The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Chapters 1-4

READING CHECK

1. Why do the Littles leave their home in Omaha?

Answer: to escape the Ku Klux Klan/white supremacist terrorists

2. Why does Malcolm no longer live with his mother after age 12 or 13?

Answer: She is sent to a state mental hospital

3. Whom does Malcolm describe as “the first really proud black woman I had ever seen in my life” (39)?

Answer: Ella

4. What do Malcolm and Shorty have in common, causing Shorty to take an immediate liking to him?

Answer: They are both from Michigan/Lansing.

5. What is Malcolm’s job at the Roseland State Ballroom?

Answer: He shines shoes.

6. What is the name of the hairstyle Malcolm adopts by straightening his hair with burning lye?

Answer: a conk

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to introduce discussion on how the conk operates as a symbol in the book. Note how Malcolm attaches metaphorical significance to conking his hair, in the sense that it is an extraordinarily painful act of self-mutilation performed in an effort to assimilate into white culture.

7. Where does Malcolm meet Laura?

Answer: at the drugstore where he works as a soda jerk

QUIZ

1. Who do the authorities say is responsible for Earl’s death?

A) the Ku Klux Klan

B) the Black Legion

C) No one—they rule it accidental

D) Louise

2. Which answer best characterizes Malcolm’s attitude toward his foster parents, Mr. and Mrs. Swerlin?

A) He believes they are good people who nevertheless use racist slurs and treat him as their pet.

B) He believes they are cruel and abusive racists.

C) He believes they are extremely evolved for their era, never espousing racism.

D) He has no strong opinion of them one way or another.

3. Which of these events most causes Malcolm to shift his thinking with regard to his own Blackness?

A) Mr. and Mrs. Swerlin taking him in

B) the summer he spends in Boston with Ella

C) being elected class president

D) his mother’s institutionalization in a mental hospital

4. Why does Malcolm say he is grateful for Mr. Ostrowski’s racist discouragement of his dreams to become a lawyer?

A) Lawyers are worthless and parasitic, in Malcolm’s view.

B) Otherwise, Malcolm would have remained brainwashed about racism in America.

C) Malcolm believes he never would have made it through law school.

D) Formal education, Malcolm says, is a waste of money.

5. Why does Malcolm quit his job at the Roseland State Ballroom?

A) His bosses are racist.

B) The Roseland only caters to White customers.

C) The pay is too low for him to afford a zoot suit.

D) He wants to spend his nights dancing at the Roseland, not working there.

6. Name at least one of Malcolm’s informal duties as a shoe-shiner at the Roseland. (short answer)

7. Why is Malcolm especially ashamed about leaving Laura for Sophia?

A) Sophia is White.

B) Laura is a better dancer.

C) He feels bad for Laura’s grandmother, who liked him very much.

D) Sophia is Laura’s sister.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. The police claim that Earl was hit by a streetcar on accident, despite the strong evidence that the Black Legion was involved.

2. A. Despite the Swerlins’ casual racism, Malcolm still appreciates to this day what Mrs. Swerlin did for him by taking him in and keeping him from going to reform school.

3. B. The summer in Boston is the first time he’s come into close, sustained contact with individuals who are proud to be Black.

4. B. Had Malcolm gone to law school, he says he would have remained “a brainwashed Black Christian” (46) rather than the socially conscious Muslim he became.

5. D. Malcolm has nothing against the Roseland; he simply wants his nights free so he can dance there himself.

6. In addition to shining shoes, Malcolm makes money on the side by selling liquor, condoms, and marijuana to white patrons, and by connecting white men with Black sex workers.

7. A. Malcolm calls this “one of the shames I have carried for years [...] To have treated her as I did for a white woman made the blow double heavy” (80).

Chapters 5-9

READING CHECK

1. What is Small’s Paradise?

Answer: a historic Harlem nightclub

2. What is the name of the gambling system in Harlem in which people bet on the last three digits of the New York Stock Exchange?

