Malcolm X A Controversial Leader
Iris Robinson
Central Michigan University
PSC 785
Dr. Robert Boggs

Abstract
This paper is going analyze the leadership traits, behavior and power that made Malcolm
X the type of leader that he was. Malcolm X was considered a great leader to some people because of what he believed in. Malcolm X was a very controversial leader because of his views on different subject. This paper will show how Malcolm X went from follower to a leader.
Malcolm X possess a lot of good trait that people look for in good leader such as motivator, responsible, assertive, self-confidence, firm and task orientate and most of all honesty.

Leadership can be defined as a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Leadership is also a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. There are certain trait that a good leader must possessed such as excellent communication skills, be direct, be fair, capable and kind yet firm.
Good leader also possess certain personal qualities. A good leader needs to have an exemplary character. A good leader should be enthusiastic about their work or cause and also about their role as leader. A good leader should be confident. A leader also needs to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty. Good leaders are tolerant of ambiguity and remain calm, composed and steadfast to the main purpose. A good leader always keeping the main goal in focus is able to think analytically. A good leader is committed to excellence
((White, n.d.). Leaders also exhibit certain type leadership behavior such as directive, supportive, participative, or charismatic. Malcolm X possesses most of these trait and personal qualities. Malcolm X had excellent communication skill. He was a direct but firm leader. Malcolm was also a very honest person.
He did not have an exemplary character at first but after he spent time in prison his character change. Malcolm X was very devoted to his religion and to the causes for the advancement of
African American. When Malcolm X realized that he was wrong about a situation he was not afraid to admit that he was wrong. Malcolm was without a doubt one of America's most dynamic and charismatic leaders . Malcolm X also was a displayed a supportive, participative and charismatic leadership behavior. Malcolm X is best known for being a controversial leader in the fight for rights of African Americans. Some believe he was a black supremacist, racist and revolutionary .By having these qualities help Malcolm become one of the most controversial leader of the twenty century. Malcolm Little, known as Malcolm X, was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parent was Earl and Louise Little. His father was an outspoken Baptist minister that was a civil right activist that supports Marcus Garvey. Because of the death threat that Malcolm father receive the family had to move twice before Malcolm turn the age of four. Malcolm grew in a various foster home and orphanages because his father died under usually circumstances and then his mother suffered an emotional breakdown and later died. Malcolm was a smart and focused student. He graduate top of his junior high school class. When his favorite teacher told him that become a lawyer was not a realistic dream for a nigger, Malcolm lost interest in school and he started working various odd jobs. He travel to Harlem, New York and start committing petty crimes, he also coordinating very narcotics, prostitution and gambling rings. Malcolm were arrested and convicted of burglary and he was sentenced to 10 year in prison but was parole after serving 7 years. While in prison Malcolm brother Reginald introduce him, to the organization, The Nation of
Islam. Malcolm was intrigued with the Nation of Islam that he started studied the teaching of
Elijah Muhammad. Because of what all that Malcolm had encounter so far in life he did not trust the white man, so when he heard what Muhammad teaching that the white society actively worked to keep African American from achieving political, economic and social success he became a follower. Once Malcolm became a member of the Nation of Islam he changed his last name to X because he consider that Little was a slave name and that X signify his lost tribal name. Good leader are made and not born, they are develop through a never ending process of self- study, education, training, and experience. But many believe that Malcolm X was born to be a leader. Malcolm X was elected a class president and was ranked third in his class in academic performance. He was well known all through his school years. On the streets, he was a Guru for leadership and a mentor for several others who were trying to be like him. Malcolm was a leader on the street with personality and served as model for others in the street. While in prison he became the first leader (minister) for the Nation of Islam. As national spokesperson, Malcolm, nevertheless, may well be acknowledged for building the Nation to the cultural and political position that it was to become. He travelled to Africa in parts of the Middle East to join forces with the state leaders in creating branches of the (OAAU) Organization of Afro-American Unity
(Malcolm X Speech n.p.). The leadership stages that Malcolm went through help him to become a successful leader and influence for millions of people. Malcolm X was an advocated for black pride and financial self-reliance. He ultimately rose to become a world-renowned African
