Reminders & Concluding Lecture Notes on Autobiography

First, a few reminders for this upcoming week. On Tuesday, 3/11, our next class, we will take some time out to hear from each of the families regarding Spike Lee's film. Also, don't forget that your first essay is due. I know some of you missed, "Malcolm X: Make It Plain," but you can check it out of the library when you get a chance. It is a nice summation of his life with interviews with many of the actual people in his life, not to mention clips from some of Malcolm's own speeches and interviews. It is vastly superior to Spike Lee's valiant effort. As I noted in class, we are going to take some time this week to examine his assassination. I'll talk about that on Tuesday, and then we'll see another video program on Thursday which explores his assassination and some of the theories about it. Finally, as I noted in class last Thursday, we are going to postpone the due date of your next journal entry until next Tuesday, 3/18 because of the video presentation which will take up of the full time on Thursday (and then some -- about 15 minutes over).

And now to wrap up the Autobiography

_______________________________

Epilogue by Alex Haley

A. Haley gives some insight into the process by which this book was written, how he collaborated with Malcolm X. Interestingly, he notes how he wasn't making much progress at first on drawing him out until he asked Malcolm about his mother.

1. Another interesting tidbit, Malcolm admitted to Haley that he had palmed that bullet in the Russian Roulette incident in his criminal days. see, p. 423.

2. Haley is particularly good in capturing the predicament Malcolm was in in Jan. 1965, a month before his death: "He talked about the pressures on him everywhere he turned, and about the frustrations, among them that no one wanted to accept anything related to him except 'my old 'hate' and 'violence' image.' He said 'the so-called moderate' civil rights organizations avoided him as 'too militant' and the 'so-called militants' avoided him as 'too moderate.' 'They won't let me turn the corner!' he once exclaimed, "I'm caught in a trap!'" (p. 431)

B. Haley's account of the assassination is not very good or precise. There are substantial questions, as we'll see.

Ossie Davis: On Malcolm X

A. I appreciate Mr. Davis's response to questions about why he eulogized Malcolm X, noting that only white people had asked him that, no black person. (If you read the eulogy, which I handed out, you'll know why.)

B. He respects Malcolm for his uncompromising commitment to search for and tell the truth.

C. And he recognizes the significant change in Malcolm's last year.


This brings to a close my comments on the Autobiography.

Again, tomorrow, in addition to hearing from you about Spike Lee's film, I'll talk about his assassination. See you then....