Malcolm X, 1964

A tribute to Malcolm X’s defense of Black dignity and the right to self-protection. This print draws on the iconic 1964 photograph by Don Hogan Charles for Ebony, showing Malcolm X standing watch at the window of his Queens home, rifle in hand, as threats against his life mounted after his break with the Nation of Islam. Paired with his own words, “I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense. I call it intelligence,” it invites students to read “by any means necessary” in context: not a call to aggression, but an insistence on the right to protect one’s family and community when the law will not.
Best for: Black history courses, civil rights and Black Power units, speech and rhetoric studies
Themes: self-defense · human rights · self-determination