The Autobiography of Malcolm X is an interesting and exciting book. Although it is based on fact, it reads like a novel. It tells the story of a young African American who inherits the gifts of courage and self-reliance from his father and mother and rises to international prominence despite overwhelming odds. As a child, Malcolm often went hungry. His father, an itinerant preacher, was constantly moving because of threats from white bigots who resented his espousal of the back-to-Africa program of Marcus Garvey. Malcolm’s worldview was forever affected by his memories of late-night raids by the Ku Klux Klan and his father’s murder by members of another white supremacist organization called the Black Legion. His widowed mother eventually suffered a nervous breakdown under the strain of trying to rear eight children on welfare, and she had to be institutionalized. Malcolm became a virtual orphan and a ward of the state.

Along with his remarkable strength of character, the young African American child was exceptionally intelligent and got outstanding grades in the nearly all-white schools he attended. His academic success motivated him to achieve financial success, but he soon realized that most doors were shut to African Americans at that time. Eventually, he drifted into a life of crime. His book is full of interesting, often shocking, anecdotes, and many of these have to do with his adventures as a con artist, pimp, gigolo, drug peddler, rapist, burglar, and armed robber. In 1946, he was sentenced to ten years in Charlestown State Prison in Massachusetts for a series of burglaries.

Malcolm’s autobiography reads like an exciting novel comparable to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) or Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), with one important difference. Malcolm writes about his early years from a mature perspective. He constantly interrupts his narrative to interject observations about how his life experiences mirrored the experiences of countless African Americans of his time. He stresses the fact that the majority of African Americans had consciously or unconsciously adopted white values and were hoping somehow to achieve the impossible feat of becoming white.

Malcolm was attracted to white women and describes many of his affairs with them. Telling about these affairs in retrospect, he philosophizes that his attraction was only another symptom of African Americans’ adoption of white values and their own feelings of inferiority that are a natural consequence.

One of the most striking anecdotes in the novel describes the time when Malcolm was “conking” his hair—that is, using a mixture of lye, eggs, and potatoes to make his hair straight—and found that the water had been shut off. The lye was burning his scalp; in desperation he stuck his head into the toilet to wash it out. To him, this incident symbolized the humiliating position of the African American who had accepted the belief that white features were desirable while African features such as kinky hair were ugly and shameful.

Malcolm used the penitentiary’s extensive library for self-education and found that he had voracious interests in languages, philosophy, politics, religion, and other subjects. While in prison, he became acquainted with the tenets of the Black Muslim’s Lost-Found Nation of Islam, a religion that proclaimed the superiority of the black race and stigmatized the white race as devils. He corresponded with the Black Muslims’ founder, Elijah Muhammad, and went to serve under him in Chicago after he was released from prison in 1952.

His relationship with Elijah Muhammad was the most important of his entire life. Perhaps the older man became a substitute for the father Malcolm had lost in childhood. As Malcolm X, Malcolm Little became Elijah Muhammad’s most loyal and most successful disciple, preaching from Harlem Mosque Number Seven as well as on street corners and anywhere he could gather an audience. He discovered that he possessed the rare gift of spellbinding oratory, attributable to his intelligence, his extensive self-education, his strong motivation for self-fulfillment, and his deep belief in the teachings of his mentor. He quickly rose from assistant minister to minister to national minister in the Black Muslim organization.

Malcolm had such a bad reputation in prison that fellow inmates referred to him as “Satan.” His conversion to the Black Muslim faith, however, transformed his character. He gave up smoking, drinking, drugs, profanity, and sexual promiscuity. He gave up zoot suits, conked hair, and all the other flashy affectations he now considered clownish. His cropped hair and conservative business suits reflected his moral transformation.

Malcolm was Elijah Muhammad’s diligent disciple for more than ten years. Another major turning point in his life arrived when he became aware that his master was not the saintly character Malcolm had taken him to be. Malcolm discovered that Elijah Muhammad was not only interested in personal enrichment but also sexually promiscuous and had seduced several of his former secretaries, who had borne him illegitimate children.