American and human rights activist. Malcolm X was one of the clearest, most direct, and said the most practical things among all the leaders of the twentieth century (Clarke, 1994). Malcolm X spoke to millions of working class Black people around the World and particularly in the United States. He communicated with them like he was one of them. Malcolm X attracted and continues to attract million of people due to his impressive leadership traits and love for humanity and his hatred for discrimination and oppression. It was the combination of his leadership traits along with the educational legacy that made him into such a great leader and orator. He held immense respect for the authority of the spoken word. While in prison Malcolm X mastered the skills of English language and gained full control and authority in all of its implications. This made him publish articles for prison newspaper and became a part of the prison debating team. It moreover gave him foundation for his growth in critical listening and critical analysis. Malcolm had a deep admiration for history; it was his most admired classroom subject. It gave him means of acquiring factual substantiation as a foundation for determining the reality of the African experience nationally and globally. It furthermore made him see the world from a different viewpoint: Malcolm X stated that among all the subjects history is the most qualified to reward one’s research. He looked back into history to solve social and personal problems that the leaders before him had gone through. (X, Malcolm, 1965). The base of Malcolm X's leadership legacy is that he gave to his community thoughtful insights, thoughts, and solutions ashore in their cultural historical truth with lucidity that they could comprehend (Strickland, 1994). Malcolm had the exceptional capability to communicate with the reader and the non-reader, the college professor and the uneducated, at the same time, and his message would get across to all of them (Clarke, 1994). His leadership was imperishable; his position was unwavering, and his principles inflexible. Malcolm presents a legacy of reading, studying, writing, listening, exploring, and critiquing. His legacy makes the person to read and write their self into emancipator likelihood. The spirit of his leadership legacy lies in the fact that he was driven by the thirst he had for learning in himself and others. Malcolm true legacy lies in the minds and the thoughts that he left behind, transformed minds. People came to listen to him and his communicative abilities were so gifted that he was able to pour out everything in people’s mind regardless of their educational background, race or religion. Malcolm X life has always been about decisions and changes. He was honest in his difference of opinions and he would inform everyone about how he thinks about certain matters as soon as he has a change in opinion. His life was essentially a series of changes and transformations. He worked hard to achieve that higher level of consciousness. His life was no unusual as he moved from Malcolm Little, to Malcolm X to Malik El Shabazz. Malcolm was an extremely honest man. Honest to others but more importantly honest to himself. This was the most important aspect among his other moral traits. He would make sure that he fulfills his promises and would go above and beyond to keep them. His honesty was displayed evidently with the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) in three ways: foremost, he was honest with himself by keeping his ego and inabilities far apart. This was obvious since he kept himself with well-informed and educated people who were his advisors in every matter. It was not unusual for him to probe people about their opinion regarding certain matters; second, he was eager to amend his position on authority when new situations emerged to call for such change; and third, he spoke honestly to the role of women in the human rights struggle and organizational structuring (Mohammed, Najee 2004). Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam because he found out that his mentor and leader Elijah
Muhammad was secretly have relationships with the women within the organization and that he has also father several children by some of those women. So then Malcolm X decided to start his own religious organization called the Muslim Mosque. Now Malcolm X had transform his role from a follower to leader. During this period in Malcolm X life he also exhibit more of an assertiveness and self-confidence type of leadership trait. By Malcolm changing his name form
Malcolm X to Malik El Shabazz was probably the one change that that most symbolized is his breaking away from the Nation of Islam. After leaving the Nation of Islam Malcolm X stated that “I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel what I'm thinking and saying now is for myself. Before, it was for and by guidance of another, now I think with my own mind” (Malcolm X, 1992). Malcolm X formed a new organization known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity which has the same aim and objective-to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary. The Organization of Afro-American Unity our motto was “We want freedom by any means, necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary” (Malcolm X 1964). The organization only responsible is to the Afro- American people and community and will function only to support them both financially and numerically. Malcolm X believe that Afro- American communities must be the sources of their own strength politically, economically, intellectually, and culturally in the struggle for human rights and human dignity. The main purpose for the organization of
