The first part of the course will focus on Malcolm’s personal and political evolution from his childhood to his assassination in February 1965. The course aims to provide an overview of the key events in Malcolm’s life and his contributions to the broader Black freedom struggle in the United States to enable students to critically engage with his legacy and interpretations of Malcolm’s life. In the course, we will explore the historical context in which Malcolm came of age and the key turning points in his life to understand his transformation from “Detroit Red,” a small-time hustler and burglar, to one of the most outspoken and popular Black nationalist leaders of the 1960s. The course will engage with the key historical moments of the Black liberation struggle of the 1960s and analyze some of the political speeches Malcolm gave during his time as Minister of the Nation of Islam, a Black nationalist religious movement, and his final year as a practitioner of orthodox Islam (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz). Posthumously published in 1965, the Autobiography of Malcolm X became, in addition to his speeches, one of the foundational texts of the Black Power movement. We will critically examine parts of the book Malcolm co-authored with Alex Haley and investigate how Black Power activists like Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) interpreted Malcolm’s messages and sought to advance his goal to attain human rights for Black and other oppressed people in the United States and around the world. The course will round up with a discussion of more recent receptions of Malcolm’s life, including Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and songs of artists like Dead Prez.
- Kursleiter/in: Martina Schäfer