Although disillusioned with his mentor, Malcolm remained a devout Muslim. He went to Mecca in search of further spiritual enlightenment and experienced a powerful religious conversion. He renamed himself el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. After this experience, he considered himself at least equal to Elijah Muhammad in religious enlightenment and founded his own Muslim organization, which he called the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

After Malcolm broke with the Black Muslim sect, he was harassed and threatened by its members, who presumably were working under orders from Elijah Muhammad. In speeches and interviews, Malcolm frequently predicted that he would be assassinated. His house was firebombed, and he had to send his wife and four daughters out of town for their own safety. His remarkable courage and dedication to his cause were evident in his behavior during this critical period. He refused to hide from his invisible enemies, making repeated public appearances in Harlem and elsewhere to proclaim his crusade for the spiritual and political unification of black people all around the world. He openly attacked Elijah Muhammad for “religious fakery” and “immorality.”

The most striking things about Malcolm X’s autobiography are his candor, his motivation, and his anger. Few characters in novels have undergone such transformations as this man did in real life. Reader see Malcolm change from an ignorant child into a sophisticated urbanite, then into a vicious criminal, then into an embittered convict, and finally into a highly devout, ascetic religious leader who is ready to sacrifice his life for the good of others. The one thing that remained consistent throughout his adult life was his anger at the way white society had cheated him by shutting its doors to opportunity and forcing him into a life of crime and degradation. He believed that his life story was the story of his race.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X ends with Malcolm living as a hunted man, having been repeatedly threatened by the followers of his former idol. In 1965, the year his autobiography was published, Malcolm died in a blaze of shotgun pellets and pistol bullets while addressing an audience in Harlem. Three followers of Elijah Muhammad eventually were convicted of the crime; however, countless conflicting rumors circulated concerning who might have been the masterminds behind the plot.

Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X became a martyr to the cause he believed in. Perhaps only King can be compared to Malcolm X for courage and dedication to the cause of ending racial bigotry in the United States.

In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written in conjunction with Alex Haley, Malcolm X reveals his early life as a big-city hustler, defends his view of the white man as “the devil” and his conversion to Islam, and explains his eventual abandonment of the black separatist movement (which in its most extreme mode called for the United States Congress to grant land for a black state) in favor of a “Human Family,” a “Human Society” united under the one God and the one moral code of Islam. His purpose, simply put, was to invoke social change in America: “I have given to this book so much of whatever time I have because I feel, and I hope, that if I honestly and fully tell my life’s account, read objectively it might prove to be a testimony of some social value.”

At midpoint in the work, Malcolm states that his whole life “had been a chronology of—changes,” and his autobiography is an attempt to chronicle and explain these changes. The nineteen chapters of the autobiography can be thematically grouped into three parts. The first nine chapters chronicle Malcolm’s youth and adolescence in the Midwest, focusing on the strength of family relationships and hardships suffered from conflicts with the white community. Chapters 10 through 16 are devoted to his conversion to Islam and his rise and fall from power within the organization led by Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam. In chapters 17 and 18, Malcolm recounts his trip to Mecca (referred to as his hajj) and the change it effected on his early extremist views of whites. The final chapter, titled “1965,” the year of Malcolm’s assassination, serves as a sort of epilogue in which he outlines his newly discovered sense of the need for international, interracial solutions to racism.

Malcolm was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but moved at an early age with his family to Wisconsin, then Michigan. Born Malcolm Little, son of a preacher and organizer for Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, he was a gifted student, popular among his many white classmates, and apparently destined for success. Then one day a teacher told him that despite his obvious intelligence he should pursue a career more appropriate for a black boy, that of a carpenter. Suddenly faced with the odds against his success in a white man’s world, Malcolm set off to the big city. He moved first to Boston to live with his elder sister, Ella, then to New York where he worked on the railroad before succumbing to drugs and crime.

