(Malcolm had been E. Lansing’s Mason Jr. High School class president the previous year, with top grades).

An English teacher, Richard Kaminska, sharply discouraged him from becoming a lawyer. ”You’ve got to be realistic about being a nigger,” Kaminska advised him.  “A lawyer, that’s no realistic goal for a nigger… Why don’t you plan on carpentry?”  Malcolm’s grades plummeted and his truculence increased.  Within several months, he found himself expelled.

Manning Marable,  Malcolm X:  A Life of Reinvention p.38

the actual quote