religion, as well as a selfeducation, while serving a prison sentence. His religious beliefs proclaimed a strict segregationist policy as he preached a hatred of all white people. Martin Luther King, Jr., on the other hand, grew up in a middle-class family and received a full institutional education through a doctorate’s degree. King preached non-violence and believed in a fully integrated society.

Although Malcolm and King were contemporaries, the only time that they met was during the debates in Congress over the Civil Rights Bill in 1964. King and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) considered Malcolm too radical for the good of the Civil Rights Movement. Malcolm X, meantime, believed that King was too heavily influenced by the white people who supplied financial resources to the NAACP. However, toward the ends of their lives, Malcolm, upon his visit to Mecca, began to understand the merits of integration. King, tired of the slow progress of the leaders of the black southern churches, was considered too radical by his fellow ministers. Malcolm and King had a planned second meeting, scheduled two days after Malcolm’s assassination.

Flashback
Through the continual use of flashback, Baldwin fills in the history of Malcolm X’s life as Malcolm drives his car from a parking lot in New York City to the Audubon Ballroom on the day of his assassination. In the first few lines of the opening scene of One Day, When I Was Lost: A Scenario, Baldwin uses the side-view mirror of Malcolm X’s car to flashback to historical scenes in Malcolm’s life. As the screen fills with fire, Baldwin takes the audience to the threatening image of hooded men on horseback, destroying a home and scaring a pregnant woman, who turns out to be Malcolm’s mother.

As Malcolm drives along the city streets, this flashback process continues as certain images, such as the ‘‘cupola, at the topmost height of a New York building,’’ stir memories in Malcolm’s mind. Without warning, the audience is taken to Africa, Omaha, Milwaukee, Boston, and New York. Some of these flashbacks are very brief—a few descriptive lines, a couple exchanges of dialogue. Some of the flashbacks are repeated to fill in more details. Some of them are so extended they take up whole scenes. The audience forgets they are flashbacks until Baldwin quickly brings them back to the present. The flashbacks do not appear in any specific chronological order.

In essence, the whole screenplay covers only one day (as suggested by the title). The flashback concept is an adaptation of the theory that right before people die, their lives flash before them. Baldwin’s use of flashback, as Malcolm drives toward his death, elongates that process, slowing down Malcolm’s drive across town to give the audience a comprehensive look at the circumstances that lead to Malcolm’s assassination.

Foreshadowing
Baldwin often intersperses short scenes of Malcolm X’s father’s life into the story of Malcolm’s evolution as a national figure. By doing this, he foreshadows incidents and circumstances that will shortly mark Malcolm’s life. For instance, Earl Little, Malcolm’s father, was a preacher who tried to organize African-American people. Earl’s message was considered very controversial, especially by white people. Earl also believed that African Americans would find answers to their problems in Africa. Because of his beliefs, Earl’s house was set afire. While watching the house burn, Earl counts his children to make sure they are all safe. Although the fire truck appears, no one attempts to stop the fire. In the end, Earl is killed.

Each one of these events is played out in Malcolm’s life. Malcolm also becomes a preacher, reaches out to his African roots, watches his house burn while counting his children, and is, in the end, murdered.

Stream of Consciousness
Stream of consciousness is a technique that is used by novelists in an attempt to mimic the flow of impressions, thoughts, and feelings as they pass through a character’s mind. Baldwin uses this style cinematically by presenting images as Malcolm X might be viewing them in the present moment, then quickly shifting to a new set of impressions. For instance, in the beginning of One Day, When I Was Lost: A Scenario, while Malcolm is driving down a New York City street, he ‘‘watches a very attractive blond girl striding along the avenue.’’ From this real image in the present time, Baldwin then presents a quick flashback scene, as if Malcolm were remembering it. From watching the blond girl, Malcolm is reminded of Sophia, a blond woman he used to know. In the flashback scene, Malcolm is making love to her.

Immediately following the brief love-making scene, Baldwin rapidly imposes another image, as if Malcolm’s mind were following a string of thought (or stream of consciousness) that takes him from the memory of making love to Sophia to a fight scene in prison. Since Sophia was involved in the crime that eventually led to Malcolm’s imprisonment, Baldwin surmises that Malcolm’s mind might have naturally made that leap, flowing from one memory to another interconnected one. As the play progresses, so do Malcolm’s thoughts, leaping from one scene to another, sometimes only connected by the thinnest of filaments. As the audience is drawn more deeply into the story, the stream of consciousness becomes more complex as Baldwin slowly works his way deeper into Malcolm’s life and then slowly back to the present moment of the play.

• 1940s: Although interracial marriages occur in
the United States during this decade, a statistical
record is not made of them. The exception is the
occasional famous marriage, such as the black
novelist Richard Wright who marries Ellen Poplar,
a white woman, in 1941. Twenty-nine out of
the forty-eight states consider interracial marriage
a crime.

1960s: Nineteen states continue to observe their
laws against interracial marriages. However, there
are 51,000 interracial marriages recorded in the
United States.

Today: Over twelve percent of the African-
American population is involved in interracial
marriages, with recorded marriages standing at
over 300,000. Although specific records are not
kept, it is estimated that one in every twenty
children under the age of five is the product of
interracial parents. This does not include African
Americans who may have a white grandparent or
great-grandparent.

• 1940s: Ten percent of the African-American
population receives a high school diploma, compared
to twenty-five percent of the white
population. Two percent of African Americans
graduate from college compared to five percent
of whites.

1960s: Twenty percent of the African-American
population receives a high school diploma compared
to forty-five percent of the white population.
Four percent of African Americans graduate
from college compared to eight percent
of whites.

