Final Years of Malcolm X – Discovery, Transformation & Turmoil
Leadership Case Study
Susie McKinnon
PA 762, Wednesdays
th
Due: December 14 , 2011
A celebrated leader of African American rights since the mid 1950’s who has
been documented, studied and analyzed fanatically since before his demise, Malcolm X
and his life’s actions are subjects for many high school, college and graduate courses.
For this reason, this paper will not focus solely on Malcolm and the history, episodes and
accomplishments of his life, but instead explicitly frame the last years of his life, from late
1963 to his final days in February 1965. Within this timeframe, the context and
environmental factors structuring his motives, actions and life transformations will be
considered and analyzed within leadership and change model theories and concepts.
Although Malcolm’s entire life can be viewed as a consistent evolution of challenges,
discoveries and actions comprised by the world and environment he belonged to; I
specifically selected his last years as they marked a tremendous shift in his life,
advancing him independently as a renown advocate and itinerant evangelist for African
American rights through an international lens. This time also marked a moment where
he became more open to mainstream Civil Rights Movement concepts and willingness
to collaborate with other leaders within the Movement such as Dr. Martin Luther King.
Between late 1963 and February 1965, a mere fourteen months approximately,
Malcolm decidedly chose to rediscover his usual way of life and thinking through a
number of initiatives and developments. In early 1963 to early 1964, Malcolm left a
secure tenure as national representative for the Nation of Islam (NOI) where he was a
fervent champion for the organization for over ten years to become an individual leader,
then focusing on establishing his own organizations, one religious, Muslim Mosque, Inc.
(MMI) and the other political, Organization of African American Unity (OAAU). Within
these fourteen months he also traveled abroad to the Middle East and Africa twice, once
for a pilgrimage to Mecca to learn about traditional Islam and the other to lobby for
African American rights on an international level. These specific activities allowed
Malcolm the flexibility to reconsider his beliefs and perspectives, pushing forth a new
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fight for the African American community. During these months a great deal of turmoil
and threat was revolving around him on both a national and personal level through a
myriad of situations: the nation’s focus on his developments, the Civil Rights Movement
and scorn from the NOI. When reviewing these changes, developments and challenges
connected to his life, it is almost unfathomable to think that one individual could
reasonably encounter this number of transformations and pressure within little over a
year.
This paper is structured chronologically to escort the reader through events and
contextual situations the leader was involved with throughout his last years in more
detail and hone in on a number of leadership and change theories that fit within each
situation. Not one theory fits all, however there are some overarching concepts that can
be applied that shift as well as overlap in regards to Malcolm’s final months during his
unfortunate final phase of transformation and metamorphosis. To understand the leader
in historical context and how he became the Malcolm of 1963, the paper will begin with a
succinct overview of his life highlights.
Malcolm Little to Malcolm X
In 1925, Malcolm, then Malcolm Little was born to parents Louise and Earl. Both
parents were activists and followers of the black-nationalist movement of its time and
were active members of their local Universal Negro Improvement Association. Three
years later their family home was burned to the ground with no service from the fire
department, another three years later his father was killed in a streetcar accident that
was likely devised by the Ku Klux Klan. In 1938, his mother was declared mentally ill and
taken to a state hospital and the seven Little children were all sent to various foster
homes. He was kicked out of school in the 7th grade and sent to a juvenile home in an
all-white community where he excelled at school in the 8th grade but was told by his
instructor that his hopes for being a lawyer were unrealistic. A year later his sister Ella in
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Boston gained custody of him and he enjoyed life with her until the mid 1940’s when he
started becoming careless with the law, stealing and hustling. At the age of twenty he
got caught and was sent to jail for the next six years, even though his white girlfriend at
the time, who was involved with the crimes only received seven months. During his time
in prison he was introduced to the NOI and the teachings of Elijah Muhammad the sect’s
leader. Malcolm studied their teachings and practiced his orator skills within this
movement until he was freed. Then, moving to Detroit to live with his brother in 1952, he
joined one of the four NOI temples existing at the time and changed his name to
Malcolm X, stating that his original African surname was stripped and changed to his
earlier family’s slave master’s surname. As a devout evangelist for its cause he tripled
NOI membership and was later appointed assistant minister, then moved to Boston and
appointed as first minister where he also traveled the East coast to help establish other
temples. By 1954, Elijah appointed him as chief minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem. In
just a matter of two years Malcolm’s efforts and beliefs in the NOI had helped the sect
grow from four temples and 400 members to 49 temples and approximately 40,000
members. In 1962 the sect’s leader next appointed him as the national representative,
tasked with the continuing of opening temples across the nation. (PBS online)
During these years of his advancement within the NOI, three situations shed a
spotlight on Malcolm nationally. In 1957 and later in 1962, two separate police brutality
cases involving NOI members pressed Malcolm to take action. In the 1957 attack,
Malcolm mobilized thousands of NOI members to the police headquarters in Harlem
where he demanded medical attention for the beaten member where the media was in
place. The group disbands with a wave of his hand. Malcolm also joined a New York
Television five-part documentary called, ‘The Hate that Hate Produced’. The producer
stated that the series was “a study of the rise of black racism, of a call for black
supremacy among a small but growing segment of the American Negro population." This
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show reportedly helped NOI membership grow, but also caused alarm and concern
amongst the white community and those involved with a budding Civil Rights Movement.
