(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
