Malcolm X Hand in 4

Samuel Agersnap Bone
Københavns Universitet: Biografi som Historie

KA-område 3: akademisk skriftlighed med fokus på kildeanalyse
The Autobiography of Malcolm

X: Alex Haley & the many
reinventions of Malcolm X
By Samuel Agersnap Bone

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Saxo-Instituttet, Københavns Universitet
Eksaminator: Michael Alexander Langkjær
Forår 2023
Dato: 30/5/2023
Opgavens omfang: 59.986 tegn (24,9 sider)
1Malcolm X and Alex Haley during the writing process.

https://sowingtheseed.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/haleymalcolm.jpg?w=490
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Table of contents
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Alex Haley & the many reinventions of
Malcolm X .................................................................................................................1
Table of contents............................................................................................2
Introduction ....................................................................................................3
Material, theory and methodology ...............................................................5
Malcolm X, micro-history and the tradition of the African-American
Autobiography .....................................................................................................7
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: how Malcolm X and Alex Haley came
to be .......................................................................................................................9
The biographer Alex Haley: personifying the “ghost” in ghostwriting
and other biographical tendencies.................................................................. 13
The teachings of NOI and Elijah Muhammad: transforming Malcolm
from “Satan” to preacher ................................................................................ 17
How reading the Autobiography may contribute towards a reformulated
Malcolm X ......................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion ................................................................................................... 24
Bibliography ................................................................................................. 26
2
Introduction
For most people, young people especially, Malcolm X may seem
somewhat of a mythic character. He is someone who they have not seen
alive, since he passed away in 1965. In many cases, they may have not even
seen footage of him speaking. Nevertheless, I would wager that most young
people, especially in America, have at least heard the name Malcolm X in
passing, as he is remembered as one of the most influential characters within
the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s America, alongside Martin Luther
King. Within the context of the Civil Rights Movement, MLK and Malcolm
came to represent different groups. Whereas MLK came to be linked to “the
largely rural and small-town South”, Malcolm on the other hand, “was a
product of the modern ghetto”2. By the 1960s, America was urbanized, and
Malcolm’s rhetoric resonated with the black people in major cities: they felt
that he understood the ghettoes3.
Malcolm X might be a name someone recalls mentioned in history class,
but perhaps even more likely, is the mention of his name by a parent or
grandparent, who lived in a time where his name caused reverberations
through America and the world alike. Even in modern hip-hop, his name
often pops up:
”Lot of n*ggas go to prison—how many come out Malcolm X?”4
My point is that the name Malcolm X is familiar to most people; even
youths, who may not know the particularities of his politics, the ideologies
he preached, or exactly what he fought for. Or, like the above quote by Dice
Raw attests to, they know of his famous story of going to prison, and
coming out as a changed, “reborn” man of the Nation of Islam. So, where
may someone who is intrigued, go to gain a deeper knowledge of the man
behind that legendary moniker, Malcolm X5?
Well, rather obviously, many people might reference the famous 1992
biographical drama Malcolm X featuring Denzel Washington. While
brilliantly entertaining, Spike Lee’s movie is first and foremost, a drama, and
suffers from many of the sensationalist shortcomings that the genre usually
contains, when viewed through the lens of authenticity. As an aspiring
historian, I would instead turn towards the autobiography, which the Spike
Lee movie is (loosely) based upon6, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written by
2 Marable, p. 7
3 Ibid, p. 7
4 Rapper “Dice Raw” on the Roots’ track Tip the Scale off 2011 album Undun
https://genius.com/487681
5 Note: it was a bit of a dilemma to decide how I should refer to “Malcolm X” in this
paper. He had a ton of monikers and names. However, I have decided to consistently refer
to him throughout the paper as “Malcolm” or sometimes “Malcolm X”.
6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X_(1992_film)
3
Malcolm X in collaboration with writer Alex Haley, who later went on to

write the acclaimed Roots about Kunta Kinte7.
Despite the fact that many people know of the name Malcolm X, some
people have a very singular image of the man in mind, when they imagine
him. He was, at times in his life, a militant NOI8 minister, with a stark anti-
white rhetoric. And that is what many people mostly associate him with. As
essayist Deidre Bailey remarks:
“They (young people, ed.) cling to the symbol of Malcolm without taking
the time to read about him thoroughly. (…) A lot of young people don’t
know about that side of Malcolm. They just know violent Malcolm – hating
white people and calling white people devils”.9
I will in, in this paper, examine how Malcolm X was in reality, a
multiplicity of things, a man of many identities, rather than just the NOI
minister that many remember him for. Even close to his death, after
undergoing significant changes, Malcolm was widely perceived to be
something he was not anymore. Malcolm X biographer Manning Marable
remarks: “Malcolm’s dilemma was that virtually all his enemies – and friends
– perceived him as the high priest of black social revolution, and despite his
letters from Mecca and abroad, and his dramatic address in Chicago, he
continued to be perceived as an antiwhite demagogue.”10 Perhaps precisely
because that “anti-white” rhetoric was so controversial, it was also
memorable, and that is a memory that persists for many today. I will
throughout this paper explore how Malcolm and Haley’s Autobiography is a
way in which the reader can reacquaint themselves with a more historically
accurate and comprehensive idea of who Malcolm X really was.
Therefore, I have developed the following as a thesis statement for this
paper: The Autobiography of Malcolm X can shift the common
understanding for many of Malcolm X from being imagined as a
static, militant, anti-white symbol to the more complex, changing,
multi-faceted revolutionary he was.
Briefly, I will account for how Malcolm fits into the greater tradition of
African-American Biography. The discussion of how the Autobiography can
help shift the memory of Malcolm, will be supported by a source-critical
analysis of Alex Haley’s subtle, yet crucial work as a biographer as well as
analyzing Malcolm’s most significant personal and political reinventions
throughout the Autobiography.
7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots:_The_Saga_of_an_American_Family
8
Throughout this paper, I will often use the common abbreviation for the Nation of
Islam: NOI.
9 Bailey, p. 238
10 Marable, p. 333
4
Material, theory and methodology

