While in Norfolk Prison he checked out a dictionary, tablets and pencils from the Norfolk Prison Colony School. After months of crash course memorizations of the dictionary, books start to reveal stories, meanings, and to teach history. As his new found knowledge increased from reading every book he could get his hands on, so did his disgust for the whitened world in which he lived. His education started with the teachings of Mr. Muhammad who stressed “how history had been whitened” meaning when the history books were written by white men, the black man was simply left out. This bothered Malcolm and because of this he hunted down any book in that library that had any information at all about black history. Books like The Wonders of the World and Negro History taught him about black empires before black slavery and the early Negro’s struggle for freedom. He also came across some bound pamphlets of the Abolitionism…
Malcolm X spent time in the Charlestown prison during the Civil Rights movement. While confined, a fellow prison mate named Bimbi displayed a certain presence that Malcolm tried to imitate. Bimbi showed dominance when talking to others that Malcolm often grudged. As a result, Malcolm obtained a dictionary so that he can learn a few words.…
In this week's reading, Literacy Behind Bars by Malcolm X express the significance of reading and building vocabulary. The passage goes on to state that Malcolm X was not able to read and had only finished his educational path as early as eighth grade and oddly enough it wasn't until he was in Norfolk Prison Colony where he had began to teach himself to read. Malcolm was able to do this by copying the words from a dictionary on his paper, where he would then begin to recite them and think of their meanings until he was able to remember what he had practice. Sooner than later Malcolm X was reading, he fell so in loving with reading to where he was reading up to fifteen hours out of the day. By reading he was able to learn multiple different…
In "A Homemade Education", Malcolm X admits his frustration about his inability to express himself the way he'd like to. It can be said that Malcolm X was discouraged as he mentioned that he "wasn’t even functional" (Malcolm X 134) and though he did feel this way he turned the negative feelings into something to strive for. In the Charlestown prison Malcolm X was in there was another inmate named Bimbi who he envied because of his ability to use words and his knowledge. Malcolm X's envy of Bimbi drove and inspired him to seek and ultimately further his own education in a sense in deciding to read and copy out of the dictionary. Malcolm X gained a hunger for the knowledge he was obtaining as exemplified in the following quotation: " I could for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying... in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk... In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life." (Malcolm X 135). Malcolm X used his time as way to learn everything he possibly could so that he wouldn’t have to be envious of the knowledge someone else possessed. In Maya Angelou's "Graduation", Angelou also showed her discouragement by the words of Edward Donleavy at her graduation who told the congregation of how many more opportunities whites had over blacks. Angelou's graduation was an occasion that had so many excited because they had worked so hard to accomplish the feat of gaining an education and they were also excited for what their future had in store for them; however, many of them including Angelou felt in the moment that those hopes and…
The injustice of racism and its evident role in some of Americas most prominent political and social aspects have perpetuated rigorous and squalor lifestyles for those of non-Caucasian ancestry. Jacqueline Moore clearly states evidence how white people have such a long history of being the dominant group and why it is so hard for blacks to assimilate. In the book the writer simply told us a story of 2 men’s journeys for racial uplift and wanted us to decide the theme for ourselves, telling both sides of the story in order to let us choose which of them we might agree with more. The author did a good job letting us know Washington and Du Bois’s goals. The style of the novel is interconnected with its themes. In the novel, not only does Moore convey the ideas and concepts of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B Dubois, but Moore also illustrates the theories of which consists of gradualism and immediacy.…
The PBS video, “Malcolm and the Civil Rights Movement” is important in showing the varying views of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The video makes it well evident that both men were striving for the same end result, which was “defeating white racism and empowering African Americans. However, as the video explains, while both men had the same destination in mind, they both sought different journeys to get there.…
In Learning to Read, Malcolm X, one of the most articulate and powerful leaders of black America during the 1960s, describes his struggle of self-education while being incarcerated. Malcolm X composed his journey of self-in order to convey the message that the reader should strive to look for more than what is taught to them by the public school system, to, in a way, look outside the box.…
Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X were remarkably resourceful and self-reliant during their journey towards literacy. They were diligent in that they used whatever time they had to learn more. Slaveholders deliberately withheld education from slaves as a means of suppression, “for it is an almost unpardonable offence to teach slaves to read…”(Douglass 146). His mistress was unaware of this practice, teaching him the alphabet before her husband could stop the lessons. After this he then would bribe or trick local white boys to teach him more or used shipyard timber and stolen copy-books. Malcolm X was also resourceful. He entered jail with an eighth grade education, but after copying the entire dictionary by hand, and studying it “like a miniature encyclopedia” (X 283), he was able to “...pick up a book...and now begin to understand what the book was saying” (X 283). These remarkably self-motivated men learned to read and write almost entirely independently.…
Malcolm became obsessed with learning. Because of his new-found love of reading, Malcolm quickly digested the entire prison library. Malcolm read about China and Shakespeare, but when he came across authors such as W.E.B Dubois and Carter G. Woodson, who embodied the black life prior to slavery, Malcolm truly understood that the white man was to blame, for all of his people's hardships. Malcolm's readings fueled his teachings as he became a minister of Muhammad. Had Malcolm not been Fueled to achieve the SMMI, he would not of come across authors such as W.E.B Dubois and Carter G. Woodson. Malcolm would have never been able to achieve his mission because have never became aware of…
Malcolm X is an African American who dropped out of school and had little education,yet, he changed his life. He grew up as a hustler with a lack of reading and writing skills, he quotes “I picked up a book had a few sentences…I just skipped those words. Of course, I had no idea of what the book actually said.” (123) He had little capability of reading and understanding the book. He went to jail for burglary and that is where he changed his life. He practiced reading and writing by himself and became an ace speaker and writer once he got released from prison. He…
a) The usage of persuasion and reason would have had no effect towards the fight of ending segregation. As seen in Fredrick Douglas’ My Bondage and My Freedom, slaves would have been punished if they spoke against their owners. Moreover, back then it was unlikely that slaves knew how to speak for themselves and therefore had to use violence to stand up for themselves. Essentially, persuasion is only useful when in power, but is not when one is born into slavery.…
Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. were the superstars, so to speak of the Civil Rights Movement. By far they are the most famous individual to be involved with the Civil Rights Movement. When you look at history books are magazine articles they are still mentioned even today in time. Even though they both died in the 60’s , their legacy still lives on, to live in a world free of segregation, but they each had different ways of getting what they want. Some ways of getting what they wasn’t led to bad memories that people rather not speak about.…
Nonetheless, he ends up at a similar conclusion: Knowledge will give him the ability to assume control of a situation and to influence others with his words—not only spoken, but written as well. It is a fellow prison inmate, Bimbi, who first inspires Malcolm X. “It had really begun . . . when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge,” Malcolm X expresses. “Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversations he was in . . .” (1). Through Bimbi, by failing to imitate what the inmate did, Malcolm X finds his motivation to become literate. “As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally…
In reading the essay to Malcolm X “My Prison Studies”, Malcolm X has gained a lot of his knowledge in prison through reading the dictionary, and as he began to write out the whole dictionary, and learn more by studying each word, his writing speed began to become better and better, along with his understandings for each word. Bimbi, whom was another inmate in prison, encouraged Malcolm X and gave him a lot of motivation to gain more knowledge and wisdom. Malcolm X copied down each and every word in the dictionary on a writing tablet. Malcolm X also studied and learned of people, places, and events that went on in history. After so many years of learning, Malcolm X was able to pick up a book and read it, being able to understand all the words, which made it easier for him to understand the story whole. In the Norfolk Prison, they have a library that contains shelves filled up with books that has just about every general subject, so Malcolm X spent most of his time reading, writing, and learning of many different subjects.…
When Tatum begins her assessment of racism, she uses her experience as a teacher to show how there is an obvious naïveté concerning the existence of racism among her White students. She quotes a conversation between two White students, one of whom had just discovered that Cleopatra was a black woman. In this conversation, one of the states her shock at this revelation and how there is no way that it could be true because – “Cleopatra was beautiful!” (Tatum, 1997). In recapping the thoughts of another one of her students concerning African-American or Black authors, this student wrote: “It’s not my fault Blacks don’t write books” (Tatum, 1997). In reading these statements I became even more aware to the extent in which the culture of Blacks has been distorted or erased from history. Was it impossible for Cleopatra to be Black and beautiful? When did the writings of James Baldwin or Zora Neale Hurston equate to Blacks not writing books?” It is this ignorance that angers and saddens me in deepest of places in my heart, because for many people my heritage…