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Malcolm x biography high school essay
Brief biography of malcolm x
Malcolm x historiography
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Malcolm X was alive during the Civil Rights Movement, which was a period between the 1950’s and 1960’s. It was a time period where black people fought for political and social equality against white people. During this time, Malcolm X had come into trouble with the law multiple times, resulting in imprisonment. Malcolm X didn’t have any way to pass the time, so he decided to write letters. These letters contained information focusing on his opinion about whether black people were being treated equally. His passion on the subject was the driving force for his motivation to write them, “Everything, I’ve ever felt strongly about, I’ve done something about it.” (X 67). Thinking that by writing and sending out his letters he could get his point …show more content…
Leading to his decision to share his personal story with everyone, but he specifically wrote his story in first person instead of third person. The first person writing style in books is when a person uses the pronouns “I” to refer to themselves. While the third person writing style, the most common style is using the pronouns “she” or “he”, this is used to refer to a person, place, thing or idea. The difference between the two is that first person gives the reader a front row seat to a more personal experience, making it feel as if they were that person. While third person is like watching a show on television, that isn’t necessarily a selective point of view but a neutral …show more content…
Not only in self-teaching himself to understand a different more educated language, but to further open is mind. Through spending long hours copying and studying the words in his dictionary, “…everything I’d written on the tablet. Over and over, aloud, to myself, I read my own handwriting” (X 68). He improved both in his understanding and penmanship, which he described as a fascinating experience, “I was so fascinated that I went on – I copied the dictionary’s next page.” (X 69). This motivated him to continue studying, resulting in him being able to finally understand the books he was reading, “…for the first time pick up a book and read and now begin to understand what the book was saying” (X
Malcolm X was a man who was best known for his leadership positions in various human rights activist groups and his advocating for Pan-Africanism. What most people don’t know about him was how he got there; his struggles on learning how to read and write are described to us in the excerpt from “Literacy behind bars”. Malcom X speaks about his time at Charlestown Prison and how an inmate, Bimbi, was the one who really fueled his desire to better himself through the pursuit of education. From an early time in his imprisonment he picked up a dictionary and word by word began to transcribe it onto his on pads from the commissary. Through his perseverance in learning new words his whole world was opened up as he began reading and, most importantly, fully understanding what he was reading about. Once he gained the knowledge to see the world around him in a different way his newfound love for literature paved the way to one of the most memorable black activist in American History.
Malcolm X’s writing changes throughout the beginning chapters. The structure, style, and content change as Malcolm grows, also demonstrating his purpose with his writing. From chapters 1-4 he’s growing up as a child, the writing is formal and shows his struggles early on. From chapters 5-9, he adapts to New York society, and becomes a hustler after quitting his menial job as a shoe shiner and his writing is easily reflecting his usage of narcotics and slang.From chapters 10-11 Malcolm is taken into prison, slowly transforming his life and beliefs which begins to change himself and his writing. The style, structure, and content of Malcolm’s writing complement each other which helps bring the beauty out of the text. Malcolm utilizes his writing to express racial tensions, racial identity, and systemic oppression throughout the book.
The reading on Malcolm X had lots of points that hit everyday society in America for African Americans. Malcolm X was like any other man hustling on the streets to get by, like a lot you see in today society with the drug dealers and such. Starting off Malcolm X was not an intelligent man; he didn’t know how to write without a little slang to his words, he didn’t know how to articulate what he wanted to be said. Malcolm X was convicted of robbery and was sent to Charleston Prison, but was later sent off to the Norfolk Prison Colony School, this is where he gave himself the educated needed to be a well productive citizen. Malcolm X stated, “I saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary-to study, to learn some new words (p.211). “I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages.” “Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.” Here Malcolm X is seeing his time being served in prisons to not only be a lessoned learned but to learn something that he knew he would never learn...