The Autobiography of Malcolm X11, subtitled with the Assistance of Alex Haley,
was first published in 1965. The Autobiography was the result of over 50
interviews from 1963 and up until Malcolm was murdered in 196512. The
interviews only involved Haley and Malcolm. Malcolm would carefully detail
his life from memory, chronologically, one chapter at a time, whereas Haley
would listen and carefully document everything Malcolm would say.13
Furthermore, the 70-page foreword to the Autobiography, written by Haley
after Malcolm’s death, is quite crucial to the making of this paper, as it offers
quite significant insight into the inner workings of their relationship. Much
of the analysis done in this paper draws upon that foreword, as it allows
Haley to step out of his subtle role as a silent presence during the rest of the
Autobiography, and speak about Malcolm with his own voice. I use the
foreword to the Autobiography as an artefact in the chapters about the
circumstances of origin to the Autobiography, as well as in the chapter about
Haley’s ghostwriting. On the other hand, the Autobiography itself is later used
as an account towards examining Malcolm’s reinventions, in the chapters
about the NOI and his Hajj-reinvention.
Firstly, I will account for the Autobiographical tradition of African-
American biography, and analyze how Malcolm (and Haley) write
themselves into that tradition. I will look at understanding how the
conventions of this genre, as well as the mode of microhistory, can assist in
understanding Malcolm’s biography in a broader context.
I will subsequently then consider methodological aspects that are usually
raised within history under the umbrella term of “source criticism”. These
aspects include bias, context, circumstances of origin and motivation for
writing. These things are important to establish, before I delve deeper into
the analysis of the contents of the account, as the credibility of the account
and value depend on these factors and the inner workings of Haley and
Malcolm’s relationship. Furthermore, I will use the Autobiography as an
artefact to explore how Haley’s rhetorical considerations, such as lack of
overt dramatization and the unfiltered inclusion of all of Malcolm’s
reinventions contribute to the performance and immense popularity of the
Autobiography.
In other chapters, I will on the contrary use the Autobiography as an
account towards understanding Malcolm’s rise within the NOI from the
depths of prison, his idolizing of Elijah Muhammad, and his subsequent
11 For the sake of simplicity, I will mainly be referring to it as The Autobiography or
Autobiography.
12 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/martin-luther-king-jr-malcolm-x-
alex-haley-quote-180982172/
13 Autobiography, p. 18-19
5
break with the NOI and to the final reinvention as a universalist Sunni
Muslim. I believe it is important to understand these phases in Malcolm’s
life, as even writing the Autobiography, was originally only even considered
due to him wanting to dedicate the book to Muhammad14. I wish to
eventually discuss Malcolm’s memory, and how the book contributes to that
in a way, which may help with breaking the static, singular symbol of
Malcolm X as NOI Minister, moving towards a more multifaceted
understanding of Malcolm as an individual.
Aside from the Autobiography, this paper considers a variety of other
existing scholarship about Malcolm and Haley, Autobiography and other
related genre conventions. A full list of the texts, including a variety of
essays, is included in the bibliography, but perhaps most notably, I have also
drawn upon the work of another Malcolm X biographer, Manning Marable.
Marable’s Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, certainly inspired parts of the
arguments in this paper, and therefore he is also referenced to a notable
degree. Of course, Marable’s biography differs in that it is simply biography,
not autobiography, which is why I mainly have used it as a secondary source,
which I could hold up certain facets of the Autobiography against. As an
indefatigable researcher, Marable’s biography on Malcolm won him a
Pulitzer Prize for History in 201215, and he has managed to compile sources
from many other people who were knowledgeable about and close to
Malcolm. I was also inspired to discuss points from a number of the critical
essays included in Joe Wood’s 1992 book Malcolm X: In Our Own Image, by
Deidre Bailey and John Edgar Wideman.
I have also considered scholarship about biography, notably Hermione
Lee’s Biography: A Very Short Introduction, and Barbara Caine’s Biography and
History16. While they are cited a couple times, I also simply kept some of their
theoretical frameworks about biography in mind while writing the paper.
Here are Lee’s 10 “rules for biographies”:
1. The story should be true
2. The story should cover the whole life
3. Nothing should be omitted or concealed
4. All sources used should be identified
5. The biographer should know the subject
6. The biographer should be objective
7. Biography is a form of history
8. Biography is an investigation of identity
14 Autobiography, p. 14
15 https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2012
6
9. The story should have some value for the reader

10. There are no rules for biography17
Lee’s 10 rules were an easily accessible framework to keep in mind as I
attempted to assess Haley’s work as a biographer. My initial analysis yielded
that Haley seems to follow all these rules, and thereby qualifies within Lee’s
definition of biography, in that regard. More than anything else, perhaps,
Malcolm’s biography can be seen in light of Lee’s eight rule, as an
“investigation of identity”. This will be elaborated upon in the discussion.
Malcolm X, micro-history and the tradition of the African-

American Autobiography
When discussing Malcolm X, it can be beneficial to keep in mind that his
biography can be seen as belonging to a biographical tradition that is
specifically African-American. Within the African-American biography there
are certain conventions and traits that have historically come to signify the
genre. In this chapter I will account for Malcolm’s Autobiography within the
historical tradition of African-American biography. How does he fit into that
tradition, and perhaps more importantly, what can the genre teach us about
the Autobiography of Malcolm X?
There is one main topic that scholars of the African-American
(sometimes simply called “black”) autobiography, usually stress as ever-
present in the genre: racism. The genre usually deals with encounters of
racism in some shape or form, as writer Richard Barksdale has stressed:
“The inescapable conclusion then is that the roots of the black
autobiography syndrome lie deep in a soil fertilized by American racism and
watered by the tears of the oppressed.”18 Thus, central to Barksdale’s
definition of the Black Autobiography, seems to be a recurring theme of the
African-American documenting and describing the racism they are subjected
to. And therefore, due to racist encounters being commonplace for most
African-Americans, there seems to be a shared interest in the genre, which is
in that way “watered by oppressed tears”. Perhaps an interest which is then
partially fostered by the same collective trauma.
So, why do African-Americans read and write biography about this
collective trauma? Another scholar, Trudier Harris, has pointed to the act of
witnessing as a key point of the African American Autobiography:
“Arguably, witnessing is guiding motivation and creative force behind
African American autobiographical writings (…) Few early African
Americans wrote simply for the sake of doing so.”19 Harris’ emphasis on the
17 Lee, p. 6-18
18 Barksdale, p. 613
19 Harris, p. 180
7
act of witnessing events is a key factor and motivation behind the genre.
Often, those events documented in autobiography may be racially motivated
or traumatic– she argues that they write beyond: “mere art for the sake of
art.”20 So, according to Harris, witnessing racism is historically, often, a key
motivation behind writing African-American Autobiographies. But once
again, why read them, if the acts described in them are traumatic and
difficult to witness? I believe Malcolm himself may help us answer that
question; in the end of his Autobiography, he states that:
“I think, I hope, that the objective reader, in following my life – the life
of only one ghetto-created Negro – may gain a better picture and
understanding than he has previously had of the black ghettoes which are
shaping the lives and thinking of almost all of the 22 million Negroes who
live in America.”21
In other words, Malcolm states his wish for his story, full of rough
experiences fostered by the “black ghettoes”, to help the reader foster a
better understanding of why so many African-Americans struggle. So many
come from the same conditions, and deal with the same institutionalized
issues. However, even if a Black reader may not be from the ghettoes that
Malcolm describes, it seems very plausible that the narrative still holds
relatable value in its description of racism. Racism is certainly very present in
the ghettoes, but it is not unique to a certain social class or area. In that
similar vein, African-American Autobiography also represents a broad
representation of black America’s problems. As Barksdale describes: “(…)
black autobiography is rich and varied. It represents the collective self-
appraisal of a rich variety of Afro-Americans—a challenging melange that
cuts across all groups, sects, and classes in black America.”22 The
aforementioned quote by Malcolm, then, features a key feature of the
African-American biography: a shared documentation of experience. A key
motivation to read the genre is that you witness something that is not
uniquely just your experience. More specifically, within autobiography,
historian Barbara Caine has singled out the importance of autobiography as:
“(…) a form of testimony in which the life of one person has served to
illustrate the experiences of a whole group.23” The early chapters in
Autobiography emphasize that Malcolm suffered from experiences with racism
that are common for African-Americans.
Furthermore, Malcolm’s Autobiography testifies that while he is a micro-
scale historical example from an impoverished area, who eventually became
something rather outstanding, he had the same circumstances as so many
20 Harris, p. 180
22 Barksdale, p. 613
23 Caine, p. 76
8
others, and dealt with similar struggles. Malcolm’s childhood did not exactly
provide him with special circumstances for success, rather the contrary, he
was arguably set up to fail. The Autobiography testifies to that, he was raised in
poverty, his father was killed by whites, and he was racially singled out in
school. “They (the whites, ed.) didn’t give me credit for having the same
sensitivity, intellect, and understanding that they would have been ready and
willing to recognize in a white boy in my position.”.24 Of course, there are
many more examples, but the point is to emphasize that Malcolm writes into
a shared tradition of documenting racism, poverty and struggle.
Rarely, in the African-American biography, is someone raised in
outstanding circumstances. Despite the fact that Malcolm ends up being a
rather exemplary example of a character, his circumstances were poor. And
even the person he came to be, a paragon of struggle and injustice, rose to
prominence precisely because he was protesting for others who were dealt
the same inequal hand as him. As historian Jill Lepore has also said on
micro-history and biography: “However singular a life may be, the value of
examining it lies not in its uniqueness, in how that individual’s life serves as
an allegory for broader issues affecting the culture as a whole.”25 While
Malcolm is a case of micro-history, in that his Autobiography is, technically,
his unique story, his narrative yet can be upscaled, to represent a grander
whole – the larger, systemic issues historically affecting Black America at the
time. As historian Sigurdur Magnússon states: “One of the major features of
microhistory is contextualization, the placement of the object of study into a
broader context. In every microhistory study, the scope is scaled down to
the smallest units – and only such downscaling can bring to light phenomena
which cannot be discerned on the large scale of macrohistory”.26 Malcolm
was not a person fostered in unique conditions, but micro-historically he
would come to signify something rather exemplary to Black America, and
later, the world.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X: how Malcolm X and Alex Haley

