Malcolm X (1925 1965) was born as Malcolm
Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. His father was
a Baptist minister and a strong devotee of the
Black leader Marcus Garvey. Garveys message, as
many readers will be familiar, was that Black
people in America would never be able to live in
peace and harmony with white Americans and
their only hope of salvation was to move as a
people back to their roots in Africa. Malcolms
father died when he was six and his mother was
put in a mental home when he was about twelve.
As a result, his many brothers and sisters were
split up and put into different foster homes.
Malcolm left school early and eventually drifted
North and finally settled in Harlem, New York, on
his own, at the age of 17.
In Harlem, he soon slipped into a life of crime. He
became involved in hustling, in prostitution, in
drug dealing. He became a cocaine addict and a
burglar. Finally, at the ripe old age of 19, he was
arrested and sentenced to 10 years
imprisonment.
It was while he was in prison that his whole life
changed. He first learned of the existence of the
Honourable Elijah Mohammed and of the
movement known as the Black Muslims from his
brothers and sisters outside the prison. They had
become converts to the movement and asked
Malcolm to write to Elijah Mohammed. In Chapter
11 of his autobiography, Malcolm writes that at
least twenty-five times I must have written that
first one-page letter to him, over and over. I was
trying to make it both legible and
understandable. I practically couldnt read my
handwriting myself; it shames me even to
remember it. My spelling and my grammar were
as bad, if not worse. This chapter in his
autobiography is extremely moving as it
documents a mans desperate pursuit of an
education.
Homemade education
Malcolm became a letter writer and as a result he
says that he stumbled upon starting to acquire
some kind of homemade education. He became
extremely frustrated at not being able to express
what he wanted to convey in letters that he
wrote. He says that in the street I had been the
most articulate hustler out there But now,
trying to write simple English, I not only wasnt
articulate, I wasnt even functional. His ability to
read books was severely hampered. Every book I
picked up had few sentences which didnt
contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the
words that might have been in Chinese. He
skipped the words he didnt know and so had
little idea of what the books said.
He got himself a dictionary and began
painstakingly copying every entry. It took him a
day to do the first page. He would copy it all out
and then read back aloud what he had written.
He began to remember the words and what they
meant. He was fascinated with the knowledge
that he was gaining. He finished the As and went
on to the Bs. Over a period of time he finished
copying out the whole dictionary. Malcolm
regarded the dictionary as a miniature
encyclopedia. He learned about people and
animals, about places and history, philosophy and
science.
As his word base broadened, he found that he
could pick up a book and now begin to
understand what the book was saying. He says
that from then until I left that prison, in every
free moment I had, if I was not reading in the
library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldnt
have gotten me out of a book with a wedge.
He preferred to read in his cell but one of the
problems he had was that at 10 oclock each
night when lights out was called he found that it
always seemed to coincide with him in the middle
of something engrossing. Fortunately, there was a
light on the landing outside his particular cell and
once his eyes got accustomed to the glow, he
was able to sit on the floor by the cell door and
continue his reading. He found that the guards
would come around once every hour so that
when he heard their footsteps approaching, he
would rush back to his bunk until they had gone
past and pretend to be asleep. As soon as they
had gone, he would be back by the door reading.
This would continue until three or four every
morning. He says that three or four hours of
sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the
years in the streets I had slept less than that.
Malcolm read and read and read. He devoured
books on history and was astounded at the
knowledge he obtained about the history of black
civilizations throughout the world. He read books
by Gandhi on the struggle in India, he read about
African colonization and Chinas Opium Wars. He
found within the librarys collection some bound
pamphlets of the Abolitionist Anti-Slavery Society
and was able to read for himself descriptions of
atrocities committed against the slaves and of the
degradations suffered by his forbears. I never will
forget how shocked I was when I began reading
about slaverys total horror Book after book
showed me how the white man had brought
upon the worlds black, brown, red and yellow
peoples every variety of the sufferings of
exploitation. His reading was not limited to
history, however. He read about genetics and
philosophy. He read about religion.
He relates that ten guards and the warden
couldnt have torn me out of those books I
have often reflected upon the new vistas that
reading opened to me. I knew right there in
prison that reading had changed forever the
course of my life.
Conclusion
Malcolm went on to become a major figure in the
fight against racism in the United States. He
became a dynamic spokesman for the Black
Muslims. He was feared by many, he was
respected by many.
He never stopped wanting to learn. Just before
his death in 1965, he maintained that one of the
things he most regretted in his life was his lack of
an academic education. He stated that he would
be quite willing to go back to school and continue
where he had left off and go on to take a degree.
I would just like to study. I mean ranging study,
because I have a wide-open mind. Im interested
in almost any subject you can mention.
