Malcolm X’s Former Prison Cell is a Library, Thanks to Reginald Dwayne Betts
I’ve posted about prisons and libraries/books before, including the Mellon Foundation’s “Freedom Libraries” initiative that ties in to this full-circle story.
As you can see, a Freedom Library is being installed in what is believed to be Malcolm X’s former cell outside of Boston. The formerly incarcerated poet/teacher/lawyer Reginald Dwayne Betts won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2021 to build libraries in prisons; to, according to this Boston Globe piece by Adrian Walker, “create the kinds of spaces that inspired him, while incarcerated, to dream of what his life might become.”
Walker writes, “The idea of prison as a place of transformation seems to have captured Betts’s imagination. He was locked up for his role in a carjacking, serving eight years [as a minor] before being released. He became a poet first, then turned his attention to law, and to prison reform. He has a degree from Yale Law School, and is currently working on a doctorate there.” “Transformation” is how Malcolm X described his time in prison for property crimes. According to Betts, “When you hear Malcolm X talk about it — and understand it’s a prison in the ‘40s — he talks about it as a place where people valued education, where people valued knowledge. He got a chance to be a leader of an intellectual community.”
Prisons in libraries aren’t new, but they are typically heavy on self-help, religious, and legal texts. Betts envisions libraries that include fiction and poetry: “One of the things Malcolm X said was that a prerequisite for changing your life is an understanding of what it means to be guilty…And what it means to want to be more than that thing. And I think books give you access to that. So it’s this opportunity for people to come close to personal discovery, to come close to reflection.”
You know that the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, right? I’m not saying prisons aren’t necessary. But kind of interesting to think about given our fixation on “freedom.” (Not even mentioning all the thorny issues with the system…)
Can the right book help someone discover “freedom,” as happened for Malcolm X? Betts thinks it’s a noble start.
originally published on instagram