came to be
In this chapter, I will focus on Malcolm and Haley’s relationship as
biographer and subject, the circumstances of origin behind the Autobiography,
and discuss their individual motivations for the biography to be written. I
will also discuss how the two met, and developed a private and crucially,
intimate, understanding as biographer and subject, at a time where the
subject, Malcolm X, was at the peak of his infamy as a public speaker
25 Lepore, p. 133
26 Magnusson, p. 47
9
representing the Nation of Islam. Malcolm’s paranoia and inherent suspicion

of the media did not make him easy to work with. Nevertheless, Haley
achieved a situation that many biographers might describe as a dream
scenario: being a first-hand, eye witness for the subject’s retelling of their life
story. I will also, in this chapter, use the Autobiography (mainly the foreword
in it) as an artefact towards understanding how the biography came together,
and what the motivations were for Haley and Malcolm to write it.
Malcolm X and Alex Haley first met in 1959. The first thing which Haley
recalls Malcolm saying to him is, “You’re another of the white man’s tools
sent to spy”.27 A warm first encounter. At the time, Malcolm was as deeply
entrenched into the NOI as he ever would be, thereby it is not entirely
surprising that his first impression of Haley was one marked by paranoia.
After all, Malcolm strongly believed that the white man controlled the
media, and were trying to sabotage the NOI. However, Malcolm would later
begin to warm up to Haley. In 1960, Haley had published an article called
‘Mr. Muhammad speaks’, about the NOI’s leader, Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm had phoned Haley after reading it, complimenting the article’s
objectivity.28 And later, during 1961 and 1962, perhaps after impressing
Malcolm with ‘Mr. Muhammad speaks’, Haley even got the opportunity to
interview Malcolm for Playboy. Once again, Haley recounts how Malcolm
was “taken aback”29 by the fact that Haley and Playboy had actually printed
what Malcolm said, verbatim, perhaps hinting at his general media distrust.
Sometime after the Playboy interview, in early 1963, Haley’s agent brought
him together with an agent, who after reading the interview, had the idea of
making an autobiography about Malcolm X. At first, Haley was tentative, as
Malcolm always seemed to downplay his own importance, and reversely play
up Elijah Muhammad’s.30 He also noticed that he barely knew anything
about Malcolm, despite his interviews, emphasizing how little was really
known about the man’s personal life publicly.31 However, he eventually
brings up the idea of writing the Autobiography to Malcolm, to which
Malcolm is unsure about the prospect – Haley remarks that it was: “one of
the few times I have ever seen him uncertain”.32 Haley firmly laid down the
conditions for their collaboration, according to Manning Marable, he told
Malcolm: “(…) nothing can be in the manuscript (…) that you do not
completely approve of. It is further understood that anything must be in the
manuscript that you want in the manuscript”.33 In that way, Haley allowed
27
Autobiography, p. 11
28 Ibid, p. 12
29 Ibid, p. 12
30 Ibid, p. 13
31 Ibid, p. 13
33 Marable, p. 248
10
the Autobiography to be crafted in the way Malcolm envisioned. Malcolm

ultimately agrees, citing the following reasons as motivation for writing the
Autobiography: “I think my life story may help people to appreciate better
how Mr. Muhammad salvages black people. (…) the Nation of Islam must
get every penny that might come to me.”34 Malcolm’s refusal to gain a single
dollar from the book testifies to his unselfishness at the time, and his
overarching purpose of being a Muslim minister, casting aside material gain.
Nonetheless, what is also apparent is that the book ultimately, was not for
his own legacy, but to be created with the cause of praising Elijah
Muhammad, as he explicitly states to Haley:
This book I dedicate to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who found me
here in America in the muck and mire of the filthiest civilization and society
on this earth, and pulled me out, cleaned me up, and stood me on my feet,
and made me the man that I am today.35
As Haley’s first encounter with Malcolm testifies to, their relationship in
the beginning was characterized by the guarded, tense way in which Malcolm
conducted himself. It did not help that Haley was a Christian who had
served twenty years in the military, Haley notes how Malcolm: “often jeered
publicly at these affiliations for negroes”.36 Furthermore, Malcolm had
previously attacked other Black writers in the media, calling them: “Uncle
Toms”, “yard negroes” and “black men in white clothes”.37 In that way, it is
not surprising that he seemingly had some of the same suspicions about
Haley. As scholars have later stressed, Haley and Malcolm were
fundamentally, ideologically, very different. One of those scholars, Malcolm
X biographer Manning Marable, writes about Haley’s political ideals:
A liberal, republican, Haley completed rejected the racial separatism and
intolerance of the NOI. He believed the Nation was the consequence of
mainstream America’s failure to assimilate Negroes into the existing
system.38
Despite Haley being vehemently against some of the political stances in
the NOI, he acted tactfully and professionally as a biographer in his
meetings with Malcolm: the pair seemingly never clashed over politics. Haley
never mentions giving political advice to Malcolm, perhaps a smart choice to
avoid any tension that might derail the main goal: writing the biography.
After all, the biography was to be about Malcolm, the subject, not Haley
himself. As time passed, Malcolm eventually warmed up to Haley. A
breakthrough moment occurred when Haley enquired about Malcolm’s
35 Ibid, p. 14
36 Ibid, p. 15
37 Ibid, p. 15
38 Marable, p. 219-220
11
mother. From that moment, Malcolm poured out a “stream of

