“The Greatest Tool of the Devil”: Mamie, Malcolm X, and the PolitiX of the Black Madonna in Black Churches and the Nation of Islam in the United States

This article endeavors to attend to the yoke of Afro-patriarchy, gender conflict, and faith in Black churches and in the pre-1975 Nation of Islam, challenging some recent arguments that disingenuously distinguish between patriarchy in Black churches and patriarchy in the Nation of Islam. The article examines the correlation between the gender politics of Malcolm X’s early life and ministry and gender discrimination in Black churches, thereby suggesting continuity between Malik Shabazz’s legacy and Black churches. Black nationalist liberation as promulgated by prophetic Black churches and the Nation of Islam generates a paradox, namely, that while they claim to employ justice-seeking methods on behalf of all Black people, they nevertheless embrace a white social construction of gender mythology that converts the justice-making impulse of Black nationalist liberation into death-dealing rhetoric and unjust ethical practices, especially as it relates to Black women.