Malcolm X

by Manning Marable

  190 her acquaintance with him several years later. Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman (New York: Random House, 1981), pp. 166-70.

  190 “and will not be a ‘spooky war.’” FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 23, 1962; and MX FBI, Correlation Summary, New York Office, August 25, 1963, pp. 25, 26.

  190 to achieve under the “American flag.” FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 23, 1962.

  191 NOI duly sold discounted copies of the book. Elijah Muhammad to Malcolm X, March 23, 1961, MXC-S, box 3, folder 8.

  191 “August fourteenth, 217 West 125th Street.” Telegram, A. Phillip Randolph to Malcolm X, August 11, 1961, MXC-S, box 3, folder 13.

  192 “with the white man, we must separate.” FBI—Phillips, Summary Report, New York Office, January 1962.

  193 “think this will accomplish anything,” he declared. Harold L. Keith, “Leaders Bury Differences, Merge: New York Group Formed to Uplift Negro Masses,” Pittsburgh Courier , October 7, 1961.

  193 name, in parentheses, was written “Malik el Shabazz.” Evelyn Cunningham, “Panel Will Continue; Malcolm X and Randolph Spark Rally in Harlem,” Pittsburgh Courier, September 16, 1961.

  194 “blond hair, and he has a white skin.” FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 23, 1962.

  194 at the top of the command structure. FBI—Raymond X Sharrieff file, Summary Report, Chicago Office, February 8, 1962, and August 8, 1962.

  194 cash register, and resentment began to grow. James 67X Warden interview, June 18, 2003.

  194 “making jokes about sexual nonperformance.” Ibid.

  195 local captains directly responsible to Malcolm. Clegg, An Original Man, pp. 113, 181. Goldman directly disputes Clegg on this issue. According to Goldman, “A 1961 administrative decree had made the temple captains answerable only to Chicago.” See Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 110.

  195 that would have meant for Sharrieff’s continued authority. FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  195 “among the masses they would lead to a black Utopia.” DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 177.

  196 of whom 737 were defined as active. Secretary’s Account of Records, Mosque No. 7. Copy in possession of author.

  196 “Everybody got a story.” James 67X Warden interview, July 24, 2007.

  196 at a Seventh Avenue nightclub. FBI—Charles 37X Morris (also known as Charles Kenyatta) file, Correlation Summary, New York Office, August 4, 2006; FBI—Morris, Memo, Washington Office, November 6, 1968; and FBI—Morris, Memo, New York Office to the Director, March 13, 1968.

  196 was discharged on September 13, 1946. FBI—Morris, Memo, New York Office, March 13, 1968.

  196 where the latter was assistant minister. Ibid.; and Charles Kenyatta, Oral History Interview, 1970, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Manuscript Division, Howard University Library.

  197 “mixed type, mildly depressed but cooperative.” FBI—Morris, Memo, New York Office, March 13, 1968.

  197 he described as a “really beautiful childhood.” Mark Jacobson, “The Man Who Didn’t Shoot Malcolm X,ʺ New York, October 1, 2007, p. 41.

  197 he was sentenced to twelve months in prison. Ibid., p. 40.

  197 “rescue, bring relief or salvation.” John L. Esposito, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 138.

  197 adhered rigidly to Muslim dietary laws. Jacobson, pp. 40-41.

  197 “I would be the first one on the scene.” Thomas 15X Johnson (also known as Khalil Islam) interview, September 29, 2004.

  198 that had also fascinated Frantz Fanon. Ibid.

  198 “grow to be hated when you become well known.” Malcolm X and Haley, Autobiography, p. 270.

  199 greatly inflated image of his party’s actual number. See William H. Schmaltz, Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party (Washington, D.C.: Batsford Brassey, 1999).

  199 “and admirable human beings in spite of their color.” On the connections between the American Nazi Party and the Nation of Islam, see Clegg, An Original Man, pp. 152-56; and Schmaltz, Hate, pp. 119-20.

  199 and the races dwelled in separate states. Clegg, An Original Man, pp. 154-55.

