Unpublished parts of Malcolm X’s autobiography auctioned off
NEW YORK — For decades, scholars have wanted to get a closer look at unpublished sections of a towering 20th century book, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” including cut chapters that may have contained some of the most explosive thoughts of the African-American firebrand assassinated in 1965.
They may get their chance after an auction on Thursday, when a manuscript of an unpublished chapter, titled “The Negro,” was sold by Guernsey’s auction house for $7,000.
“We are like the Western deserts; tumbleweed, rolling and tumbling whichever way the white wind blows,” reads part of the chapter. “And the white man is like the cactus, deeply rooted, with spines to keep us off.”
The buyer was The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, based in Harlem. The Schomburg Center also acquired a 241-page early draft of Malcolm X’s autobiography at the auction for an undisclosed sum.