URI Removes Partial Malcolm X Quote
University of Rhode Island removes partial Malcolm X quote from its campus library last Friday. Reasons primarily is because it misconstrues the leader’s message, which is why the school’s Black Student Leadership Group made sure it comes down.
The inscription of the quote installed in 1992 as a tribute to Malcolm X and his love for educating himself; however, the quote outraged students that year because it leaves out a key piece of the quote. His curious love for reading magnifies how he would be enjoying books if he wasn’t fighting racial injustice. He entails more of himself in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Undeniably, this intimate quote shows Malcolm’s natural essence for learning different interests through books.
Reading Between the Lines
If you take a look at the inscription, it reads, “My alma mater was books, a good library … I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.”
The full quote of Malcolm X from his autobiography reads: “I told the Englishman that my alma mater was books, a good library. Every time I catch a plane, I have with me a book that I want to read — and that’s a lot of books these days. If I weren’t out here every day battling the white man, I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity — because you can hardly mention anything I’m not curious about.”
The missing piece from the URI inscribed quote sparked protest in 1992 among students to takeover a campus building. The result of the protest did not lead to anything that year. Fastforward thirty years later, the 1992 protesters held a reunion and addressed the problem to school President Marc Parlange. Faculty member Michelle Fontes, who was an apart of the 1992 protest, joined with Marc to process the removal.
“I am happy to have been part of the activism that took place in 1992 and this quote finally being removed is proof that our new administration is listening and striving to do better,” she said.
The university will put in place blank granite panels of where the quote used to be.
Featured Image by University of Rhode Island via AP