  200 “You got the biggest hand you ever got.” Schmaltz, Hate, pp. 120-21; and “Separation—or Death: Muslim Watchword,” Amsterdam News, July 1, 1961.

  200 “its mishandling of the Black Man.” George Lincoln Rockwell, “The Jew: Moment of Lies in the South,” The Rockwell Report, January 3, 1962.

  201 “Muhammad is right—separation or death!” Schmaltz, Hate, pp. 133-34; and “U.S. Nazi Boss Among 3,000 at Rally,” Chicago Tribune, February 26, 1962.

  201 “Muhammad used to scare blacks into the NOI.ʺ Clegg, An Original Man, p. 154.

  201 “be separated to get justice and freedom.” “Rockwell and Co.—They Speak for All White,” Muhammad Speaks, April 1962.

  201 “doesn’t necessarily mean we gotta kill each other.” Schmaltz, Hate, pp. 159-60, 201. Rockwell continued to cite the views of Malcolm X as a justification for his own racist agenda, up to the time of his death in 1967. During an interview with Alex Haley, published in Playboy magazine in April 1966, for instance, Rockwell declared that “the harder you people push for that [integration], the madder white people are going to get. . . . Malcolm X said the same thing I’m saying.” See “Interview with George Lincoln Rockwell,” Playboy, vol. 13, no. 4 (April 1966), pp. 71-72, 74, 76-82, 154, 156.

  201 should have favored Rustin. FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  201 “‘he couldn’t be talking about me—I'm the liberal.’” John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (New York: Free Press, 2003), p. 324; and Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 67.

  202 Mosque No. 23 in Buffalo, New York. MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, May 17, 1962, p. 7; and FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  202 at Harlem’s Rockland Palace. FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, October 18, 1962; and FBI—Benjamin 2X Goodman (also known as Benjamin Karim) file, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  202 “when the Government shows interest?” Elijah Muhammad to Malcolm X, February 15, 1962, MXC-S, box 3, folder 8.

  203 “made to suffer, morning, noon and night.” Malcolm X and James Farmer, “Separation or Integration: A Debate,” Dialogue, vol. 2, no. 3 (May 1962), pp. 14-18.

  203 the black middle class that opposed desegregation. Ibid.

  203 that Farmer was married to a white woman. Ibid.

  204 “boycotting, withholding their patronage.” Ibid.

  204 partnership between the two men in the year to come. “Malcolm X Packs Powell’s Church,” no date, MXC-S, box 5, folder 17. Also see FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963; FBI—Phillips, Summary Report, New York Office, March 21, 1963.

  204 selling bulk copies of Muhammad Speaks. “Louis Farrakhan,” in Jenkins, ed., Malcolm X Encyclopedia, pp. 218-19; and Evanzz, The Messenger, pp. 296-97.

  205 “would have liked to [have been] in her position.” Rickford, Betty Shabazz, pp. 143-44.

  205 certainly provide for Betty and their children. Ibid., pp. 144-45.

  206 against racially restrictive housing covenants. See Douglas Flamming, Bound for Freedom: Black Los Angeles in Jim Crow America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), p. 69.

  206 continued to be a problem well into the 1960s. Stephen Meyer Grant, As Long as They Don’t Move Next Door: Segregation and Racial Conflict in American Neighborhoods (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), pp. 178-83.

  206 By 1960, 468,000 blacks resided in Los Angeles County. On the economic conditions of blacks in Los Angeles, see Josh Sides, L.A. City Limits: African American Los Angeles from the Great Depression to the Present (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003). The best study documenting the socioeconomic and poli
tical factors leading up to the 1965 Watts riots in South Central Los Angeles is Gerald Horne, Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995).

  206 to settle a local factional dispute. Frederick Knight, “Justifiable Homicide, Police Brutality, or Governmental Repression? The 1962 Los Angeles Police Shooting of Seven Members of the Nation of Islam,” Journal of Negro History, vol. 79, no. 2 (Spring 1974), pp. 182-96.

  206 “violence or any other means.” Ibid.

