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The Diary of Malcolm X: 1964
In 1964, Malcolm X made two trips to Africa and theMiddle East. During those trips, he kept copious notes. This remarkable document, The Diary of Malcolm X El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, 1964, is comprised of those notes, along with editing, annotations, and
260 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2013
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690 people want to read
About the author
Malcolm X
87 books3,156 followersMalcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 15, 2025
Based on its rarity and expense (now because it is hard to find), I was hoping this would be more of an enjoyable and useful find. It really wasn't, unfortunately. I love Malcolm and consider him our American shaheed, raheemahuLlah, but it's not just that compelling of a document. Some of the material is good. But they needed folks who know more about the cultures and languages of the places he visits, especially in the Arab world, to do the notes, and for practicing Muslims who know their religion just on a basic cultural level to review everything. There are a lot of mistakes in the notes that are pretty much unforgivable in that sense. I've taught the Autobiography something like 70 times, and you can imagine that I did get something from the reading, of course. I did. I just won't be recommending it to folks who aren't really deep into Malcolm X scholarship. And I don't mean that you read Marable's lightweight and salacious absurd work, but that you are serious about Malcolm's legacy as it really should be from his own vision and not perverted into something in the liberal or even conservative American corporate conformity capitalist traditions. Al-Fatiha for Hajj Malik El-Shabazz!
December 17, 2014
I felt like this served as a good book to read alongside Malcolm X's Autobiography. I got a better sense of the humility this great man encompassed. I think the best part of the diary was his experience at hajj. One truly senses how at peace and inspired Malcolm X felt after visiting Mecca and Medina. After reading this I had a better knowledge for Malcolm X's thirst for knowledge not only about systemic racism and Pan-Africanism but also for common people all around him. He took every opportunity he had to learn from those around him.
March 4, 2016
This book is a great resource in giving one a glimpse at what Malcolm X was thinking over the last year of his life as he traveled overseas. It documents his overseas contacts and lets the reader in on his activities, as he remained in Struggle, to improve the lives of Black people. It gives a partial look into the mind of Malcolm, allowing the reader to see some of what he was thinking. It sheds light on the mystery as to what Malcolm had been up to over that last fateful year of his life, granting his assassination even more profound meaning when one realizes that he was barely within the borders of the United States for 4 of the last 11 months of his life. For anyone who is a serious student of the life of Malcolm X, as I am, it is essential that this book is reserved a place in one's personal library. This is one of life' greatest treasures, with thanks going out to the editors, Third World Press and Ms. Ilyasah Shabazz. A great job, this!
PS--Chapter 4 in my book, "Reality's Pen: Reflections On Family, History & Culture" is called "Inspiration." That chapter is really a moving dedication to Malcolm X. Anyone interested in Malcolm X will find that chapter worth one's while. In addition, there is much to be gained from the rest of the book.
PS--Chapter 4 in my book, "Reality's Pen: Reflections On Family, History & Culture" is called "Inspiration." That chapter is really a moving dedication to Malcolm X. Anyone interested in Malcolm X will find that chapter worth one's while. In addition, there is much to be gained from the rest of the book.
June 8, 2017
As a personal hero of mine, I will read any and everything either from El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz himself, or about him. His own personal diary allows the reader to travel through his mind without the filter of a narrator or some other scholar who only knows him through study. The least important of his thoughts seemed to be in regards to religion. In times like these, at the time of this review, it is comforting to know that there have been, and are people who have nothing on their mind, day in and day out, but seeing black people live to their fullest potential. Most today wouldn't sacrifice $5 to see a better future, but for the man to sacrifice his life.... and not just in death. In life, time with your wife, children is lost; financial advancement lost, public image lost... Just to see a people free. It is a sacrifice only heard of in lore yet this man was a living example of that. And his thoughts in doing so are worth taking the time to read.