consciousness”39, which became the foundation for the early chapters of his
life, focusing on Malcolm’s life as a kid, growing up in Lansing, Michigan.40.
That first breakthrough moment with Haley marked the start of a rare,
fruitful relationship with a media person for Malcolm. Although Haley could
sense that Malcolm was enjoying revisiting parts of his past he had not
thought about in a long time, Malcolm still went out of his way to stress that
he “didn’t want anything in this book to make it sound like I think I’m
somebody important”.41 Apparently, everything about the Autobiography was
to be done for the NOI and Muhammad, not Malcolm’s sake.
Since Haley had his breakthrough with Malcolm, the pair developed a
unique relationship, as Haley seemed to be granted access to areas of
Malcolm’s person that previously had not been known to the public.
Interestingly enough, Haley even got to witness certain moments that
seemed to not match with the image of Malcolm having an
uncompromisingly harsh, often racist attitude towards whites. One day,
Malcolm and Haley, driving together, encounter a white man who stops in a
car near them at a red light, when the man blurts at Malcolm, out of the car
window: “I don’t blame your people for turning to you. If I were a Negro
I’d follow you too. Keep up the fight!42”. Malcolm, rather unusually, some
might think, responds saying “I wish I could have a white chapter (in the
Autobiography, ed.) of the people I meet like you”43. Subsequently, when the
light changes, Malcolm quickly turns to Haley, saying “Not only don’t write
that, never repeat it. Mr. Muhammad would have a fit.”44 Whether this was a
slip of the tongue from Malcolm’s side, or merely something that he thought
Elijah Muhammad would disapprove of, is unclear. The final sentence about
Muhammad having a fit, might point to the latter, but Haley does note in the
excerpt, how Malcolm spoke “sincerely” to the man, so it might even be a
combination of both reasons. Regardless, it is clear from the incident that
Haley had access to Malcolm at personal, unprecedently intimate levels as an
interviewer and biographer. Furthermore, Haley never believed that
Malcolm was truly, at his core, actually hateful of white people. In the
foreword, Haley reveals that Malcolm even told him once that “The young
whites, and blacks, too, are the only hope America has (…) The rest of us
have always been living in a lie.”45 Regardless of whether this admission is
true, Haley certainly saw sides of Malcolm that many did not.
40 Ibid, p. 17
41 Ibid, p. 19
42 Ibid, p. 30
43 Ibid, p. 30
44 Ibid, p. 30
45 Ibid, p. 27
12
Another interesting revelation which Malcolm made to Haley, was a 4.

A.M. call which Malcolm made to Haley, where he simply said “Alex Haley?
(…) I trust you seventy percent”, subsequently hanging up. Haley admits
that the call warmed him, and he would never forget it, although neither of
them would ever mention the incident again. Seventy percent, one may think
– that is nothing, after all the talk of their special relationship, Malcolm only
trusted Haley seventy percent? To the average person, it may not sound like
a lot, but it only emphasizes Malcolm’s uniquely paranoid personality at the
time. When Haley first met Malcolm, Malcolm said he trusted Haley twenty-
five percent.46 Furthermore, he has also revealed how he doesn’t
“completely trust anyone”, and regarding women, his wife was the “one
(woman, his wife Betty, ed.) I ever met whom I would trust seventy-five
percent”.47 Perhaps with this in mind, from this point of view, the “seventy
percent” of trust attributed to Haley reveals that it was actually a rather
special connection that they shared. Bearing in mind that Malcolm was an
intensely private and paranoid man, it was quite impressive that Haley
managed to get as close to him as he did. And perhaps it was not just
impressive, but also necessary, that it was a man such as Haley that would be
in charge of the Autobiography.
The biographer Alex Haley: personifying the “ghost” in

ghostwriting and other biographical tendencies
This chapter will consider the performance of the biography as an
artefact, primarily drawing on the foreword by Haley. In other words, I will
emphasize how Haley’s simple, yet masterfully intentional, rhetorical style as
a biographer, allows Malcolm to tell his story in an unfiltered, authentic way
– as if Haley is indeed a ghost. This allows the Autobiography to possess the
widest appeal for Black Americans to identify and relate with, for the neutral
to sympathize and perhaps be horrified at, and for the biographically
interested historian to marvel at, and pick apart.
As emphasized in the previous chapter, Malcolm’s devotion to
Muhammad at the time he met Haley was incomparable, and in many ways
that devotion resonates throughout most of the narrative. Even though
Malcolm would later break from the Nation of Islam, he, crucially, did not at
that point want his earlier chapters about the NOI to be edited by Haley, to
reflect an ideological shift in his life: “I’m going to let it stand the way I’ve
told it. I want the book to be the way it was”.48 I would argue that this
admission strengthens the trustworthiness of the biography, as it shows
47 Ibid, p. 16-17
48 Ibid, p. 37
13
Malcolm’s will for his narrative to be as unfiltered as possible, reflecting the

