The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In Alex Haley's transcribed work, The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), readers are treated to several valuable lessons in sociology. Without summarizing the book in great detail, the story of Malcolm X reveals the significance of social and economic stratification in affecting people's religious beliefs and people's perspectives on social problems and life chances. This story shows a Malcolm X who grows out of a socialized value system emphasizing violence and hatred, into a de-socialized system emphasizing a new ideological orientation on race relations, to a re-socialized system nearing the viewpoints of Martin Luther King--a civil rights leader once despised by Malcolm. This research will examine this process of social development through the eyes of Malcolm X.

The Nation of Islam began in the early 1930s in the United States with the emergence of W.D. Fard, later known as Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, and his successor, Elijah Poole, later known as Elijah Muhammad. Mr. Fard was born in Mecca in 1877 and may have been an Orthodox Muslim. After immigrating to Detroit, he preached to African-Americans who had traveled north in search of jobs and better living conditions. The Nation of Islam increased its membership as black nationalism grew in the United States.

Some of the confusion over the two religions comes from the life of Malcolm X. Born Malcolm Little, he became a spokesman for Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. An eloquent cultural hero, especially to m

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as a cutting-edge black leader. Some of African-American culture is nationalist and radical, but much of the current leadership is mainstream. Malcolm has emerged as an important figure because his life and example speak more radically and directly to some areas of black life than that of another revered black leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. King is pretty much a Southern phenomenon, and Malcolm is pretty much a northern, urban phenomenon. Although Malcolm X's image is omnipresent, the man behind the facade remains a puzzle, partly because of lingering white perceptions of him as a dangerous militant and partly because Malcolm himself went through so many personal transformations. At various stages he was a poor boy, a hipster, a criminal, a convict who spent 77 months in prison, a zealous religious convert and a black separatist. By the end of his life, he was engaged in a bitter dispute with his religious mentor and had moved toward an ethic of racial inclusion and tolerance. The reason he remains a compelling figure is his unusual capacity for constructive growth and change and his emergence as a role model. As a role model, Malcolm X has much in common with today's African-Americans. The leader's life story is not

Category: History - T