ABSTRACT
The teaching of The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley was just such a transforming and compelling force. For eighteen years, he taught a one-semester literature class at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, called 'Literature of Groups in Conflict'. The student population at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School is sixty percent students of color. Of this number, the majority is African American. The text brings students closer to racism as it affects their own lives. Moreover, it provides a plan for overcoming racism through self-evaluation and through the value it places on education. The Autobiography of MalcolmX is a story of hope, of transformation, of self-assessment, of life. He had elected to teach the text at least two years prior to the advent of the film, Malcolm X. His rationalization was that students would be able to identify with Malcolm's journey from street hustler to Black Nationalist, scholar, husband, and father.
