Chapter 1: Nightmare
Study Questions
1. Where were Malcolm’s parents from?
2. What was the Black Legion?
3. Where did Reverend Little keep his pistol?
4. Why did Malcolm think that his father favored him over his other children?
5. Why was the Little family “better off” than most black families in East Lansing, Michigan?
6. Why did one insurance company refuse to pay off the life insurance policy of Reverend Little?
7. What strategic lesson did Malcolm learn from his rabbit-hunting expedition?
8. Why did Malcolm like to visit the Gohannas family?
9. How did Malcolm feel about his older sister Hilda?
10. How long did Louise Little remain in the state mental hospital in Kalamazoo, Michigan?
Answers
1. Malcolm’s father was from Reynolds, Georgia and his mother was from Grenada, in the British West Indies.
2. The Black Legion was a hate society of white racists in Lansing, Michigan.
3. Reverend Little’s pistol was hidden, kept sewn up in a pillow.
4. Malcolm thought that his father favored him because he was his father’s lightest-colored child. He felt that his father had been subconsciously brainwashed by white men into preferring lighter-skinned blacks.
5. The Little family built a small house in East Lansing, Michigan and raised much of their own food.
6. The insurance company claimed that Reverend Little had committed suicide and refused to pay off his life insurance policy.
7. Malcolm learned that any time you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you are both engaged in the same business, that person is doing something that you aren’t.
8. Malcolm liked to visit the Gohannas family because his own family had become destitute. Whenever he dropped by, they would invite him to stay for dinner.
9. Malcolm considered his older sister to be his second mother.
10. Louise Little remained in the state mental hospital for about 26 years.