In chapters 10 through 16, Malcolm relates his life in prison and his salvation through Islam. Arrested and incarcerated for robbery in 1946 at the age of twenty, he spent six years at Charleston State Prison and the Norfolk Massachusetts Prison Colony, where, influenced by his brother’s letters introducing him to Elijah Muhammad, he converted to Islam. While still in prison, he developed a passion for black history and began a five-year process of self-education which included reading and copying every page of the dictionary. He read so much and in such bad light that he permanently ruined his eyes. In the course of his reading, he developed a deep, blanket hatred of white men which was to last until the final years of his life. Rejecting even the name bestowed on him by the white man, he changed his name to Malcolm X.

After leaving prison he moved to Detroit, where he became increasingly involved with the Nation of Islam, eventually assuming the position of minister of Temple Seven in New York. There he met and was married to Betty X; they had five daughters, one born after his death. Malcolm rose swiftly within the Nation to become its most prominent spokesman and organizer. Under his direction two universities of Islam were established to educate school-age Muslim children in Detroit and Chicago. He entered the college lecture circuit promoting black nationalism with the support of Elijah Muhammad, even though the Nation eschewed overt involvement in political or social activities. Malcolm became so popular that rumors began to circulate that he was making a fortune for himself even though all of his earnings went directly to the Nation; in fact, after his assassination both his wife and his attorney revealed that he had died penniless, without even life insurance.

Malcolm later discovered that Elijah Muhammad had begun to attack him behind his back. The final rift came in 1963, when Malcolm made a comment after the death of President John F. Kennedy that his assassination was a case of “the chickens coming home to roost.” The statement was intended to indicate that the white man’s violence had finally come back on him, but was widely regarded as being a personal attack on the president. As a result of Malcolm’s comment, Elijah Muhammad silenced him for ninety days. Malcolm saw the censure as the first step in his expulsion from the Nation of Islam. He foresaw the next two steps in his ousting: He was suspended as a minister; then, he was isolated, which amounted to total ostracism by the members of the Nation. In anticipation of his expulsion, Malcolm left the Nation, and organized Muslim Mosque, Inc., of Harlem, and began plans for his first trip to Mecca.

Chapters 17 and 18 chronicle Malcolm’s trip to Mecca, where he saw at first hand the errors of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, particularly those regarding attitudes toward white men in general, for he met many white Muslims who were “color-blind.” At this point he rejected his former condemnation of all whites but continued in his condemnation of the suppression of “the collective 22 million black people in the United States.”

After his hajj, Malcolm began a successful series of speaking engagements in Egypt, Lebanon, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Senegal, and Morocco. Upon his return to New York, Malcolm called for an indictment of the United States before the United Nations on charges of “denial of human rights” to American blacks.

In the final months of his life, Malcolm reflected on his accomplishments and his failures. He voiced pride at having raised the consciousness of American blacks and whites. Proud of his leadership role, he accepted his labeling by critics as a “demagogue,” for he considered himself to be both model and teacher for his black brothers and sisters. He was proud to have arrived at an awareness that “it isn’t the American white man who is a racist, but it’s the American political, economic, and social atmosphere that automatically nourishes a racist psychology in the white man.” It was at this point in his life that Malcolm came to view racism not as a civil rights problem but as a “human rights” problem. Malcolm’s only regret, he stated, was not that he made mistakes, for he acknowledged that he had made many. Rather, he most regretted his lack of formal education, which he believed would have better armed him for his battles.

Appended to the work is a seventy-five page epilogue written by Alex Haley in which Haley recounts the events surrounding the composition of the work and the assassination of Malcolm on February 21, 1965.

In nineteen chapters, The Autobiography of Malcolm X traces his life from his birth as Malcolm Little in Omaha to his troubled youth and eventual imprisonment to his ultimate emergence as one of the most important and powerful voices for social change and black rights in the 1950’s and 1960’s. An introduction by M. S. Handler and an epilogue by Malcolm’s collaborator, Alex Haley, furnish perspectives on Malcolm as well as on the events leading up to and following his assassination in 1965. The book ends with a brief tribute to Malcolm by actor Ossie Davis, who delivered the eulogy at Malcolm’s funeral.

