Fighting for Our Place in the Sun: Malcolm X and the Radicalization of the Black Student Movement 1960-1973 / Edition 1

by Richard Benson, Rochelle Brock, Richard Greggory Johnson III

Overview

In Fighting for Our Place in the Sun, Richard D. Benson II examines the life of Malcolm X as not only a radical political figure, but also as a teacher and mentor. The book illuminates the untold tenets of Malcolm X’s educational philosophy, and also traces a historical trajectory of Black activists that sought to create spaces of liberation and learning that are free from cultural and racial oppression. It explains a side of the Black student movement and shift in black power that develops as a result of the student protests in North Carolina and Duke University. From these acts of radicalism, Malcolm X Liberation University (MXLU), the Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU/YOBU), and African Liberation Day (ALD) were produced to serve as catalysts to extend the tradition of Black activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Scholars, researchers, community organizers, and students of African-American studies, American studies, history of education, political science, Pan-African studies, and more will benefit from this provocative and enlightening text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433117701
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	12/23/2014
Series:	Black Studies and Critical Thinking , #40
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Scholar, author, advocate, Richard D. Benson II earned a PhD in educational policy studies from the University of
Illinois-at Urbana Champaign. He travels frequently as a guest lecturer speaking on topics such as the black student movement, and school-community advocacy. Benson resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is Assistant Professor in the Education Studies Program at Spelman College.

Table of Contents

Contents: Malcolm X and/as Social Pedagogy: A Critical Historical Analysis – Sowing the Wind to Reap a Whirlwind: Ideological Shifts and Radical Expressions in the Black Student Movement, 1963-1966 – Purges, Proscriptions, and New Directions: Black Student Protests and a Call for a Black University, 1966-1969 – Uhuru Na Kazi (Freedom and Hard Work)! The Historical Developments of Malcolm X Liberation University, 1969-1972 – Malcolm X Liberation University: Planning, Curriculum, Projects, and Institutional Objectives – Working for African Liberation with the Student Organization for Black Unity: Historical Developments, Programs, and Activity, 1969-1971 – A Movement of the People … African People: African Liberation Day, the Decline of MXLU, and Left Pan-Africanism of YOBU, 1972-1973.

Editorial Reviews

«In this book, author Richard Benson II is able to uncover and offer insight into some of the lesser known aspects of Malcolm X's influence on African American student organizations during the 1960s and mid-1970s.»
(Andrew P. Smallwood, Adult Education Quarterly, Jan. 2018)

Full review

«Each historical moment in the political struggle of African Americans grows, simultaneously, from ongoing racial oppression and the corresponding rise of resistance. [...] The tedious and dangerous work of social activism benefits from the efforts of intergenerational activists nurtur-ing the seeds of radicalism. It is within this historical context that Richard D. Benson’s Fighting for Our Place in the Sun provides us an excellent narrative ex-pressing how oppression and resistance converged, leading to the radicaliza-tion of African American students in the 1960s.»
(Gayle T. Tate, The Journal of African American History Vol. 103/2018)

From the Publisher