Patrick Parr is Professor of English at Lakeland University Japan. This interview is based on his new book, Malcolm Before X (University of Massachusetts Press, 2024).
JF: What led you to write Malcolm Before X?
PP: Back in 2012, I’d compiled a list of 40 historical figures and planned to write a book of portraits focusing on the age of 22. Malcolm X was one of the forty, but when I tried to complete even a 3000-word portrait of him in his early twenties, there weren’t enough primary sources out there to finish it. This was surprising, to say the least. Sure, there was Malcolm’s 1965 Autobiography, as told to Alex Haley, and there had been a well-done bio of Malcolm released by the late Manning Marable in 2011, but when it came to Malcolm’s prison years, I could never find a book that dug deeply into those six and a half years. So…I felt deeply inspired and obligated to fill this gap of time in Malcolm’s life.
JF: In 2 sentences, what is the argument of Malcolm Before X?
PP: Incarcerated men need prison libraries to transform their character. Without the Norfolk Prison Colony library, Malcolm Little would not have become Malcolm X.
JF: Why do we need to read Malcolm Before X?
PP: That depends. Do you feel a need to understand one of the most original American voices of the twentieth century? Do you need to gain a better understanding of America’s carceral system, which as of 2024 holds nearly 2 million people behind bars? Do you need to understand how someone can improve their life even after losing their parents and being sentenced to prison? If your answer is ‘no’ to all these questions, then maybe you don’t need to read the book.
JF: Why and when did you become an American historian?
PP: Oh, I wouldn’t say I sought out being a historian. As a boy I read sports biographies, and then as a Catawba College student majoring in literature I took an American History class from Dr. Gary Freeze, and the way he revealed to us the cyclical nature of history, and how we’d benefit from just knowing what had happened in our country’s past, well…that stayed with me. Still, I don’t think I would have become an active historian had I not compiled that ‘22’ book mentioned earlier. It was through that creative exercise where I found several gaps in the biographies of historical figures…people whose faces appear on stamps, statues, monuments, et cetera…we don’t really know those who we revere.
JF: What is your next project?
PP: Well, before I mention it, let me just say that Malcolm Before X pulverized me. Some books are cranked out in a year and the author doesn’t feel a thing, but for me, Malcolm’s story remains very close to my heart, and I’ll need some time to recover. When I do (…if), Einstein’s shadow in Bern dances in the distance. But feelings like this fade quickly.
JF: Thanks, Patrick!