December 5, 2024
Boring but insightful I’m glad our beloved Malcolm El Hajj Shabazz had some sort of peace while still here on earth side. I feel they left a lot of and changed the dates too much . I would’ve liked it better if the journal was left untouched and let us read it for ourselves and determine our own interpolation of our brother. I liked reading his thoughts overall . He was so respectful , smart , and inspirational. I pray his legacy lives on and his family win their lawsuit
February 9, 2025
The State Department stole a visionary from us.
There's something so profound about the amount of projects Malcolm had underway during the two years preceding his death. In common discourse, much focus is given to his efforts towards the liberation of Black America, not so much towards his vision of spreading Islam in America as the "spiritual guidance" that would complement Black Nationalism. Although the diary doesn't get too in-depth on any given topic, it's an excellent look into the day-to-day and passing thoughts of a leader and organizer as he navigated new waters with little more than his own drive and determination.
There's something so profound about the amount of projects Malcolm had underway during the two years preceding his death. In common discourse, much focus is given to his efforts towards the liberation of Black America, not so much towards his vision of spreading Islam in America as the "spiritual guidance" that would complement Black Nationalism. Although the diary doesn't get too in-depth on any given topic, it's an excellent look into the day-to-day and passing thoughts of a leader and organizer as he navigated new waters with little more than his own drive and determination.
June 7, 2016
The Diary of Malcolm X, written in the author’s plainspoken style, covers two trips abroad in 1964. The entries begin on April 15th and end on November 17th, detailing his travels across the African continent, countries in the Middle East, and cities throughout Europe. He not only catalogues the heads of state, their representatives, and organizations he meets with, but also describes towns and landscapes like an Imagist: “Mecca is surrounded by mts, the cruelest looking mts. I’ve ever seen. They seem to be made of the waste material from a blast furnace. No vegetation on them at all.” Entry after entry, he takes the reader to Dakar Airport, the Carlton Towers Hotel in London, and King Tut’s Tomb at the Cairo Museum. It is the chronicle of a man in perpetual motion, in search of answers and solutions to centuries old dilemmas, finding those answers in even older bonds and ties; all the while being surveilled, threatened, targeted, and poisoned. It was due to these whirlwinds circling him that more than one head of state offered him refuge in their lands, but he humbly declined. He felt it his duty to return home and continue the struggle alongside the twenty million other black men, women, and children who had no safe-haven. And at the end of November, he indeed returned home; returned to attempted knifings, fire-bombings, agents infiltrating his ranks, death squads being assembled in cities across the country, and, finally, shotgun blasts in the Audubon.
Near the end of epilogue to The Autobiography, Alex Haley writes that after Malcolm signed the contract for the book, he gave him a hard look and said: “A writer is what I want, not an interpreter.” This is what the reader gets in the diary; and the writer is none other than Malcolm X, without Haley or anyone else as interpreter.
See full review: https://mdashwriters.com/2016/06/07/f...
Near the end of epilogue to The Autobiography, Alex Haley writes that after Malcolm signed the contract for the book, he gave him a hard look and said: “A writer is what I want, not an interpreter.” This is what the reader gets in the diary; and the writer is none other than Malcolm X, without Haley or anyone else as interpreter.
See full review: https://mdashwriters.com/2016/06/07/f...
November 9, 2025
Everyone should read The Autobiography of Malcolm X, but it is marred by what independent journalist I.F. Stone called Alex Haley’s “conventional” political understanding. Malcolm’s telling of his life also appears to sometimes be out of order based on what we know of his political development. I am also unsatisfied with any of the biographies I’ve read.
The publication of his diary in this book is a welcome addition to what we know of Malcolm X’s life, and it is in his own words (to the extent they were legible--he was writing for his own use). One can feel the excitement of Malcolm on his Hajj, exploring the sights of ancient Egypt, and at the Organization of African Unity in the more modern part of Nasser’s Egypt, which had taken some important anti-imperialist measures.