(PBS online)
On Leaving the Nation of Islam (December 1963- February 1964)
The NOI at the time was purely a black militant establishment. Amongst many
claims, some main tenets expressed by this group were that ‘whites were the devils’,
that African Americans were the world’s original people and that blacks were superior to
whites. Additionally, the group believed that American Africans should find another
‘temporary’ state or country to reside in until they could be fully integrated back with their
motherland Africa. Needless to say, this sect and its leaders and members may not have
been intense believers in the integrationist interests of the Civil Rights Movement (CRM).
Although leaders and followers of the NOI at the time may not have considered
themselves advocates or devout supporters of the CRM due to their separatist interests;
I feel that with several decades behind us and the ability to review the entirety of the
CRM and its values places the NOI and some of its core interests within the Movement.
Just as the CRM was defined by separately occurring events aimed at advancing the
rights of blacks throughout the county, the NOI and its actions can be considered a
supporting factor for the Movement. The CRM and the NOI shared core values of
increasing black confidence; self-esteem, culture appreciation and making the nation
change its negative behavior towards African Americans. With this consideration, Van
Wart’s (2011) Integrative Theory of Social Change Leadership can apply as an overarching concept for the NOI, Malcolm’s work within the sect as well as after his
departure, since he supports these core values throughout his life’s work. This theory
states that leaders’ main focus within this scope is to tackle society’s issues and that it
can be done by integrating goals and perspectives, building consensus and more.
(p. 190)
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Malcolm’s split with the NOI officially took place in March of 1964. This
occurrence was mutually devised. From the ‘honorable’ Elijah Muhammad’s view,
Malcolm was advancing too quickly and potentially out growing his position within the
order. More and more, Malcolm was in the nation’s spotlight through his charismatic
actions at all levels and pushing the declared borders of the NOI’s philosophies and the
interests of its leader. However faithful, Malcolm proved not always obedient. To add gas
to the cinders already glowing between himself and Elijah, at the end of 1963, Malcolm
slipped out an antagonistic comment to the media about the assassination of JFK. The
NOI leader strictly forbade making comment about JFK after his death; this occurrence
pushed the NOI to suspend Malcolm’s speaking privileges and marked the beginning of
what would prove later to become a blazing fire between Malcolm the NOI and Elijah.
We can consider the years of Malcolm’s obedience and service to the NOI within the
Integrative, Shared Leadership Theory by Van Wart (2011) where actions are monitored
upon hierarchy and centralized expertise within a closed system framework. (p. 181)
During these times, Malcolm gladly shared leadership with Elijah and others through
distributed leadership within the organization’s structure. However, later Malcolm grew
uneasy, as the NOI many times preached action but turned the other cheek when action
was truly needed, such as when their member was brutally beaten by the police in
Harlem in 1957.
