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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the political life of Malcolm X in the context of the Black Prophetic Tradition. By exploring historical, literary, and theological considerations of political violence and divine warnings, “Catch on Fire” evaluates Malcolm X’s legacy as one of the iconic figures within more contemporary prophetic politics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Saladin Ambar is Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Scholar at the Center on the American Governor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He is the author of four books, including Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era (Oxford University Press, 2012), and most recently, Reconsidering American Political Thought: A New Identity (Routledge, 2019).
Notes
1 Augustine, The City of God Against the Pagans.
2 See Streb, Rethinking American Electoral Democracy, 12.
3 Cone, God of the Oppressed, 75–6.
4 West, Prophetic Fragments, 42.
5 de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 303.
6 Harold Holzer notes that Lincoln likewise attacked Taney’s decision on the historical record. See Holzer, Lincoln at Cooper Union, 136.
7 Guyatt, Bind Us Apart, 324.
8 Malcolm, Malcolm X Speaks, 7.
9 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 207.
10 The speech was delivered at a Los Angeles rally for Stokes on 22 May 1962. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilz2tOSOJ9Q.
11 See Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 209.
12 Ambar, Malcolm X at Oxford Union, 109.
13 Malcolm, Malcolm X Speaks, 8.
15 Ambar, Malcolm X at Oxford Union, 180.
16 Abernethy, The Iconography of Malcolm X, 69–70.
17 This and other passages are found in the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Moby Dick. Melville, Moby Dick.