Answer: the numbers

3. Which of Malcolm’s brothers moves in with him while living in Harlem?

Answer: Reginald

4. What crime do Malcolm, Sophia, Shorty, and the rest of Malcolm’s outfit specialize in?

Answer: burglary

5. When Malcolm leaves New York following his dispute over the numbers, where does he go?

Answer: Boston

QUIZ

1. How does Malcolm avoid being enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II?

A) He tells the Draft Board he wants to organize Black soldiers to kill white people.

B) He has a congenital heart condition.

C) His eyesight is too poor.

D) He bribes an officer at the Draft Board with money he won from the numbers.

2. Why is Malcolm fired from Small’s Paradise?

A) for stealing from the cash register

B) for selling drugs on the premises

C) for coming into work late

D) for trying to connect an undercover cop with a sex worker

3. All of these are reasons Malcolm cites for Harlem’s economic woes in the 1940s EXCEPT:

A) the Great Depression

B) riots that discourage middle- and upper-class whites from patronizing businesses there

C) white police officers’ refusal to patrol there

D) the tendency of Black Harlemites with money to go downtown to more integrated neighborhoods to spend it

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to jumpstart a discussion on Harlem’s history and how Black communities frequently do not enjoy the same long-term economic gains as immigrant communities that are assimilated into whiteness within a generation or two. What are the political and institutional reasons behind this?

4. A dispute with which individual causes Malcolm to return to Boston?

A) Sammy

B) Sophia

C) Shorty

D) West Indian Archie

5. What mistake does Malcolm make that causes him and his burglary accomplices to be caught?

A) He shoots a man whose home he was in the process of burglarizing.

B) He brings a stolen watch to a jewelry shop for repairs.

C) He leaves his fingerprints all over a crime scene.

D) He forgets to fill the getaway car with gas.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. A. Neither Malcolm nor Sammy are eager to fight on behalf of a country they do not believe looks out for its Black communities at home.

2. D. The fact that the undercover cop posed as a U.S. service member made the potential legal fallout all the more perilous for Malcolm and Small’s.

3. C. At no point does Malcolm cite an unwillingness by White officers to police Harlem.

4. D. The dispute is less over money and more over reputation and status.

5. B. The watch matches the description in a police report filed by its rightful owner.

Chapters 10-12

READING CHECK

1. What nickname does Malcolm receive in his first year at prison?

Answer: Satan

2. Who is the leader of the Nation of Islam at the time of Malcolm’s conversion?

Answer: Elijah Muhammad

3. According to the Nation of Islam, which continent was home to the most ancient and greatest civilization?

Answer: Africa

4. What book does Malcolm check out from the prison library and copy in a notebook word for word?

Answer: the English dictionary

5. According to the Nation of Islam, what religion did white people use against Black people as the “initial wedge in criminal conquests” (203)?

Answer: Christianity

6. Which character does Malcolm describe as “the first man I had ever seen command total respect [...] with his words (178)?

Answer: Bimbi

7. Why does Malcolm need glasses by the time he leaves prison?

Answer: from reading so much/reading in the dark

8. Where does Malcolm move after leaving prison?

Answer: Detroit

QUIZ

1. Why does Malcolm suspect that he and Shorty’s prison sentences are so much longer than expected for first-time offenders?

A) because their victims were wealthy pillars of the community

B) because Shorty insulted the judge

C) because they committed crimes with young white women, supposedly “corrupting” them

D) because their lawyer was incompetent

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to discuss how white female innocence is invoked throughout American history to uphold white supremacy. Pay particularly close attention to the Jim Crow Era, when lynchings and other acts of anti-Black terrorism were often perpetrated under the guise of protecting white women’s safety and virtue. You may also want to discuss the 1915 film Birth of a Nation and how it helped cement the myth of the dangerous Black male, who must be stopped to protect the sexual purity of Southern white women.

