CO-SPONSORSHIP: The Women Who Made Malcolm X Possible

The Women Who Made Malcolm X Possible   

2025 is the 100th anniversary of Malcolm X/el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, revolutionary, civil/human rights activist, and Muslim minister (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965). Centering his work on the work Black women do to usher in freedom, and resurrecting from history the love and teachings of his mother, wife, children, and other women who made him possible we have chosen to honor Malcolm by honoring the Black women of his world.

Writing on the beautiful intersections between Malcolm, Martin and James Baldwin and their mothers, “The Three Mothers,” author, Anna Malaika Tubbs asks, ‘How was Malcolm influenced by Louise Little’s roots from the rebellious Carib island nation of Grenada, she, who spoke several languages, her ‘home-training’ lessons in recitations of the alphabet in French, and admonitions to her children to study, and correct misinformation given by their white teachers?’ 

C. S’thembile West’s new book, Nation Women Negotiating Islam: Moving Beyond Boundaries in the Twentieth Century (2023), redeems the role of women, mothers, sisters, and daughters in the Nation of Islam (NOI). It sits at the intersection of Africana Studies, Religious and Islamic Studies providing the necessary counternarrative to past transgressive discourses. West recognizes and underscores the agency of NOI women in their negotiation of gender norms, sexual propriety, leadership models, education, and family building as a Black national project. Given our current political climate, this book can work as a tool for modeling equity and respectful scholarship on women’s roles as organizers, leaders, and change agents dedicated to uplifting and rehabilitating their communities as stewards of West’s arguments of  a “politics of protection.” One of several potential questions to consider is how has the lack of attention to the role of women in X's life and work reflect a kind of cis/heteronormativity that is bound up with the white supremacy that X combatted? How might queer and trans analysis help us better understand this role?" We invite paper proposals in conversation with this theme and C. S’thembile West’s book. 

Potential Co-sponsors: The Religion and Cities Unit, Queer Studies in Religion, Religion and Popular Culture, African Religions Unit, Afro-American Religious History Unit, Ethics Unit, Sociology of Religion Unit, Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit, Religion and Memory Unit, Study of Islam Unit, Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit, Contemporary Islam Unit, Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism, and, Islam, Gender, Women Unit