Malcolm X's Liberatory Leadership

• In Event: Culture, Affect, and Political Representation

Abstract

This paper argues that Malcolm X offers one of the first significant contemporary liberatory public policy frameworks in the United States. In this study, I conduct a discourse analysis of Malcolm X’s application of key political concepts, like citizenship and membership, within his public and private work. I use visits to four archival research institutions to look at famous and lesser-known speeches, debates, and conversations. I develop a richer understanding his usage of these terms in order to evaluate how he compares to the usage by other scholars and civil rights activists in the 1960s. I consider how his philosophy is shaped by his evolving beliefs, primarily in the Nation of Islam and Pan-Africanism, ultimately demonstrating his amplification of un(der)recognized narratives in American public policy. This paper shows Malcolm X’s political theory as a kind of public policy leadership that crafts one of the first inclusive civil rights models.

Author

• Mary K Ryan, Washington & Jefferson College