everyone, irrespective of race or color, to honor
the same God, Allah. Returning to America, after
also visiting Africa and the Arab nations, Malcolm
began teaching that “if racism could be removed,
America could offer a society where rich and poor
could truly live like human beings” (371). Before
leaving on his pilgrimage, he had founded the
Moslem Mosque, Inc., to work within the Ameri-
can mainstream and more cooperatively with
extant civil rights leaders. Reflecting on his meta-
morphosis from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X to
El Shabazz, Malcolm concluded, “it is only after the
deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it
is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest
appreciation of freedom can come” (379).
Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965
at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, where
he had gone to talk about the Organization of Af-
rican Unity (OAU), which he had founded. He was
married to Betty (Sanders) Shabazz, the mother of
his six daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gami-
lah, and Malaak and Malika, twin girls.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X not only re-
cords Malcolm X’s effort to assess and even shape
his historical and personal importance but also
reveals his complexity as an individual who, as
Dyson notes, was willing, in his quest for truth, “to
be self-critical and to change his direction [which
is] an unfailing sign of integrity and courage”
(Dyson, 17). Malcolm X has been resurrected as
an important icon at the end of the 20th century.
His influence and ideas continue to be felt. He is,
says Robin Kelly, “a sort of tabula rasa, or blank
slate, on which people of different positions can
write their own interpretation of his politics and
legacy” (1236).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dyson, Michael Eric. Making Malcolm: The Myth and
Meaning of Malcolm X. New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1995.
Kelly, Robin. “Malcolm X.” In Africana: The Ency-
clopedia of the African and African American Ex-
perience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1233–1236. New York:
Basic Civitas Books, 1999.
Malcolm X, with the assistance of Alex Haley. The
Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1965.
Smith, Sidone. Where I Am Bound: Patterns of Slav-
ery and Freedom in Black American Autobiography.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974.
Wilfred D. SamuelsAutobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The
Ernest Gaines (1971)
One of ERNEST GAINES’s most popular novels, The
Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman has as its title
character one of African-American literature’s
most memorable characters. The novel spans
Jane’s entire life—all 110 years. Her “autobiogra-
phy” is recounted to an African-American high
school teacher collecting oral personal histories.
His voice frames the narrative, but Jane’s artful sto-
rytelling becomes the core of the novel. Her his-
tory marks the years between the Civil War and the
CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT of the 1960s. Jane’s trans-
formation from slave to free woman illustrates the
changes in American society over the span of her
lifetime. In genre, the work is a neo–slave narra-
tive, modeling itself after the thousands of oral and
written narratives of former slaves but presented
in a contemporary fictional form. The purpose of
such novels, including TONI MORRISON’s BELOVED, is
to highlight the connections between the past hor-
rors of slavery and the present problems of racism.
Jane’s account begins with her life as a slave
named Ticey at the close of the Civil War. A Yan-
kee soldier befriends her and suggests that she take
a new name to represent her new freedom. She
chooses the given name Jane and, in the tradition
of true slave narratives, pays respect to the soldier
who helped her by taking his surname, Brown. For
a time, she dreams of moving North to the “prom-
ised land,” but after federal troops leave the South,
following Reconstruction, Jane is convinced that
the North holds little more promise of freedom
than the South. Jane’s life is also disrupted by fam-
ily tragedy: Racists murder an adopted son, and
her husband is killed in an accident.24 Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, The