Where It All Goes Down
Macro Setting: A Lot Was Goin' On
Even though Malcolm X was an internationally renowned black rights activist, he wasn't unique. Movements were happening all over the world at the same time. In some ways, Malcolm was just one small part of a global movement working toward equal rights and opportunities for Africans and members of the African diaspora.
Civil Rights Movement
Most Americans will be pretty familiar with this one. This movement that began in the 1960s attempted to gain legal equality for African Americans. Nonviolent boycotts, sit-ins, and marches (such as the March on Washington) are some of the most famous examples of the nonviolent resistance preached by leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr.
However, other black nationalist groups also advocated violence if necessary to achieve their goals. MLK's message was just one of many that, ultimately, all had the same goal: Stop the oppression of African Americans.
Throughout The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm looks at the Civil Rights Movement as an outsider. He does not believe in MLK's nonviolent methods, and thinks that more action is needed before anything significant will actually be achieved for African American people.
By the end of his life, however Malcolm was more interested in something more global than the Civil Rights Movement, which would only help African descendants in the United States.
Pan-Africanism
That would be Pan-Africanism. This movement, headed by leaders such as Marcus Garvey (sound familiar?), Kwame Nkrumah, and W.E.B. Du Bois, was about more than civil rights. Its goal was the economic independence and unity of all African peoples across the world, including members of the African diaspora. Proponents of this movement believe that if all Africans united as a political and economic entity, they would be able to wield the same power as the United States or the European Union.
A wave of African independence movements was supported by the Pan-African message. African nations such as Ghana separated from their imperialist colonizers and sought to collaborate with other newly independent nations. From afar, they also watched the goings-on of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and sent their support when they could.
This is the movement that Malcolm joins after his expulsion from the Nation of Islam. When he goes to Mecca and then visits the African nations, Malcolm realizes that the black struggle is not just an American one, but also an international one. However, when he returns to the United States, it doesn't seem that many people are interested in this message.
The Nation of Islam
You can't talk about Malcolm X without talking about the Nation of Islam. Wallace D. Fard founded it in 1930, but Elijah Muhammad was the leader of the religion by the time Malcolm X converted. As you have probably guessed from the name, the Nation of Islam is an Islamic movement. However, many Islamic organizations have distanced themselves from the Nation of Islam.
Like many other Islamic religions, the Nation of Islam teaches The Five Pillars of the Islamic Faith: belief in one God (Allah), prayer, fasting during Ramadan, charity, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. But there are also many differences. Members of the Nation of Islam believe that Master W. Fard is the Messiah and Elijah Muhammad is Allah. They also believe that black people are the original race that created all other races on earth, and that white people are devils that were engineered by an evil scientist named Yakub.
Supporters of the religion believe that it helps African Americans spiritually, mentally, socially, and economically. But critics of the religion claim that it is anti-Semitic, black supremacist, and a perversion of Islam. While the religion still remains highly controversial, it plays a major part in the story of Malcolm X.
Micro Setting: City Life
You know how some people say things like the first time they visited Times Square blew their mind? That's probably an over exaggeration for most people, but for Malcolm X three locations actually change the entire course of his life story.
Boston
At the tender age of 16, Malcolm moves from Michigan to live with his half-sister Ella in Boston. His sightseeing around the historically black neighborhood of Roxbury is his first introduction to black society. He writes:
I didn't know the world contained as many Negroes as I saw thronging downtown Roxbury at night, especially on Saturdays. Neon lights, nightclubs, pool halls, bars, the cars they drove! Restaurants made the streets smell—rich, greasy, down-home black cooking! Jukeboxes blared Erskine Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Cootie Williams, dozens of others. (2.60)
We imagine that his eyes were probably falling out of his head. It must have been amazing for Malcolm to see so many people who looked just like him for the first time in his entire life.
Boston is where Malcolm X is steeped in black culture. He learns to talk jive, dance, and dress in the popular African American fashions of the time. He also meets an almost unbelievable amount of African American celebrities. You can think of Boston as the party time in Malcolm X's life.
If Malcolm X had not moved to Boston, we are not sure what kind of person he would've turned out to have been. He probably wouldn't have been able to interact with so many black people and become an activist if he had stayed in his little town in Michigan. He notes: "I've thought about that time a lot since then. No physical move in my life has been more pivotal or profound in its repercussions" (2.89). That's saying a lot, considering that his next move is to Harlem. While it's definitely a bigger city than Boston, we imagine that the transition between living in the country and living in the city is a more shocking one.
Harlem
Harlem has a special significance for African Americans because of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Since that time, it has been a center of African American social life, art, and culture. But Malcolm X gets to Harlem long after the Renaissance ends, in a time when the city has been plagued with race riots that resulted from high racial tensions in the area.
By the time Malcolm arrives, there are dozens of Black Nationalist groups vying for attention and preaching different doctrines that promise to gain equality for African Americans. But that's not what attracts Malcolm to Harlem. He likes it because it's cool.
Where Boston is loud and brass, Harlem is calm and understated. Malcolm observes:
I was hit first, I think, by their conservative clothes and manners. Wherever I'd seen as many as ten Boston Negroes—let alone Lansing Negroes—drinking, there had been a big noise. But with all of these Harlemites drinking and talking, there was just a low murmur of sound. [...] Their manners seemed natural; they were not putting on any airs. I was awed. Within the first five minutes in Small's, I had left Boston and Roxbury forever. (5.17)
Just like that, he puts away his loud suits, stops dancing, and joins the laid-back atmosphere in his new home.
Unfortunately, Harlem is also where Malcolm begins to fall into a life of crime. Instead of innocent partying, he deals drugs and begins to steal. This is the first step in his path to being imprisoned.
Mecca
While the first two cities are important because of their historical black communities, Mecca is a little different. Malcolm travels to the city in Saudi Arabia in order to complete the Hajji, or pilgrimage to Mecca that is required of all able-bodied Muslims. It is the birthplace of Muhammad and the site of his first revelation, so it is considered to be a holy city.
It's here that Malcolm learns about the Islamic religion and its rituals for the first time. Since he is the personal guest of the Prince of Saudi Arabia, Malcolm gets to meet all kinds of famous people and sight see all over the country.
But the most important aspect of Mecca for The Autobiography of Malcolm X is its impact on Malcolm X's racial understanding. According to him, the people living there were "white" but they did not treat him the same way that white people in the United States treated him. In fact, people of all races seem to be able to get along in the holy city. He writes:
I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, colors, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God." (17.103)
In other words, the religion of Islam is capable of making people forget racism and accept other people as human beings.
After this trip to Mecca, Malcolm X is a changed man. Not only has he changed his religious views, but he has moved from the beliefs of the Nation of Islam to those of the Pan-African movement. What a difference some travel makes!