From Marable's accounts Malcolm has no real mentor. His half brother Earl Little Jr. died of tuberculosis shortly after Malcolm's arrival (42). So in turn Malcolm studied the "streets." Malcolm befriends, Malcolm "Shorty" Jarvis, who is an accomplished trumpet player and Malcolm's guide to Boston nightlife (42-43). Malcolm fell in love with the ghetto underworld and became fascinated with black celebrities (43). For Marable to keep up with Malcolm's jobs during this time alone I would say makes him a "master" researcher! Of the numerous jobs that Malcolm held during this time one took him straight to "heaven." It was his job as a rail road line cook which traveled the Boston/New York route. Malcolm deemed New York/Harlem "heaven." His heart would always remain there (48).
Marable introduces us to the people who surround Malcolm and gives us a peek into their lives and how they influenced him. The love interest who Malcolm could not seem to shake until circumstances made him was, Bea Caragulian, a blonde Armenian. Ella didn't approve of this relationship which brought tension between her and Malcolm. Bea was later married but continued to see Malcolm, commit crimes with him, and ultimately testified against him in court. Her actions left a lasting impression on Malcolm and somewhat shaped his theory of all woman as fragile and weak (68). Later Malcolm was quoted as saying, "I got my first schooling about the cesspool morals of the white man from the best possible source, from his own women"(69). We meet the to black dishwasher and aspiring comedian, John Elroy Sanford, who later comes to be known as, Red Foxx (51). Malcolm met some of the most famous bebop and jazz artists of the day. We even discover that Malcolm himself had a brief stint as an entertainer. He danced at a bar under the name of "Jack Carlton"(63).
Even though Malcolm was using drugs and drinking heavily Marable refers to him as an "extraordinary observer of people"(52). We see that this characteristic proved valuable in his life as a hustler as well as his skill of master manipulator. He faked psychotic behavior to get out of serving in World War II. Malcolm was in a battle to survive and he was doing it by any means necessary. With that being said, I want to discuss that most controversial part of the book and one of the reasons why I was initially opposed to reading Reinvention. Malcolm's alleged homosexuality. Reading up to the point where Marable brings up this behavior, I would say Malcolm would have done just about anything to survive. He was running prostitutes, selling and using drugs, and he even robbed a family acquaintance and Ella. So when he met Paul Lennon who the alleged activity took place with I can't say what he would not have done for money. Lennon employed "male secretaries" in his home and Malcolm worked for him for as a butler and a domestic (65-66). For this part of the book to cause so much buzz prior to its release Marable clearly states,"There is NO evidence from his prison record in Massachusetts or from his personal life after 1952 that he was actively homosexual"(66). I don't know if Marable brings up this subject later in the text but if there is only speculation and no evidence I'm done with the whole issue.
I really enjoyed the interesting history tidbits in this chapter that Marable always gives. One being that the famed Apollo Theater was a whites-only burlesque house (49). The amazing facts about Harlem from the Cotton Club, the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, to the details of the 1943 riot. We learn how bebop turns into jazz because artists,"sought to create a protest sound that could not be so easily exploited and commodified" (62).
What may be the most amazing fact to remember while digesting the details of this chapter was that Malcolm's age span during this time as 15-19yrs old. Marable ends the chapter with Malcolm being sentenced to six to eight years in prison for "being with a white woman" not the actual robbery he committed (68).
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