The Autobiography of Malcolm X

As Malcolm learns more about the Nation of Islam, he writes to Elijah Muhammad. In a typed response, Elijah Muhammad explains that Black criminality is a direct symptom of White oppression. As Malcolm writes more letters—to old hustler colleagues and prominent politicians alike—he realizes that despite his verbal eloquence, his writing betrays the fact that he only an eighth grade education. In an effort to improve both his writing and his penmanship, Malcolm borrows a dictionary from the prison library and copies every page of it. Over time, he finds himself retaining the meaning of words.

Malcolm joins the prison debate club, and reads history and religion texts voraciously. At lights out, he squeezes himself into a shaft of light that shines through his cell door from the hall and continues to read until four in the morning, eventually developing astigmatism. He is particularly impressed by Will Durant’s Story of Civilization, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk, and Carter G. Woodson’s Negro History, which reinforce the Nation of Islam’s teachings about the erasure of Africa’s rich cultural and historical traditions. Malcolm is also shocked to learn of the true extent of slavery’s horrors, which his junior high textbooks elided. The texts reorient Malcolm’s view of the relationship between Whiteness, imperialism, and Christianity. He writes, “I perceived, as I read, how the collective white man had been actually nothing but a piratical opportunist who used Faustian machinations to make his own Christianity his initial wedge in criminal conquests” (203).

As Malcolm’s belief grows, he hones his persuasion skills, but it is difficult to convince his fellow incarcerated men, whom he terms “brainwashed,” to believe the truth about history and racism. In fact, he often finds that Black men won’t believe anything unless he shows it to them in a book written by a White person. Nevertheless, he finds it is inevitable that average Black men and women—non-intellectuals not hoodwinked by promises of integration—will eventually acknowledge this truth, as it reflects their past and future interactions with White people.

During a visit, Reginald reveals that Elijah Muhammad suspended Reginald from the Nation of Islam for failing to practice moral restraint—Reginald engaged in “improper relations” (214) with a secretary at the New York Nation of Islam Temple. Malcolm begs Elijah Muhammad to reinstate Reginald, but Mr. Muhammad refuses, and soon, Malcolm agrees with Mr. Muhammad’s decision. Here, Malcolm foreshadows similar allegations of sexual impropriety later leveled at Elijah Muhammad himself.

In the spring of 1952, the Massachusetts State Parole Board releases Malcolm after he has served seven years. Malcolm wonders if his embrace of Islam and successful proselytizing to fellow incarcerated men has played a role in his early release: The Board may view him as more dangerous inside prison than out.

Rather than return to Boston, where the police might be biased against him, Malcolm moves to Detroit, where Malcolm’s brother Wilfred—also a convert to Islam—gives him a place to live and gets him a job at a furniture store. Detroit is also the home of the Nation of Islam’s Temple Number One, established by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1931. The temple is small, yet to Malcolm’s amazement, there are still empty seats during every service.

On Labor Day in 1952, Malcolm participates in a caravan of ten automobiles traveling to Chicago Temple Number Two, where Elijah Muhammad preaches. During his sermon, Elijah Muhammad singles out Malcolm as an example of the restorative power of the Nation of Islam. That evening, Elijah Muhammad invites Malcolm and others from the Detroit Temple for dinner at his 18-room house. Over dinner, Malcolm vows to increase the membership in Detroit into the thousands.

Back in Detroit, Malcolm works tirelessly to recruit Black men from bars, pool halls, and corners with only modest success. Meanwhile, Malcolm’s membership in the Nation of Islam is officially approved, allowing him to go by the name “Malcolm X” and to relinquish the last name “Little,” the surname foisted on his ancestors by White slaveholders and their enablers. The “X” symbolizes the lost tribal name of Malcolm’s African ancestors.

After a few months, thanks in large part to Malcolm’s efforts, membership at Temple One increases threefold. After Malcolm leads a 25-automobile caravan to Chicago Temple Two, his home minister Lemuel Hassan encourages him to speak to the assembly, something that never before occurred to Malcolm. In his first address, Malcolm describes how White slaveholders used Christianity to brainwash enslaved people into believing paradise awaits them after death, if only they endure hell on Earth. For his talent for oratory, Malcolm becomes Assistant Minister of Detroit Temple One.