The Autobiography of Malcolm X

by Malcolm X

In any organization, someone must be the boss. If it’s even just one person, you’ve got to be the boss of yourself.

I can give you a very good tip if you want to keep burglars out of your house. A light on for the burglar to see is the very best single means of protection.

Early

I guess he wasn’t ready to make history.

was the first man I had ever seen command total respect…with his words.

I have since learned—helping me to understand what then began to happen within me—that the truth can be quickly received, or received at all, only by the sinner who knows and admits that he is guilty of having sinned much. Stated another way: only guilt admitted accepts truth.

I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.

I was to learn later that Elijah Muhammad’s tales, like this one of “Yacub,” infuriated the Muslims of the East. While at Mecca, I reminded them that it was their fault, since they themselves hadn’t done enough to make real Islam known in the West. Their silence left a vacuum into which any religious faker could step and mislead our people.

In fact, I believe that’s the only novel I have ever read since I started serious reading.

listen today to the radio, and watch television, and read the headlines about the collective white man’s fear and tension concerning China. When the white man professes ignorance about why the Chinese hate him so, my mind can’t help flashing back to what I read, there in prison, about how the blood forebears of this same white man raped China at a time when China was trusting and helpless.

Imagine! Declaring war upon someone who objects to being narcotized!

One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.”

You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.

I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that. Where else but in a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day?

I don’t respect them because it seems to me that most of their time was spent arguing about things that are not really important.

Reginald advised that the truth had to be dropped only a little bit at a time. And you had to wait a while to let it sink in before advancing the next step.

would keep close watch on how each one reacted. I always had to be careful. I never knew when some brainwashed black imp, some dyed-in-the-wool Uncle Tom, would nod at me and then go running to tell the white man. When one was ripe—and I could tell—then away from the rest, I’d drop it on him, what Mr. Muhammad taught: “The white man is the devil.”

“The white man is the devil” is a perfect echo of that black convict’s lifelong experience.

Whichever side of the selected subject was assigned to me, I’d track down and study everything I could find on it. I’d put myself in my opponent’s place and decide how I’d try to win if I had the other side; and then I’d figure a way to knock down those points. And if there was any way in the world, I’d work into my speech the devilishness of the white man.

In Islam we were taught that as long as one didn’t know the truth, he lived in darkness. But once the truth was accepted, and recognized, he lived in light, and whoever would then go against it would be punished by Allah.

I thought truly that it was Allah doing this to my brother.

wasn’t a divine chastisement upon Reginald, but the pain he felt when his own family totally rejected him for Elijah Muhammad, and this hurt made Reginald turn insanely upon Elijah Muhammad.

had come to prison with 20/20 vision. But when I got sent back to Charlestown, I had read so much by the lights-out glow in my room at the Norfolk Prison Colony that I had astigmatism and the first pair of the eyeglasses that I have worn ever since.

And you won’t find anybody more time-conscious than I am. I live by my watch,

“You want to know how to spread my teachings?” he said, and he pointed to the glasses of water. “Don’t condemn if you see a person has a dirty glass of water,” he said, “just show them the clean glass of water that you have. When they inspect it, you won’t have to say that yours is better.”

instead of condemning Negroes’ faults, young Elijah always would speak of reasons for those faults.

We began to get visible results almost immediately after we began thrusting handbills in people’s hands,

had learned early one important thing, and that was to always teach in terms that the people could understand.

“I would rather have a mule I can depend upon than a race horse that I can’t depend upon.”

I had always been very careful to stay completely clear of any personal closeness with any of the Muslim sisters.

and while a man must at all times respect his woman, at the same time he needs to understand that he must control her if he expects to get her respect.

And Mr. Muhammad himself encouraged me to stay single.

No, I didn’t make it any secret to any of those sisters, how I felt. And, yes, I did tell the brothers to be very, very careful.

The F.O.I. spends a lot more time in lectures and discussions on men learning to be men. They deal with the responsibilities of a husband and father; what to expect of women; the rights of women which are not to be abrogated by the husband; the importance of the father-male image in the strong household; current events; why honesty, and chastity, are vital in a person, a home, a community, a nation, and a civilization; why one should bathe at least once each twenty-four hours; business principles; and things of that nature.

If you are thinking about doing a thing, you ought to make up your mind if you are going to do it, or not do it.

The Western “love” concept, you take it apart, it really is lust. But love transcends just the physical. Love is disposition, behavior, attitude, thoughts, likes, dislikes—these things make a beautiful woman, a beautiful wife. This is the beauty that never fades. You find in your Western civilization that when a man’s wife’s physical beauty fails, she loses her attraction. But Islam teaches us to look into the woman, and teaches her to look into us.

Betty understands, is a full-time job. If I have work to do when I am

home, the little time I am at home, she lets me have the quiet I need to work in.

He loves himself so much that he is startled if he discovers that his victims don’t share his vainglorious self-opinion.

“Mr. Malcolm X, why do you teach black supremacy, and hate?” A red flag waved for me, something chemical happened inside me, every time I heard that. When we Muslims had talked about “the devil white man” he had been relatively abstract, someone we Muslims rarely actually came into contact with, but now here was that devil-in-the-flesh on the phone—with all of his calculating, cold-eyed, self-righteous tricks and nerve and gall. The voices questioning me became to me as breathing, living devils.

“The white man so guilty of white supremacy can’t hide his guilt by trying to accuse The Honorable Elijah Muhammad of teaching black supremacy and hate! All Mr. Muhammad is doing is trying to uplift the black man’s mentality and the black man’s social and economic condition in this country.

Honestly, for all the bad stuff the NOI had done, he’s right. When has it ever been about black supremacy? I’ve only ever heard about uplifting and making their people proud.

“For the white man to ask the black man if he

hates him is just like the rapist asking the raped, or the wolf asking the sheep, ‘Do you hate me?’ The white man is in no moral position to accuse anyone else of hate!

“Why, when all of my ancestors are snake-bitten, and I’m snake-bitten, and I warn my children to avoid snakes, what does that snake sou...

Mr. Muhammad said he wanted us to try our best not to publicly counterattack the black “leaders” because one of the white man’s tricks was keeping the black race divided and fighting against each other.

So while he obviously abused his power, he did care for the cause

knew that if I closely studied what the others did, I could learn things in a hurry to help me to defend Mr. Muhammad and his teachings.

Anyone who has ever heard me on radio or television programs knows that my technique is non-stop, until what I want to get said is said. I was developing the technique then.

The white man was barred from attendance—the first time the American black man had ever dreamed of such a thing. And that brought us new attacks from the white man and his black puppets. “Black segregationists…racists!” Accusing us of segregation! Across America, whites barring blacks was standard.

He always seemed deathly afraid that someone would harm him, and he insisted that everyone be searched to forestall this. Today I understand better, why.

I wonder if Alex Haley wrote this after his death

Because when you know who your enemy is, he can no longer keep you divided, and fighting, one brother against the other!