The Liberatory Public Policy of Malcolm X

• In Event: American Democracy in Black Political Thought

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 political 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. Not only does this paper identify the now seen harms of perpetuated inequality, but it reveals distinct lessons from Malcolm X’s political theory that have been ignored and forgotten in contemporary civil rights activism.

Author

• Mary K Ryan, Washington & Jefferson College