Teaching Malcolm X: Popular Culture and Literacy

From Spike Lee to rap music lyrics, Malcolm X has captured the imagination of urban youth.Teaching Malcolm Xwill help elementary, high school and university level educators integrate the speeches and writings of the controversial thinker into their curricula. The volume brings together a dazzling array of perspectives on Malcolm X--students, public school teachers, college professors, television producers, public intellectuals and a leading spokesman for incarcerated Black men. Contributors discuss the importance of X as a cultural hero and provide guidelines for teaching Malcolm-related materal in a wide variety of educational settings. In Part I of the volume students reflect on Malcolm X's legacy and his relevance to today's youth. Teachers offer strategies they have employed to teach about him. Part II focuses on issues that are salient in any discussion of the life and thought of Malcolm X--the relationship of feminism to nationalism, Black rage, the socialconstruction of whiteness, literacy for freedom, racial identity development, imprisonment in the African American community, and motivating urban young people to become educated. The final essay is a resource for teachers interested in expanding their knowledge base and teaching materials. Contributors:Valdir Barboze, Carlos Broussard, Leonard Brown, Patricia Hill Collins, Sandra Dickerson, Michael Eric Dyson, Nikki Giovanni, Robert Lowe, Terri Meier, Laraine Morin, Linda Mizell, Imani Perry, Theresa Perry, Judith Richards, Judy Richardson, Joyce Hope Scott, James Turner, Cornel West, Steve Whitman, Owusu Yaki Yakubu.