Abby Jiminian-2nd blog post

While reading the small section of Malcolm X's autobiography I was fascinated by all the information I was able to pick up. I've always known of Malcom X through the small and brief lessons of civil rights provided by my education system but it was not enough. For example I did not know he dropped out of high school in 8th grade, got into legal trouble and taught himself how to read. The only real knowledge expressed to me as a student was that he was apart of the nation of islam and one of the more radical civil rights advocates. I wish as a student I was given the full story and more. I gained a better appreciation for Malcolm X while reading this part of his autobiography. The fact that he was able to teach himself how to read and write by using a dictionary is amazing. His desire to learn was more powerful than any racist regime America could have. It must have been tremendously hard for X to even obtain proper knowledge as a young black man in America. At the time Jim Crow laws were rampant and De Jure and De Facto racism were strong in America. At this time in America to be a black man was to be of no significance so I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him to learn and be taught.
Personally I think as people we look down on those that have been incarcerated but I think this is a special case. He was a black man in a very racist country. He could have looked at the wrong person and been arrested for that. I find it interesting that with the hand X was dealt he still chose to learn and become a more eloquent and very intelligent person. I'm sure with Malcolm being in jail there was not many luxuries when it came to the books he was provided but he still learned. In fact I remember in the autobiography he says that people would think he had higher education because of how well he spoke but he did not, he taught himself how to read, write and speak well. This made me think of the reading on "Sponsors of literacy" because it wasn't easy for Malcolm to learn. He did not have a lot of sponsors of literacy and that made it harder for him to learn. For him education was not a hand out, it was a luxury he had to fight for and get all on his own.
This reading stuck with me in an impressionable way. In fact, I want to read the full autobiography of Malcolm X. I have always loved history, especially the civil rights movement. The way Malcolm expressed his life in this small section fascinated me. I remembered reading somewhere before we were assigned this that Malcolm X lived in Roxbury at a moment in his life, which is down the street from Northeastern. I went to check and read more about his upbringing and more about his life before he became a civil rights advocate. I personally really enjoyed this reading. It peaked my interest and made me want to read more.