The OAU passed a resolution on the oppression of Blacks in the US. While relatively mild, it never would have been passed without Malcom’s intervention, and it seems to have been better than he expected. In part it noted “with satisfaction the recent enactment of the Civil Rights Act designed to secure for American Negroes their basic human rights,” while declaring that the OAU conference was “deeply disturbed, however by continuing manifestations of racial bigotry and racial oppression against Negro citizens of the United States of America.”
Parts of Africa and the Mideast were seething with revolution at the time Malcolm X visited. While the US bourgeois press was slandering him as a “racist” and “extremist,” he was invited to meet with many heads of state on his visit. Some of Africa had just recently freed itself from colonialism; some was still fighting against it. Nelson Mandela had recently been imprisoned. While gaining political independence was a big step forward, both the labor and natural resources of the African continent were still being exploited by imperialism—and they still are. US imperialism has been dominant since the end of World War II. The only country that was briefly in the initial stages of a socialist revolution was Algeria, under Ahmed Ben Bella. And much of Africa was still too underdeveloped to be able to move beyond capitalism.
The foreword says, “As with King, Malcolm X must also be credited with laying the groundwork for the election of the nation’s first African American president and hundreds of Black elected officials nationwide.” While he was in favor of Black people registering to vote, he said “But at the same time we won’t tell them to register as a Democrat or a Republican. Any Negro who registers as a Democrat or a Republican is a traitor to his own people.”
Malcolm X was an opponent of imperialism and was unlikely to have been satisfied with having the Commander-in-Chief of US imperialism be a person of the same skin color. Malcolm’s close relation with the revolutionary Cubans is clear in this book and is even clearer elsewhere as when he invited Che Guevara, in New York to address the UN, to also address the OAAU (Malcom had met with Fidel Castro when still in the Nation of Islam). Security problem made it impossible, but Che sent a message which Malcolm read (see Malcolm X Speaks).
While we can all welcome the decline in racist attitudes that made possible Obama’s election, what did he do for Black people, the working class as a whole, or the world, still suffering under the yoke of imperialist oppression, despite the fact that most direct colonialism has ended? In the US, the jails are filled with Blacks; they’re still being disproportionately killed by cops, and Black babies are dying at twice the rate of Caucasian ones.
And one exception to the end of colonialism is Puerto Rico, where Obama removed the little bit of self-rule they had, appointing a fiscal control board, usually known there as the Junta, that has enforced cuts in public employee jobs and pensions, the closure of hundreds of schools and other attacks on the living standards of working people.
I’m not interested in a long argument with the author of the preface; I do want to recommend a book that gives a very different evaluation of Malcolm—Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.
But primarily I want to recommend the books of speeches of Malcolm after he broke from the Nation of Islam, starting with my favorite,Malcolm X Talks to Young People: Speeches in the United States, Britain, and Africa, which contains four talks and an interview given to young people in Ghana, the UK, and the United States in the last months of his life, highlighting Malcolm’s anti-imperialism. The others are: Malcolm X Speaks, By Any Means Necessary, Malcolm X on Afro-American History, Malcolm X: The Last Speeches, and February 1965: The Final Speeches.
I also want to recommend that everyone read Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87. Sankara was the most revolutionary African leader, but Malcolm didn’t live to see him or live to see the democratic revolution in South Africa lead by Nelson Mandela (see Nelson Mandela Speaks: Forging a Democratic, Nonracial South Africa).
The publication of his diary in this book is a welcome addition to what we know of Malcolm X’s life, and it is in his own words (to the extent they were legible--he was writing for his own use). One can feel the excitement of Malcolm on his Hajj, exploring the sights of ancient Egypt, and at the Organization of African Unity in the more modern part of Nasser’s Egypt, which had taken some important anti-imperialist measures.
