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“4 2-14-64) IC, . -Books of [The Times ~ (1 4o~ An Eloquent Testament By ELIOT FREMONT-SMITH THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X. By Malcoim X, with Alex Haley. Introduction by M. &. Handler. Epilogue by Alex Haiey. ditustrated, 455 pages, Grove. $7.50. T is probably fair to say that themajority of the public regards Malcot who was shot down by gunmen at an after- noon rally last Feb. 21 in Harlem's Audubon og ~ Ballroom, a$ a violence-preaching “Black weite-suctety. Muslim" racial agitator who reaped his own bloody death. Ironically, this is also the stated view of Elijah Muhammad, the self- proclaimed ‘“Mes- senger of Allah” and leader of the Natlon of Islam (Black Muslims) which, among other things, advo- cates racial segre- gation and black supremacy. “We didn't want to kill Malcolm!’* Mr. Muhammad cried \ over the heads of his bodyguards (among them, Cas- sius Clay) at a Black Muslim con- vention in Chicago 3 . shortly after the The Ni ish teaching would bringin. jo his own end!” There is, however, another view of Malcolm X—one that is increasingly preva~ lent among civil rights advocates—that with his death American Negroes lost their rnost able, articulate and compelling spokesman. Both views represent parts of the truth. While he was @ recruiter for Elijah Muham- mad, Malcolm X preached black superiority; and to the end he maintained that Negro violence was at least an appropriate response t to white violence against Negroes. It is also af % true that in the last year of his life he mi € “ radically modified certain of his ideas and Pa » tl began to take an active role in the securing fr ot of Negro rights within, not apart from, How important a spokesman he could heavy been for American Negroes had he liv remains in doubt. His advocacy of black supremacy came with his conversion to the | Elijah Muhammad-centered cult of the Nation of Islam while in prison. His begin- ning advocacy of civil rights and racial American society. { iv % ; [ | equality came with a second conversion—to \ Jao ~3 7F3Z 2/ the Islamic religion. Tt has been said, correctly I think, that “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” is a book about the nature of religious conversion, the sense of being born anew that certain people experience. Certainly, his account of this phenomenon that he underwent twice— - i’ the movernent from utter despair to elation ant—taegnse of mission—is one of, the book's maior fascinations. mo . i ati . Po Faeyr Y¥ nr yf the systematized destruction of Negro self- pit Tavel vel 4 Trottet — > f Téle Room u-> Holmes Gandy respect as an almost automatic function of « f' ut the book Is more. It tells what hap- F pene it intelligent Negro who AISCOvETS elt that he has, within American society, no future, And it shows in the most powerful and precise terms what this really’ means— olson ee elmont D rc Céspér Callahan — Conrad be Gale 7 Rosen Sullivan NY The Washington Post and | Times Herald The Washington Daily News The Evening Star New York Herald Tribune New York Journal-American New York Dally News New York Post The New York times & DO The Baltimore Sun —-___..__. The Worker The New Leader The Wall Street Journal The National Observer People's World Date NOV 5 1965