Running Head: MALCOLM X

Analysis of The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

Angela Blankenship
Briar Cliff University

MALCOLM X

Analysis of The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. He made his entrance
into a world of poverty, racism, and violence. He would come to be hated by some, loved by
many, and feared by most. His Black Muslim beliefs and radical anti-white ideology is probably
what he is most remembered for today. However, the question that begs to be answered is what
brought about the belief system that became such a big part of who he was or, more accurately,
who others thought he was? After reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex
Haley, I gained a clearer picture of what circumstances in Malcolm Littles life occurred in order
for him to become the man called Malcolm X.
His father, Rev. Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister that followed the teachings
of Marcus Garvey, champion for the back-to-Africa movement (UCLA African Studies Center,
2014) and his mother, Louise Little, was from Grenada, in the British West Indies. As the
product of a white slave master raping a slave, her appearances were those of a white woman (X
& Haley, 1992, p. 4). Malcolm remarks of his suspicion that his mother being harder on him
than she was his siblings and that his father favoring him over his siblings were both due to his
skin color being lighter than the other childrens. Within his own family unit he learned that
skin color was important and it was what determined the treatment he received from others. This
theory was reinforced for him when his familys home was burned by a white racist group and
the white fire department stood by and watched it burn (X & Haley, 1992, p. 5-7). These types
of injustices would become a theme that would be repeated many times throughout his life.
Shortly after the family moved to Lansing, when Malcolm was only six years old, his
father died as a result of an violent attack from a racist group. His fathers death would prove to
a defining point, not only for him, but for the rest of the family as well, taking them from a

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balancing act of survival to being kicked off the tightrope into despair. Despite his mothers
efforts to care for her children on her own, she had no choice but to accept Welfare help, which
meant investigations of the family by the Welfare people. He says that the workers would ask
him things like who was smarter [of the children] and why he was so different in order to
plant seeds of division among us (X & Haley, 1992, p. 20.). The Welfare Department made the
decision to place Malcolm with another family and they were taking steps to remove the rest of
the children from his mother. Mrs. Little eventually suffered a breakdown and was put in a State
Mental Hospital in Kalamazoo. Malcolm blamed the breakdown of the Welfare system for the
destruction of his family in 1937 saying, I truly believe that if ever a state social agency
destroyed a family, it destroyed ours. We wanted and tried to stay together. Our home didnt
have to be destroyed (X & Haley, 1992, p.20).
When Malcolm was expelled from school for simple adolescent misbehavior at school,
he was sent to a detention home. The lady who ran the school, Mrs. Swerlin, and her husband
liked him and he was accepted by them, and was treated similarly to how one treats a pet. They
used the word nigger and said similar derogatory things in front of Malcolm without regard of
how he might feel about it. Even so, he says they were good people and thinks they meant well.
Of them he says, it just never occurred to them he wasnt a pet, but a human being (X & Haley,
1992, p. 31). He was subjected to this line of thinking in his new junior high school as well. He
made good grades and was liked by everyone, but they still called him nigger and told racist
jokes with no regard. Probably the most pivotal moment in his life was when one of his teachers,
who was well known for giving advice asked him what he was thinking about doing as a career.
When Malcolm told him he wanted to be a lawyer, the teachers response was, A lawyer thats
no realistic goal for a nigger. You need to think about something you can be (X & Haley, 1992,

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p. 41). He was smarter and got better grades than the white kids, yet he was discouraged from
his career choice while the white kids were encouraged to pursue theirs. He began to believe that
no matter how good he did in school or how well he behaved, he would never have the same
opportunities that a white person did. This is when something began to change inside of him.
Malcolm decided to move to Boston with his older half sister Ella. Ella would prove to
be his source of stability throughout his life. Whenever he needed her, she was always there
supporting him. It was in Boston he met Shorty, an aspiring musician, who would in turn
introduce him to a new way of life. Boston is where he learned the world of drug dealing and
using, prostitution, and stealing. Shorty would also teach him how to straighten his hair and dress
differently. Malcolm noticed the difference in classes of the blacks and formed a dislike for the
middle class because he felt they were trying to be white. He began seeing a white woman
named Sophie. Sophie became a symbol for him to have control over the racism that had
dominated his life. He was still searching for something more.
He left Boston to move on to Harlem and made a name for himself. He gained respect
and notoriety on the streets of Harlem that he had never experienced before. He eventually
convinced his brother Reginald into moving to Harlem with him. One of the close relationships
he formed was with a man called Sammy the Pimp. He and Sammy had a mutual respect until a
disagreement over a payout for a bet almost turned deadly. Although they made amends, the
trust was never restored. This incident coupled with a close call with the police mad Malcolm
paranoid and he began using more and more drugs. He was beginning to lose it. It was Sammy
that made the call to Shorty to come get Malcolm. As dysfunctional as aspects of his
relationships with Sammy and Shorty were, they really did care about and do the best they knew
how to take care of him. Shorty picked up Malcolm and drove him back to Boston. They began

