In the essays Learning to Read and Write and Coming to the Awareness of Language Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, respectively, write about the trials and tribulations they faced while attempting to educate themselves and con

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The Quest for Freedom through Literacy

In the essays “Learning to Read and Write” and “Coming to the Awareness of

Language” Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, respectively, write about the trials and tribulations they faced while attempting to educate themselves and conquer their illiteracy.  While Douglass, although physically free, became increasingly and agonizingly aware of his own imprisonment through slavery, Malcolm X’s mind transcended the bars that imprisoned his body.  For both Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X, learning to read and write was a radical act of self-consciousness.

     Malcolm X began his quest to learn to read and write in order to develop communication skills that were preferable to “street” level. He wanted to converse and correspond in a way that he felt would command positive attention and respect. While he hungered for proficiency of both written expression and verbal articulation, it is not commonly known that before he became a resident of Norfolk Prison Colony, Malcolm X was a very promising student.  An article in the Western Journal of Black Studies, Najee E. Muhammad noted:

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At Mason Junior High School, where he was the only student of African descent, he [then known as Malcolm Little] was ranked third in his class academically and elected president of his seventh grade class.  When he expressed an interest in becoming a lawyer, his seventh grade teacher suggested that he become a carpenter instead stating: A lawyer that’s no realistic goal for a nigger. (Muhammad 240)

Frederick Douglass, on the other hand, set out on a similar quest as a means to discover the knowledge and education that he was denied as a slave. He longed to put into ...

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