This book argues that Malcolm X told African Americans to affirm their blooming sense of self and to assert themselves in their own uniqueness. However, he realized that the first route to African American affirmation of self was to awaken black self-consciousness and he therefore called for black wide-awakeness. The book concludes that "Malcolm X's call for a psychological return to Africa through a process of historical reconstruction was aimed at overthrowing the enslavement of African American thought and thereby setting African Americans on the path to freedom and human dignity."

In Rock My Soul, world-renowned scholar and visionary bell hooks takes an in-depth look at one of the most critical issues facing African Americans: a collective wounded self-esteem that has prevailed from slavery to the present day. Why do so many African Americans -- whether privileged or poor, urban or suburban, young or old -- live in a state of chronic anxiety, fear, and shame? In Rock My Soul, hooks gets to the heart and soul of the African-American identity crisis, offering critical insight and hard-won wisdom about what it takes to heal the scars of the past, promote and maintain self-esteem, and lay down the roots for a grounded community with a prosperous future.

Institutional racism has had a major impact on the development of African American self-esteem and group identity. Through the years, African Americans have developed strong, tenacious concepts of self partially based on African cultural and philosophical retentions and as a reaction to historical injustices. The Concept of Self examines the historical basis for the widely misunderstood ideas of how African Americans think of themselves individually, and how they relate to being part of a group that has been subjected to challenges of their very humanity. Richard Allen examines past scholarship on African American identity to explore a wide range of issues leading to the formation of an individual and collective sense of self. Allen traces the significance of social forces that have impinged on the lives of African Americans and points to the uniqueness of their position in American society. He then focuses on the results from the National Survey of Black Americans-a national survey of African Americans on a wide range of political, social, and psychological issues-to develop a model of African self. Allen explores the idea of double-consciousness as put forth by W.E.B. DuBois against the more recent debates of Afrocentricity or an African-centered consciousness. He proposes a set of interrelated hypotheses regarding how African Americans might use an African worldview for the upliftment of Africans in the Diaspora. The Concept of Self will interest students and scholars of African American studies, sociology and population studies.

This book tracks the evolution of Malcolm X from a racist, espousing the essentialist ideals of the Nation of Islam to a human rights activist, aware of the broader early 1960’s struggle against imperial forces. Central to this was his strategic use of race to unite African-American initially and then the oppressed people in the world. Race was used as a strategy with the aim to abolish racial oppression. In the first chapter of this study we look at the constraints, most notably the white power structure, present in the United States during the mid-1960s which, on one hand gave form to Malcolm’s thinking, and on the other, made it necessary for Malcolm to add an international dimension to his thinking. The second chapter explores Malcolm’s racial theorising in 1964-65 when he identified the two stages which were necessary for the attainment of a colour-blind society. While Africa, as both idea and place, served as a cultural base, it also acted as a springboard to an international coalition of oppressed people. By linking the domestic and the international politics of Malcolm X, this study highlights the sense of purpose with which Malcolm X articulated his arguments concerning the future of the African-American community and their involvement in the American society.

"From Civil Rights to Black Liberation is one of the few books that offers historical research about the OAAU, a revolutionary organization founded by Malcolm X and rooted in traditions of Black nationalism, self-determination, and human rights. The author establishes the relevance of Malcolm's political legacy for the task of rebuilding the movement for Black liberation almost thirty years after his assassination." -- Publisher.

"This is an authoritative book on a critical aspect of Malcolm X's courageous political work and thought. Connecting the struggle of Africans and African Americans for liberation to the geopolitics of the Cold War in Africa, this impressive book documents Malcolm X's passionate commitment to Pan-Africanism and black internationalism during the turbulent age of decolonization. To bring this important story to life, the authors' masterfully integrate the scholarship on the US Black freedom struggle and Africa's anticolonial nationalism. Impressive in depth and breadth, the book is lucid and analytical-a powerful testament to Malcolm X's legacy to African and African American liberation." -Olufemi Vaughan, Geoffrey Canada Professor of Africana Studies & History, Bowdoin College In the current context of the Black Lives Matter movement, this book which examines the seminal contributions of Malcolm X and his explorations of his African roots could not be timelier. The book details the significant impact of Malcolm X's legacy on Africana thought in the context of the US Black freedom movement and anticolonial nationalism in Africa in the age of decolonization. Through Malcolm X's spirited commitment to Black internationalism during these turbulent moments in world history, this book integrates the story of the US Black freedom movement with the struggle for self-determination in Africa. See www.cambriapress.com/books/9781604979244.cfm for more information. This book is in the Cambria African Studies Series (General Editor: Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin; and Associate Editor: Moses Ochonu, Vanderbilt University).

Fifteen African American thinkers--including Amiri Baraka, Angela Davis, Arnold Rampersad, Cornel West, and John Edgar Wideman--answer questions about the legacy of Malcolm X and what it means to African Americans today. "The cream of the crop in current Malcolm scholarship".--San Francisco Chronicle.