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University of Louisville Malcolm X Debate Program

Using Debate as a Tool of Political Empowerment

“I will tell you that right there, in the prison. debating, speaking to a crowd, was as exhilarating to me as the discovery of knowledge through reading had been. Standing up there, the faces looking up at me, the things in my head coming out of my mouth, while my brain searched for the next best thing to follow what I was saying, and if I could sway them to my side by handling it right, then I had won the debate–once my feet got wet, I was gone on debating.” (1965b, p. 184) –Malcolm X, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1964

Malcolm X credits his debate experience in prison as a critical part of his development into a civil rights activist and world renowned public speaker. The UofL Malcolm X Debate Program uses debate in the same spirit of Malcolm, to create advocates for groups that lack direct access to democratic institutions of power. We quote from Robert James Branham in his article, “I was Gone on Debating”: Malcolm X’s Prison Debate and Public Confrontations:

“More than any other African American leader of his era, Malcolm X used public debates to confront whites, advance and defend his own views, and challenge competing civil rights organizations, representatives and tactics. Between March 1960 and December 1964, he engaged in more than twenty formal debates and participated in numerous panels and interviews in which he was pitted against his fellow panelists (and frequently the moderator as well)�.Malcolm X was a brilliant debater, adept at dismantling the positions of his opponents, converting their arguments to his own advantage and, most importantly, casting the issues of dispute in utter and compelling clarity. He effectively challenged assumptions regarding goals and tactics of the struggle for human rights that had been taken for granted by many of his opponents and listeners. “Within a few years” of his introduction to debate in Norfolk Prison Colony, writes George Breitman, “he was to become the most respected debater in the country, taking on one and all-politicians, college professors, journalists, anyone–black or white, bold enough to meet him” (1965, p. 5).”