fact that his ideology and worldview changed throughout different times in
his life.
Malcolm, later, almost flipped on his decision to make the narrative
remain unedited, when tensions grew between him and Muhammad, and he
learned of Muhammad’s adultery49. This idea of changing what they had
originally written together, was something that hurt Haley: “I was heart-sick
at the prospect that he might want to re-edit the entire book into a polemic
against Elijah Muhammad”.50 Indeed, it might have been quite an arduous
task, was Haley to change the tone of the narrative completely – the book
was originally meant to be a work of praise, dedication to Muhammad, and
Malcolm almost wanted to change that to something resembling the
opposite. Luckily, Malcolm changed his mind stating: “I’m sorry. You’re
right. I was upset about something”.51 It was fortunate that Malcolm
changed his mind for the sake of biographical integrity, but it also speaks to
Haley’s own vision and motivation for the biography, that he describes this
“heartbreak” about almost having to change it all. He seems to have wanted
an unfiltered, uncompromised tale of Malcolm’s life. While the biography
might be slightly biased towards Elijah Muhammad in the early chapters, the
inclusion of chapters detailing Muhammad’s infidelity and Malcolm’s
growing disillusionment with him, ensures that the biography does not
become a work of praise towards Muhammad.
Furthermore, within the genre of autobiography, the changing nature of
the subject has been a point of discussion among scholars. James Olney
writes: “Time carries us away not from others but from ourselves as well,
and we are all continuously dying to our own passing selves.”52 With Olney’s
framework in mind, within the autobiography, the subject continuously dies.
As I will examine further, Malcolm reinvents himself like this constantly;
when Malcolm splits from the NOI, with this framework of Olney’s in
mind, that old version of Malcolm metaphorically dies. The new Malcolm,
el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, may be born, but it would surely be historical
erasure to pretend that the previous NOI minister, Malcolm X, who became
so famous, never existed. Therefore, within the genre of autobiography, it is
a fitting stance for Haley and Malcolm to keep earlier chapters the way they
were, even if Malcolm changes during the writing process. Because, as Olney
also says: “Autobiography (…) is, among other things, a point of view on
the writer’s past life”.53 Malcolm X was a man who changed a lot throughout
50 Ibid, p. 40
51 Ibid, p. 40
52 Olney, p. 29
53 Olney, p. 42
14
his life, and it would be dishonest to present a version of him that is static in
his viewpoints, not liable to time and experiences changing his person. Yet,
as I will examine throughout this paper, the perception that lingers of
Malcolm in the public, is a rather static one.
Similarly, to how Haley did not wish to filter what Malcolm told him too
much in the Autobiography, he also seemingly did not want to overly
complicate the way things were said, either. Haley’s choice of standard,
universalized English, without any trace of dialect or slang, is clearly a
conscious choice, to render the narrative readable and thereby, relatable, for
as wide of an audience as possible. Of course, it is impossible to know the
exact extent of Haley’s meddling with Malcolm’s language, as we would have
to be present as a fly on the wall during the interviews they conducted. But it
is very noticeable that the language in the biography is easily digestible. John
Edgar Wideman, notes Haley’s “Words in the Autobiography are cloaked in
the same sort of invisibility as the author”54. He then further goes on to
compare Haley’s style as of giving Malcolm’s voice the “authority of a
courtroom witness.”55 In other words, Malcolm’s voice in the Autobiography
is precise, sharp and matter-of-fact.
In terms of bias, it is furthermore important to note that Haley and
Malcolm had a close relationship, with signs of mutual admiration between
the two. This is always significant to note in biography, as it may
compromise the objectivity of the biographer, something which Hermione
Lee has noted as a common pitfall: “Biographies written out of uncritical
adulation can be as distorted as those that are motivated by punitive or
revengeful motives.”56 However, while Malcolm and Haley admittedly
seemed close, Malcolm did his utmost to ensure that the biography would be
as objective as possible. Haley ensures that Malcolm’s story is retold vividly,
but crucially, authentically, without unnecessarily added dramatic or
sensationalist elements, that may disturb what Wideman sees as Malcolm’s
“authority of a courtroom witness”57, or even worse, distort Malcolm’s truth.
Haley’s biographical style was in line with Malcolm’s vision of the biography,
too: “A writer is what I want, not an interpreter.”, he told Haley.58 To that
comment, Haley notes in a conclusion his foreword: “I tried to be a
dispassionate chronicler”59. From this, we can perhaps deduce Haley’s wish
to remain objective, and not let his personal affections towards Malcolm get
in the way of how the biography is told.
54 Wideman, p. 110
55 Ibid, p. 108
56 Lee, p. 13
57 Wideman, p. 108
59 Ibid, p. 78
15
Wideman also notes how Haley’s subtle step back into the shadows
merely disguises his presence as a writer in a ghostly manner: “However, the
nature of writing biography or autobiography or any kind of writing means
that Haley’s promise to Malcolm, his intent to be a “dispassionate
chronicler”, is a matter of disguising, not removing, his authorial
presence.”60 In other words, Haley is obviously still present, he simply
wishes for the reader to forget it. And I would argue that he succeeds with
that – outside of Haley’s personal foreword to the biography (which
contains Haley’s feelings, as it is written by him), the reader of the narrative
will not feel that he interferes, or for that matter, embellishes Malcolm’s
character.
All of these deliberate rhetorical, biographical tactics employed by Haley
contribute to creating a very accessible biography, in other words, what
Wideman calls the “strategy of mainstreaming Malcolm’s voice.”61 Haley
seemingly envisioned Malcolm’s voice reaching the most people possible, by
stepping into the shadows, Haley lets Malcolm speak in an authentic
manner, which in turn would inspire and reach the most diverse set of
people. And it certainly worked, the numbers that the Autobiography sold
were at the time, monumental and unprecedented: “Between 1965 and 1977,
the number of copies of the Autobiography sold worldwide exceeded six
million.”62. Furthermore, the book became adopted into curricula in
hundreds of colleges and thousands of high schools63, emphasizing not just
the power of its contents, but its versatility and accessibility for every kind of
person in America. The power of Haley’s work with Autobiography, perhaps,
lies in the fact that his writing does not remind the reader of his presence.
Wideman argues that Haley’s subtle power opens a space in the
Autobiography, that the reader may enter: “A Malcolm created and re-created
in the space Alex Haley has vacated so the reader may step in, identify,
become”.64 The average reader of the Autobiography may not have even
thought about a ghost writer, a biographer being present, but Haley’s quiet
and measured presence is what allows Malcolm’s voice, in a standardized, yet
authoritative register, to reach every person who may need it.
Ultimately, while Malcolm was on board with Haley’s vision of the
Autobiography, Malcolm’s changing nature meant that it is impossible to know
whether he would be totally satisfied with the final product that to a degree
would determine his legacy. As Manning Marable has noted, Malcolm’s
death meant that Haley had: “no opportunity to revise major elements of
60 Wideman, p. 105
61 Ibid, p. 108
62 Marable, p. 467
63 Ibid, p. 466-467
64 Wideman, p. 110
16
what would become known as his (Malcolm’s, ed.) political testament”.65

While we do know that Malcolm elected Haley to keep the elements in the
biography about his time in the NOI, and not revise Malcolm’s praise of
Elijah Muhammad, there is simply no way of knowing whether Malcolm
would have changed his mind later – as I will discuss further, he was a man
of reinventions. It is very plausible that the Autobiography would have been
published in a different state, had Malcolm not been murdered.
The teachings of NOI and Elijah Muhammad: transforming

Malcolm from “Satan” to preacher
This chapter will differ a little from the previous chapters, in that I will
now be examining the biography as an account, specifically an account
towards understanding Malcolm’s time within the Nation of Islam, and the
reasons for his subsequent exit from the group. His encounter with the
Nation and Elijah Muhammad is so crucial for the memory of Malcolm X,
even today, as it was for his time as an orator for the NOI, that he is most
commonly remembered.
A large part of the Autobiography is focused on Malcolm’s relationship
with the NOI, and specifically, his mentor and the Nation’s spiritual leader,
Elijah Muhammad. To understand their relationship properly, I feel like it’s
apt to discuss how they came to know one another. Muhammad came into
Malcolm’s life when he was at his absolute lowest, in prison, when he went
under the moniker “Satan”: (I) was past racism, I was Satan”.66 It is there, at
his lowest, in jail, that Muhammad encounters Malcolm, and pulls him out
“of the muck and the mire”, and starts to make him “the man he is today.”67
Contextually, it is also important to note that Malcolm is convinced that his
sentence was affected by stealing the “white man’s woman”, not simply
because of the crimes he committed.68 At the time of his arrest, Malcolm had
been doing burglaries with some of his friends, including two white women,
one of whom was his love interest Sophia, who was married, but frequently
went to visit him in New York to cheat with him.69 Thereby, he believes his
sentence was longer that it actually deserved to be, because he committed
the crimes with Sophia, a white woman who he “stole”. I believe this
experience significantly contributes to his already numerous frustrations and
hate of whites in America, figuratively constructing him as “Satan”.
Understanding how Malcolm was seen as Satan due to his intense hate of
whites at the time, relates to how he came to find alignment with the NOI.
65 Marable, p. 9
66Autobiography, p. 246
67 Ibid, p. 14
68 Ibid, p. 242
69 Ibid, p. 183
17
Furthermore, it also contextualizes why he was sympathetic and vulnerable