The silencing allowed him to reflect and discover that perhaps a cooling off
between himself and the NOI was timely. A direct quote by Malcolm from Breitman
(1967) elaborates this point, “If I harbored any personal disappointment whatsoever, it
was that privately I was convinced that our Nation of Islam could be an even greater
force in the American black man’s over-all struggle – if we engaged in more action. By
that, I mean I thought privately that we should have amended, or relaxed, our general
non-engagement policy.” (p. 18) To compound upon his feelings of apathy, he later
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learned that the ‘honorable’ Muhammad had committed several cases of adultery with
younger secretaries in his order, two of which claimed to be pregnant. This kind of
behavior was strictly forbidden by the order’s mandates. These incidents influenced
Malcolm to begin the end of a chapter of his life. Here, within the previously discussed
theoretical Integrative Social Change concept, we can layer on the Dialectic Theory by
Hickman (2010) reflecting change. Change in this framework is anchored by conflicting
goals, opposing perspectives and the creation of new thoughts and concepts departing
from the original placement of the leader or organization. (p. 51) These feelings of
variance in goals and tension between the two leaders allowed Malcolm to decide to
break from the NOI, bring about life discoveries and start his own organizations. This
action can be marked by the Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Change Practices discussed in
Hickman (2010), where Malcolm decided not to acquiesce to NOI’s penalties, yet stay
loyal to his beliefs and to the NOI, however voicing his reasons later to the media, which
certainly escalated tensions. (p. 188)
Discovery, Revelation and Independence
April of 1964 marked two important turn of events for Malcolm’s trip within this
transformational period. One was his famous ‘Ballot or the Bullet’ speech in which the
leader encouraged African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely. The second
was his trip overseas focused on converting to orthodox Muslim, his Hajj and the
impression it supplied to his theories. The language in his ‘Ballot or Bullet’ speech was a
large step away from his usual speeches within the NOI, where he was advised to stay
away from civil rights and political matters. He must have experienced a newfound
sense of freedom, as he was able to shrink away from NOI dogma and discuss freely
topics that he felt were important at the time. Here we see Malcolm positioning more
within the overall social change movement that was heightening at this time and we can
consider Malcolm’s actions aligning well within Van Wart’s (2011) Integrated Social
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Change Theory and how players are working in a framework of collaboration with a
tremendous sense of egalitarianism. (p.189) Although Malcolm may not have been
communicating directly with Dr. King, his new freedom allowed him to take action using
innovation and creativity to move away from his usual behaviors and align more with the
CRM adaptively. (Van Wart, 2011, p.212) Before leaving for five weeks abroad in the
Middle East and Africa he witnessed the Senate discuss and filibuster the Civil Rights
Bill; on the same day he met Dr. King during the press conference, where the two shook
hands.
Shortly after his only encounter with Dr. King, Malcolm boarded a plane to spend
five weeks abroad to enhance his knowledge of orthodox Muslim traditions and theology
by involving himself in a Hajj – a pilgrimage to Mecca, and to meet diplomats in various
countries in Africa. Right before leaving for this trip he consulted with Dr. Shwarbi, a
Muslim professor who he had previous encounters with. Shwarbi was delighted to learn
of Malcolm’s new interest in orthodox Muslim and supported his trip by supplying him
with a good deal of important contacts. A conversation they shared before his trip
entailed the Doctor advising Malcolm to rethink his racial worldview. (Marable, 2011,
p.301). This proved to be an astute point for Malcolm to reconsider after his Hajj. By
witnessing thousands of people of all races, including many whites traveling and
supporting one another towards the same goal for the same God, as well as
experiencing genuine acts of generosity and compassion by people of many races also
white, Malcolm realized his usual thoughts about class distinction dissolve within days.
(Marable, 2011, p.309) These thoughts also made it easy for him to put the theologies of
the NOI behind him for good. He was excited to return home to share his trip
experiences and his newfound enlightened thoughts. (Marable, 2011, p.310)
Once he has this epiphany and has re-confirmed his conclusion with the NOI, he
has decidedly taken on new territory without the organizational support from the national
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sect that he dedicated more than a decade of his life to. Here we can consider the
concepts in Hickman (2010) about Nonconstituted, Social Change Leadership as he was
no longer appointed as a leader within a larger structured group, and purely driven to
serve his community by whatever means on his own; to him this meant moving ahead of
the NOI and considering both political and nonracial views, both of which were
previously taboo. (p. 203) With this action Malcolm expresses a great deal of personal
integrity, adaptability and courage to realize he must expand his mind and learn more
about the situations around the CRM, and learn from other cultures and the
egalitarianism of orthodox Muslim. By expanding his environment and learning and
adjusting his values, we can apply this transformation to Hickman’s (2010) concepts of
adaptive leadership, even though at this time it was not clear who were his followers. (p.
