This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 1/12/2025
Offered here is an 8.5" x 11" original transcript of Alex Haley’s 1963 interview of Malcolm X for Playboy, personally signed by Malcolm X along the bottom margin. Overall in fine condition. Item comes encapsulated and authenticated by PSA/DNA.
Page 14 from the original typescript of Alex Haley’s 1963 interview of Malcolm X for Playboy. In full: “[Malcolm X] Ten years ago a destroyer would have been sent to Cuba to quell a revolution. Ten years ago you couldn’t have paid a Southern Negro to defy Southern customs. The British Lion’s tail has been snatched off in Black Africa. The Indonesians have booted out the would-be imperialists such as the Dutch. The French who felt for a century that Algeria was theirs have had to run for their lives back to France. Sir, the point I make is that all over the world the old day of standing in fear and trembling of the almighty white man is gone. [Haley] Mr. Malcolm, let’s not stray abroad—we’re examining your organization right here. Here’s something many are wondering, wondering about you as a matter of fact. Suppose Elijah Muhammad left the scene? Would the mantle of leader with divine understanding then fall to you? [Malcolm X] Sir, in my opinion, no one can succeed the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. No one preceded him. His work is already done with the seed he has planted among black people. Sir, if Mr. Muhammad and every identifiable follower he has, certainly including myself, were removed from the scene tomorrow by some more of the white man’s brutality, there is one thing to be sure of. Mr. Muhammad’s teachings of the naked truth have fallen upon fertile soil among twenty million black men in this wilderness of North America. [Haley] But the specific question, Mr. Malcolm, was that if Elijah Muhammad were no longer around, and you were, and all the present followers were, would you then become the leader—the messenger?”