MALCOLM X

Lomax, Louis. When the Word is Given…: A report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm   X and the Black Muslim World.  Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1963.

This is a book about the black Muslims creation and their major philosophies.  The book is broken into two major sections with a final section containing an interview with Malcolm X.  Lomax constructs this text based on his own journalistic investigation of the Nation of Islam (NOI).  Researched mostly as interviews with Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, there are no footnotes or noted sources for the piece. Lomax does manage to find the pulse of the beliefs of the 1950s and early 1960s NOI.  The central argument is the NOI existence as alternative religion for black people in America.  Concerned primarily with documenting the validity of the NOI as a religious institution, the book posits the NOI as a movement made by black Americans for their particular situation in the United States.  Part II, highlights the teachings of both Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. In his book, Lomax does focus on Malcolm as the primary person in the Nation, next to Elijah Muhammad.  But ultimately the NOI is made up of more people than Muhammad or X.  Lomax acknowledges this as an aside.  He is acknowledging this as legitimacy of the Nation and for its leaders.