Malcolm X

by Manning Marable

  52 “how they could benefit us as a people.” Ibid., p. 67.

  52 “ ‘fought the hardest to help free those Scottsboro boys?’ ” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography , p. 79.

  52 “Harlem was like it still is today—virtually all black.” Ibid., p. 85.

  53 to Negroes who followed them north. Gilbert Osofsky, Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto: Negro New York, 1890-1930 (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), pp. 115-17.

  53 part of the cultural bedrock of black Harlem. David Levering Lewis, When Harlem Was in Vogue (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981), pp. 28, 104-5, 217-18.

  54 global expression for youth culture. Osofsky, Harlem, pp. 3, 28, 128—31, 137.

  54 the neighborhood in the New York State Assembly in 1940. Hulan Jack was elected Manhattan borough president in 1953, making him at the time the highest-ranking black official in the United States. Following his reelection in 1957, Jack was convicted for accepting an illegal gift of $4,500, and was forced to resign. See Calvin B. Holder, “Hulan Jack,” in Jackson, ed., Encyclopedia of New York City, p. 607.

  54 employees were black, and all held low-wage jobs. Herman D. Bloch, “The Employment Status of the New York Negro in Retrospect,” Phylon, vol. 20, no. 4 (1959), pp. 327- 44 ; quotations from pp. 333 and 327.

  54 period was estimated well above 50 percent. Ibid., p. 337.

  54 estimated the average black family’s income at $1,025. Cheryl Greenberg, “The Politics of Disorder: Reexamining Harlem’s Riots of 1935 and 1943,” Journal of Urban History, vol. 18, no. 4 (August 1992), pp. 395-441; quotation from p. 399.

  55 inciting to riot and malicious mischief to felonious assault and burglary. Ibid., pp. 403-8.

  55 “to arrest an unarmed drunk, hit the drunk so hard that he died.” Ibid., p. 414.

  55 white-collar positions at Consolidated Edison. Ibid., pp. 418-19.

  56 two liberals campaigned together—and both won. Dominic J. Capeci, “From Different Liberal Perspectives: Fiorello H. LaGuardia, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., and Civil Rights in New York City, 1941-1943,” Journal of Negro History, vol. 62, no. 2 (April 19 77), pp. 160-73; quotations from pp. 160-63.

  56 Walton High School, Powell denounced the action. Ibid., p. 164.

  56 over fascism abroad and racial discrimination at home. See “The Courier’s Double ’V’ for Double Victory Campaign Gets Country-Wide Support,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 14, 1942; and Lee Finkle, Forum for Protest (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 1975).

  57 executive order placing the streetcar company under army control. Philip S. Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619-1981, second edition (New York: International Publishers, 1981), p. 265.

  57 “a certain respect for white Americans faded.” James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (New York: Dell, 1970), p. 76.

  57 even the rising Republican star Thomas E. Dewey. Ibid., pp. 50, 52. Sources on the Savoy Ballroom include: Jervis Anderson, This Was Harlem, 1900-1950 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982); Morgan Smith and Marvin Smith, Harlem: The Vision of Morgan and Marvin Smith (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1997); and Stearns, Jazz Dance.

  57 stop the ballroom from being closed down. Russell Gold, “Guilty of Syncopation, Joy, and Animation: The Closing of Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom,” Studies in Dance History, vol. 5, no. 1 (1994), pp. 50-64; quotation from pp. 54, 56.

  58 “actions that didn’t help Harlem to love the white man any.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 116.

  58 Powell demanded LaGuardia be impeached. Capeci, “From Different Liberal Perspectives,” p. 166.

  58 housing projects constructed under the city’s authority. Ibid., p. 167.

  58 assigned to escort trolley cars and buses. Harvard Sitkoff, “The Detroit Race Riot of 1943,” Michigan History, vol. 53, no. 3 (1969), pp. 183-206; quotation from pp. 195-96.

  59 “physical disturbances, aided and abetted indirectly.” Greenberg, “The Politics of Disorder,” pp. 426-27.

  59 to blacks to “please go home and stay inside.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, pp. 116-17.

