Imprisoned writers help students learn about life

A new class this fall will acquaint students with the insight of incarcerated Africans and African Americans around the world.

Richard Ralston, a professor of Afro-American studies, will teach the class. He says it will deal mostly with contemporary material; writers such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, Rubin Carter, Indiana’s Etheridge Knight, Ngugi, exiled to the United States from Kenya, and others all will be represented.

“These so-called outcasts have managed to be some of the most acute observers of human behavior, politics and society we have ever known,” Ralston says. “These writings also will say something about the institution of prison and its efforts to rehabilitate – in the end, people are responsible for rehabilitating themselves.”

About 20 mostly undergraduate students have enrolled in the class so far, Ralston says.