Voices of the Ancestors

Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery and Malcolm X’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X both start out highlighting their respective hardships. Washington begins his story saying, “I was born a slave on a plantation in Virginia.” Following, he goes into further details in the early years of his life and retells the emotions experienced by other African American slaves during and after the emancipation. Born decades after Washington, Malcolm X describes his different but similar experiences beginning with "I grew up in a house attacked by the Klan." Malcolm looks back on his youth, narrating the terrors of the segregative systems that superseded slavery. Their stories show continual exploitation and injustice, but differ in interpretation due to different circumstances. Despite the disparities, both Booker T. and Malcolm were heavily influenced by their curiosity and ferocity when it came to education and learning. Malcolm X transforms himself while in prison, spending most of h...