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• For the better part of the 1900s, black Americans often faced harsh discrimination because of Jim Crow laws, and the violent Ku Klux Klan was source of constant anxiety for black people.

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Malcolm X - The importance of Book reading

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Malcolm X - The importance of Book reading

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• In 1955 Rosa Parks’s decision to refuse letting a white man take her seat on a bus caused a major rise in public expressions of opposition to segregation. Her action sparked bus boycotts and made her known as the Mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Junior, Whitney Young Junior, and John Lewis were other strong supporters of black rights living at the same time as Malcolm X.

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Civil Rights Movement March on Washington

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• Legal action to desegregate schools happened in 1954, although many children still attended segregated schools, and much of the public, especially in the south, didn’t appreciate this development.

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“Learning to Read” is an excerpt from Malcolm X’s autobiography that gives insight into his unexpected educational journey that took place during his years in prison. Having quit school in his teen years, consequently stunting his intellectual growth, Malcolm now had ample time to expand his mind by reading books. He explains how meeting Bimbi, a knowledgeable inmate with a broad vocabulary and a gift for speaking, ignited his desire to become as learned as he. Writing letters to Elijah Muhammad from prison had been difficult because of his struggle to articulate, but Malcolm began studying dictionaries to be able to express himself effectively, and the ability to understand books was also granted to him. After he had learned tons of words and their meanings, consuming the information available to him in the prison library became his passion. Though incarcerated, Malcolm X claimed he’d never felt more free.

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Truths Malcolm X could now see because of his new ability to read changed his life. He found great value in pursuing education for its own sake, and was especially interested in history and philosophy. It was here in prison where the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, profoundly affected Malcolm. In his reading he found abundant evidence of violence against blacks committed by whites, as Muhammad had taught. Eventually, Malcolm X was driven to learn anything and everything he possibly could if he believed it might help uplift black Americans. Celebration for the pursuit of knowledge and the personal satisfaction it can bring is evident in “Learning to Read,” and the reader is easily inspired.

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The intellectual metamorphosis he underwent because of his willingness to learn seems to be the focus of Malcolm X’s “Learning to Read.” Because it’s a section from his larger biography, it contains a few details of his experiences in prison as he applied himself to learning, like a reference to times he’d pretend to be asleep to fool guards when he was in fact up late reading. Malcolm’s writing feels eager, and every paragraph contains information essential for conveying his thought processes at the time he was acquiring his informal education. Additionally, this text also demonstrates Malcolm X’s writing proficiency which, of course, he gained himself.

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Besides recounting his own experience and satisfaction with learning, perhaps Malcolm X intended to provoke academic curiosity in his readers through this section of his autobiography. “Learning to Read” no doubt covers parts of Malcolm X’s social ideology. Although this particular text includes some of his motives for becoming active in the Civil Rights Movement, he merely explains them. Persuading the reader to join his cause or agree with his politics doesn’t seem to be his goal in this section, although it should be noted that Malcolm X was very close to the hurt experienced by black Americans in the fight for equal treatment, and he makes it known in this writing that his life was a battle. His autobiography was published the year he died, and by that time his views on civil rights had evolved from what they were in prison. Nevertheless, his ideas were extremely influential and relevant to people living in his time.

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“Learning to Read” has a dynamic aspect about it, as it’s capable of producing varying thoughts and emotional responses depending on the reader. For example, a black housewife in the 1950s would most likely have thought differently about Malcolm X’s words compared to a white teenager living in the 2020s. What was it like to self-educate in the 1940s versus now? Between both whites and blacks, what were the prevailing ideas about race throughout most of the 1900s, and how have they changed? These are questions readers of today might ask when reading this essay. Using Malcolm X’s educational experience as motivation, readers might see value in seeking answers for such questions, and in delving into America’s bittersweet history.

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nps.gov
whyislam.org
pbs.org
allthatsinteresting.com
aaihs.org
livescience.com

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socialistalternative.org
nps.gov
thoughtco.com
oah.org
whitehousehistory.org
tibbottrichardson.com

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• Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, and his family lived at 3448 Pinkney Street. They moved to Michigan soon after he was born because of threats from the Ku Klux Klan.

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• Malcolm’s father died mysteriously when his sons were young, but it’s suspected he was killed by white supremacists. A few years later Malcolm’s mother was sent to an asylum because of her mental illness.

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• Malcolm had stopped attending school at fifteen years old.

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• When he was roughly twenty years old, Malcolm was sent to prison for larceny. In prison is where he discovered his love for knowledge.

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• While a young man in prison, Malcolm X converted to the brand of Islam taught by Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.