2. Initially, why does Malcolm follow Reginald’s advice to quit pork and cigarettes as the Nation of Islam dictates?

A) Malcolm believes it is some kind of scam to get out of prison.

B) A newly devout Muslim, Malcolm desperately wants to join the Nation of Islam.

C) He does it as a favor to Reginald, who he esteems highly.

D) Having quit drugs and alcohol in prison, he is now extremely health-conscious.

3. Which answer best describes the Nation of Islam’s view of Christianity?

A) Christianity offers an important counterpoint to Islam.

B) The Nation of Islam shares few opinions about Christianity.

C) Christianity is a religion foisted on Black people by slaveholders to keep them docile.

D) Christianity is a positive cultural force, even if it is not the true religion.

4. To Malcolm, what is the most effective way to convince his fellow Black incarcerated individuals of white supremacy in America’s past?

A) through Malcolm’s impressive oratory skills 

B) through the Socratic method

C) by showing them books written by Black people

D) by showing them books written by white people

5. Why does Elijah Muhammad suspend Reginald from the Nation of Islam?

A) for failing to practice moral restraint by smoking cigarettes

B) for having relations with a Nation of Islam secretary

C) for attending a Christian Church

D) for stealing money from the Nation’s coffers

6. Why does Malcolm suspect that he secured early parole?

A) Embracing religion shows that Malcolm is reformed.

B) Due to his proselytizing of fellow inmates, he is more dangerous inside prison than out.

C) The prison is overcrowded.

D) Reginald delivered a passionate defense of Malcolm at the parole board hearing.

7. Why do Nation of Islam converts change their last name to X? (short answer)

8. Why doesn’t Malcolm return to Boston after prison?

A) He fears the police will be biased against him.

B) He is too ashamed to return to Ella.

C) He wants to avoid Shorty, who blames Malcolm for his arrest.

D) He believes the Black people in Boston are too brainwashed to be converted.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. Malcolm writes that the average sentence for first-time burglary offenses is only two years, but Malcolm and Shorty receive ten years.

2. A. Malcolm’s initial interest in the Nation of Islam is purely self-serving, as he believes it will help him get out of prison.

3. C. The Nation of Islam views Christianity first and foremost as a tool of white supremacist social control.

4. D. Ironically, Malcolm can only convince people of white supremacist atrocities if they are conveyed through white voices.

5. B. This foreshadows Muhammad’s improper sexual relations, which will contribute later to his falling out with Malcolm.

6. B. Malcolm is reluctant to attribute the parole board’s decision to a good-faith belief in his rehabilitation.

7. They consider their current last names to be “slave names” given to them by white slaveholders; the X is to honor the erased, lost names of the ancient tribes of Africa.

8. A. Malcolm has good reason to believe the Boston authorities will not trust his conversion to Islam and his abandonment of his old lifestyle.

Chapters 13-15

READING CHECK

1. What is the name of the Nation of Islam’s armed security wing?

Answer: the Fruit of Islam

2. What woman does Malcolm marry in 1958?

Answer: Betty X/Betty Shabazz

3. What event does Malcolm derisively refer to as “The Farce on Washington” (320)?

Answer: the 1963 March on Washington

4. What is the name of the 1959 Mike Wallace documentary about the Nation of Islam?

Answer: The Hate That Hate Produced

5. During the Johnson Hinton incident, where does Malcolm lead the crowd in the march from the police precinct?

Answer: Harlem Hospital

QUIZ

1. Of the following locations, where does Malcolm have the most success in recruiting Nation of Islam members?

A) pool halls

B) corners where drugs are sold

C) Black Christian churches

D) unemployment offices

2. What does Malcolm consider to be the biggest challenge in recruiting Nation of Islam members from the Black community?

