The dramatic opening scene in Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X is fallacious, according to the author of a controversial biography of Malcolm X. Bruce Perry, author of Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America, claimed during a talk on campus on April 22 that Malcolm X's mother denied during interviews with him that she had ever "bravely verbally defended" Malcolm and his siblings from Ku Klux Klan members who "allegedly" burned their home. Perry also claimed he had evidence that Malcolm had engaged in homosexual relations for money before converting to Islam. These statements and others which contradicted Malcolm X's autobiography made Perry's quest to publish Malcolm difficult, he said during a lecture before members of the Pennsylvania Association of Scholars at Logan Hall. Perry, who said he left the University after being accused of "racism, sexism and homophobia" in 1986, said he feels that "the official version" of Malcolm's autobiography "was a bunch of hot air" and that he had a right to have his "dissenting views published." Perry claimed that the Autobiography of Malcolm X and Spike Lee's recent film treatment of the text "grossly overstated white oppression" and "understated the abuse of the people who raised Malcolm." Perry said his book was important because, "you can't understand what's going on in the streets of this country unless you understand what happened to the real Malcolm X." He said he believes that major publishing companies rejected his book because they were "afraid of being called racists." After being published, however, it was listed as a "Notable Book of '91" by the Philadelphia Inquirer and an "Editor's Choice" in the New York Times Book Review.
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