◆ SpookStack

| | left Harlem .t wo enw turn to Boston, and a few months later was caught as the head of a burglary gang. In February, 1946, not quite 21, he was sentenced to 16 years in _ Prison, though the average sen- ‘ tence for burglary was about two years—the price for his being caught with his white girl friend and her sister. = __ - Most of the first year m ' prison, Malcolm writes, he spent : in solitary confinement, curs- ing: “My favorite targets were the Bible and God.” Malcolm got a new name from the other Prison “Saten"—and plenty of tite to dhink. He wert throfgh. what he described as & | steht spiritaal crisis, and, as a résult, hethe man wht-CNPSA down and prayed to AMET! wan be aire those readers who have never i heen in prison to understand | the psychological torment that prisoners experience, their feel- ings of isolation, their need to tetally commit their minds to something outside of them- selves. Men without any of the external economic symbols of status seck security im a reli- gion, philosophy or ideology. , Malcolm particularly, with his ' great feelings of rebelliousness, ' hatred and internal conflict, turned to books and ideas for relief. When his brothers and sisters wrote to him that they had become followers of Elijah Muhammad and sent him Eti- jah’s teachings, Malcolm seized on the tracts. Stimulated, he read other books on religion and philosophy voraciously. In his spiritual and psychological crisis he underwent religious conversion, He took on a new entity and became Malcolm X, a fol- lower of Elijah Muhammad. Now he had a God to love and obey and a white devil respon- sible for his plight. Many Negro Prisoners accepted the “Mes- | senger,” Elijah Muhammad, for . similar reasons. Excluded from | American society, they are drawn to another one, the Na-— tion of Islam. (This analysis of ; why Malcolm joined the Mus- lims is mine, for although Mal- coun writes about Muslim ideas, nowhere does he discuss the | reasons for his conversion be- 1 472 Re Sup 2 fein ensiinsieEEirimenee ge. ear Out of prison, wittte fiiffaining religious,” ar- rived at a balanced view of the more fantastic elements of Eli- jah’s teachings and a deeper und ing of one of the driving forces: “So many of Malcolm, - the survivors whom I knew as | tough hyenas and walves of the | streets im the old days now were so pitiful, They had known all . the angles, but beneath that sur- - face they were poor ignorant, untrained men; life had eased . up on them and hyped them... ° I was thankful to Allah that I | had become a Muslim and es- | caped their fate.” Alex Haley, © Malcolm with the book, rightly commends him for deciding not to rewrite the first parts of the book and make it a polemic who assisted against his old leader, although | in the interim they had broken and tow were in competition _ with each other. As a result, the book interestingly shows changes in Malcolm’s thinking. After seven years in prison, Detroit Red emerged as Mal cohn X and was soon to be the brightest star of the Nation of Islam. But as m every conver- sion, the man himself was not entirely reborn Malcolm brought with him his traits of i—the shrewd-ead—eom- tixe—iastincts learned “Oi the: ghetto streets, combined now with the language and thoughts of the great philosophers of Western culture he applied from reading Hegel, Kant, and, Nietzsche, and great Negro in- ° tellectuals like Du Bois. Remain- ing,: too, with his burning ambition to succeed, was the» rebellious anger of his youth for - being denied a place in society commensurate with his abilities. But on the other side of the coin was a desire for fraternity, family and respectability, Because of his ability, he was sent to New York, where he struck a responsive chord with a great many Harlem Negroes. The Nationalist sects provided an arena of struggle for power ad sfatus denied lower-class Negroes in the outside world. But the same qualities that. made him a successful ghetto organizer soon brought him into conflict with other Muslim lead, fally Ehijah’s chil- dren and prospecti¥®—~ heirs. They, saw, Malcolm as a threat to their domain and § sarently were able to convince Elijah that there was a threat to him- self as well. For although Mal- colm always gave corollary credit to Ejah—and the limits set upen him by Elijab’s de- ie many underesti- mands mage metered, | his mind—he could not totally _constrain his brilliance, pride _or ambition. “Only by being two ‘ people could I have worked ‘harder in the service of the Na- tion of Islam. I had every grati- fication that I wanted. I had : helped bring about the progress and additional impact such that none could call us liars when we called Mr. Muhammad the most powerful black man in - America.” As Malcolm's star rose higher in the western sky, Mr. Mu- hammad saw his eastern star setting and grew jealous. The © conflict grew, although Malcolm made efforts toward concilia- ! tion. Finally, there was a total , break that can be fatal to the ‘ erring Muslim who is cast away. * Malcolm was aware of the dan- t vers. “E hadn't hustled in the streets for nothing. I knew I was being set up... As any official in the Nation of Islam would instantly have known, any death-talk for me could have been approved of—if not actually initiated—by only one man” Later, just before his death, Malcolm said the attempt te murder him would come from a much*greater source than the Muslims; he never revealed about whom he was talking. Under a death sentence and | without monev or any substan- | t@tbhergenization, Maidéontropied i for action, although it was un- clear whether he was running away from or toward something as he began another phase of | his odyssey—a pilgrimage to _ Mecca where he became El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Throughout his many conversions and trans- formations, he never was more American than during his trip _ to Mecca Because his ankles _were not flexible enough, he was ugable to sit properly cross- legged on the traditional Mus- lim rug with the others, and at first he shrank from reaching into the common food pot. Like many American tourists, he pro- jeeretmdesires for haspicatry