A) the organization’s characterization of white people as “devils”

B) the fact that it is not a Christian organization

C) the intimidating nature of the Fruit of Islam

D) the organization’s strict moral code

3. Who is Johnson Hinton? (short answer)

4. Which event is most directly responsible for introducing the Nation of Islam to mainstream America?

A) Malcolm’s appointment as minister of the New York City temple

B) Mike Wallace’s The Hate That Hate Produced documentary

C) the 1957 incident involving Johnson Hinton

D) Malcolm’s founding of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to discuss mainstream America’s response to The Hate That Hate Produced. What are white journalists’ chief complaints about the Nation of Islam? Are Malcolm’s efforts to defend the Nation of Islam’s more controversial qualities persuasive? Give particular attention to the Nation of Islam’s use of the term “white devils” and the mainstream establishment’s use of the term “Black supremacy.” How are these terms more complicated than they appear at first glance?

5. What does Malcolm call “the greatest miracle Christianity has achieved in America” (284)?

A) the conversion of millions of Black people

B) that Black people haven’t risen up violently against white oppressors

C) its successful efforts to eradicate racism from its churches

D) its propaganda efforts to defame Islam

6. What label—intended as an insult—does Malcolm relish because it means “teacher of the people”?

A) demagogue

B) Black supremacist

C) polemicist

D) populist

7. What is Malcolm’s chief complaint about the Freedom Riders of 1961?

A) Most of them are white.

B) They use non-violent protest, which he believes is never effective.

C) Some of them are Ku Klux Klan members.

D) Most of them are from the North.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. C. Malcolm says Black churchgoers will go wherever there is “good preaching.”

2. D. The organization’s prohibitions on pork, cigarettes, and premarital sex are difficult for many potential recruits to agree to.

3. The Nation of Islam member who is attacked by police officers, attracting a giant crowd of Nation members and other concerned Black citizens

4. B. The Hate That Hated Produced turned the Nation of Islam into one of the most controversial organizations in the United States.

5. B. Malcolm generally says this in response to false characterizations of Black people as violent and threatening to white people.

6. A. Although this is its literal definition in Greek, the term has come to mean an orator who, in the interest of amassing power, uses angry, misleading rhetoric to whip up the common people.

7. D. Malcolm holds special disdain for Northern liberals who blame the South for all the racism in the United States, without addressing hate in their own backyards.

Chapters 16-18

READING CHECK

1. Why does Malcolm stop talking about moral conduct in speeches around 1963?

Answer: He discovered Elijah Muhammad’s extramarital affairs.

2. The death of which prominent individual brings controversy to the Nation of Islam when Malcolm responds that it was a case of “the chickens coming home to roost” (347)?

Answer: President John F. Kennedy

Discussion Suggestion: Use the above question to discuss what Malcolm says he meant by this comment and how both the press and the Nation of Islam misconstrued it. What was Malcolm trying to say about the nature of white violence in America? How does he view it as a threat not only to Black America but to America as a whole?

3. What is the Hajj?

Answer: a pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims must undertake if they are able.

4. Which athlete’s Miami training camp does Malcolm visit in Chapter 16?

Answer: Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali

5. According to the Nation of Islam’s teachings, what is the name of the most ancient African tribe, which Malcolm later takes as his new surname?

Answer: Shabazz

QUIZ

1. What most differentiates Malcolm’s Muslim Mosque, Inc. from the Nation of Islam?

A) Muslim Mosque allows Black members of all faiths to join.

B) Muslim Mosque allows White people to join.

C) Muslim Mosque’s membership was much larger than the Nation of Islam.

D) The Nation of Islam allows White people to join.

2. What initially prevents Malcolm from making the Hajj?

A) He is too afraid to leave his wife and children at home.

B) The United States government revokes his passport.

C) Muslims converted in America are generally not permitted to undertake the Hajj.

D) Anyone who has ever been in the Nation of Islam is not permitted to undertake the Hajj.

3. What best describes the conclusion about white people that Malcolm reaches during the Hajj?

A) White people are even more racist than he initially believed.

B) Racism only exists in the United States.

C) Around the world, white people should separate themselves from non-white people.

D) Black people and white people can coexist, as they do in the international Muslim community.

