The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X had to overcome a lot of obstacles to become a success, and you start to feel sympathy for him when he describes losing his parents, one to violence and the other to mental illness, and going into the foster system in Michigan. There he is told who poor his prospects in life are likely to be, with no obvious way of going on any different path. He makes his way to the East coast and comes to admire Black celebrities he sees and hears about, working menial jobs, finding his way to Harlem, and eventually pursuing the life of a street hustler. When he gets back to Boston, he begins what cannot be described as anything other than a gang of burglars. I felt like this part of the book was hard to read because of the creeping sense of something awful that was about to happen.

When he and the others are caught, you think you know where the story is going but in prison he learns about the Nation of Islam for the first time from letters and visits by his family members, and thus begins the first big conversion experience of his life. The reverend Elijah Mohammed is more than a teacher to him, nearly a father figure leading to a radically new way of living which only becomes more committed once he is back out. This part was the hardest part for me to get through, because of the outlandishness of some of the doctrines he was setting forward as he ascends through the organization, becoming its chief spokesperson. Then, after twelve years, there is a second unexpected setback when he comes into conflict with the church's leader who drives him out.

Then, surprisingly, he undergoes yet another conversion experience during his pilgrimage to Mecca, one nearly as tumultuous as the first, where he both comes to orthodox Islam and takes on a role as a sort of global ambassador and popular speaker. It was interesting to see how he understands his views to have changed from the years promoting the Nation of Islam now that his experiences have been broadened by his travels. He does not speak more of the tension between himself and that group but does refer to his feeling that he wouldn't have long to live, because of the threats of violence. Of course we know that this was exactly what happened to him just about the same time when this autobiography was published.

One of the reasons I wanted to read this book was to hear what he said about the need for violent struggle, and what I found was that his message wasn't as simplistic as what some people say. He had some degree of contempt for strict non-violence, wanting to achieve liberation of American Blacks by any means necessary, but he didn't call for armed rebellion in any explicit way.

I think the forceful narration by Laurence Fishburne added a lot of depth to the experience. I really got a sense of the vigor and passion he brought to everything he did, whether it was during his crime career or building a national church.