The autobiography of Malcolm X

Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, “What's your alma mater?” I told him, “Books.”

I read about the slave preacher Nat Turner, who put the fear of God into the white slavemaster. Nat Turner wasn't going around preaching pie-in-the-sky and “non-violent” freedom for the black man. There in Virginia one night in 1831, Nat and seven other slaves started out at his master's home and through the night they went from one plantation “big house” to the next, killing, until by the next morning57 white people were dead and Nat had about 70 slaves following him.

Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.