Martin Lurther King and Fredrick Douglas

Being able to read and write will play an important role in your life in America. It is a challenge learning how to read and write when you are not taught in school; especially when you are an African-American in America. In the earlier years, when there was slavery, no African-American was allowed to be taught how to read and write. Slave owners agreed to this because they were afraid of what the slaves might learn. Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland. He watched the cruelty of the white man for himself. Through his trials and tribulations Frederick Douglass taught himself to read. Then he later began writing.
  First, Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. He was imprisoned when he was nineteen years old. There, in prison the library, Malcolm X taught himself to read and write through time and effort. Two African-Americans who were not taught anything became two very intelligent and wise men through the power of books. Both men had taken different journeys, but ended with the same outcome.
When Douglass was about twelve years old, Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia broke the law by teaching him some letters. After being taught the alphabet Frederick Douglass went on to a pathway of higher learning. Douglass would learn to read from the white children in the neighborhood. He would play word games with other slave children in order to show off his vocabulary and learn other words. When he was older, he would understand the writings of the men with whom he worked with.
Malcolm X was nineteen when he was arrested. It was while he was in prison when his whole life changed. He first learned about the honorable Elijah Mohammed and the movement known as the Black Muslims from one of the other inmates. Malcolm was then asked to write to Elijah Mohammed. Malcolm stated that it took him over twenty-five times to just write a one page letter, so that it was legible and made sense to Mohammed. It was then; Malcolm realized that he needed to educate himself.... [continues]

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