Lecture 16. From Voting Rights to Watts

American History: From Emancipation to the Present (AFAM 162)

In this lecture, Professor Holloway revisits Malcolm X's life in order to offer a more nuanced interpretation of the black leader than is traditionally taught. Professor Holloway links Malcolm X to a tradition of black intellectuals and political activists like Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and Robert Williams, and he explores the philosophy of the Nation of Islam (NOI), the organization for which Malcolm X is the national spokesman before his split with Elijah Muhammad in 1964. In the final year of his life, prior to his assassination by NOI members in 1965, Malcolm X makes a religious journey to Mecca, rejects his prior views on race, starts the Organization of Afro-American Unity, and adopts the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. In the remainder of the lecture, Professor Holloway backtracks to explore some of the other historical events that frame the civil rights movement, including Freedom Summer, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction: Reframing the Civil Rights Movement Iconic Figures
01:42 - Chapter 2. A Sampling of Malcolm X's Famous Rhetoric
07:47 - Chapter 3. What was Unique about Malcolm X?
11:35 - Chapter 4. Who was Malcolm X?
27:34 - Chapter 5. Malcolm X Breaks Away from the Nation of Islam
36:14 - Chapter 6. Malcolm X's Legacy

Complete course materials are available at the Yale Online website: online.yale.edu


This course was recorded in Spring 2010.