58)
New Organizations
As a leader within the NOI, it is estimated that Malcolm had approximately 100
thousand followers by the time he split, however, there were several other thousands
following Malcolm by way of his public speeches, television and radio broadcasts and
other media (Marable, 2011, p. 299). A good portion of this latter group appreciated his
dedication and fervent rhetoric poised in support of the African American community. He
was a charismatic speaker, had charming good looks and connected well with people in
urban regions. Because many African Americans supported his beliefs, but did not
believe in the strict and black supremacy positions of the NOI, it is said that many
wished he would start his own secular organization purely focused on civil rights.
(Marable, 2011, p.324) So he did just this, but actually devised two, the Muslim Mosque,
Inc. (MMI) and the Organization of African American Unity (OAAU), as well as
introduced a new view for African Americans within their struggle for civil rights to
consider, Pan-Africanism.
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Some time between his silencing within the NOI and his five-week trip overseas,
just a two to three month span, Malcolm decided to start a Mosque of his own, the
Muslim Mosque, Inc., which he wanted to dedicate to regular orthodox Muslim worship.
Because he had so many dedicated followers from Mosque no. 7 in Harlem from the
NOI, these were to become the first members of this religious group. Most of these
people took more radical stances than what the NOI could support and appreciated
Malcolm’s bend on their usual mantras, especially in support of real action. Within
Harlem, this represented approximately 50-75 individuals. To suddenly shift from several
thousand followers to less than a hundred must of probably felt liberating and frightening
all at once. Once again we can consider Hickman’s (2010) Nonconstituted leadership in
a transformative role since Malcolm had essentially starting from scratch without a large
and strong organization with militant shared leadership on his side. Additionally, this
jump to form a new group showed transformational initiative especially in such a short
timeframe. As stated by Hickman, Nonconstituted leadership is structured by a lack of
formal authority. As such, this seems to be a good model for this case. (p. 203)
MMI eventually grew to about 125 individuals and is said to have contained a
mixed bunch, some defectors from the NOI, some that wanted a group to follow and
supported Malcolm and other various reasons. (Marable, 2011, p. 334) Unfortunately,
the group got off on a bad foot. MMI was officially incorporated, but the necessary
leadership to guide the ideals and structure of the organization were not present.
Malcolm left his colleague James 67X in charge of holding meetings and the
administration of the group as he left the country. Also troubling was that the underlying
core mission and ideals were yet to be solidified. Malcolm could draw hundreds and
thousands to a rally or a public speech, but they were struggling to gain memberships
and those that were members had varying ideas and concepts about why and what drew
them to the new mosque. With the leader abroad leaving an unstructured group without
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realized goals, plus Malcolm himself dealing with evolving and transformative personal
ideals, we can assume rocky beginnings for the MMI. With so many things swirling at
once and not much time to conceptualize and properly structure the org, Van Wart’s
(2011) Integrative, complexity leadership theory seems to resonate with this picture,
since this theory purports a lack of a stability that is dealing with a turbulent, complex
environment. However, unfortunately, the administrative roles needed to capture
meaningful actions and build the org, were not necessarily in place. (p. 190-1)
The OAAU seems to suffer the same fate. The organization also built and
devised my Malcolm with a handful of others collaboratively, was created as a purely
secular, politically focused group. With this, Malcolm hoped to mobilize African
Americans across the country exclusive of religion that might be interested in an
alternative to Dr. King’s initiatives. Most MMI members were not OAAU members as
these two groups in most instances had varying ideologies. A member noted that there
wasn’t much organization for the group and it wasn’t clear how decisions were to be
made. Additionally, instead of a coalition it appeared as a top-down sect with Malcolm in
charge. Once again, administrative duties were handed off to James 67X. Here we can
view Malcolm in a role as a directive leader, since initial decisions about management
needed to be considered. (Marable, 2011, p. 341) Another complication was that there
were at times tensions between the budding MMI and its members and the OAAU
newcomers. (Marable, 2011, p. 323) The OAAU members tended to be progressive,
educated youth activists with more worldly concepts while the MMI in many instances
stemmed from the former NOI sect. As mentioned earlier, the Dialectic Theory of change
can attribute Malcolm’s reasons for leaving the NOI and developing his own
organizations with new concepts due to previous conflicting values. And, as with the
MMI, Complexity Theory can fit well with the chaotic nature of the budding OAAU, as
outside variables including a leader who was in many cases busy or traveling seemed to
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call the shots for developments or lack of development of the group. (Hickman, 2010, p.
