- On View
- Visual Arts Gallery
- Museum Maps
- Objects in this Location
- Exhibition
- Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
- Created by
- Catlett, Elizabeth, Mexican and American, 1915 - 2012
- Subject of
- X, Malcolm, American, 1925 - 1965
- Date
- 1969
- Medium
- ink on paper
- Dimensions
- H x W (unframed): 35 1/2 × 27 1/2 in. (90.2 × 69.9 cm)
- Caption
- “The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”
- —Malcolm X, 1962
- Malcolm X’s oft-quoted statement underscores his profound concern for the marginalization of Black women. Created four years after his assassination, Catlett’s homage to Malcolm X employs the iconic photograph of the armed activist vigilantly watching over his family—a symbol of protection and resistance. Pictured in black near the upper right corner, the repeated image of a woman above him is drawn from Catlett’s I Am the Black Woman series (1946–47), a body of work that celebrates the resilience, strength, and heroism of African American women.
- Description
- A color lithograph print titled “Malcolm X Speaks for Us” by Elizabeth Catlett. Across the top, Catlett repeats the image of a woman's face from her work "I am the black woman." In the upper right quadrant is a black, three-quarter view of Malcom X, looking to the left. In the upper left quadrant is a repeated image of a child's face in a row of three followed by a row of two, varying in colors of brown and orange. This is the same image repeated in Catlett’s “Flowers for George Jackson.” In the bottom left corner is an image of another child's face, repeated three times in an overlapping, horizontal row of green, orange, and blue. The print is titled and signed by the artist in pencil in the lower right corner [Malcolm X Speaks for Us E. Catlett 1969].
- Classification
- Visual Arts
- Type
- lithographs
- Topic
- Activism
- Art
- Black power
- Gender
- Women
- Credit Line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Estate of Carroll Parrott Blue
- Object number
- 2023.39.6
- Restrictions & Rights
- © Estate of Elizabeth Catlett
- Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.




