ABSTRACT

Reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley in my late fifties, I find it remains one of the most compelling stories of political awakening. I was in my first year of college when I was loaned the autobiography. On fall break and staying with affluent white friends, I read the autobiography and it left me speechless, it closed me of from my white friends as it forced me into an awareness of the social as well as the political dynamics of racism. The recent publication of Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm served as the catalyst for my re-reading of the autobiography after more than forty years. In the small world of black academics and intellectuals, anyone who knew Manning for long years knew that he was slowly working on what he hoped would be the “definitive” biography of Malcolm X.