Chapter 1 Summary

Malcolm X's story opens with a troubling story about how the Ku Klux Klan visited his home while his mother was pregnant with him. From here, Malcolm goes on to tell the story of his childhood in a chapter called "Nightmare."

One of eight children, Malcolm grew up in poverty, moving a number of times before his family settled in Michigan. His father, a dark man, was a freelance Baptist preacher who spread the word of Marcus Garvey, a man who stressed the need of Negroes to become free of the white man (Malcolm's words). His mother, who was from the West Indies, was very light skinned; Malcolm inherited lighter skin from his mother and he realized from a young age that his parents treated him differently as a result. Malcolm writes that, at the time, parents almost instinctively treated lighter skinned children...