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robbing houses along with Sophia and her sister that ended in ten year prison sentences for both
Malcolm and Shorty. This would be another turning point in his life.
While in prison, his brother Reginald came to visit and talk to him about the Muslim
religion that worshipped Allah that was headed by a man named Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad
Malcolm began writing to Muhammad daily for the rest of his prison sentence. He read every
book he could get his hands on and practiced penmanship and grammar diligently. Upon release
from prison, he took the X for his last name to signify the African names that had taken away
from slaves and replaced by slave owners last names. He rose to be a great leader of the Nation
of Islam, preacher against the evils of white people. His worship of Elijah Muhammad was
almost as strong as his worship of Allah. He even married someone he barely knew on the advice
of Muhammad. When Malcolm X became aware that Muhammad had been committing the
same sins he condemned his followers for, including excommunicating women he had
impregnated, Malcolm X talked to him about it. It ultimately ended his him being
excommunicated by the Nation of Islam he had worked so hard to build up. He began to fear for
his life because he thought an attack from the Nation would happen. Although he was stunned at
the betrayal, he hung onto his faith in Allah.
In his rise to promote Muhammad and his teachings he began to gain a following of his
own. There was hardly a person in the world who hadnt heard of Malcolm X and his radical
speeches against the whites whom he called blue-eyed devils. His severed relationship with
Muhammad and his followers sent Malcolm X on a pilgrimage to Mecca. There he learned the
ways of orthodox Islam. He saw that whites and blacks could live in harmony. This was the
ideology he embraced near the end of his life.

MALCOLM X

Upon his return from Mecca, he began receiving death threats and the Nation of Islam
began legal proceedings to remove his family and him from the home they had lived in for years.
Malcolm X continued traveling and speaking turning his speeches from radical to peaceful. On
February 21, 1965 Malcolm X was gunned down while giving a speech at The Audubon
Ballroom. Thousands and thousands of people turned out to mourn the loss of the man called
Malcolm X and give him the respect he had searched his life for.
The thought I kept having as I was reading the book was wondering who he would have
become if his teacher had encouraged his dream of becoming a lawyer. Had just that one person
in that one moment stood up and believed in him, he may have done so much more.
After reading his story, I took to social media, to see what people remember, know, or
think they know about the life of Malcolm X. I posted on my facebook page the questions:
What do you know about Malcolm Xs philosophy? How do you know what you know? Only
a few of the more recently educated young people or professors responded with knowledge of his
entire story. Most who responded - young, old, black, or white - either didnt know about him or
thought him to be a radical, violent, civil rights proponent and thought of him as an antagonist.
As I was reading the book, I just kept thinking that it was a miracle he was in the mental
institution with his mother. His being angry and radical was so understandable, if not justified.
For me the poignant part was that while he was preaching that the black man had been
used without regard so that the white man could prosper and building Muhammads following,
Muhammad was using him in exactly the same way. I cannot imagine what that betrayal must
have felt like to him and how foolish he mustve felt. The amazing thing to me is how when he
learned the truth that he was man enough to stand up and say he had been wrong. He was even
willing to die in order to tell it. That is a sign of a great man and leader.

MALCOLM X
One can only imagine what he wouldve become had so many systems not failed him or
if his life hadnt been snuffed out as early as it was. One can only imagine if he mightve
become the one to bridge the gap between races. Perhaps we wouldve elected the first black
president sooner than we did.

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8
References

UCLA African Studies Center. (2014). Retrieved 3, 2014, from

http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/introduction
X, M., & Haley, A. (1992). The autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books.