Malcolm X terms

a man's suit with baggy, tight-cuffed, sometimes high-waisted trousers and an oversized jacket with exaggeratedly broad, padded shoulders and wide lapels, often worn with suspenders and a long watch chain and first popularized in the early 1940s. After Malcolm met shorty he started wearing the zoot suit.

 traditional black American cookery, which originated in the rural South, consisting of such foods as chitterlings, pig knuckles, turnip greens, and cornbread. In the book, this is what Malcolm's mother would make soul food for her family.

This is what was worn in the 1940's. Conk is the hair style Malcolm X wear in the book.

The Lindy Hop is a dance based on the popular Charleston and named for Charles Lindbergh's Atlantic crossing in 1927. It evolved in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s and '30s and originally evolved with the jazz music of that time. The Lindy Hop is Malcolm's favorite dance.