51) (Van Wart, 2011, p. 190)
OAAU was formed shortly after his five-week trip and his Hajj. With his newly
budding egalitarian views, he decided that only blacks could join the organization, but
whites or any other race could support them by other means, finances, sponsorships,
etc. Again, this was a large step for him within this evolutionary period, where just a few
months before, he may have preached about ‘whites being devils’ and not wanting to
have anything to do with them. With this we can view Malcolm as setting a tone for
change and a differing organizational climate. This idea is reverberated by Hickman’s
(2010) concepts of adaptive leadership (p. 58) Another new concept he brought back
from his travels which he introduced to the OAAU was the idea of Pan-Africanism and
the idea of presenting African American struggles to the United Nations in a fight for
human rights. As described in Marable 2011, “ What Malcolm envisioned with the United
Nations was a strategic shift in civil rights activism within the United States. Instead of
passing legislation reforms through Congress, he sought to present blacks’ grievances
to international bodies in hopes of global intervention. Under the banner of human rights,
issues that had long been perceived as domestic or parochial would be presented on a
world stage.” (p. 337)
When Malcolm witnessed a filibuster in Congress dealing with the Civil Rights Bill
shortly before he left for his Hajj, perhaps he had the notion that the U.S. was not going
to move the policy forward and African Americans needed to look at the issues from a
global perspective. Here we see Malcolm exercising a high level of innovation and
creativity to develop these concepts in honor of his community and can consider the
concepts of Servant Leadership reviewed in Hickman (2010) where service includes
defending and learning about others needs and aspirations as well as sharing their pains
and frustrations. (p.71) These pains and frustrations most likely drove him to seek
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change at an international level and work towards garnering the support from individuals,
activists and leaders at both a national and international layer with these views. With
Malcolm’s new international concepts for himself and the OAAU, we can also consider
the approaches described in Van Wart (2011) regarding Subcultures, where groups and
their leaders can be considered as a subgroup within a dominant group where there are
some shared goals and values, but the subculture may be interested in serving a
differing purpose or have a varied emphasis or approach. (p. 172) To explain further, it
seems as the OAAU essentially resided alongside or within the CRM with shared core
goals and values, but decided to shift the function or technical means in which to strive
for African American rights.
Constraints, Threats & Other Factors
In retrospect of the previous detailed events; leaving a multi-year long dedicated
and dynamic leadership career; re-establishing himself independently with new ideals
and concepts; developing two new organizations with differing functions; and traveling
overseas extensively; he had a number of other factors revolving around him at all times.
Some of these potentially enabled Malcolm to be the ever-changing, dedicated,
charismatic and energetic leader that he was, such as a number of opportunities to meet
with scholarly and worldly individuals who expanded his mind; speaking opportunities at
universities and more, there were a number of other factors including some of these that
most likely shackled him or held him back. It seems he was just moving too fast and
taking on too many things without stopping to plan, structure and take care of his health
and safety. It also seems that events as they were rolling around him eventually led to
his early demise and he was too dedicated, driven and booked to stop and see what was
realistically going on around him.
As mentioned earlier, the NOI was a militant, highly organized sect. When
Malcolm was silenced and later separated from the group and starting up his own
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mosque, they viewed this as a challenge and direct threat, especially since Malcolm had
many followers and was a powerful and productive component to their organization.
