Malcolm X

Malcolm Little Born 1925 in Nebraska Family moves to Lansing, Michigan Father killed 1931 Mother committed 1938 Malcolm moves to Boston 1941/ NY 1943 – Shines shoes, works in train – Turns to crime (pimping, burglary) Prison 1946

Malcolm X Converts to Nation of Islam in prison Changes name Writes to Elijah Muhammed, Truman Released from prison 1952 Works as a recruiter for Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam Founded 1930 in Detroit US orientation Preaches Islam & Black Nationalism – Reaction to Black Christianity – Black separatism Elijah Muhammed dies 1975 Movement splinters, but continues Louis Farrakhan and the Million Man March (1995)

Malcolm X Establishes mosques throughout East Coast Becomes even more influential than Elijah M. Meets Fidel Castro Kennedy assassination 1963: “Chickens coming home to roost” Silenced for this remark Splits from Nation of Islam

Malcolm X Critical of Civil Rights Movement Converts to Sunni Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca (1964) – Change in attitude? Death threats from Nation of Islam Assassinated in Feb. 1965

Autobiography Written with Alex Haley (Roots) Based on interviews Published after death Models – Spiritual narrative – Benjamin Franklin

Questions to pursue Who had more influence on autobiography? In what way does a ghost writer shape the “author’s” identity? Compare to other spiritual autobiography Compare to white or black autobiography

At my first admission into this printing-house… I drank only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great guzzlers of beer. … They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who drank strong beer! … My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he suppos'd, to drink strong beer, that he might be strong to labour. I endeavoured to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer.

He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor; an expense I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.