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• After being released from prison, Malcolm, born as Malcolm Little, changed his last name to “X” to symbolize his lost African ancestry and culture.

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• Malcolm X joined the Nation of Islam quickly and was its main spokesman during the 50s and early 60s. He worked closely with Elijah Muhammad himself.

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• Membership in the Nation of Islam grew from hundreds to tens of thousands during the time Malcolm X spent working for the organization.

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• The Nation of Islam’s Temple No. 7 in New York was headed by Malcolm X where he preached sermons weekly. His ideas strengthened the pride of black nationalists during the Civil Rights Movement.

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• There was a time when Malcolm X was arguably racist. During his time with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm believed in racial separatism and saw no place for blacks in a white society, and vice versa. He would have supported violence if he thought it was necessary for empowering black Americans.

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• Both men were iconic in the fight for racial equality, yet Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. had conflicting ideologies. They met only once, but unfortunately there was no possibility for a relationship to grow because the two of them were killed a short time later.

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• Malcolm X eventually left the Nation of Islam, one reason for his departure being the scandalous behavior of Elijah Muhammad. He traveled to Mecca where he converted to Sunni Islam, therefore becoming less radical in his approach to fighting for black liberty. He then completely rejected the Nation of Islam’s ideology and embraced anyone of any race who would stand with him in the fight against racism.

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• In the Audubon Ballroom in New York, as he prepared to give a speech, Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. He was only thirty-nine. Details regarding the motive and possible perpetrators are disputed to this day.

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• The Nation of Islam was a powerful influence over blacks during the Civil Rights Movement, although it was less favored because of its separatist and more radical political views. It grew quickly thanks to Malcolm’s involvement and increasing pride within black communities.

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• After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson took his place and signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. He made many government positions available to black citizens and welcomed them into the White House.

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Learning to read can be read here: http://www.lattc.edu/Lattc/media/lattc_media/PDFs/Learning-to-Read-by-Malcolm-X-PDF.pdf

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15 Books Malcolm X Read In Prison - Radical Reads

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This website contains a list of books Malcolm X read while in prison.

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When Malcolm X went to prison for larceny at the age of 20, he quickly became frustrated at not being able to express what he wanted to in letters, particularly those to Elijah Muhammad. So he began frequenting the Norfolk Prison Colony library, where he started copying the entire dictionary out word for word, down to the punctuation marks. Likening the dictionary to a miniature encyclopedia, he "learned of people and places and events from history" with each page, finding the first references to the philosophies and teachings he would later devour.

He credits this self-education with the scholarly presence he would present later in life, writing in his autobiography, "Many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I've said, will think I went to school far beyond the eighth grade. This impression is due entirely to my prison studies." In the book, he describes reading by the glow of a corridor light at night, feigning sleep every hour when the guards made rounds. He read anything and everything on African history he could find, as well as Oriental philosophy and Asian history, particularly in regards to the rise and fall of white power.

On the influential power of the written word, he said, "I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive...My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America." And when later asked by an English writer, "What's your alma mater?" he simply replied, "Books."

Read on for a list of the life-changing books Malcolm X picked up in prison, and complement with The Books That Inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Abolitionist: or Record of the New-England Anti-slavery Society by Anonymous Collected Works by Mahatma Gandhi (also rec'd by Martin Luther King Jr., Marina Abramovic & Gloria Steinem) Basic Writings by Kant Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 by Fanny Kemble Findings in Genetics by Gregor Mendel (out of print)
"Mr. [Elijah] Muhammad's teaching about how the white man had been created led me to Findings In Genetics by Gregor Mendel. (The dictionary's G section was where I had learned what "genetics" meant.) I really studied this book by the Austrian monk. Reading it over and over, especially certain sections, helped me to understand that if you started with a black man, a white man could be produced; but starting with a white man, you never could produce a black man - because the white chromosome is recessive. And since no one disputes that there was but one Original Man, the conclusion is clear." -MX
Message to the Blackman in America by Elijah Muhammad Basic Writings by Nietzsche Essays by Schopenhauer
( via The Autobiography of Malcolm X & The Atlanta Black Star)

Books by Malcolm X
The Diary of Malcolm X (1964) The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) MalcolmX Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements (1965)

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15 Books Malcolm X Read In Prison - Radical Reads

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When Malcolm X went to prison for larceny at the age of 20, he quickly became frustrated at not being able to express what he wanted to in letters, particularly those to Elijah Muhammad. So he began frequenting the Norfolk Prison Colony library, where he started copying the entire dictionary out word for word, down to the punctuation marks.