to the preaching of Elijah Muhammad, whose racial ideology was something
that resonated heavily with Malcolm, especially at that time in his life.
In prison, it is Malcolm’s brother Reginald’s visits that introduces him to
the NOI. Reginald seemed to Malcolm like a changed man, which impressed
him, and Reginald pitched it as being “the natural religion for a black
man.”70 Furthermore, Reginald urges Malcolm to quit pork and cigarettes,
stating that the religion will help him get out of prison.71 As Malcolm is
fascinated by what he hears, he starts to familiarize himself with the religion
in prison, and is shocked but inspired by much of what the NOI preaches.
Central to the racial philosophy of the NOI, Malcolm learns, is that the
white man is the devil, with no exception.72 The Black man, in comparison,
has been systematically brainwashed, his culture has been erased, by the
white man, who has, crucially cut of the “black man’s knowledge of self”73.
These ideas, which are fundamental to the NOI, are later elaborated for
Malcolm, when he learns of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. Elijah
Muhammad preaches that the Earth was originally inhabited by the Black
race, and the white man was created by a Black scientist named Yakub.
According to the NOI, Yakub lived thousands of years ago, and created the
white race through selective breeding, on the island of Patmos. According to
the NOI, it took Yakub 200 years to create the white race, whereas they
were subsequently sent to Europe in chains74. This myth explains the NOI’s
central belief that the white race are a devilish, unnatural creation.
This mythology, which would lay the foundation for the NOI’s outlook
on race, is a central part of what the NOI preached. However, this emphasis
on racial ideology, rather than fighting for equality with action in e.g., the
Civil Rights Movement, would later become frustrating for Malcolm, and
was a clear factor in of frustration and friction between him and the NOI.
While Malcolm originally resonated with the racial politics of the NOI, he
also started growing annoyed and restless with the Nation during the early
60’s. As Manning Marable has remarked:
“Malcolm’s militant politics of 1962-63 represented a break with Nation
of Islam’s apolitical black nationalism. (…) The Nation of Islam was
prepared to undergo Islamization, but it wasn’t ready for civil rights
demonstrations, Third World revolution, or Pan-Africanism. It was politics,
71 Ibid, p. 248
72 Ibid, p. 253
73 Ibid, p. 255
74 Ibid, p. 260
18
not personalities, that severed Malcolm’s relationship with the Nation of

Islam.”75
While the rhetoric of the NOI was strong, especially in terms of religion
and race, there was too much inaction for Malcolm’s liking. While Marable is
correct in that the political side definitely was a big reason for Malcolm’s
schism with the group, I would urge that his personal relationship with
Muhammad also seems to have played a part, judging from the Autobiography.
Malcolm saw Muhammad as someone “above all other Muslims”76, he saw
Muhammad as a man who could best be described by the Latin word
“adorare”77. Malcolm uses this word to detail a deeply intense worship,
explaining that he feared the man in a way not as “one might fear a man
with a gun, but the fear as one has of the power of the sun.”78 Therefore, it
was utterly destroying when it was revealed to Malcolm in the biography that
his worst fears were true – the man who he worshipped so dearly, was in his
eyes, a fraud. The rumors he had heard were true: Muhammad was
entrenched in an infidelity scandal. Not only that, he had cheated on his
Muslim wife with several secretaries within the NOI, and made them
pregnant. Malcolm describes in the book how he (originally) saw Elijah
Muhammad as equivalent to the NOI itself79, and thereby, I believe
something broke within Malcolm regarding how he viewed the NOI itself,
when the chief minister, whom he worshipped so deeply, had sinned so
heavily. Malcolm describes Muhammad’s scandal as a “betrayal towards all
Muslims”80, and, furthermore, he describes learning from the incident how
“one man cannot be truly divine.”81
When Malcolm started speaking out in public about Muhammad’s
infidelity scandal and his own separation from the NOI, the NOI, via Elijah
Muhammad’s new right-hand man, Louis Farrakhan (currently the modern
leader of the NOI), called for an open assault upon Malcolm’s life.82 It has
been speculated upon amongst scholars that Farrakhan saw a chance to
become Muhammad’s new, closest trustee, after Malcolm was exiled. As
Marable states: “The chief beneficiary of Malcolm’s assassination was Louis
Farrakhan.”83 For obvious reasons, the Autobiography does not describe
Malcolm’s death in detail: Malcolm was not there to be able talk about it.
Nonetheless, the book tells us what we need to know about the
75 Marable, p. 284
77 Ibid, p. 311
78 Ibid, p. 311
79 Ibid, p. 395
80 Ibid, p. 403-404
81 Ibid, p. 433
82 Marable, p. 397-398
83 Marable, p. 476
19
circumstances that caused it, by detailing the time leading up to his murder;
with Malcolm’s paranoia growing, he knew with certainty that he could die at
any moment. While Malcolm in the end was murdered by the NOI, he had
already undergone a death in the metaphorical sense, from the man who
saved him, when he was godless, in jail and illiterate: Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm often feared and expected death, but he never expected
Muhammad’s betrayal: “I could conceive death, not betrayal from Elijah
Muhammad”84. Ultimately, using the Autobiography as an account in this
chapter, highlights how Malcolm’s growing frustration and disillusionment
with Muhammad and the NOI ended in costing him his life. As Cassius
Clay/Muhammad Ali, fellow NOI affiliate once stated to Haley: “You don’t
just buck Muhammad and get away with it.”85
How reading the Autobiography may contribute towards a

reformulated Malcolm X
In this chapter, I will firstly discuss Malcolm’s reinvention prior to his
death, via a reading of the Autobiography as an account. Furthermore, I will be
discussing Malcolm’s legacy, and how the biography can move the public
consciousness towards a more comprehensive understanding of Malcolm’s
character and politics alike.
During his final year, Malcolm conducted a major change and
reformulation of much of what he believed in. In 1964, when his
relationship with Muhammad was growing increasingly fractured, and he
was disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, he conducted a Hajj: a pilgrimage
to the holy Muslim city of Mecca. It was during the Hajj that he embraced
the philosophy of Sunni Islam, casting aside the previous philosophies of the
NOI. Crucially, he now believed in the “Oneness of man under one God.”86
His experiences with white Muslims during the Hajj opened his eyes,
cleansing him of the belief that white men were the devil: “(…) in the
Muslim world, I had seen that men with white complexions were more
brotherly than anyone else had ever been.”87 This change in belief, was of
course, especially significant, as it broke with the core of the NOI’s racial
beliefs, including the myth of how Yakub created the white man in a devilish
experiment.88
The Malcolm who returned to America, is a different man from the one
who left for Mecca. It was the final reinvention of his lifetime. In the
Autobiography we encounter each of his reinventions: Malcolm Little,
85 Ibid, p. 35
86: Ibid, p. 443
87 Ibid, p. 447
88 Ibid, p. 260
20
Homeboy, Jack Carlton, Detroit Red, Big Red, Satan, Malcolm X, Malachi
Shabazz, Malik Shabazz. And finally, El-hajj Malik Shabazz, the Sunni
Muslim.89 With his changed worldview, Malcolm returned, eager to preach a
new, reformulated, political essence. He had embraced Islam’s universalism,
casting the old days of harsh separatism aside.90 Crucial to this shift, was
how he embraced the Quran’s racial egalitarianism.91 What was meant to be
the culmination and action-oriented aspect to his reformulated politics, was
the creation of his organization the OAAU, the Organization of Afro-
American Unity.92 The creation of the OAAU even gained support amongst
Malcolm’s former NOI brothers, who even left the organization to join
him.93 Central to the group’s philosophy, was as the name suggests, a
rejection of separatist strategies in favor of preaching unity, in other words, a
reformulated, globalized, Black nationalism.94
However, Malcolm, wary that calling it Black nationalism might exclude
rather than unite95, more often opted to call the group “Pan-African” in
nature, which was more race-neutral.96 Malcolm was heavily inspired by
Marcus Garvey and W.E.B Dubois, and arguably, to an even greater degree,
the thinker Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912). Manning Marable attests to
Malcolm being inspired heavily by Blyden’s Pan-Africanism, which even
originated pre-Dubois. Blyden’s “black cultural nationalism”, urging a
strategy of “group migration” back to Africa was heavily formative to
Malcolm.97 And perhaps even more importantly, what Marable stresses as
Blyden’s “most original contribution”, was Blyden’s link between West
African Islam and Pan-Africanism. Blyden argues that Christianity had
“evolved into a distinctly European religion”, and that only “Islam permitted
Africans to retain their traditions with integrity.”98 In that way, Blyden’s
philosophy was fundamental to Malcolm’s beliefs post-Hajj. In the
Autobiography, towards the final chapters, Malcolm similarly mentions his
belief that “every African-American should join the world’s Pan-Africans.99
He stressed that: “Physically we may remain in America, but philosophically
and culturally we must return to Africa, and develop a working unity in the
frame of Pan-Africanism”.100 In other words, Malcolm’s pilgrimage to Mecca
89 Marable, p. 10
90 Ibid, p. 493
91 Ibid, p. 301
93 Ibid, p. 427
94 Marable, p. 403
95 Ibid, p. 406
96 Ibid, p.485
97 Ibid, p. 81
98 Ibid, p. 81
99 Autobiography, p. 465-466
100 Ibid, p. 466
21
resulted in a shift in his thinking to envisioning a global Black struggle,