The first half of the autobiography outlines Malcolm’s youth, the breakup of his family, and his life on the streets. At age six, Malcolm lost his father, who was presumably murdered by white supremacists angered at Earl Little’s preaching of Marcus Garvey’s “back-to-Africa” philosophy. Six years later, Malcolm’s mother was placed in a mental institution, where she remained for twenty-six years, and her eight children were separated and sent to various foster homes. At fourteen, Malcolm quit school and went to live with his half sister Ella in Boston. Eventually moving to Harlem, Malcolm became a hustler, drug dealer, and finally leader of a burglary ring.

It was during six years of imprisonment for robbery that Malcolm’s life irrevocably changed. Introduced to the religion of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm began writing daily letters to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of this group, often referred to as the Black Muslims. Ashamed of the lack of education betrayed in his letters, Malcolm set out to educate himself, copying the entire dictionary to improve his vocabulary and reading all that he could obtain from the prison library.

Released from prison, Malcolm began his new life as a Black Muslim, eventually becoming minister of the church’s Harlem temple. Malcolm preached and lived the strict moral code of the Nation of Islam, which included sexual purity and abstinence from drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. It was his articulation of the Muslim belief that the “white man is the devil” that brought national attention to Malcolm and made him a highly visible spokesperson for black pride and the rights of African Americans.

The last few chapters of the book record Malcolm’s break with Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, his discovery of the “true Islam” in a pilgrimage to Mecca, and the beginnings of a new, more broadly based philosophy of race relations in which he counted as friends those who were “black, brown, red, yellow, and white.” His assassination by three members of the Black Muslims is told in Haley’s epilogue to the autobiography.

Struggle for Civil Rights in the 1950s and 1960s

Before several landmark court rulings overturned racial segregation in the United States, African Americans were often legally barred or restricted from various public spaces, including restaurants, neighborhoods, golf courses, schools, and movie theaters. The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka declared segregated schools unconstitutional. Over the following years, the Supreme Court issued additional rulings that invalidated segregation in places like golf courses, swimming pools, and beaches.

Many historians consider Rosa Parks's spontaneous refusal in 1955 to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus as the catalyst for the American civil rights movement. Parks, an African American woman, was arrested and fined for violating the city's segregation laws regarding seating on public buses. Four days later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a young Baptist minister in Montgomery, called for a local bus boycott, which was supported by various black organizations. By 1956, the boycott achieved a significant victory when a federal district court issued an injunction prohibiting racial segregation on Montgomery buses.

The boycott and subsequent events thrust King into the national spotlight as a civil rights leader. During the Montgomery protest, King was jailed, and his house was bombed. King's philosophy of non-violence garnered a substantial following in the late 1950s and 1960s. His strategies included peaceful demonstrations and marches, sit-ins at segregated establishments, a willingness to face imprisonment, and civil disobedience. In contrast, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam did not entirely dismiss the use of violence if deemed necessary, opposing King's non-violent stance. In his autobiography, Malcolm X expresses some disdain for leaders like King, accusing them of being co-opted by white interests.

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, African Americans and their white allies participated in sit-ins and freedom marches, often risking their lives. Many of these demonstrations were met with violence, such as the 1963 clash between police and protesters in Birmingham, Alabama. The local police commissioner responded to the mostly peaceful demonstration by unleashing dogs and using cattle prods against the civil rights marchers. Malcolm X referenced this incident during his conversations with Arabic and African Muslims on his travels in 1963 and 1964.

One of the largest civil rights demonstrations of that period was the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, led by King. Nearly a quarter-million Americans from diverse backgrounds gathered in front of the Washington Monument to hear King deliver his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech. Malcolm X criticized King and the demonstration in his book, referring to the march as the "Farce on Washington" and dismissing it as merely an "integrated picnic."

Nightlife in Harlem

The Cotton Club, a renowned nightclub in Harlem mentioned by Malcolm X in his autobiography, was exclusively open to affluent white patrons eager to experience the risqué nightlife they had heard about. However, African-American club owners established their own venues, some of which became popular late-night spots for many of the black musicians Malcolm associated with in Harlem.