  59 black soldiers were simply going AWOL. See Harvard Sitkoff, “Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War,” Journal of American History, vol. 58, no. 3 (December 1971), pp. 661-81; and Paul T. Murray, “Blacks and the Draft: A History of Institutional Racism,” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 2, no. 1 (September 1971), pp. 57-76.

  59 “to go and bleed for him? Let him fight.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 74.

  60 “and I never heard from the Army anymore.” Ibid., pp. 108-10.

  60 “sexual perversion, psychiatric rejection.” MX FBI, Memo, New York Office, January 28, 1955.

  60 robberies and burglaries outside New York City. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 112.

  60 “We just barely escaped.” Ibid., p. 118.

  61 the filth and hypocrisy of the white man. Ibid., p. 122.

  61 failed to turn up any criminal charges or arrests. Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, pp. 30-31.

  61 “no big-time racketeer or thug.” DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 69.

  61 and subsequently “divide[d] the spoils.” Ibid.

  61 New York City’s nearly all-white suburbs. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 112.

  61 and sales receipts from the purchase of the goods. Ibid., p. 115.

  62 the margins of musical taste and commercialism. There is an impressive literature on the impact of bebop during World War II. For example, see Lott, “Double V, Double-Time: Bebop’s Politics of Style”; Scott DeVeaux, “Bebop and the Recording Industry: The 1942 AFM Recording Ban Reconsidered,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 41, no. 1 (Spring 1988), pp. 126-65; Ira Gitler, ed., Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition of Jazz in the 1940s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985); and Scott DeVeaux, The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).

  62 could not be so easily exploited and commodified. Frank Kofsky, Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music (New York: Pathfinder, 1970), p. 56.

  63 he had observed in Harlem as “the Zoot Effect.” Eric Lott, “Double V, Double-Time,” pp. 597-605.

  63 “for the expression of outraged protest.” Kofsky, Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music, pp. 64-65.

  63 spirit of rebellion and artistic nonconformity. Ibid.

  64 “usually to those spruced-up bars which he had sold to someone.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, pp. 126-27.

  64 “but under proper guidance, a good boy.” John T. Herstrom, July 23, 1946, Prison File of Malcolm Little, Office of Public Safety and Security, Department of Corrections, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

  64 He was nineteen years old. “Malcolm Little Criminal Record,” ibid.; and MX FBI, Memo, Boston Office, February 17, 1953.

  65 a warrant was issued for his arrest. Malcolm Little, “Out-State Progress Report,” February 14, 1953, Division of Pardons, Paroles, and Probation, State of Michigan, in Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  65 speculation in the years following Malcolm’s death. Bruce Perry’s Malcolm asserts that on several occasions in 1944-45 Malcolm engaged in homosexual acts for payment. These “male-to-male encounters,” Perry observes, “afforded him an opportunity for sexual release. . . .ʺ Perry also cites sexual encounters in Boston in 1945 where a wealthy white man named William Paul Lennon paid Malcolm “to disrobe him, place him on his bed, sprinkle him with talcum powder, and massage him until he reached his climax. . . . Like a prostitute, he sold himself as if the best he had to offer was his body.” Perry adds that Malcolm would later excuse his actions by insisting that another man actually gave his white male client “satisfaction.” Perry’s claims, when published in 1991, generated a firestorm of criticism from those devoted to Malcolm’s iconic image, who pointed out that his only credible source for these escapades was “Shorty” Jarvis. See Perry, Malcolm, pp. 75-77, 82-83. Since the publicat
ion of Perry’s book, other evidence has surfaced that supports his general assertions. For example, according to Rodnell Collins, Malcolm revealed details to Ella Collins about “a business deal he and Malcolm Jarvis had with an elderly, wealthy white millionaire, named Paul Lennon, who would pay them to rub powder over his body.” See Collins, Seventh Child, p. 76.

  65 to Bernard and Nellie F. Lennon. Federal United States Census (1910), Rhode Island, Providence County.

  65 active in local Democratic Party politics. Robert Grieve, An Illustrated History of Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Vicinity: A Narrative of the Growth and Evolution of the Community (Pawtucket, RI: Pawtucket Gazette and Chronicle, 1897), p. 368. Also see Federal United States Census (1900), Rhode Island, Providence County; and Edward Field, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the End of the Century: A History (Boston: Mason Publishing, 1902), p. 598.