which could be combatted by a larger emphasis on African identity; an
ideological call to arms to “return to Africa”. Malcolm believed that there
was a “global conspiracy” to keep Africans and Blacks segregated, infighting,
physically and ideologically.101 And that divide would keep them from
working together, unable to achieve their shared goals of change. The
creation of OAAU was the birth of an effort to foster change, united.
I am not at all suggesting that we should rewrite history, and pretend that
the NOI minister, the pre-Hajj Malcolm, did not exist. Malcolm’s history as
a NOI minister is internationally remembered for many valid reasons. But
that rendition of Malcolm’s life is often singularly misremembered as a
symbol of hate, which is a shame. As I introduced in the introduction to this
paper, Deidre Bailey has claimed that the memory of Malcolm is often
stagnant and hateful: “(…) They (young people, ed.) just know violent
Malcolm – hating white people and calling white people devils.”102 I do
believe that there is a lot to learn about Malcolm by reading the
Autobiography, and gaining a fuller understanding of everything he was.
Deidre Bailey attests to Malcolm’s post-jail days, as something to admire and
remember him for:
“(..) to move beyond Malcom the drug dealer, Malcolm the pusher, the
guy who was in jail – to the man he was after all that. Just look at what he
was able to become. That’s what we need to mirror our lives against. If we
could be like Malcolm in that respect – educated man, orator, black
nationalist, solely interested in the betterment of himself and his
community – there wouldn’t be any stopping us.”103
However, I would like to supplement Bailey’s assessment to suggest that
it is equally beneficial to read the Autobiography to understand not just how
he became the man he was after jail, but also the man he was previously.
Malcolm the orator and Black nationalist is who we need to remember, but
he became that person, due to his early encounters with systemic racism and
poverty throughout America. Bailey’s usage of “we” in the aforementioned
quote, highlights that there, for Bailey, is potential for Malcolm to function
as a role model for other blacks (we) in a grander sense. If the scope is
broadened, and we consider other things than his criminal past and time as a
NOI minister, Malcolm can further inspire through all the positive things he
represented, and what he became.
Yet, I think it would be narrow-minded to suggest that the identities
should be viewed entirely in isolation from one another. My point is that
each of Malcolm’s selves seem to participate in a dialogue with other past

102 Bailey, p. 238
103 Ibid, p. 239
22
selves, and thereby influence the nature of the next rendition of Malcolm.
Arguably, the NOI minister could not have existed, without the Malcolm
who was a Harlem Hustler – “Harlem Red”. For example, Alex Gillespie has
argued that the Malcolm’s uniqueness as a civil rights advocate partially was
down to his militancy, which set him apart from someone like Martin Luther
King.104 Had Malcolm not had a violent, rough past on the streets of New
York, it is unlikely that he would have had such a strong emphasis on
militancy.105 Furthermore, Malcolm was indirectly born into Black
Nationalism, via his father, who was an organizer for Marcus Garvey’s
Universal Negro Improvement Association.106 This surely, to a degree, laid
the foundation for the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism he preached,
post-Hajj. According to Gillespie, Malcolm’s past selves define his future
selves, to a degree:
I suggest that, instead of asking which identity is the “real” Malcolm X,
we should be focusing upon the tensions between these different facets of
his complex personality.107
I wish to adopt parts of Gillespie’s argument, and suggest that the
Autobiography is a unique account, in that it as a first-hand source, allows the
reader to view Malcolm’s many selves and the tensions between them, which
combine to create his personality, which is way more complicated than it
sometimes has been depicted as. Now, I would like to reintroduce an earlier
quote I used by James Olney about autobiography as a genre, which states:
“Time carries us away not from others but from ourselves as well, and we
are all continuously dying to our own passing selves”108. Perhaps, I may
suggest, that by combining Olney and Gillespie’s frameworks, Malcolm’s
“passing selves” do not fully die, they are absorbed by his future selves,
which then contribute to future renditions of him. Malcolm X can best
inspire, and be understood, if one does not view one rendition of his life in
isolation. In reality, he was an amalgamation of various viewpoints, which
were temporally situated in different phases of his life. Using the
Autobiography as an historical account, for the purpose of knowing who
Malcolm X really was, the reader then breaks with the static symbol of
Malcolm, and discovers that he was, at different times in his life, a variety of
identities with differing viewpoints. Thereby, the Autobiography can be a tool
for younger readers to understand his legacy in what I believe is a more
historically accurate fashion, than what is often commonly regurgitated.
104 Gillespie, p. 33
105 Ibid, p. 33-34
107 Gillespie, p. 33
108 Olney, p. 29
23
Conclusion
Despite my advocacy for reading the Autobiography, for a full
understanding of Malcolm’s life, his image and legacy to a reader of the
biography, may still be a mixed one, even after reading. His many selves are
admittedly, complex, and often tragic. His early life is one of systemic racism
and neglect. His father is murdered by racists, and his mother, overwhelmed
by the murder and being alone, is sent into psychiatric care. Malcolm sees no
path but to fashion his own in Boston and then New York, where he is
pushed towards criminality to get by. His encounters here are, at first,
exhilarating, it is a fast life, but he slowly descends into nihilism and
godlessness, until he is sent to prison, where he discovers education and
God by help of the NOI.
A major frustration of Malcolm’s was that white people would never talk
with him about things that were unrelated to the “race issue”.109 While
Malcolm advocated for political change in equality and social issues, he also
simply wanted to reach a point where Blacks would be asked about normal,
curious questions: “You just notice how rarely you will ever hear whites
asking any Negroes what they think about the problem of world wealth, or
the space race to land men on the moon.110” Towards the end of his life,
Malcolm had become a man who simply wanted to cooperate, regardless of
race. He stressed how white people could help Black people, by working
separately: “Working separately, the sincere white people and sincere black
people actually will be working together.”111 Instead of white people trying
to join Black organizations, he pointed out that whites could help more
productively by engaging other, racist whites in their own communities,
confronting the racism they see.
In the final chapter of the biography, Malcolm envisions how he will be
remembered, even to the point of being used by the white man as a
“convenient symbol of hatred”.112 While Malcolm’s fear or expectation to be
remembered as such may have partially come true in some sections of the
media, he has sure come to signify so much more today. First and
importantly, Malcolm represented a bridge between mainstream America
and Islam. However, towards the end of his life, Malcolm adopted values
often attributed to globalism: encouraging dialogue, equality and strive for
general, Black betterment. These values can inspire anyone, and thereby
Malcolm’s Autobiography also reflects a much more fundamental, simple
humanism.113

