The Malcolm X articles that I read focused on a centralized point of a man overcoming a hardship through education and learning. Malcolm had started his life rough, only to “move to Boston” to live with his older half-sister Ella. “He participated in small crimes”, partially inspired by Ella’s own extralegal activities in pursuit of a middle class life style. Malcolm participated in these illegal activities until one incident resulted in a “harsh sentence of 8-10 years.” Malcolm had only an 8th grade education, however, Malcolm decided to “re-invent himself.” He took to studying in Norfolk Prison’s limited supply of books. One book that was available was a dictionary. At first, he couldn’t even “write in a straight line.” However he continued to practice through writing words down from a dictionary. As Malcolm became more educated, he learned things he likely didn’t want to hear. He learned about how American textbooks “whitened” African American history. It was another challenge to overcome this harsh new discovery, but Malcolm’s hunger for knowledge remained. He continued writing on “tablets” or pads of paper. He wrote dictionary definitions, detailed and precise. After his parole, he continued his activities. He quotes, “If I weren’t out there battling the white man every day, I could spend my life reading.”

 

Malcolm X Review

Before I did this paper, I didn’t know exactly who Malcolm X was, other than knowing he stood for the civil rights movement. After the project I started to understand the position and effect he took on the civil rights movement. I can never truly understand how the African Americans were treated during the civil rights movement, but in this paper I saw a glimpse of the pain the white man caused on the African Americans.