  65 “have had the requisite preliminary training.” The Catalogue of Brown University (Providence, RI: Brown University Press, 1960), p. 33.

  65 his discharge he lived briefly with his parents. In the 1920 census, thirty-one-year-old William Paul Lennon appears residing in his parents’ household in Rhode Island. See Federal United States Census (1920), Rhode Island, Providence County.

  65 to employ male secretaries in his home. Classified Ad 5, no title, New York Times, October 2, 1942; and Classified Ad 23, no title, New York Times, October 4, 1942.

  66 as a “butler and occasional house worker.” “Employment History,” Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  66 an affluent stretch of Arlington Street overlooking the Public Garden. Herstrom, July 23, 1946, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  66 “the old man would actually reach his climax from that.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography , p. 143.

  66 “send to his brothers and sisters in Lansing.” Collins, Seventh Child, pp. 68-69.

  67 a mistake no veteran burglar would ever have made. Herstrom, July 23, 1946, Prison File of Malcolm Little; DeCaro, On the Side of My People, pp. 72-73; and Natambu, Malcolm X, pp. 100-101.

  67 additional merchandise, with a total value estimated by police at $6,275. Malcolm Little, “Out-State Progress Report,” February 14, 1953, Division of Pardons, Paroles, and Probation, State of Michigan, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  67 everyone in the gang was promptly arrested. Ibid.; and DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 73.

  68 “a fifteen-to-twenty-year sentence or life in prison.” Malcolm L. Jarvis, Myself and I (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), pp. 33-35.

  68 “I had had no business associating with white women.” Ibid., p. 42.

  68 “‘friendless, scared lost girls.’” Collins, Seventh Child, p. 46.

  68 “I would rather be dead than do ten years.” Jarvis, Myself and I, p. 34.

  68 “constant fear,” she told the court with emotion. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, pp. 73-74; Natambu, Malcolm X, pp. 113-14; and Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 153.

  68 seven months of a five-year sentence. Jenkins, “Beatrice Caragulian Bazarian,” in Jenkins, ed., Malcolm X Encyclopedia, p. 95; and Natambu, Malcolm X, p. 119.

  68 as a steerer for Harlem prostitutes. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 96.

  69 “best possible source, from his own women.” Ibid., p. 94.

  Chapter 3: Becoming ʺXʺ

  70 “physically miserable and as evil-tempered as a snake.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography , p. 155.

  70 “which seems to be affected because of his sensitiveness to color.” “Massachusetts State Prison Psychometric Report (of Malcolm Little),” May 1, 1946, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  71 “It grew stenciled on your brain.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 155.

  71 “institution life at Charlestown [prison].” John F. Rockett, May 7, 1946, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  71 forced to eat in their cells. “Bay State Prison Started: Governor Calls Old Charlestown Institution ‘a Disgrace,’” New York Times, May 14, 1952; and Albert Morris, “Massachusetts: The Aftermath of the Prison Riots of 1952,” The Prison Journal, vol. 34, no. 1 (April 1954), pp. 35-37. Michael Stephen Hindus has examined the terrible conditions of Charlestown prisoners in the nineteenth century, equating them with slavery in South Carolina. See Michael Stephen Hindus, Prison and Plantation: Crime, Justice and Authority in Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1767-1878 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980).

  71 1920 robbery and double homicide. “Sacco and Vanzetti,” in Paul Finkelman, ed., Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, vol. 2 (New York: Routledge, 2006), pp. 1395-96; “End of Seven Years of Legal Fight,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 23, 1927; and “Sacco and Vanzetti Pay Death-Chair Penalty,” Los Angeles Times, August 23, 1927. Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty in 1921, in a trial characterized by anti-immigrant bias and hostility toward their political views.

  71 “any current prison in the United States.” “Bay State Prison Started,” New York Times, May 14, 1952.

  71 calling him the “Green-Eyed Monster.” Natambu, Malcolm X, p. 118.

  71 “further nickname for him: ‘Satan.’” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 156.

