I know little about Malcolm X, What I know about Malcolm is he was one of most powerful black American leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. and they both were assassinated by black Americans. Therefore, I searched information on internet, I read about Malcolm X in Wikipedia. I have always wondered why his surname was X, from the reading I knew that the Muslim’s X symbolized the true African family name he could never know and for Malcolm, his X replaced the white slave master name of “Little”. Though he was one of the best students in his junior high school, after a white eighth-grade teacher told him his hope of being a lawyer was no realistic goal for a nigger, he dropped out. How powerful a teacher’ saying! I feel heavy responsibility being a teacher; l always should be positive and encouraging.
While the civil rights movement against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of Africans from white people and proposed a separate country for black people. He also rejected nonviolent civil rights movements and instead advocated that black people use any necessary self defense means to protect themselves. He was criticized of being an extremist, preaching violence, racism, black supremacy from his detractors but he was one of the greatest leaders for the rights of African American from his admirers.
Even though he was not illiterate, since he dropped out in junior high school, he had little vocabulary of intelligence. He could read books but could not fully understand its meaning. In prison, he became a member of Nation of Muslim; he wanted to write letters to Elijah Muhammad. He became frustrated at being able to express what he wanted to express in letters. These are the motivation to learn to read for Malcolm X. Desire to express oneself is a powerful motive to learn to read. Since I also disappointed and frustrated at not being able to express myself in English, I can understand his frustration fully.
However, he was in prison, so the only way to learn to read was homemade, actually prisonmade education. The best thing he could do was to get a dictionary to study, to learn words. He began copying the first pages of dictionary, over and over read aloud back to himself everything he’d written. Next morning he thought about those words he never knew and then reviewed the words whose meanings he didn’t remember. Moreover, he could remember many words. By copying dictionary, he also learned of people, places and events from history. Like that, he copied the dictionary from A to Z. How amazing he was! He probably copied millions of words and knew millions words.
With his millions of vocabulary, he picked a book, read and began to understand what the book was saying. It was like the new world open to him. Reading of books made him without even thinking about being imprisoned. I think reading gave him freedom, truly being free in his whole life. In prison, reading had changed forever his life to think about the black Americans. What’s your alma mater? Books. These represent everything about reading to Malcolm X.
Lee says:
Good. Thank you. :)
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