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Malcolm X Self Education

The excerpt is from the autobiography of Malcolm X, in which he is describing about his self-

education and his motive behind the learning, how he befriended books and fell in love with

reading. Malcolm X was born in 1925 and was one of the most influential and coherent leader of

black Americans. He had been imprisoned for 7 years after been found guilty of a robbery and

there he became a follower of Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm says that, there he started learning

and became familiar with millions of the words he never knew ever existed. Malcolm was slayed

in 1965 after he became an orthodox Muslim and changed his name to Ell Hajj Malik Al

Shehbaz.

At first Malcolm articulate that he was very eager to communicate with Elijah Muhammad but

he couldn’t find the proper words to communicate with him, he render himself as a very coherent

hustler deriving and gaining the attention of others but he didn’t find himself enough even for

writing a single letter to his mentor, and from here the journey of learning began. He indicated

that, after becoming a leader if someone gets to notice his vocabulary and articulation, it is just

because of his prison self-learning.

Malcolm’s first motivation was Bimbi in Charlestown Prison, he used to feel jealous of his

immense knowledge and when Malcolm tries to read a book, he couldn’t grasp the full meaning

of the manuscript, which made him agitated. Thus after moving to Norfolk Prison he properly

started learning. He also started working on his penmanship as he couldn’t even write properly.

He started his learning from the dictionary, which according to him was a great idea; he found

the dictionary as a mini encyclopedia and full of knowledge. He requested some pencils and
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tablet from the prison colony school, and started learning by copying the first page in his

illegible writing and later on he read it loud. So he does that with the A section and then to the B.

excited by his discovery of million words, he kept on learning and finally started to understand

the books.

Next Malcolm discusses that his world was completely changed, in fact he says that a whole new

world was then opened to him, according to him, books were his freedom. Apart from his chores

and work in prison, he tends to read in his free time, if not in the library than on his bunk. Books

never left his hands and time flew like he never knew it existed. He use to read in the prison

school library where there were many books of different subjects, yet he was very interested in

the books being placed in the back of library in sealed crates willed to prison but not been

opened yet. If a prisoner is significantly interested in books and learning this is definitely an out

of the blue situation in prison where there is only important thing is rehabilitation. He was crazy

for books and reading, he says it was like a death sentence to him when there is call of “lights

out” at night. And it mostly happens when he used to at peak of something important and

curious. Fortunately the corridor light outside his room was his biggest luck, when guards tend to

pass he jump in to fake sleep and then read book in the light the whole night.

Malcolm’s main discussion was about all the evils and atrocities he read and witnessed about the

blacks. He became a black leader as he was so much concerned about the cast out of the blacks,

and how they have been deprived of all the societal rights. How they have been slaved and been

looked down upon. His mentor’s writings and teachings were about the blacks and their rights

been “whitened”, how history has been altered; and the blood of the black on the hands of white.

He said that he was specifically interested in this topic than the rest of them; as he wanted to do

something for his brethren. He read about all the atrocities the white men have brought upon the
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other ethnicities in lust of power. He emphasizes that this was the biggest change in his life

which he already comprehended during his prison life, he says he has been introduced to a

complete new world after he got himself educated on his own. He concluded it by saying that he

wasn’t learning to gain a degree or a name, but to his own mental satisfaction and interest which

gave him the ability to listen to the mute, talk to the deaf and envisioned through the blind. He

really was a true articulate leader, who made his own way, through self-motivation.