New York library to give new Malcolm X documents info

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The New York Public Library is expected to release Friday additional details about a missing chapter of Malcolm X's autobiography as well as additional related documents it purchased at auction.

The African-American civil rights icon died before his autobiography was published, having been assassinated in 1965.

The New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research purchased the missing chapter of "The Autobiography of Malcom X" Thursday. The unpublished chapter, titled "The Negro," was locked away from the public eye by a private individual for decades.

The chapter, sold for $7,000, was thought too controversial to be included in the original publication in 1965.

The center also purchased the autobiography's unpublished manuscript which features handwritten notes from Malcolm X and Alex Haley, his collaborator on the project, as well as other related documents at Guernsey's, a New York-based auction house.

Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented Rosa Parks among others, had bought the documents after Haley died.

The Schomburg Center, located on Malcolm X Boulevard in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, focuses its research on black culture and is home to one of the largest collections of material related to the civil rights leader.

Malcolm X is to some a heroic manifestation of the civil rights era for his legacy of staunchly defending black rights, but his history as a proponent of black separatism has drawn the ire of detractors.

His life story, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is considered one of the most influential non-fiction works of the 20th century.