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Malcolm X Essay

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Submitted By mayes1212
Words 445
Pages 2
Zachary Mayes
English 1321

What literacy is, what it meant to them, and how they became literate?
Literacy is the ability to read and write. The inability to read and write is called illiteracy. There wasn’t a successful place for illiterate people in the past, there still isn’t in the present and I don’t believe it will be later on in the future. Almost everything anyone does requires them to read or write. It is said that the illiterate don’t play an important part in society. The great Malcolm X stated “I use literacy as my biggest weapon”. If anyone has heard Malcolm X speak, they could definitely tell he was an intelligent and educated man. Being an educated man with influence over many people was a very big threat to the community controlled by white folks. Malcolm Smith dropped out of school after the 8th grade and started his life down the crime road. He was 20 years old when he got caught stealing and was sent to prison. In jail he met an inmate named Bimbi who encouraged him to read as much as he could and take classes offered through the prison. After prison, he continued to read books on religion, history, and philosophy. When Malcolm joined the nation of Islam, he changed his name to Malcolm X and told the brothers to get an education because, “Education is the passport to the future”.
Malcolm was not a man who believed that the problem of the African Americans would be solved through a peaceful, quiet means and nuances, he believes the problem has graduated through the centuries and has come to stage when the assertion of African Americans’ existence as humans has to be forcefully done or never. His methods were mainly campaigns and speeches aimed at restoring the dignity of the black man, his confidence in himself and a complete freedom as Americans. Malcolm X had a very big impact on society, and it started by taking courses in prison where people thought he was irreverent. His speeches and sayings were very influential on a black society that had no voice. Malcolm X was the black people’s voice.
The importance of literacy /education in our community? Literacy is the recipe to amount to any success. Literacy and education go hand and hand in today’s society. Education is mandatory in today’s society anyway. We must learn how to read and write at a young age so it will be second nature. There are very few illiterate successful people, if any at all. If there are any successful people that cannot read and write, most likely their success was handed to them.

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