The OAU passed a resolution on the oppression of Blacks in the US. While relatively mild, it never would have been passed without Malcom’s intervention, and it seems to have been better than he expected. In part it noted “with satisfaction the recent enactment of the Civil Rights Act designed to secure for American Negroes their basic human rights,” while declaring that the OAU conference was “deeply disturbed, however by continuing manifestations of racial bigotry and racial oppression against Negro citizens of the United States of America.”
Parts of Africa and the Mideast were seething with revolution at the time Malcolm X visited. While the US bourgeois press was slandering him as a “racist” and “extremist,” he was invited to meet with many heads of state on his visit. Some of Africa had just recently freed itself from colonialism; some was still fighting against it. Nelson Mandela had recently been imprisoned. While gaining political independence was a big step forward, both the labor and natural resources of the African continent were still being exploited by imperialism—and they still are. US imperialism has been dominant since the end of World War II. The only country that was briefly in the initial stages of a socialist revolution was Algeria, under Ahmed Ben Bella. And much of Africa was still too underdeveloped to be able to move beyond capitalism.
The foreword says, “As with King, Malcolm X must also be credited with laying the groundwork for the election of the nation’s first African American president and hundreds of Black elected officials nationwide.” While he was in favor of Black people registering to vote, he said “But at the same time we won’t tell them to register as a Democrat or a Republican. Any Negro who registers as a Democrat or a Republican is a traitor to his own people.”
Malcolm X was an opponent of imperialism and was unlikely to have been satisfied with having the Commander-in-Chief of US imperialism be a person of the same skin color. Malcolm’s close relation with the revolutionary Cubans is clear in this book and is even clearer elsewhere as when he invited Che Guevara, in New York to address the UN, to also address the OAAU (Malcom had met with Fidel Castro when still in the Nation of Islam). Security problem made it impossible, but Che sent a message which Malcolm read (see Malcolm X Speaks).
While we can all welcome the decline in racist attitudes that made possible Obama’s election, what did he do for Black people, the working class as a whole, or the world, still suffering under the yoke of imperialist oppression, despite the fact that most direct colonialism has ended? In the US, the jails are filled with Blacks; they’re still being disproportionately killed by cops, and Black babies are dying at twice the rate of Caucasian ones.
And one exception to the end of colonialism is Puerto Rico, where Obama removed the little bit of self-rule they had, appointing a fiscal control board, usually known there as the Junta, that has enforced cuts in public employee jobs and pensions, the closure of hundreds of schools and other attacks on the living standards of working people.
I’m not interested in a long argument with the author of the preface; I do want to recommend a book that gives a very different evaluation of Malcolm—Malcolm X, Black Liberation, and the Road to Workers Power.
But primarily I want to recommend the books of speeches of Malcolm after he broke from the Nation of Islam, starting with my favorite,Malcolm X Talks to Young People: Speeches in the United States, Britain, and Africa, which contains four talks and an interview given to young people in Ghana, the UK, and the United States in the last months of his life, highlighting Malcolm’s anti-imperialism. The others are: Malcolm X Speaks, By Any Means Necessary, Malcolm X on Afro-American History, Malcolm X: The Last Speeches, and February 1965: The Final Speeches.
I also want to recommend that everyone read Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution, 1983-87. Sankara was the most revolutionary African leader, but Malcolm didn’t live to see him or live to see the democratic revolution in South Africa lead by Nelson Mandela (see Nelson Mandela Speaks: Forging a Democratic, Nonracial South Africa).
February 14, 2023
This in many ways is a travel diary of a man who needs no introduction. Is it the most organised and well written diary there is? Not really. In fact, it can feel disjointed and some entries unnecessary. But it's Malcolm. The figure he exudes has you want to accompany him through this year of '64, whether he's giving a talk in Ghana or feeling the most peace he's ever been in the prophet's mosque in Madina. It was personally a pleasure to see him rubbing shoulders with the likes of Tom Mboya, Pio Gama Pinto and Mrs Du Bois. A cartography of a most important time building up to the overall mosaic of a very self-righteous dignified man. And like any other book, it's just a gateway to many more personalities from the struggle, and a segway to some loose-ends of some intersecting histories.