Malcolm also publicized the adultery cases of his former leader on a number of
occasions, which seemed he was ready to deal with the consequences, and the NOI did
not take this tactic lightly. Not only did they work hard to evict him from his home, which
had been bought for him by the NOI, the sect’s thugs monitored Malcolm and his new
mosque followers tightly, on some occasions beating them brutally.
Malcolm was also considered a nuisance, threat and liability to local and national
police and security. Unfortunately, they did not see the leader as an evolving individual
dedicated and loving to his community, moving towards egalitarian views. Instead they
considered him a demagogue who had the power to mobilize great numbers of people
and could potentially create riots and violence in the streets. They also weren’t keen on
the adversarial schism with the NOI. And, once he started speaking with national leaders
and diplomats, their concerns were heightened to new levels. It wasn’t just the NOI that
was monitoring Malcolm and his colleagues but also the local police, FBI and CIA. They
had wire tapped him and been secretly recording him since the time he split with the
Nation of Islam.
Beyond local and national threats, he also had a number of personal and career
items to attend to. Close to before he left the Nation he was working regularly with a
writer to develop his autobiography, which continued up until the time of his death. It is a
very eerie concept if you really consider the timing. He was wanted regularly for
speaking opportunities at universities and colleges all over the nation and internationally;
and on radio and TV. If he could take on these events in most cases he would; it
seemed he was on a plane quite regularly. He was also corresponding regularly with
international diplomats and leaders about how to develop a case internationally for
American African rights.
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Somehow between his work and travels he also had a family to tend to. It is not
quite certain how his wife and children fared during all his business affairs, threats, lack
of financial security and more. Sadly, his family home was firebombed just a week
before he was assassinated.
Conclusion
Malcolm was enveloped within a complex and dynamic web of events within the
last months of his life. From December 1963 to February 1965 Malcolm made drastic
changes to his life, many that were due to a causal relationship with circumstances and
new discoveries. No matter what changes or situations surfaced at the time, is it obvious
that Malcolm was able to keep his eye on the ball in regard to his true purpose and goal:
to serve and support African Americans to the best of his ability. He was a fighter, but
purely out of the love and support of his followers and the community he wished to serve
and reach out to. It has not been challenging to weave in leadership theories with this
paper, because he very clearly fit well with a number of them, and found that there were
some overarching concepts and some that could be layered in depending on the event
or situation.
Overall, Malcolm was by far a transformational leader at all times in his career,
fitting many themes within this model, such as charismatic, innovative, creative,
inspirational, energetic, adaptive, and more. Within a broader social change scope, to fit
within the complexity of the Civil Rights Movement he fit well with the Integrative theory
of Social Change Leadership by Van Wart 2011 as he was a fighter for African American
rights alongside other leaders and activists of this time working to change the social
dynamics of the nation. (p. 187) As he began to make real changes to his life and
actions, his dynamics within the organizations he served changed too. Here we can view
Malcolm within a Shared Leadership role with the NOI, but when he began to wane from
their values and move away from the sect we can see the Dialectic Change Theory
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come into play. This theory can be placed alongside Nonconstituted Leadership as
mentioned by Hickman (2010), as he was no longer serving a particular organization
once he left the NOI, and his leadership was not linked to some type of formal authority.
(p. 203) Later as he began his new organizations, we can see his leadership within
these groups as both directional but more so linked to Chaos and Complexity Theory
since they lacked formal structure and were dealing with a tumultuous environment with
many unknown variables. (Van Wart, 2011, p.191)
With such an evolving and dynamic life to review, it has been a personal
adventure learning about the nuances of this great man’s life and how specific theories
can help to place a framework within and around his roles and actions as a leader.
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References:
Breitman, G. (1967). The Last Year of Malcolm X – The Evolution of a Revelutionary. New York.
Merit Publishers
Hickman, G. (2010). Leading Change in Multiple Contexts. Los Angeles. Sage Publications, Inc.
Marable, M. (2011). Malcolm X – A Live of Reinvention. New York. Penguin Books, Ltd.
PBS online. Malcolm X – Make it Plain. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/malcolmx/index.html
Van Wart, M. (2011). Dynamics of Leadership in Public Service, Theory and Practice. New York.
M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
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