Manning Marable’s autobiography of Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention, that was
finished before Marable’s death in April of 2011 is a fascinating look into the
life of the revolutionary icon and a prominent figure of the civil rights movement era. While
this book has won critical acclaim, received a Pulitzer Prize in the “History”
category and was listed as one of the best 10 books of 2011 by the New York
Times, it also has some controversy associated with it. As I read this book, I
found myself reviewing Marable’s notes and examining many of his sources.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley that
was published shortly after Malcolm X’s death in 1965 is put under the
magnifying glass in this book; Marable makes the claim that Malcolm X wasn’t as
big of a criminal as he made himself out to be to Alex Haley, and Marable
quotes many of Malcolm’s speeches post
Malcolm’s initial trip to Mecca that contradict that he had reversed
many of his views on race, Martin Luther King, integration, and hinted that he
may not have been totally opposed to the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad. Marable’s accusations of Malcolm having a
homosexual affair with a white businessman are also brought up and are all
according to rumor; Marable also suggests that his wife Betty Shabazz also had
an affair with one of Malcolm’s security detail, and that Malcolm’s journal
entries in a couple of places during Malcolm’s trips abroad suggest he had extramarital
affairs as well.
At the same time while Marable makes some strong accusations
throughout the book, the life of Malcolm X aside from what you read in Alex
Haley’s autobiography is well written. The problem with acquiring sources based
on interviews and being on record and going through someone’s journals is that
it still doesn’t paint an accurate picture, but Marable does include a lot of
good information of Malcolm’s activities in and out of the Nation of Islam. He
goes further into the things that we also already know about Malcolm and the
Nation of Islam.
There are a lot of disputed claims from the Nation of Islam
and some of Malcolm’s closest associates when it comes to this book, but a lot
of the information regarding the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad and Louis
Farrakan, and that fateful day of Malcolm X’s assassination is consistent with
other accounts that have been documented. Elijah Muhammad definitely formed the
Nation of Islam based on schemes that had nothing to do with traditional
Islamic practices or philosophies, which the Nation of Islam still embraces to
this day and makes traditional Islamic groups refuse to embrace the Nation of
Islam. Malcolm’s conversion to traditional based Islam after Elijah Muhammad
banished him were probably bound to happen—Malcolm was already questioning
Elijah Muhammad’s beliefs and morality.
The problem with any book on Malcolm X is that Malcolm
himself didn’t leave a lot of information about himself behind, especially in
the sense that he never released any writings of his own, and he left behind
several recorded speeches and media appearances. Malcolm X also died in the
midst of a transformation that became very problematic for him due to his
association with the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad produced Malcolm X;
Malcolm X saw Elijah Muhammad as his personal savior, a prophet who could do no
wrong, and Malcolm was shattered when he discovered Elijah Muhammad was a man
who was having inappropriate sexual relationships with the Nation of Islam’s
secretaries. The group was threatened by Malcolm’s activities in creating
groups that would likely lure away members of the Nation of Islam, and while
Malcolm exposed Elijah Muhammad in the process of reinventing himself.
Marable’s accusations that Malcolm never completely
reinvented himself and never changed his views on race are up for debate. The
more Malcolm traveled overseas to Islamic countries, the more people he met,
the more that the Nation of Islam threatened him and his family are what led to
his many revelations. And to be fair to Marable, he does quote an interview
that Malcolm gave right before his death where he said that the infamous
incident where he answered “nothing” to a white student who asked what she
could do to help his cause was something that he later came to deeply regret.
Had Malcolm X survived, he would have likely had more time to evolve and
further his transformation.
If there’s one conclusion that this book makes well, it’s that
the Nation of Islam is a dangerous organization and that Elijah Muhammad was
not who he made himself out to be. Malcolm built the reputation that the Nation
of Islam enjoyed, built up its membership, lived and breathed the cause, and
then spent his last days trying to rediscover himself and destroy the mentality
that Elijah Muhammad installed in him.
