And even though I was a reader, it was books I read, not newspapers. Look, I imagine there were adults in town who had read something about Malcolm X. Well, then I went off to college. Out East. Okay, now I start knowing some Blacks, right?

Not at Georgetown University in the years I was there. Specifically, to become more diverse in my outlook? But a Black? I just thought of a Black at Georgetown in those years. A janitor who was often seen around the basketball arena. We all knew him, sort of. Maybe he did. But even in February , when X was killed, I have no recollection of knowing anything about it — or about him.

After twenty plus years of utter ignorance, and then a few more decades of knowing so little that I never even considered having an opinion about Malcom X, this is the way the book affected me. A lot of the experiences that Malcolm had in the Harlem years were pretty much lived by Brown, starting when he was only about eight years old.

Yes, here was an urban Black living by the way of the streets. But then, reading on, as X went to prison and then became familiar with the teachings of Mr.

Elijah Mohammad, suddenly I was reading these views about whites being devils, all whites being racists — that stuff. Not ALL whites. Not ME! And that really confusing state of mind, is what I would have been left with, had the book ended at the chapter before X went to Mecca.

When Malcolm made his pilgrimage to Mecca in , he flew to Jedda, Saudi Arabia as a starting point. Omar Azzam. Yet Azzam treated him as if he, Malcom X, were royalty. But in the Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. From that day forward his ideas about racism in America began shifting significantly.

When he arrived back in the U. My trip to Mecca has opened my eyes. I no longer subscribe to racism! I have adjusted my thinking to the point where I believe that whites are human beings … as long as this is borne out by their humane attitudes toward Negroes. I condemn what whites collectively have done to our people collectively. At any rate, Haley tells us that in his last few weeks, X seemed often a confused man.

Something like this kills a lot of argument. I was a zombie then — like all [of them] — I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. It cost me twelve years. This book is an honest telling of his story. As he changed at critical junctures, he gained and lost friends, admirers, disciples, enemies — on both sides of the color line.

But I could be wrong. Read the book. Decide for yourself. Jan 13, Bradley rated it it was amazing Shelves: shelf , history , non-fiction , fanboy-goes-squee. I remember watching the movie, Malcolm X, and even enjoyed it so freaking much that I promised myself I would read the Autobiography as soon as I could. He was very much someone I could admire.

Empathize with. Strongly disagree with. And finally, wholeheartedly agree with him. Of course, to my everlasting shame, it's now Alex Haley helped Malcolm X turn his life into a brilliant narration, spent years talking, being friends, and after I remember watching the movie, Malcolm X, and even enjoyed it so freaking much that I promised myself I would read the Autobiography as soon as I could.

Alex Haley helped Malcolm X turn his life into a brilliant narration, spent years talking, being friends, and after Malcolm X's assassination in , also recounts the tragedy of this wonderful man's death.

But above all, Malcolm X was a real man. Courageous, smart, opinionated. He was honest about his entire life: his shortcomings, his youth as a hellion, a con, a drug dealer, and a thief. About the way he treated women and his kin, his brothers. How he went to prison, fervently hating all white men. But then he changed. His life was all about change, honesty, and discovery. He discovered books, taught himself to read, and read voraciously. He found help and heart in the teachings of an American Muslim leader that showed him what he believed took on the heart of the matter.

That the endemic racism of all whites, the prejudice, the deviltry of their actions had taken everything from the black man. Their history, their bodies, the heart.

Malcolm X devoted himself to this man and through his eloquence and charm brought 40, new believers to this Black Muslim community, building it up with anger and definite firebrand techniques. But it wasn't until he went on the Hajj to Mecca that he understood something new, strange, and beautiful. That out of the 22 million angry black people in America, there were almost million black people living in relative peace and harmony around the world.

Strangers and leaders and worldwide press were amazed and thrilled to see an American Muslim take on the Hajj and to take on the leadership of bringing the humanitarian plight of the Black people back in America to the world.

Was he in the right place at the right time? And it was precisely that sense of welcoming and harmony and community that Malcolm X got thrown into that changed his worldview forever. People were fundamentally decent. Blacks could work together, live and love each other in harmony. Whites, too. And it was this eye-opener that sent him back to America with a different message. He still fought with Martin Luther King Jr.

He still called everyone out and spoke the truth, that there IS something really wrong, but now tempered it with wisdom, hope, and a new kind of truth. He was lionized in the wide world. He was vilified in America. The media blasted him for being THE angry, militant black man. Blamed him for all of society's ills. He eloquently told them they were full of shit. He stood up. He didn't back down. His American Muslim church was torn with strife and jealousy and controversy, unfortunately, and Malcolm X, far from pointing fingers or complaining that all his funds had been stolen, continued speaking in universities, parliaments and media engagements while suffering multiple death threats from whom he thought were angry black Muslims under the instruction of his old teacher.

His house was firebombed. When he was finally shot down, his wife and four children were penniless and scared. Anyone who knew him in real life, and not through the general media, realized the kind of man he was. Fundamentally decent, smart, and unfailingly honest. Eloquent, forceful, and a real warrior of the spirit. He made lots of mistakes, but he always forged forth and admitted every one of his failings, striving always to make things right.

And let's face it, the times before the sixties DID need someone to stand up against the lynchings, the institutional cons, the ignorance, the prejudice, and the brutality. To say that a black man is a militant hate monger when he's standing up to protect himself from a tidal-wave of injustice is pure bullshit. I read this like a story because Alex Haley is a great storyteller, falling in and out of sympathy for the main character, rolling around in his joys, anxieties, and failings, getting lifted up in his great successes, and higher when he learns mercy, temperance, and a real justice beyond the simple, if all-consuming, hate of his youth.

I wonder what he would have become if he hadn't been cut down at this, the most excellent prime of his life. Most of all of our modern ideas on racism and how to solve it comes from Malcolm X. We can't ignore his beginnings. It makes the later discoveries all the more potent. I love you, man. I love you. View all 6 comments. Oct 03, J Beckett rated it it was amazing Shelves: african-american-non-fiction. Several years ago I decided to make the reading of The Autobiography of Malcolm X mandatory for my high school Honor's English students I had read the book when it was first released.

I taught in an "urban" Maryland public school, and most of the students, although considered honor's, were void of deeper literary exposure. My decision to "teach Malcolm X" was not looked upon well by the administration, but after thorough student led discussions and tying the story to their personal journey, th Several years ago I decided to make the reading of The Autobiography of Malcolm X mandatory for my high school Honor's English students I had read the book when it was first released.

My decision to "teach Malcolm X" was not looked upon well by the administration, but after thorough student led discussions and tying the story to their personal journey, the book was relished, applauded and appreciated by the students and their parents.

I still hold this book in highest regard and rank it as one of the greatest stories ever told. View all 5 comments. Jan 18, Shannon rated it really liked it Shelves: books-by-black-men , own. I will not attempt to add my two cents to the five decades of commentary that currently exist. But I will say this, when Malcolm says of Elijah Muhammad, "My black brothers and sisters, you have come from your homes to hear-now you are going to hear-America's wisest black man! America's boldest black man!

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