Of the people whose names are mentioned in history, some men like Thomas Edison are praised for their genius minds, while others such as Adolf Hitler are criticized for leaving a depressing legacy behind. While it is relative easy to notice the type of legacies these two men left, legacies of other men are often vague and they seem to be imbedded in gray shadows. This is how many people view the life of Malcolm X. Malcolm X during his lifetime had influenced many African Americans to step up for their rights against the injustices by the American government. One on hand, he has been criticized for his hard stances that resemble extremism, while on the other hand he has been praised him for his effort in raising the status for African Americans. The extremes in viewing his life from the modern day perspective have often come from reading his climatic speech The Ballot or the Bullet that he gave in many cities across America in 1964. When he was with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X favored Blacks to be separated from the Whites, and during this time he strongly opposed White Supremacy. This also seems quite prevalent in his speech The Ballot or the Bullet. However, one events during the last year of his life reveal that he wanted the Blacks and the Whites to coexist as peaceful Americans.
The chapter seventeen, of the autobiography of Malcolm X, is about Malcolm X’s experiences during his visit to Mecca to perform hajj He was a Muslim minister, a leader in Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam. In the beginning of this chapter, Malcolm X starts off by telling the readers that all Muslims must attempt the pilgrimage, or hajj, to Mecca at least once, "if humanly able".
Although he was the top of his class, and class president, Malcolm X’s teacher unfortunately still had a very clear message for him – you won’t ever be what you dream of. Malcolm wanted to become a lawyer, but his teacher had a message for him: “A lawyer – [is] no realistic goal for a nigger” (X, Malcolm 43). This is a clear attack on African Americans and what whites still believed was their role in the United States – to serve as lower class citizens. Malcolm X, however, still became a successful leader later in his life up until his death, despite the condescending message of his
He wanted to be able to properly write his thoughts and opinions out to be understood. He wanted to leave an impression on people to give them a thought of him exceeding his education far beyond the eighth grade. That impression was credited to his “prison studies” (Malcolm X 1). He had a voice that needed to be heard all over to bring a change to society. He self educated himself day and night with the dictionary, teachings ,and books. Malcolm X considered that “three or four hours of sleep a night” was enough (Malcolm X 3). Malcolm X became interested in the “glorious history of the black man” (Malcolm X 3). “Book after book” showed him the “white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown,red,and yellow peoples every variety of the suffering of exploitation” (Malcolm X 4). Like Douglass, Malcolm found the “Faustian machinations” of the “white man” against the “non-white victims” (Malcolm X). Douglass states, “I feared they might be treacherous.” Unlike Douglass being social and receiving help from others around , Malcolm was to himself and seeked information on his own through books. Malcolm X had more pride in his education and wasn 't afraid to share his knowledge, “Mr. Muhammed, to whom I was writing daily, had no idea of what a new world had opened up to me through my efforts to document his teachings in books” (Malcolm X 6). Malcolm X had some basic education knowledge
As Malcolm X began to write more letters to a wide variety of people he became frustrated with the fact that he could not communicate with them as he wanted to. "It was because of these letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of homemade education." He hated it because he had been the most articulate hustler on the streets of Harlem, and could get anyone's attention with his words. He was admired for the eloquent words he spoke and was not used to being ignored. For now even the simplest English was hard for him to write.
he had grown frustrated with the non-violent, integrated struggle for civil rights and worried that blacks would ultimately lose control of their own movement. The reason Malcolm X was so beloved and iconic was due to him being a key figure in the black movement about the same time as Martin Luther King jr.. The era of the 1950-1960, advocating black pride, a separate black community and violence disguised as self defense. He stood against white aggression. Changing the last name of his to an x to demonstrate how he denies what he said to be a “slave” name. Charismatic and eloquent. His death in 1965 is what sparked and later laid the firm foundation for the Black Power movements in the late 1960s and 1970s. Opposite to popular belief, this man had done more harm than good in using violence against the white “devil”. It only proved those that though African Americans were only violent animals right. Even Martin Luther King Jr didn't like what how Malcolm X was going about gaining their civil rights , even going as far as saying he hated the use of the words “black power” because. Ultimately Malcolm didn't make any type of immensely big impact on the civil rights movement in a good way or help them stop the spread of racism and