  72 but can also suffer mental breakdown. Ivan Fras and Joseph Joel Friedman, “Hallucinogenic Effects of Nutmeg in Adolescents,” New York State Journal of Medicine, February 1, 1969, pp. 463-65; R. B. Payne, “Nutmeg Intoxication,” New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 269 (1963), p. 36; and G. Weiss, “Hallucinogenic and Narcotic-Like Effects of Powdered Myristica (nutmeg),” Psychiatric Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 1 (1960), pp. 346-56. Weiss notes that “doses of two to three tablespoonfuls of powdered nutmeg tended to narcotize the subjects against the unpleasant experience of incarceration, without a blurring of the boundaries between the self and the outer world.”

  72 “wished she hadn’t come at all.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 155.

  72 fallen deeply in love with Malcolm. Collins, Seventh Child, pp. 74-75.

  72 “adventurous, highly impressionable” boy. Ibid., pp. 75-76.

  73 those decadent whites whom he had been hustling. Ibid., p. 71.

  73 “poor in skill, and average to poor in effort.” “Institution History of Malcolm Little,” May 1951, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  74 to “study English and penmanship.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, pp. 156-57.

  74 “So, feeling I had time on my hands, I did.” Ibid., p. 157.

  74 English and elementary Latin and German. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 79.

  74 of both commonly used and obscure words. Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (New York: Grove, 1967), p. 38.

  74 including betting on baseball. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 79.

  74 conditions of work and supervision. Morris, “Massachusetts: The Aftermath of the Prison Riots of 1952,” pp. 35-37.

  75 and possibly William Paul Lennon. “Transfer Summary,” March 31, 1948, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  75 “of use to me when I regain my freedom.” Malcolm Little to Mr. Dwyer, Norfolk Prison Colony Transportation Board, July 28, 1947, ibid.

  75 performance sufficiently so as to avoid severe discipline. “Institution History of Malcolm Little,” May 1951, ibid.

  75 proper English, was completely dismissive. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 158; and DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 80.

  75 “And they had the best program going.” Wilfred Little Shabazz interview with Louis DeCaro, Jr., August 14, 1992, in DeCaro, On the Side of My People, pp. 80-81.

  75 “I’ll show you how to get out of prison.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 158. In the Autobiography, Malcolm places the time of Philbert’s and Reginald’s letters after his transfer to the Concord prison, in January 1947. However, Wilfred Little, in his 1992 interview with Louis DeCaro, Jr., stated that this correspondence arrived while Malcolm was still at Charlestown.

  76 all with windows and doors. Carl R. Doer
ing, ed., A Report on the Development of Peneological Treatment at Norfolk Prison Colony in Massachusetts (New York: Bureau of Social Hygiene, 1940), pp. 33-34, 42-44, 73, 111.

  76 observances were permitted for “Hebrews.” Ibid., pp. 35-44. Also see George B. Vold, “A Report on the Development of Penological Treatment at Norfolk Prison Colony in Massachusetts,” American Journal of Sociology, vol. 46, no. 6 (May 1941), p. 917. Vold observed that “criminologists will welcome this account of an effort in penology that was unique in many ways.”

  76 reading agenda to include works on Buddhism. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 313.

  77 stopped cursing the guards and fellow prisoners. “Institution History of Malcolm Little,” May 1951, Prison File of Malcolm Little.

  77 held a deep animus toward blacks. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, pp. 161-63.

  77 and Reginald all to become members. Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad (New York: Pantheon, 1999), p. 161.

  77 “we were black and should be proud or anything like that.” Strickland and Greene, eds., Malcolm X: Make It Plain, pp. 59-60.

  78 “to open my mouth and say goodbye.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, pp. 167-71.

  78 and Philbert had been married for several years. Malcolm Little to Henrietta Little, October 16, 1950, Malcolm X Collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (MXC-S), box 3, folder 1. Writing to Henrietta, Malcolm related how happy he was that “Allah has given both Philbert and me a wonderful Sister.”

  78 and the couple had relocated to Grand Rapids. Malcolm Little to Philbert Little, December 18, 1949, MXC-S, box 3, folder 1.

  79 together with a five-dollar bill. Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 172.

  79 against those who oppose Muhammad’s message. See Reza Aslan, No God but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam (New York: Random House, 2003), pp. 43, 60, 79-81, 84-44; and Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 8.

  79 followers to marry Jews, as he himself did. Aslan, No God but God, p. 100.