George Breitman (Editor), "Malcolm X Speaks � Selected Speeches and Statements"
"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" is one of the few books that I�ve read more than three times. Several books get a second reading, a few get a third, a select few get a fourth, and the book would have to be damn good to get any more attention than that. (In fact, I think the only ones that have reached that status were �The Grapes of Wrath� and �The Sirens of Titan�) But Malcolm is also one of the few people I can think of that command respect from me. Having said that, it�s a little strange that I never bothered to read anything else about the guy. Last semester I had to read �The Ballot or the Bullet,� one of Malcolm�s more famous speeches, and decided to pick this up.
�The Ballot or the Bullet� is reprinted here, which is deserved, but it�s really his best work in here. The editor makes a comment at the beginning that the printed word really doesn�t do Malcolm justice; you can't see the anger, pain, or even the humor when it�s all laid out in text. At times it�s even a little disjointed. (Malcolm, according to the editor, never used written speeches, instead only using the sparsest of note cards to lead him if he got off-track, which happened quite a bit by the look of this.) Still, though, there�s something about calling somebody a cracker that always brings a smile to my face.