“I’m for the truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole” (X). This quote by Malcolm X represented his attitude towards equality and self-empowerment. The true Malcolm X was a passionate human rights activist as well as an extremely outspoken man during the fifties and sixties. X encouraged millions of African Americans to fight for what they believed in and to take pride in their ethnicity. X persuaded a multitude of African Americans that they are supreme and should not be degraded for their skin color. He learned at a very early age if he wanted something in life, he had to make some noise
...ica. Anna Hartwell states, “Christianity occupies a central place in Malcolm’s account of white supremacy, in both its global and domestic incarnations” (Hartwell). She also states, “Against this Christian tainted legacy, Malcolm X counterpoises Islam as “the true religion of the black man”. Islamic universalism proffered for him an alternative to U.S. citizenship, which had constantly failed to live up to its promises for African Americans” (Hartwell). Malcolm X had an understandable dislike of the system of white supremacy because it is a system that thrives from people being on the bottom who have higher percentages of taxes taken out paychecks even though they make far less than everyone else. The thing about white supremacy is that it affects in a negative way poor people of all colors, but black people suffer the most for obvious reasons. This was the message
The history of the United States has in it much separation or segregation due to race. For a long time our country has seen racism as a large problem and this has caused ethnic groups to be looked down upon and forced into a lifestyle of difficulties and suppression. Due to this, races, particularly African-Americans, have been forced to deal with unequal opportunity and poverty, leading to less honorable ways of getting by and also organizations that support change. Malcolm X is one strong example of an African American man who became apart of a group acted against it, uniting people to promote the advancement of colored people and change. Malcolm's thoughts towards race and civil right in the previous years were displayed in a less way to the people and "by any means necessary" perspective. After his pilgrimage in 1964 his view of civil rights had quickly changed into a more complete view of civil rights, and the peoples views towards him. No one really knows what kind of impact Malcolm X would have had on history if he had not been assassinated. His beliefs and philosophy did gain him a place in history as one of the best-known Black Nationalist Leaders. Everyone seems to have known who Malcolm X was, and he ranks high with all other Black leaders. His ideas were radical and he was very out spoken. He was a major force in the development of black history. He fought not only for his people but also for all oppressed people everywhere. He was well spoken and he laid the groundwork for the black power movement of the late l960's.
Malcolm X wanted to properly educate his people with the wisdom and knowledge that wasn’t being taught to African Americans as they have been misguided all these years. He stressed the importance of unity in the black community and coming together as one because in all actuality they are all fighting the same war. This speech did a good job empowering. In the end, the goal of Malcolm X’s speech was to reveal the necessity of Black Nationalism and building a black community that stands up to white manipulation, in addition to the urgency for black people becoming politically intelligent, so that they can make wise choices about officials and only choose people who will help the black community. This speech had a dramatic effect on society because it pertained substance. It spoke of the racial injustice and was coming out the mouth of someone that endured their pain and struggle, also relentless and a truth-teller but most importantly black. Nonetheless, “The Ballot or the Bullet” gave African Americans a voice in which they
In Learning to Read, by Malcolm X, he talks about his studies while in prison. Having only up to an eighth grade education, Malcolm X struggles with reading and writing. The main reason he decided to learn how to read was because of the letters he received while in prison, primarily from Elijah Muhammad. (X 354). He wasn’t able to write responses to them like he wanted to without using slang. Along with not being able to write letters, Malcolm X couldn’t read books without skipping over most of the words, thus motivating him to study an entire dictionary. With the use of said dictionary, he also improved his penmanship by writing down every word, definition, and punctuation he saw. (X 355). Once he memorized the whole dictionary, he was then able to read books. There wasn’t a moment where Malcolm wasn’t reading even at night when the lights were out, he still managed to use the little bit of light shining into his cell to read.
instead of just sitting there waiting for his time to be up, he was motivated to educate himself with the many resources that he had. Malcolm was so determined to teach himself he would start by reading the dictionary and write all the words on the page word for word, then memorize what he wrote until he knew all of them that he wrote down. Malcolm would push himself until, “Finally the dictionary’s A section had filled a whole table-and I went on into the B’s. That was the way I started copying what eventually became the entire dictionary.” (Learning to Read) Malcolm X speaks about how it feels to be able to read and understand it, “Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened” (Learning to Read). Being able to fully understand the world you live in after learning to read most amazing, being able to make the connections between is empowering. Malcolm learned a lot from the teachings from Mr. Muhammad, on topic being how history has been “whitened”, how the white people have been