Jazz and swing, two genres Malcolm X enjoyed during his time as a street hustler in both Boston and Harlem, garnered a significant following from the mid-1930s onward, eventually becoming the most favored music in the nightclubs frequented by Malcolm and his friends. Most dance halls and nightclubs in the 1930s and 1940s were racially segregated. If black patrons were allowed in white establishments, it was typically on a designated night each week—such as the night Malcolm X recalled as being set aside for domestic workers at the famous Savoy in New York. He also remembered dancing to jazz legends like Dinah Washington and Lionel Hampton at venues such as the Savoy.

Origins and History of the Nation of Islam

The Islamic religion was founded by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The primary text for Islam is the Quran (or Koran), which Muslims believe to be the final revelation from Allah, or God, to Muhammad. Muslims are required to fulfill five basic tenets, or "pillars," of Islam: the belief in one God, Allah, and that Muhammad is His Messenger; performing five daily ritual prayers; giving alms, also known as a religious tax; observing the dawn-to-sunset fast during the lunar month of Ramadan; and undertaking the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Nation of Islam traces its origins to 1930 when a door-to-door salesman selling cloth and other items appeared in a Detroit ghetto, claiming that the true religion for African Americans was not Christianity but Islam. Known by various names, he is referred to in The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Master W. D. Fard. He utilized both the Bible and the Quran in his teachings. The core teachings of the Nation, as initially presented by Fard, include the story of a black scientist named Yakub who, thousands of years ago, created a weaker race of white men who were allowed to temporarily dominate the Earth. According to Nation doctrine, an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil (whites) and good (blacks) would soon occur, with blacks emerging victorious. Malcolm X vehemently rejected this theology by the end of his autobiography, instead embracing what he referred to as the "true Islam" of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Elijah Muhammad, originally named Elijah Poole, was one of Fard's most trusted associates. He assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam following Fard's mysterious disappearance in 1934. Muhammad led the Nation for the next forty years, asserting that Fard was Allah and that he had been appointed as Fard's official messenger.

The Nation of Islam addressed the issue of racism in America through two primary strategies: they advocated for economic independence for African Americans, including the establishment of a separate nation, and they encouraged members to reclaim their identities, which the Nation believed were lost during slavery and their forced migration to America. The Nation promoted a strict ethical code among its members, emphasizing hard work, frugality, cleanliness, debt avoidance, and the prohibition of alcohol, drugs, smoking, and pork. The Nation of Islam also gained recognition for its restaurants, which sold bean pies and whiting, as part of Muhammad's efforts to enhance the health of the African-American community.

Foreshadowing

Malcolm X employs foreshadowing to underscore the significant changes in his life and to prepare his readers for forthcoming disappointment and trauma. For instance, early in his autobiography, he discusses both his achievements and his less commendable moments. Upon moving to Boston, he mentions hearing about Harvard Law School. "No one that day could have told me I would give an address before the Harvard Law School Forum some twenty years later," he reflects. A few sentences later, he hints at future events by saying, "I didn't know how familiar with Roseland I was going to become," referencing the numerous nights he spent dancing and partying at the renowned ballroom.

As the autobiography progresses toward its conclusion, Malcolm X increasingly references his own death. Much of this stems from his awareness that some members of the Nation of Islam want him dead following his departure from the organization. Nonetheless, his allusions to his own mortality are striking within their context. For example, he remarks that he views each day as "another borrowed day" and lives each day "as if [he were] already dead."

Point of View

This autobiography was "told to" Alex Haley, who edited and organized the information Malcolm X conveyed during numerous conversations. Despite this, the book is written in the first person, with Malcolm X serving as the "I" in the narrative. The writing style is conversational, almost as if Malcolm X is speaking directly to the reader. His life story is presented in a chronological order, starting with his birth and concluding in 1965 just before his assassination.

Readers of any autobiography should understand that the information presented is chosen from the myriad events in the subject's life. Events and conversations are remembered through the filter of time; in this book, Malcolm X recalls events decades after they occurred. Additionally, there were two individuals who made decisions about what to include in the autobiography: Malcolm X and Alex Haley. In his epilogue, Haley notes that he had to persuade Malcolm X to focus on his own life rather than on Elijah Muhammad, and he also suggests that some of the stories Malcolm X shared may have been somewhat exaggerated.

