3 life-changing lessons that I’ve learned by reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X is one of the most popular figures of the 20th century. His legacy for the fight against racism — not only in the US but in the whole world- is huge. His famous speeches such as ‘The bullet or the ballot’ are still quoted nowadays and his autobiography was considered by ​ Time​ as one of ten “required reading” nonfiction books.

I first heard of it from one of my favorite writers named Ryan Holiday and I cannot put into words the impact that this book has brought to my life and the lessons that I have learned from it. Here are three of them:

1. Do not underestimate the power of reading

As a young adult Malcolm X was a hustler in the streets of Harlem. He later became a burglar in Boston that was addicted to drugs. Dope for him was like coffee in the morning, but when he was barely twenty-one years old he was finally arrested. He would spend 10 years in prison. It was plenty of time to learn more skills as a criminal, however, Malcolm chose to change. He started reading books, even though he had not read a book since he dropped out of school, he forced himself to read the dictionary and improve his vocabulary. He started educating himself about politics, racism, religion and he eventually became a Muslim. His eagerness to learn only increased during this time. He started to attend debates in the prison, which was when he got experienced in public speaking, as he said the prison was his college and he valued so much reading that he later stated that “From then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading in my bunk.”

2. You can always change your mind

Malcolm X in his early years served as a spokesman of the Nation of Islam. He used to have some unpopular and radical views, he used to regard the white man as the ‘devil’. After his peregrination to Mecca, he experienced the overwhelming number of different ethnicities in Islamism, including white people. There, he felt part of a bigger thing. It was the feeling that the Greeks would call ‘simpathae’. Later he said “I believe in recognizing every​ human being as a human being-neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there’s no question of integration or intermarriage. It’s just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being”. He experienced a transformation during his years in prison. During​ his trip to Mecca, he was always a student and was humble enough to learn from other people.

3. Always look for justice and for the right action

As one of the most important men in The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X started seeing some wrongdoings, especially by the leader of NOI named Elijah Muhamed. He was regarded as a prophet and for whom Malcolm was extremely grateful. There were rumors that Elijah Muhamed had eight children with different sisters from the Nation of Islam who had been banned from the organization. Malcolm X eventually confirmed some of these stories and confronted the leader who gave him some religious explanations. After a while, Malcolm X was banned from the NOI and started advocating against its leader. Later, he started to be chased by this organization in addition to the US government and other radical groups. Nevertheless, he was always searching for justice for his people. Even though it often meant having unpopular opinions and risking his life which ended up happening on February 21, 1965, when he was murdered during a speech.