Afro-American Unity under the leadership of Malcolm X was to unite people who originated in
Africa and now reside in America, to speak out against the slavery and oppression that had been inflicted upon them by this racist power structure. An to offer the Afro-American people a courses of action that will conquer oppression, relieve suffering, and convert meaningless struggle into meaningful action. Malcolm X believed that the future of the African American was dependent upon their ability to unite their ideas, skill, and organization as one and join hand and heart will all people of the African origin. Many believe that the views of this organization were the start of the Black Panther. Several Malcolm X concepts are still valid today for the reason that the conditions facing
Black people in the United States haven’t changed much. The situations that Malcolm referred to that are still instituted including a systemic racism that does not sustain the communal, political, financial, and educational growth of Black people in United States. Due to this systemic racism there are setbacks inside the Black community in the United States that cannot be resolved by legislation. In the present day we can gain knowledge from Malcolm X's apprehension that systemic racism necessitates a global perspective that is, the capability to go beyond civil rights to human rights. In 1964 in an article Malcolm X writes that the universal goal of Blacks is to be respected as human beings, a right that has been given to them by no other than God. He stated that the common goal of the Blacks in the United States is to obtain the human rights that have been denied to them for centuries now. He stated that there is no way that Blacks can get civil rights unless they first get human rights. They first have to be recognized as humans and then citizens of United States. Malcolm's stance on issues such as the involvement of women in serving to shape the human rights revolution made a gap in succeeding organizational endeavors to confront the authoritarian charismatic model of leadership inherited from the Black church and the male prejudice profoundly implanted in the Civil Rights organizations. Malcolm X's status facilitated legitimizing a freedom plan that identified the issue of the liberation of women. Malcolm was from the working class and he recognized the domineering circumstances that pressed African American citizens to the outskirts of this society’s existence. His teachings to
Black people consequently, had a dual message, first, the situation in which you find yourself in is not your mistake, but is inflicted by a system of White domination. Second, even though the situation that you find yourself in is not your fault, you have the task to change it if you are not happy with it. Malcolm was always prepared and never missed a chance to teach. He was equally eager to learn and acquire new skills. The three things that he loved the most were truth, knowledge and teaching (Karim, 1992). What made Malcolm X a great teacher was his ability to detain and preserve his audience attention, by presenting hope and motivation in his speeches. Malcolm X stated that without education, you're not going anywhere in this world” (Malcolm X 1992).
Malcolm X also stated that Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights.
It is the means to help our children andour people rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self-respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today (1964). Malcolm was exceedingly disciplined in all of his quests. His high extent of discipline was the hub of his individual and political activism. He was punctual and made sure that everything is taken care of at its right time. His time realization made him to disdain his acquaintances for their lack of discipline and time. Malcolm X changed his outlook on America and its people after he visited Mecca in 1965.
He wrote that he no longer believed that all white people were evil and that he had found the true meaning of the Islamic religion. He was assassinated by the members of Nation of Islam before he could put his philosophy into action, African American culture can only imagine how effective he might have been if he had live. Also after his trip to Mecca, Malcolm, learned that the color of one’s skin does not reflect what kind a person one is rather than one’s action reflect the quality of a person. He also learned that coexistence can and will work. Malcolm also abandoned all of his thoughts about racism and segregation about the American society and adopted the approach of the Orthodox Islamic views of racial coexistence and equality. He developed new ideas about race and its relation in the world and foreign policy and politics. He started preaching this new philosophy. Many people agree that his new outlook and approach to problems affecting Black people would have been successful. His new philosophy had a political and economic base that appealed to all segments of the Black community. Malcolm X gave
African-Americans something no one else had ever given them which was a sense that African
American has the right to feel anger and express the power of it, to challenge white domination, and to actively demand change. Malcolm X told everyone who would listen to his speech about the tenacious and pervasive restraints that century of racism had imposed on American blacks.
