On the side of my people
Subtitle: a religious life of Malcolm X
By: Louis A. DeCaro, Jr.
Publisher: New York University Press; New York University
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 363
Subjects: X, Malcolm, 1925-1965; Black Muslims -- Biography; African Americans -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: In On the Side of My People, Louis A. DeCaro, Jr. offers the first religious biography to focus exclusively on Malcolm X. Malcolm X was certainly a political man; yet he was also a man of Allah, struglling with his salvation - as concerned with redemption as with revolution.

Drawing on a wide variety of sources, including extensive interviews with Malcolm's oldest brother, FBI surveillance documents, the black press, and tape-recorded speeches and interviews, DeCaro examines the charismatic leader from the standpoint of his two conversion experiences - to the Nation while he was in jail and to traditional Islam climaxing in his pilgrimage to Mecca.

On the Side of My People explores Malcolm's early religious training and the influence of his Garveyite parents, he relationship with Elijah Muhammad, his often overlooked journey to Africa in 1959, and his life as a traditional Muslim after the 1964 pilgrimage.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-358) and index.
Table of contents: title: Black nationalist religion before the nation; title: The nation before Malcolm X; title: A Garveyite son; title: Early life and religious training; title: Wayward youth; title: Crime, imprisonment, and redemption; title: Early ministry; title: Evangelism and nation-building; title: From Harlem to the dark world; title: The making of an emissary; title: Religious apologist; title: Foreshadowing mecca: between cult and orthodoxy; title: Fame and fury; title: Banished from the nation; title: The pilgrim convert; title: The realities and ideals of witness; title: The final year; title: Religious revolutionist; title: Fighting in the way of God; title: Closing the book; title: Epilogue: now he's gone.