The diary was scheduled for publication in 2013, but a legal dispute between the publisher and some of Malcolm X's daughters resulted in a delay.

The diary is part of the collection of Malcolm X's papers that his daughters loaned to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a division of the New York Public Library, in 2003.

[1] It is the private journal kept by the human rights leader during 1964, a year he largely spent traveling in Africa and the Middle East,[2] and scholars consider it "a document of incalculable historical importance".

[3] In 2013, Third World Press launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to help publish the diary, which was edited by journalist Herb Boyd and Malcolm X's daughter Ilyasah Shabazz.

[2] Days before the scheduled publication date, Third World Press was sued by X Legacy LLC, a corporation that represents the daughters of Malcolm X. X Legacy won a temporary restraining order, claiming Third World Press did not have the right to publish the book.