Today: Sixty-five percent of the African-American
population receives a high school diploma
compared to seventy-five percent of the white
population. Twelve percent of African Americans
graduate from college compared to twentythree
percent of whites.

• 1940s: African Americans in the arts include
Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald
in the field of music. Richard Wright’s Black
Boy becomes a bestseller. Marginal movie roles
are played by Lena Horne (Stormy Weather),
Hattie McDaniel, and Butterfly McQueen (both
in Gone with the Wind).

1960s: During this decade, black artists enjoy
commercial success. In music, singers such as
the Supremes, Gladys Knight and the Pips, James
Brown, Jimi Hendrix, and Aretha Franklin influence
new standards in popular music. In literature,
books by James Baldwin, Maya Angelou,
and Ralph Ellison win popular acclaim. Lorraine
Hansberry’s play Raisin in the Sun wins awards,
and Sidney Poitier becomes a familiar and popular
face in the movies.

1990s: George Walker wins the 1996 Pulitzer
Prize for his classical music composition, ‘‘Lilacs,’’
a milestone for black musicians. In 1993,
novelist Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize in
literature. In film, movie-maker Julie Dash wins
the 1992 Sundance Film Festival’s first prize in
cinematography for her Daughters of the Dust.

Today: Halle Berry receives the Oscar for best
actress in a leading role in Monster’s Ball (the
first African American to win this award in
the seventy-four-year history of the Academy
Awards), Denzel Washington receives the Oscar
for best actor in a leading role in Training Day
(the second African American to win this award,
following Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field in
1963), and Sidney Poitier receives an Oscar for
lifetime achievement.

• Spike Lee directed, co-produced, wrote, and
starred (as Shorty) in the 1992 Warner Brothers
film Malcolm X that was loosely based on Baldwin’s
screenplay.

• Brother Minister (1995), directed by Jack Baxter
and narrated by Roscoe Lee Brown, is a sevenpart
video inquiry into the assassination of
Malcolm X.

• In 1993, Black Audio Film Collective produced
John Akomfrah’s Seven Songs for Malcolm X, a
filmed homage to this Black Muslim leader. The
video includes an interview with Betty Shabazz
and Spike Lee.

• Malcolm X—Make It Plain was produced by
PBS Video in 1994. It is an extensive look at
Malcolm X’s life.

• The collaborative work between James Baldwin
and Arnold Perl was produced in 1972 and called
Malcolm X. This is a video documentary staring
Ossie Davis and narrated by James Earl Jones.

Sources
Baldwin, James, ‘‘As Much Truth As One Can Bear,’’ in New York Times Book Review, January 14, 1962, p. 14.

Driver, Tom F., ‘‘The Review That Was Too True to Be Published,’’ in Negro Digest, Vol. 13, 1964, pp. 34–40.

Leeming, David, Baldwin: A Biography, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

Perry, Patsy Brewington, ‘‘One Day, When I Was Lost, Baldwin’s Unfulfilled Obligation,’’ in James Baldwin, A Critical Evaluation, edited by Therman B. O’Daniel, Howard University Press, 1977, pp. 213–27.

Pratt, Louis H., ‘‘The Darkness Within,’’ in James Baldwin, G. K. Hall & Co., 1978, pp. 98, 100.

Standley, Fred L., and Nancy V. Burt, ‘‘Introduction,’’ in Critical Essays on James Baldwin, G. K. Hall & Co., 1988.

Stevenson, John, ‘‘James Baldwin: An Appreciation,’’ in Boston Book Review, December 1995.

X, Malcolm, with the assistance of Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Grove Press, 1966, p. 456.

Further Reading
Brown, Jamie Foster, ed., Betty Shabazz: A Sisterfriends’ Tribute in Words and Pictures, Simon & Schuster, 1998. Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, was left with the task of raising six children after her husband’s death. She was a strong woman and is remembered by friends and colleagues in this tribute to her life. Betty died tragically in 1997 from burns suffered in a fire set by her grandson.

Campbell, James, Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin, Viking, 1991. Campbell provides an insightful look into the life and the significance of the times of James Baldwin.

Cleaver, Eldridge, Soul on Ice, Cape, 1969. Cleaver spent much of his youth in jail. While there, he educated himself and wrote his memoirs. Once released, he became a follower of Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. After Malcolm’s assassination, Cleaver joined the Black Panthers. He eventually escaped the United States and lived abroad. Upon returning, he went through a religious transformation and conversion to Christianity, recording his changes in another book called, Soul on Fire (1978).

Foner, Philip S., The Black Panthers Speak, Da Capo Press, 1995. The Civil Rights Movement was a time of varying philosophies and tactics. Malcolm X was not the only radical voice during those times. This book presents a history of the Black Panther movement, their philosophy of separatism, their court battles, and what they stood for.

Lincoln, C. Eric, The Black Muslims in America, Africa World Press Inc., 1994. This is a sociological study that details the development of the Black Muslim Movement in the United States. It covers the leadership of Elijah Muhammad as well that of Louis Farrakhan.

Standley, Fred L., and Louis H. Pratt, eds., Conversations with James Baldwin, University Press of Mississippi, 1989. This collection of interviews with Baldwin includes one by Studs Terkel in 1961 and another in which Henry Louis Gates Jr. asked Josephine Baker to join Baldwin in 1985. From the height of his fame to the last moments of his death, these interviews offer a different, more personal insight into this great author.

X, Malcolm, Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements, edited by George Breitman, Grove Press, 1990. This book follows the development of Malcolm X’s evolution as a minister of Islam, from his time under the supervision of Elijah Mohammad to his break with the Nation of Islam. Many scholars try to explain Malcolm X’s philosophy. This book offers his beliefs in his own words.