506 Haley, Alex, and Malcolm X
he would say, his “stock of knowledge” in his work
as a human rights advocate. At the end of the story,
Malcolm mourns his lack of a formal education. And
here, at the end of his life, after several transforma-
tions, Malcolm knows he would have been a good
lawyer. With his “homemade education,” though,
Malcolm X creates a model for young scholars to
follow in order to realize the historical basis of social
injustice and realistically confront it. Had Malcolm
taken Mr. Ostrowski’s advice, or had he taken Mr.
Williams’s mockery of Negro history to heart, he
would never have undertaken his life’s work. These
two teachers worked to keep Malcolm ignorant and
in his place. When Malcolm recognized the connec-
tion between knowledge and power and how it had
been wielded against him and other “ghetto-created
Negroes,” his education began.
Jeffrey Bickerstaff
SuFFerinG in The Autobiography of Malcolm X
In his autobiography, Malcolm X describes how
periods of great suffering yielded personal transfor-
mations in his life. His world was first shattered at
the age of six when his father’s skull was crushed
and his body nearly cut in half. Blacks in town
whispered that Earl Little had been attacked and
laid over streetcar tracks. The insurance company,
however, claimed that he committed suicide and
refused to pay on his policy. Malcolm’s mother,
Louise, devastated and alone with eight children
and no money, struggled to maintain her family.
Her condition deteriorated over the next six years,
and she was eventually committed to the state men-
tal hospital.
Malcolm recounts how even after their mother
was gone, his family tried desperately to stay together,
but the state prevailed and Malcolm and his siblings
were separated from one another. They became “state
children” under the authority of a judge in Lansing:
“a white man in charge of a black man’s children!
Nothing but legal, modern slavery.” Malcolm uses
this comparison to emphasize the history of black
families being controlled and undermined by the
white power structure. Readers should recognize the
similarity of his situation to the agony wrought by
the practice of selling members of slave families to
different masters throughout the country.
Malcolm’s story shows that breaking up black
families continued after emancipation, and he notes
that “ours was not the only case of this kind.” With
his foundation gone, Malcolm slid into a world of
drugs and crime until, just shy of his 21st birthday,
he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in
a burglary ring. In prison, Malcolm became a serious
reader and devoured books dealing with the history
of slavery. He began to contextualize his personal
suffering within the greater struggle of his people,
and stresses in his autobiography that the factors
leading to his incarceration were typical for many
black Americans.
Reflecting on his time in prison, Malcolm
explains why he and other prisoners embraced Eli-
jah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam with such fervor.
Malcolm describes the typical convert as a man put
into a cage by a white judge. He says, “Usually the
convict comes from among those bottom-of-the-
pile Negroes, the Negroes who through their entire
lives have been kicked about, treated like children.”
Years of oppression through institutional racism
make them “the most perfectly preconditioned to
hear the words, ‘the white man is the devil.’ ” The
intensity with which Malcolm believed this doctrine
is reflected by the turmoil he feels later when his
faith in Elijah Muhammad is shattered.
Malcolm describes the myths that comprise
Elijah Muhammad’s racial cosmology. Years after
he had first heard them in prison, he learns that
these “tales” had infuriated eastern Muslims. Mal-
colm countered that their own failure to make “real
Islam known in the West” created “a vacuum into
which any religious faker could step and mislead our
people.” Malcolm’s word choice, “faker,” indicates
how intensely he feels betrayed by Elijah Muham-
mad. Malcolm’s faith was destroyed not by Mr.
Muhammad’s adultery, but his willingness “to hide,
to cover up what he had done.” Malcolm asserts
that the Nation diverted members’ attention from
the scandal toward him. “Hating me was going to
become the cause for people of shattered faith to
rally around.”
Malcolm’s break with the Nation caused him
torments beyond description. He wandered “in a
state of emotional shock” until he began to recognize
that he “had believed in Mr. Muhammad more than