Malcolm X Afro-American History

Good Malcom x book..

Highly recommended easy read to add to ones collection

Every one should be as familiar with malcom X as martin luther king jr or Roosevelt or nixon or any other great american : Malcom X deserves to be an icon of american thought and his views on racism are prescient ...

As I was reading this book, I actually got into a debate with someone online. The person I debated with claimed that Africa was a primitive place that contained nomads that lived in huts. Armed with the knowledge I gained from this text, I completely out debated this person and put him in his place.The main focus of this book is a speech Malcolm X gave at an OAAU meeting on January 24, 1965. The purpose of the speech was to give a history of African civilization. Two subsequent speeches were to follow. The second on the present conditions of black people, and a third speech giving a statement of the aims and objectives of the OAAU that would improve the future conditions of black people. Unfortunately, life intervened with the bombing of Malcolm's home and his assassination.Malcolm does an excellent job detailing the vast African empires and civilizations, and their contributions to geography, agriculture, weaving, art, and education. He details the atrocities of American slavery and how White people stripped Black people of their language and their heritage.Malcolm was always an extensive reader, and the book contains a chapter (an excerpt from his Autobiography) explaining the books Malcolm read in prison. There are also two sets of pictures which show examples of an advanced African culture and civilization, as well as the atrocities of slavery. One revealing picture shows an advertisement for slaves before the civil war, in which slaves are literally sold like furniture.The book ends with excerpts from various speeches Malcolm gave in the last year of his life. Its vintage Malcolm and many of these speeches can be found in their entirety in other collections on Amazon. Malcolm's primary message in this book is that Europeans projected Africa negatively, so that we would hate ourselves. Thus, Europe was able to enslave and colonialize us for their profit. Many of the after effects of these efforts are still visible in the black community today. It is up to us to read books like this which tell us the truth about our rich heritage and culture, so that we can improve our self-knowledge and achieve maximum evolution for ourselves and our communities.

I purchased this book because I was interested in Malcolm X teachings and getting a better understanding of his views. I read his autobiography and saw his movie, but I don't know his speeches. This book touched on some of his ideas, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. This was a short phamplet of his last 3 part speech,(Jan 24th 1965 speech) which I think was laying the foundation for the new program OAAU. It did touch on Brother Malcolm's veiws of Afro American history and he does refer listeners (readers) to the books he read and places he been. I think I would have liked it better if it combined all three speeches (Jan 24th, Jan 31 and his Feb 15th speech).