His intelligence and humility were such that he was not afraid to revise his ideas. Malcolm X was a controversial leader whose statements inspired people on both sides of the equal rights debate. His thoughts shifted and developed over the years as the span of his thinking established itself. He was an intricate fast thinker who wanted to become a lawyer but eventually became a counselor for the defense of all the people of African descendant around the globe.
Malcolm's imprisonment reaffirmed his character as student and learner, and his education in prison established him as an educator. Another reason why Malcolm X are such a controversial leader is because he speaks exactly what owns his mind and he did not care whether it hurt anyone’s feeling. These traits are shown when Malcolm made the statement by any means necessary. Malcolm X was giving an interview by Mike Wallace, and he was asked the question, how blacks should achieve freedom. He answered by saying “by any means necessary”
(Malcolm X, n.p.). This statement is one of the most famous quotes that are remembered by most people in the world today. Malcolm X was a great leader. He had a natural ability for leadership. Malcolm X was a leader who took risks; he inspired a shared vision, and he lead by example. Malcolm X was simply an African man doing his duty for his people in the context of his time. He was a reluctant leader who learned from his mistakes. Malcolm had integrity. Once he converted to the
Muslim religion, he stuck to the strict moral code. Malcolm X never hid the fact that he made some mistakes, but he was also learning and growing from the mistake that he made because he took ownership of those mistakes. Some of his ideal was controversial and he wanted to educate his entire followers on why he felt his vision was right. He had a significant purpose and a clear picture of the kind of future he wanted for himself and his followers. Malcolm X was a leader who did not have a problem admitting when he was wrong. In one of Malcolm X’s speeches after his in new transformation he stated, I am not a racist. In the past I permitted myself to make sweeping indictments of all white perhaps did not deserve to hurt. Because of my spiritual enlightenment as a result of my pilgrimage to Mecca, Arabia I no longer subscribe to make sweeping indictments of any one race. (Malcolm X, 1992).
It took a lot of nerves for Malcolm to stand up and admit that he wrong and now he was trying to correct his wrong. In doing so, he had finally learned to trust people. According to Smith (1995) Malcolm X spent nine years as a spokesman for the Nation of
Islam (pp. 12-13) He was a speechwriter, an inspired speaker and philosopher. Malcolm used the teachings of the Nation of Islam to inform blacks about the cultures that had been stripped from them and the self-hatred that whites had inspired in them. Malcolm X said that Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. was teaching blacks to fight racism with love in which blacks need to understand their exploitation and to fight back when they were attacked and to seize self-determination “by any means necessary” (Malcolm X, 1992). Malcolm X was not afraid to speak publicly about his lack of respect for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed, because of his religion told black not to fight back. . Malcolm X preached the opposite of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., he was not for the civil rights movement to integrate blacks and whites. He once stated, “While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare” (Malcolm X 1992). However a year later Malcolm X decided to make a truce with Martin Luther King because he realized that they both had the same goals. That was because Malcolm X was in the process of questioning the
Nation of Islam’s ideals. Malcolm began to visualize a new Islamic group which that would embrace all faiths of black men. Not only after Malcolm X experienced enlightenment in MECCA did it change his attitude regarding racial problems he also changed his name to Malik El-Shabazz. He started a new organization called the Muslim Mosque Inc. Now, Malcolm X had gained a sense of unity with all the people of the world. Malcolm X believed that civil rights cause should now be addressed as human rights and should be treated as human problem. Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) had transformed from preaching segregation to preaching racial unity and equality. What made Malik
