A review by kdekoster
The Awakening of Malcolm X by Tiffany D. Jackson, Ilyasah Shabazz

5.0

If you're starting and it feels slow, keep going. When Malcolm reaches his awakening... holy smokes, I couldn't put it down. **This is a tiny spoiler: after they won their first debate and his teacher/prison superintendent Winslow tried to claim him as "one of their brightest stars," Malcolm's response sparked an awakening in me: "Sir, with all due respect, I was shaped long before I arrived here."

Malcolm's family, from the way his mother raised him to the way his siblings all moved to be near him in prison + so many more examples was truly remarkable.

The vaccine testing at Norfolk prison!

***Another spoiler: When Malcolm had himself sent back to Charlestown because he knew his brothers there were not free - what greater love is there?
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"The sight of a broken Chucky sends shock waves through Charlestown. He was kept in the hole the longest of any prisoner we know. A record fifteen months in solitary confinement. [...] Chucky spent less time overseas fighting in the war. I tell him he is a descendent of refined and industrious kings who lived under the sun and beside beautiful oceans, who wore clothes of silk and slippers of gold. I whisper to him, "You are one of God's favorite kings, brother. You are one of God's favorites.""