110 Ibid, p. 500
111 Ibid, p. 496
112 Ibid, p. 500
113 Marable, p. 486-487
24
Haley’s and Malcolm X’s Autobiography is a political Autobiography, but it is

also personally instructive, inspirational in a more personal sense, in how his
story is a piece of microhistory that is relatable and resonates with readers of
a vast array of diverse social classes and backgrounds. It is also, an adept
example of how biography can be, as Lee coined it: “An investigation of
identity.”114 What makes the Autobiography such an enthralling and inspiring
read, is the immersive insertion of Malcolm’s identities into the narrative,
thereby being a deeply touching journey about a person, as much as it can be
viewed as a political document. In other words, the biography exists in
between the sphere of the personal and political, investigating the previously
unseen, sometimes slightly awkward, contradictions of Malcolm’s life.
Haley’s writing is that of a ghost, his approach that of attempting to be as
unbiased as he can, in that he lets Malcolm perform the biography entirely
on his own terms. The uncomfortable moments are all included by Haley,
encouraging a more complete understanding of Malcolm.
Apart from simply understanding Malcolm’s political evolution, I believe
there is great value in reading the Autobiography, if one wishes to know the
man, the personality behind the political symbol Malcolm X. In a later
additional foreword added to the Autobiography, Malcolm’s eldest daughter
Attallah Shabazz, expresses her wish for her father for the biography to
instruct about his person: “(…) it is my hope that you will come to know
him foremost as a man. A man who lived to serve-initially a specific people,
then a nation, and eventually all people of the world.”115 Even if Malcolm
was interrupted in his political reinvention after the Hajj and murdered, he
had already moved from mainly speaking to the people of the Nation of
Islam, to globally inspiring Muslims and Blacks, all over the world,
advocating Pan-Africanism and a united fight against racism. In that way, the
Autobiography succeeds in making the reader truly acquainted with the final
rendition of Malcolm X, a man serving the world.
114 Lee, p. 14-15

115 Shabazz, p. 10
25
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Barksdale, Richard. 2017 “Black Autobiography and the Comic Vision.”

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Caine, Barbara. 2019. Biography and History. Red Globe Press
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Lepore, Jill. 2001 “Historians who love too much: Reflections on

microhistory and biography”. Journal of American History 88(1), 129-44.
Magnusson, Sigurður. 2016. “The Life Is Never over: Biography as a

Microhistorical Approach.” In The Biographical Turn, edited by Renders, H., de
Haan, B., & Harmsma, J., 42-52. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315469577-12.
Marable, Manning. 2011. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Viking.
Olney, James. 1972. “One: A Theory of Autobiography” in Metaphors of Self:

The Meaning of Autobiography, p. 3-50. Princeton: Princeton University
Press. https://doi-org.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/10.1515/9781400886449
26
Shabazz, Attallah. 1992. “Foreword” in The Autobiography of Malcolm X´, 1-10.

Ballantine Books.
Wideman, John Edgar. 1992. “Malcolm X: The Art of Autobiography” in

Malcolm X: In Our Image, edited by Joe Wood, 101-116. St. Martin’s Press.
New York, N.Y.
Links:
The Roots’ Tip the Scale song lyrics. Genius.:

https://genius.com/487681
Picture of Haley and Malcolm X for frontpage:

https://sowingtheseed.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/haleymalcolm.jpg?w=
490
Spike Lee movie on Malcolm X. Wikipedia.:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X_(1992_film)
Marable as a pulitzer prize winner. Pulitzer.:
https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2012
Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Wikipedia.:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roots:_The_Saga_of_an_American_Family
50 interviews source. Smithsonian Mag.:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/martin-luther-king-jr-
malcolm-x-alex-haley-quote-180982172/
27

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Samuel Agersnap Bone

Københavns Universitet: Biografi som Historie

The Autobiography of Malcolm

By Samuel Agersnap Bone

1Malcolm X and Alex Haley during the writing process.

Malcolm X in collaboration with writer Alex Haley, who later went on to

Material, theory and methodology

11 For the sake of simplicity, I will mainly be referring to it as The Autobiography or

9. The story should have some value for the reader

Malcolm X, micro-history and the tradition of the African-

The Autobiography of Malcolm X: how Malcolm X and Alex Haley

representing the Nation of Islam. Malcolm’s paranoia and inherent suspicion

the Autobiography to be crafted in the way Malcolm envisioned. Malcolm

mother. From that moment, Malcolm poured out a “stream of

Another interesting revelation which Malcolm made to Haley, was a 4.

The biographer Alex Haley: personifying the “ghost” in

Malcolm’s will for his narrative to be as unfiltered as possible, reflecting the

what would become known as his (Malcolm’s, ed.) political testament”.65

The teachings of NOI and Elijah Muhammad: transforming

Furthermore, it also contextualizes why he was sympathetic and vulnerable

not personalities, that severed Malcolm’s relationship with the Nation of

How reading the Autobiography may contribute towards a

resulted in a shift in his thinking to envisioning a global Black struggle,

101 Autobiography, p. 467

109 Autobiography, p. 499

Haley’s and Malcolm X’s Autobiography is a political Autobiography, but it is

114 Lee, p. 14-15

X., Malcolm. 2007. Autobiography of Malcolm X. Penguin Books Ltd.

Bailey, Deidre. 1992. “The Autobiography of Deidre Bailey: Thoughts on

Barksdale, Richard. 2017 “Black Autobiography and the Comic Vision.”

Caine, Barbara. 2019. Biography and History. Red Globe Press

Gillespie, Alex. 2010. “Autobiography and Identity: Malcolm X as Author

Harris, Trudier. 2014. “African American Autobiography.” The Cambridge

Lee, Hermione. 2009. Biography: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University

Lepore, Jill. 2001 “Historians who love too much: Reflections on

Magnusson, Sigurður. 2016. “The Life Is Never over: Biography as a

Marable, Manning. 2011. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. Viking.

Olney, James. 1972. “One: A Theory of Autobiography” in Metaphors of Self:

Shabazz, Attallah. 1992. “Foreword” in The Autobiography of Malcolm X´, 1-10.

Wideman, John Edgar. 1992. “Malcolm X: The Art of Autobiography” in

The Roots’ Tip the Scale song lyrics. Genius.:

Picture of Haley and Malcolm X for frontpage:

Spike Lee movie on Malcolm X. Wikipedia.:

Marable as a pulitzer prize winner. Pulitzer.:

Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Wikipedia.:

50 interviews source. Smithsonian Mag.:

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