Why didn’t I learn about Malcolm X in school? Before I read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, I was vaguely aware that X existed, and that he was more militant than Martin Luther King.

X had an extraordinary life, and Alex Haley (of Roots) convinced him to tell him his story in a series of interviews. Then Haley crafted those interviews into this book. During his life, Malcolm X went through the foster care system, shined shoes, wore a really regrettable zoot suit, dodged the draft twice, deal...