Don Wildman

This is what Malcolm X will participate in for the rest of his life, once he joins into this.

But before that happens, we have a lot of events that happen otherwise, which really lay the groundwork for him.

Out of this cauldron of a childhood and then teenage life, and his large family, which begins its own diaspora of sorts, Malcolm X ends up in trouble.

which happens to so many kids of whoever they are, you know, out of such an unstable situation.

He is a, I have to say at the top, I'm revisiting the autobiography of Malcolm X, you know, the Alex Haley book.

Malcolm X, I said to my wife, incredibly charismatic man.

The storytelling that comes out of his life in that book is remarkable.

And the explanation of where it all fit for him, the detail of those first eight chapters is remarkable recall of so many different events that happened on, you know, as he was growing up.

It's a rebellious childhood.

He ends up committing petty crimes after being discouraged by a teacher that he wanted to be a lawyer.

World War II comes along.

He does not wish to fight.

It's an interesting event.

He decides to get himself declared mentally unfit.

What a remarkable human being and resourceful person we're talking about, even against the odds in which he sets up for himself, right?

These have been stories that have been repeated now in movies and so forth.

But I caution the audience to not gloss over these events because when you read these events in more detail, especially through the autobiography, you get such amount of self-examination and self-awareness, which is really amazing.

One of those crimes, which he commits in the mid 40s, lands him in prison in Massachusetts for robbery.

It is there in that time frame.

And we're talking about 1946 to 1952, although he's originally sentenced for a much longer period, as I understand it.