CHAPTER 5 - Page 71
"Ella wanted me out of Boston and away from Sophia. She would have loved nothing better than to have seen me like one of those Negroes who were already thronging Roxbury in the Army's khaki and thick shoes -- home on leave from boot camp. But my age of sixteen stopped that."
Ella really wanted a change of direction for Malcolm, perhaps even getting him in the army. Unfortunately for her, she cannot enlist him as he is not of legal age for service. It poses an interesting question though:
How would Malcolm X's life have been different had he served in the military? How would the civil rights movement as a whole have been affected?
Great news! Switching to italics, typing out a sentence, then switching back to normal text makes it so everything you just typed in italics gets erased. I swear I typed out "How would Malcolm X's..." at least 4 times. This new blogger... I have little words.
ReplyDeleteContinuing on with the journal:
"The question posed is interesting. Without Malcolm in the picture, assuming he focused more on the military or died in battle (WWII perhaps?), MLK would be the leading leader within the movement -- moreso than he already is/was. I feel I don't really know too much to know how the whole movement/protests would have been affected, if at all. I don't recall seeing a Malcolm X monument on our trip to Washington D.C. (hmmm...)
And given an experience in the military, at such a young age, it's hard to say whether he'd shape up and learn discipline, become increasingly bitter against the whites, form a rebellion with fellow black privates/recruits? Fun to think about.
You pose an interesting question. How would a different environment have shaped Malcolm. Not sure.
ReplyDelete