before you read the autobiography, read this interview
LINK
Quote:
Originally Posted by MANNING MARABLE
Haley had an entirely different agenda. He was a Republican. He despised Malcolm X's black nationalist creed. But he was a journalist, and he understood the power of charisma.
...
In late 1961, Alex Haley and white journalist Alfred Balk were approached by the Chicago office of the FBI to funnel misinformation that was critical of the Nation of Islam into a magazine article that would be read nationwide. They did so. It was called “The Black Merchants of Hate,” published in the Saturday Evening Post in late February 1962. In effect, Haley played the role of a misinformation agent of the FBI. Ironically, since the article said the Nation of Islam hates white people, they think they're devils, and they don't want anything to do with integration, Elijah Muhammad loved the article. He thought it was great. And so, that helped to create that bridge that led several months later to Malcolm and Haley negotiating an agreement where they would write an autobiography together.
a lot of the material that Malcolm wanted to go into the book did not get published -- three chapters to be exact ... about his new views on racism and more unity and all that ... Haley claims that Malcolm agreed to leave out the material but no one truly knows, because after all ... he was kinda working for the FBI