12. From Convict To American Icon

He is remembered as an American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. Malcom X was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925, and spent much of his life fighting for equal rights for African Americans. He was born in a period of high levels of discrimination and racial violence. Malcom was a troubled teen, he spent most of his time gambling, drinking, doing drugs, and committed armed robberies. At the early age of 19 Malcolm commits a house burglary and is imprisoned for ten years. While in prison, Malcolm underwent a great personal change. He was greatly influenced by Bimbi, a fellow inmate. Bimbi, who was a self-educated man, taught Malcolm X on the value of education. He was the first person that Malcolm saw command complete respect through his words. He demonstrates to Malcolm the power of persuasive arguments and motivates him to join the prison debate team. Malcolm transforms himself by reading and converts to the nation of Islam. He mainly reads books in history and philosophy. Some of the books he read were “Story of Civilization” by Will and Ariel Durant, “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Dubois, “The Outline of History” by H.G. Wells, “Sex and Race” by J.A. Rogers, “Findings in Genetics” by Gregor Mendel, and many more. Malcolm devoured book after book. As quoted in his autobiography, “I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened to me. 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. I certainly wasn’t seeking any degree, the way a college confers a status symbol upon its students. 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. Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What’s your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.” You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I’m not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man”.