When he left the Black Muslims and formed his
own organization, one of the roles he performed
was that of a teacher. He ran a regular class for
young people where he told them We have got
to get over the brainwashing we had get out of
your mind what the man put in it Read
everything. You never know where youre going
to get an idea. We have to learn how to think
Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925. His father was
a Baptist minister and a strong devotee of the
Black leader Marcus Garvey. Garveys message, as
many readers will be familiar, was that Black
people in America would never be able to live in
peace and harmony with white Americans and
their only hope of salvation was to move as a
people back to their roots in Africa. Malcolms
father died when he was six and his mother was
put in a mental home when he was about twelve.
As a result, his many brothers and sisters were
split up and put into different foster homes.
Malcolm left school early and eventually drifted
North and finally settled in Harlem, New York, on
his own, at the age of 17.
In Harlem, he soon slipped into a life of crime. He
became involved in hustling, in prostitution, in
drug dealing. He became a cocaine addict and a
burglar. Finally, at the ripe old age of 19, he was
arrested and sentenced to 10 years
imprisonment.
It was while he was in prison that his whole life
changed. He first learned of the existence of the
Honourable Elijah Mohammed and of the
movement known as the Black Muslims from his
brothers and sisters outside the prison. They had
become converts to the movement and asked
Malcolm to write to Elijah Mohammed. In Chapter
11 of his autobiography, Malcolm writes that at
least twenty-five times I must have written that
first one-page letter to him, over and over. I was
trying to make it both legible and
understandable. I practically couldnt read my
handwriting myself; it shames me even to
remember it. My spelling and my grammar were
as bad, if not worse. This chapter in his
autobiography is extremely moving as it
documents a mans desperate pursuit of an
education.
Homemade education
Malcolm became a letter writer and as a result he
says that he stumbled upon starting to acquire
some kind of homemade education. He became
extremely frustrated at not being able to express
what he wanted to convey in letters that he
wrote. He says that in the street I had been the
most articulate hustler out there But now,
trying to write simple English, I not only wasnt
articulate, I wasnt even functional. His ability to
read books was severely hampered. Every book I
picked up had few sentences which didnt
contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the
words that might have been in Chinese. He
skipped the words he didnt know and so had
little idea of what the books said.
He got himself a dictionary and began
painstakingly copying every entry. It took him a
day to do the first page. He would copy it all out
and then read back aloud what he had written.
He began to remember the words and what they
meant. He was fascinated with the knowledge
that he was gaining. He finished the As and went
on to the Bs. Over a period of time he finished
copying out the whole dictionary. Malcolm
regarded the dictionary as a miniature
encyclopedia. He learned about people and
animals, about places and history, philosophy and
science.
As his word base broadened, he found that he
could pick up a book and now begin to
understand what the book was saying. He says
that from then until I left that prison, in every
free moment I had, if I was not reading in the
library, I was reading in my bunk. You couldnt
have gotten me out of a book with a wedge.
He preferred to read in his cell but one of the
problems he had was that at 10 oclock each
night when lights out was called he found that it
always seemed to coincide with him in the middle
of something engrossing. Fortunately, there was a
light on the landing outside his particular cell and
once his eyes got accustomed to the glow, he
was able to sit on the floor by the cell door and
continue his reading. He found that the guards
would come around once every hour so that
when he heard their footsteps approaching, he
would rush back to his bunk until they had gone
past and pretend to be asleep. As soon as they
had gone, he would be back by the door reading.
This would continue until three or four every
morning. He says that three or four hours of
sleep a night was enough for me. Often in the
years in the streets I had slept less than that.
Malcolm read and read and read. He devoured
books on history and was astounded at the
knowledge he obtained about the history of black
civilizations throughout the world. He read books
by Gandhi on the struggle in India, he read about
African colonization and Chinas Opium Wars. He
found within the librarys collection some bound
pamphlets of the Abolitionist Anti-Slavery Society
and was able to read for himself descriptions of
atrocities committed against the slaves and of the
degradations suffered by his forbears. I never will
forget how shocked I was when I began reading
about slaverys total horror Book after book
showed me how the white man had brought
upon the worlds black, brown, red and yellow
peoples every variety of the sufferings of
exploitation. His reading was not limited to
history, however. He read about genetics and
philosophy. He read about religion.
He relates that ten guards and the warden
couldnt have torn me out of those books I
have often reflected upon the new vistas that
reading opened to me. I knew right there in
prison that reading had changed forever the
course of my life.
Conclusion
Malcolm went on to become a major figure in the
fight against racism in the United States. He
became a dynamic spokesman for the Black
Muslims. He was feared by many, he was
respected by many.
He never stopped wanting to learn. Just before
his death in 1965, he maintained that one of the
things he most regretted in his life was his lack of
an academic education. He stated that he would
be quite willing to go back to school and continue
where he had left off and go on to take a degree.
I would just like to study. I mean ranging study,
because I have a wide-open mind. Im interested
in almost any subject you can mention.
When he left the Black Muslims and formed his
own organization, one of the roles he performed
was that of a teacher. He ran a regular class for
young people where he told them We have got
to get over the brainwashing we had get out of
your mind what the man put in it Read
everything. You never know where youre going
to get an idea. We have to learn how to think