February 7, 2020
I love reading anything Malcolm X. As this is a diary, it provides fuller details as to the daily activities of Malcolm's life, rather than introducing his philosophies (although there are reflections as to Pan-Africanism, Islam, and the spiritually-equalizing Hajj). However, there were certain commentaries and personal asides that makes Malcolm more human than icon. i.e. the "smile" in parentheses, his feelings of loneliness, his thoughts towards his wife and family.
December 31, 2018
Great Observations
Really enjoyed seeing his thoughts and comparing then to today. His calculations to predictions were spot on with what he envisioned and what he sought. Pan Africanism is what we need as Black People globally
Really enjoyed seeing his thoughts and comparing then to today. His calculations to predictions were spot on with what he envisioned and what he sought. Pan Africanism is what we need as Black People globally
January 21, 2020
OH WHAT AWESOME MAN YOUR WORD STILL LIVES. MALCOLM X....😎👊🏽❤️ THANKS FOR ALL YOUR AWESOME WORK 👏🏾
November 25, 2018
This book should be read as a companion to The Autobiography of Malcolm X. It will be much more valuable to you if you receive the full context in which it was documented by first reading about his life and the events that lead up to his international expeditions in 1964, which form the content of this diary.
November 29, 2013
"I went for a walk in the rain, alone and feeling lonely."
Few were the very personal moments like this in the book, it read mostly as a travel diary. I appreciate the effort it took to edit this book but I can't say I *really* enjoyed it.
(No shocking secrets are revealed in this book, so I'm guessing the big fuss over it's publication was because Malcolm's estate wanted to release it on the 50th anniversary of his death in two years time. Oh well, a NY judge has banned the sale of this book until then. Good thing I got a copy when I did.)
Few were the very personal moments like this in the book, it read mostly as a travel diary. I appreciate the effort it took to edit this book but I can't say I *really* enjoyed it.
(No shocking secrets are revealed in this book, so I'm guessing the big fuss over it's publication was because Malcolm's estate wanted to release it on the 50th anniversary of his death in two years time. Oh well, a NY judge has banned the sale of this book until then. Good thing I got a copy when I did.)
Want to read
April 9, 2014The Diary of Malcolm X gives an insight to his impressions, personal observations on the people he meets and the challenged he encounters in the 1960s, where blacks were not given inalienable rights. Also, he discussed his own feelings of inadequacy. For a writing lesson, students may write about what it would feel like to not have certain rights? or do they agree with his perspective of his tactics to have human rights? Why or Why not?
Read
July 20, 2016it is going to be released in November 14 , 2013 . ! can't wait for it !!
Finally I got it, I would personally recommend the autobiography over it, unless you are a Malcolmite then this is a wonderful add to your collection..
It is an insight on Malcolm-the-human as well as Malcolm-the-leader.
Finally I got it, I would personally recommend the autobiography over it, unless you are a Malcolmite then this is a wonderful add to your collection..
It is an insight on Malcolm-the-human as well as Malcolm-the-leader.
April 9, 2015
Very enlighting book. It really provided insight into the man and his thoughts. Malcolm's journey throughout Africa was amazing given the fact that he was not a diplomat, yet he had entry to many heads of state. The respect he gain during his travels was breathtaking.
August 16, 2016
I remember reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X in 2001 and thinking how brilliant it was, and I still do. One of the best books I've ever read. I guess my expectations for the 1964 diary were too high. There were moments of incite, but it was very repetitive.
March 30, 2014
Incredible to read Malcolm's diary entries. Very interesting perspective to appreciate him from. (read: 2013)
September 5, 2014
Changed my life.
July 23, 2017
great bio. malcolm x did so much for the civil rights movement and the identity of the black man. amazing to read his journey thru Hajj and Africa.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews