V.

It was during the time he spent in prison,
in a letter he received
from his brother Philbert that he first heard
about a new religion Philbert believed
in, called the Lost-Found Nation of Islam.
Through letters and visits that came
from his brothers and sisters, Malcolm learned
about these Black Muslims, as their name
was more commonly known. Their leader
was Elijah Muhammed, the imam, who
lived in Chicago and taught that the first man
and woman were black, and that the true
religion was Islam; and its people, Muslims.
He would tell black Americans that they
once had been Muslims back in Africa
or the Middle East before slavery's day
when their ancestors had been kidnapped
and brought here in chains, not long ago.
White men, he held, were devils, who were
created by a mad scientists and so,
black people had been living in hell ever since
they had been to America brought
and mixed with the white people who lived here.
And Elijah told black people they ought
to follow the ways of the religion of Islam,
which had very strict rules about dress
and behavior which members were bound to obey.
The Nation of Islam in the West
would not permit members to eat unclean food
such as pork, or to smoke or to drink
or take drugs. Dancing, drinking, and long vacations
were things from which they must shrink.
Women had to wear ankle-length dresses
and scarves to cover their heads.
Neither were they permitted to wear make-up.
And men, the religion said,
must wear dark suits, white shirts, and neckties.
Malcolm was drawn to the philosophy,
and the part about white people being devils
seemed true to him especially.
Soon, Malcolm was writing letters to everyone
he could think of about his new creed,
and it was in large part due to these letters
that he would educate himself to his needs.
Malcolm asked to be given a dictionary to use
since his vocabulary was very bad,
and after looking it over for a few days,
he began copying it until he had
copied the entire book, cover to cover.
Now, he could understand what he would read,
and he read books from the prison library
-- it was as if his mind had been freed.
When he would try to discuss the things he'd read
about slavery, some of the black men
would listen to him and talk about it,
but the white prisoners wouldn't spend
their time talking about slavery or racism.
And thus, Malcolm said he made up his mind
to spend his life telling white people about themselves.
Malcolm even got his prison sentence time
reduced, and was released early because
of good behavior in 1952.
Now twenty-seven, he returned to Detroit
to be with his family and to be able to
learn as much as he could learn about Islam.
Now, Malcolm was very happy
and felt that his life was beautiful,
being among people who had learned to be
proud of the fact that they were black.
He met Elijah Muhammed before year's end
and was accepted into the Islamic faith.
And when Malcolm became a Muslim,
he was given the name Malcolm X which stood
for the unknown African name
which his ancestors had before the time
they as slaves, to America came.


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