The "Autobiography of Malcolm X" is the instantaneous sensation that any lucid reader seeks, shifting the intellectual perspective on the racial divides that makes this book a revolutionary movement. During the 1920's in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm lived in an environment that encouraged the tensions of local and cultural racism in every peeking corner, ranging from school teachers to his closest friends. Born from half-white and half-black race, Malcolm seemed emotionally detached from the inspired goals of the black communities attempting to unify whites and blacks together as one. Displaying the boldness that his father attained, he transpired those strong characteristics which expressed the strong discernment that Malcolm felt for the whites that misunderstood blacks in many ways. The cultural change throughout his life encouraged the strong support that separated, but signified equality even if it meant "by any means necessary".
Malcolm's mother, Louis Little, was placed in the State Mental Hospital at Kalamazoo. State representatives felt that Louis was incapable of taking the heavy responsibility of her children at home. Her heavy guard starts to deteriorate slowly as soon as she realizes that she does not have the financial support to maintain her children, even with the welfare money she receives as a widow. Malcolm's mentality changes at this point towards the way he viewed things, slowly beginning to grow the gentle and passionate dislike for the white authorities that took his mother after the strenuous effort to keep the family together. The overwhelming and unmanageable difficulties tears Louis in two ultimately leading to the emotional breakdown. To withstand the pressures of family issues was one thing, but to Malcolm's eyes the state authorities gave the impression of performing their jobs out of bad faith. These state authorities were not there to aid their financial problems, to help Louis with a way to cope, or to find out how the family's involvement ended in such position.