1960s: In 1962, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is proposed and, by 1964, it becomes law. This amendment primarily eliminates poll taxes in federal elections, thereby enhancing the voting rights of the poor and many African Americans. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act is enacted, temporarily halting literacy tests designed to limit the voting rights of African Americans and other minorities. As a result of these laws, by the end of the decade, there are 1,469 African-American elected officials in the United States, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Today: The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies currently reports that there are nearly nine thousand African-American elected officials in the United States.

1960s: Malcolm X states that the Nation of Islam has around four hundred thousand members in the United States.

Today: Nearly forty years after Malcolm X's assassination, it is estimated that the Nation of Islam has about one hundred thousand members.

1960s: In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech inspires nearly 250,000 participants at the March on Washington, advocating for pending civil rights legislation.

Today: In 1995, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan leads the Million Man March on the Mall in Washington, D.C., urging participating men to recommit to their families, communities, and personal responsibilities.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X served as a key source for the 1992 film Malcolm X, directed by Spike Lee. The movie featured Denzel Washington as Malcolm X, Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz, and Al Freeman, Jr. as Elijah Muhammad. The screenplay, written by Spike Lee and Arnold Perl, was produced by Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Leading Actor for Washington and Best Costume Design.

In 1973, James Baldwin adapted sections of the autobiography into a screenplay published by Dial, titled One Day When I Was Lost: A Scenario Based on Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Sources

Berthoff, Warner, "Witness and Testament: Two Contemporary Classics," in New Literary History, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter 1971, pp. 311-27.

Breitman, George, ed. (with introductory notes), Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements. New York: Grove Press Inc., 1966.

Demarest, David P., Jr., ‘‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Beyond Didacticism,’’ in CLA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 2, December 1972, pp. 179-87.

Haskins, James, Profiles in Black Power, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1972.

Holte, James Craig, ‘‘The Representative Voice: Autobiography and the Ethnic Experience,’’ in MELUS, Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer 1982, pp. 25–46.

Mandel, Barrett John, ‘‘The Didactic Achievement of Malcolm X's Autobiography,'' in Afro-American Studies, Vol. 2, No. 4, March 1972, pp. 269-74.

Nelson, Truman, ‘‘Delinquent's Progress,’’ in Nation, Vol. 201, No. 15, November 8, 1965, pp. 336-38.

Ohmann, Carol, ‘‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X: A Revolutionary Use of the Franklin Tradition,’’ in American Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 2, Summer 1970, pp. 129-49.

Spengemann, William, The Forms of Autobiography, Yale University Press, 1980, pp. 1-2.

Stone, I. F., ‘‘The Pilgrimage of Malcolm X,’’ in New York Review of Books, Vol. 5, No. 7, November 11, 1965, pp. 3-5.

Warren, Robert Penn, "Malcolm X: Mission and Meaning," in Yale Review, Vol. LVI, No. 2, December 1966, pp. 161-71.

Further Reading

Archer, Jules, They Had a Dream: The Civil Rights Struggle from Frederick Douglass to Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, Puffin, 1993.
This book features biographies of four notable civil rights leaders in American history, highlighting their flaws and strengths.

Branch, Taylor, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963, Touchstone Books, 1988.
Parting the Waters is the first volume in a series by Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement in the United States.

Collier-Thomas, Bettye, and V. P. Franklin, My Soul Is a Witness: A Chronology of the Civil Rights Era, 1954-1965, Henry Holt and Co., Inc., 1999.
This book provides a comprehensive survey of the people, organizations, and events that shaped the American civil rights movement, presented in a day-by-day chronology.

Esposito, John L., Islam: The Straight Path, Oxford University Press, 1988.
Esposito offers an overview of the Islamic faith, covering its origins and history, and providing a historical context for understanding the diversity of Islam today.

Evanzz, Karl, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, Pantheon Books, 1999.
The Messenger is a biography of the prominent Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad, revealing his flaws and contradictions.