4. What sect does Malcolm convert to following the Hajj?

A) Shia Islam

B) Sunni Islam

C) Sufism

D) the Baptist Church

5. These are all conclusions Malcolm reaches after completing the Hajj EXCEPT:

A) White people must be allowed to join Muslim Mosque, Inc. if equality is ever to be achieved.

B) Conversions to Islam would triple if people discovered the beauty and harmony of the Hajj.

C) When the Muslim world looks at America, they see discrimination as its defining image.

D) Black Americans must learn to think internationally, drawing on resources from sympathetic African nations.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. A. Malcolm will allow Black Christians and even Black atheists into his new organization.

2. C. Malcolm must rely on help from prominent members of the international Islamic community to complete the Hajj.

3. D. That said, it is important not to overstate this change in his beliefs; while Malcolm conceded that large-scale cross-racial cooperation is possible, he remained doubtful that it could be achieved in America.

4. B. Although Sunni Muslims make up 85 percent of the world’s Muslims, they are the minority in some countries, including Iran and Iraq.

5. A. Although Malcolm welcomed white people to be allies with his organization, they were still prohibited from joining.

Chapter 19-Epilogue

READING CHECK

1. Who are the Democratic and Republican candidates in the 1964 presidential election?

Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson and Barry Goldwater, respectively

2. Fill in the blank: In the last line of Malcolm’s portion of the book, he writes, “[A]ll of the credit is due to __________. Only the mistakes have been mine.

Answer: Allah

3. What does OAAU stand for?

Answer: Organization of Afro-American Unity

4. To what organization do the individuals who assassinate Malcolm belong?

Answer: the Nation of Islam

5. Who wrote the Epilogue to The Autobiography of Malcolm X?

Answer: Alex Haley

QUIZ

1. What phenomenon does Malcolm dismiss as no more than a “desegregated cup of coffee” as recompense for centuries of violence and oppression?

A) segregation

B) integration

C) non-violent protest

D) pan-Africanism

2. In 1964, Malcolm characterizes Goldwater as a wolf but Johnson as a fox. What does he mean by this?

A) While Goldwater is openly racist, Johnson tries to convince Black Americans he is their friend.

B) While Johnson is openly racist, Goldwater tries to convinces Black Americans he is their friend.

C) Both are openly racist, but Johnson is a more talented politician.

D) Neither is openly racist, but everyone knows that Goldwater is secretly racist.

3. According to Alex Haley, all of these are qualities or beliefs Malcolm shares in private that contradict his public persona as a member of the Nation of Islam EXCEPT:

A) his affection and respect for individual whites

B) how much he enjoys debating race and politics with white students

C) his admiration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

D) his respect for most Black Christian ministers

4. Which of these is a complaint leveled at Malcolm from mainstream civil rights activists?

A) Malcolm only pretends to care about the plight of Black Americans.

B) Malcolm is too aligned with the Washington, DC establishment.

C) Malcolm is “all talk,” while other activists are enduring beatings and jail time.

D) Malcolm is only posturing when it comes to religion.

5. Which organization does Haley believe may been complicit in Malcolm’s assassination?

A) the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

B) the Saudi government

C) the Ku Klux Klan

D) the New York City Police Department

QUIZ ANSWERS

1. B. To Malcolm, mere integration is not enough—there must be a serious accounting of the violence and oppression targeted at Black Americans for centuries.

2. A. Again, this reflects the special disdain Malcolm reserves for liberals who claim to be friends of Black Americans but who fail to live up to their promises.

3. D. Malcolm’s guarded admiration for King was definitely the exception, not the rule, when it came to Black Christian faith leaders within the Civil Rights Movement.

4. C. In addition, another major criticism of Malcolm from civil rights leaders was that his ideas were constantly in flux, all the way to his death.

5. D. Given the heavy surveillance of Malcolm at the time of his death, Haley finds it difficult to believe that there was nothing the NYPD could have done to prevent his assassination.