NEW YORK — Decrying American race relations as a near-war, Malcolm X expressed hope that his tumultuous life story could help blacks and whites, according to a never-published introduction to his best-selling autobiography.
The introduction, read publicly for the first time Wednesday, underscores the ambition, personal-as-political power and foreboding of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," published shortly after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1965.
"I'm writing this book for the best interests of the Negro and the white man in America," begins the introduction, read by a Detroit lawyer who bought it from the estate of the autobiography's collaborator, Alex Haley.
"Most sincerely I want my life story to do as much good for America and for both races as it possibly can. ... I give my life to be used to benefit America and humanity, that America will learn that the Negro's problem is a challenge to America's consciousness and that the Negro is America's problem."
The existence of the introduction, and three other unpublished chapters apparently intended for the 19-chapter political classic, has been known since entertainment attorney Gregory J. Reed bought them at a 1992 auction of Haley's estate. Some pages have been exhibited in a Detroit museum.
But Reed on Wednesday read it publicly for the first time, to an audience of hundreds at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The organization was founded by the civil rights leader's late widow and housed in the building where he was killed.
The introduction, read publicly for the first time Wednesday, underscores the ambition, personal-as-political power and foreboding of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," published shortly after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1965.
"I'm writing this book for the best interests of the Negro and the white man in America," begins the introduction, read by a Detroit lawyer who bought it from the estate of the autobiography's collaborator, Alex Haley.
"Most sincerely I want my life story to do as much good for America and for both races as it possibly can. ... I give my life to be used to benefit America and humanity, that America will learn that the Negro's problem is a challenge to America's consciousness and that the Negro is America's problem."
The existence of the introduction, and three other unpublished chapters apparently intended for the 19-chapter political classic, has been known since entertainment attorney Gregory J. Reed bought them at a 1992 auction of Haley's estate. Some pages have been exhibited in a Detroit museum.
But Reed on Wednesday read it publicly for the first time, to an audience of hundreds at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The organization was founded by the civil rights leader's late widow and housed in the building where he was killed.
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