EL Shabazz (Malcolm X, 1992) great leaders are that he acknowledged his mistakes, learning from them, and was committed to teaching the lessons of his mistakes to others, so others could better themselves. Malcolm X had a profound influence on both blacks and whites. Many blacks responded to a feeling that he was a man of the people who had experience in the ways of the street rather than the pulpit or the college campus, which had provided the preponderance of black leader. Many young whites responded to Malcolm's bluntness in his speeches as just a colorful language and unwillingness to retreat in the face of hostility. The image and the memory that the American people had of Malcolm X has changed since his death just as his own philosophies change during his lifetime. Malcolm was viewed as a violent, fanatic person, but now he is understood as an advocate of self-help, self-defense, and an educated person. As a philosopher he succeeded in integrating history, religion and mythology to establish a framework for his ultimate belief in world brotherhood and in human justice. Malcolm view faith as a prelude to action. Ideas are ineffective without policy. Many people do not believe that Malcolm X was a good leader because of who he was and what he believed in. Malcolm X was a hoodlum, a racist, an inmate and a Muslim who was a militant in the fight for civil rights. Malcolm X possesses traits that all good leaders should possess. He had excellent communication skills. He debated the best English Scholars at Oxford
University. He was a direct person. When Malcolm X spoke he said what was on his mind. He let the people know exactly how he felt. When President Kennedy was assassinated Malcolm was criticize for what he said about the president but he did not apologize for his statement.
Malcolm X was an honest person. When Malcolm X found out about the dishonesty of the leader in the Nation of Islam he left the organization. Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi
Arabia, that altered his life; it gave him a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. Malcolm X realizes that he was wrong about the white race. After that experience that
Malcolm went through, he started preaching to all races instead of just the African American. He basically went from one end of the spectrum straight to the other. In the end, he was remembered as a good man who taught what was right in his eyes. The one lesson that Malcolm X wanted to teach everyone is that we should always be honest, harm no one and to take nothing that is not one owns, treat people the way that one wants to be treated, exercise self-control, pay your taxes, and to obey the law. Malcolm X exhibit different type of leadership behavior during his lifetime. He had a directive leadership behavior when he was a criminal. Malcolm show a participative leadership behavior when he was a minister for the National of Islam. Malcolm X displays a charismatic leadership behavior when he started the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). He showed a supportive leadership behavior after his transformation from Malcolm X to Malik El
Shabazz. Malcolm X was an assertive, self-confidence, and independent person. He had the ability to motivate his followers because he was persistence and task orientate. Malcolm show expert power and referent power. He follower believe that he had knowledge in what he believe in and they admire and identify him as their leader and some want to be just like him. Another traits that help to make Malcolm X a good leader is that he had been a follower as some point in his life. If a person can be a follower then he can also be a leader because you have to follower before you can lead. Regardless as which of the name that Malcolm X was going by it did not change his leadership trait. Because of the transformation that has happen in Malcolm X life is what makes him a great leader. To be a great leader the leader should not be afraid of change Malcolm X whole life has been about change. He started out as Malcolm Little a criminal, then Malcolm X a prominent priest for the Nation of Islam who taught racial hatred to Malik El Shabazz who taught racial unity and equality. The most influential turning point in Malcolm X life was when he discovered that race played no role in a person status in society. The unity of human kind made Malcolm think and change his ideas about the solution to the racial problem in America.
Malcolm X was able to influences others to help him accomplishes his goal an objective.
Malcolm X was a role model to hundreds of African Americans and will remain in the hearts of all Americans past and present. Malcolm X stated that “Mankind's history has proved from one era to another that the true criterion of leadership is spiritual. Men are attracted by spirit. By power, men are forced” (Malcolm X, 1992). Malcolm X success as a leader was because of his enthusiasm and conviction and his ability to capture and maintain the attention of his audience because he offer hope and inspiration. Malcolm X achieves the goals of a good leader by any means necessary.

References
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