Malcom X:

The major takeaway I got from this piece was this idea that knowledge is freedom. That last line of the letter, “I never had be so truly free in my life” not only is a beautiful way to conclude the letter, but left me thinking about it long after reading it. Learning about the world, learning about language and communication makes people boundless. There’s no restrictions of what you can do if you take the time to consume knowledge all around you. It opens doors that otherwise not only wouldn’t be open, but wouldn’t even be there in the first place.

Looking at the letter besides just the last line, the glorious thing about knowledge is that you can consume it at any time and any place. You can wake up one morning and say “hey, let me educate myself in X or Y”. There’s no expiration date on learning. Malcom X took the time to sit down and extend his vocabulary because he could. He had the time, the will, and the power to do it in jail and he did. He sees how Bambi controls conversations and it’s the catalyst to seeing the amazing power of learning because it can be done whenever and however you want.

Malcom X does a great job showing us the before and after of this leaning process. Talking about painstaking handwriting he had that gets better over time and fully realizing just how many words there are int he world. It’s these kinds of revelations and changes that make Malcom X’s plight so compelling.

MLK:

Right off the bat, this letter feels like a speech. He knows he is writing to a large audience looking for inspiration and motivation. I can just imagine MLK taking a podium and reading this letter verbatim and feeling that command of words just the same as reading it.

Second, the tone of the letter is so elegant, restrained, and peaceful. It would’ve been so easy to be hostile and filled with anger while writing this letter, but I never sensed a shred of hostility at all while reading it. There is serious frustration towards the situation, but he remains calm as he hoped those reading it will it. There is elegance in his word choices, his metaphors, his persuasion. This isn’t a man yelling at the world, but a man looking for reason and justice in a world lacking it.

He acknowledges all the questions that are posed to him as he plays devil’s advocate and then responds to them. Whenever he makes a point, he can already see the follow up questions of the audience and answers that too. He has enough self awareness to see the flaws in his arguments.

Lastly, and even going back to the Malcom X letter, MLK really gets his point across because of his knowledge. He references things like Socrates, the Greek Empire, Abe Lincoln and so much more to enhance his points. He sees the patterns throughout history of freedom and uprising and knows it can be done in America. Much like Socrates, MLK faces pushback, but in both cases, you can’t keep down people who want freedom.