  206 acquitted the Muslims on all charges. Ibid.; and “Study Shows Los Angeles Police Were Investigating Muslims at Time of Riot,” Amsterdam News, May 12, 1962.

  207 mosque, they approached with suspicion. Knight, “Justifiable Homicide, Police Brutality, or Governmental Repression?” pp. 12-196; and DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 184.

  207 “that Stokes’s death was ‘justifiable.’” Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 97.

  207 “What the hell are you here for?” Ibid., pp. 97-98.

  207 “came out of the street with gangster leanings.” Louis Farrakhan interview, December 27, 2007.

  208 “Brothers volunteered for it.” James 67X Warden interview, June 18, 2003.

  208 “rather than go out with the struggle of our people.” Louis Farrakhan interview, December 27, 2007.

  208 “You’re black—that’s enough.” MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 16, 1962, pp. 17-18; and “Conduct Rites for California Black Muslim Riot Victim,” Chicago Defender, May 7, 1962.

  209 “of the followers of the Honorable Elijah.” Louis Farrakhan interview, December 27, 2007.

  209 “an aggressor to come into their mosque.” Clegg, An Original Man, p. 171.

  209 Roland Stokes submitted and was killed. James 67X Warden interview, June 18, 2003.

  209 “It would have been a trap.” Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 98.

  Chapter 8: From Prayer to Protest

  211 “any black person anywhere on this earth.” Knight, “Justifiable Homicide, Police Brutality, or Governmental Repression?,” p. 190.

  211 in front of the Hotel Theresa. “Malcolm X Heads Rally Sunday,” Amsterdam News, May 26, 1962; FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963; and FBI—Phillips, Summary Report, New York Office, March 21, 1963.

  212 “a religious solution will fit the problem of Police Brutality.” Minister John Shabazz to Brother Minister, June 1, 1962, MXC-S, box 12, folder 1.

  212 “call on our God—He gets rid of 120 of them.” Jack V. Fox, “Negro Leaders Lambaste Malcolm X's Delight in Death of Atlanta Whites,” Chicago Defender, July 14, 1962. Also see Clegg, An Original Man, p. 201.

  212 “developed into a large-scale hatred of whites.” Fox, “Negro Leaders Lambaste Malcolm X’s Delight in Death of Atlanta Whites.”

  212 “fanatical” and “anti-white organization.” MX FBI, Memo, Director to French Legal Attaché, August 8, 1962.

  213 “word ‘freedom' out of your vocabulary.” Wallace Turner, “Militancy Urged on U.S. Negroes,” New York Times, November 26, 1962.

  213 “would be eliminated from the mosque.” MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 16, 1962, p. 8; FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963; and FBI—Sharrieff, Summary Report, Chicago Office, February 12, 1963.

  215 “self-defense is granted throughout the world.” FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  216 moved toward these ideas long before Chicago. “Muhammad Asks for Black State, Tax Exemptions,” Chicago Defender, July 16, 1962; FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963; and FBI—Sharrieff, Summary Report, Chicago Office, February 12, 1963.

  216 “coming at the cadenced pauses in his oratory.” H. D. Quigg, “2,000 Jam Harlem Square to Hear Muslim Leaders Extol Their Cause,” Chicago Defender, July 24, 1962; and FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  216 Malcolm’s old sparring partner Bayard Rustin. “2,500 at Moslem Rally,” Amsterdam News, July 28, 1962.

  217 the feminized Arabic version of Elijah. Rickford, Betty Shabazz, p. 123; and Clegg, An Original Man, pp. 180-81.

  217 Malcolm even briefly addressed the strikers. MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 16, 1962, p. 23; and MX FBI, Correlation Summary, New York Office, September 25, 1963, p. 17.

  217 hopes of prompting a federal investigation of the NOI. Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire (New York: Touchstone, 1998), p. 12.

  217 “be a Nazi than whatever Mr. Yorty is.” “Mayor Yorty Says Cult Backs ‘Hate,’” New York Times, July 27, 1962.

  217 prominent role in determining the course of the case. Branch, Pillar of Fire, pp. 10-11.

  217 “impaneled jury because of the lack of sufficient numbers of Negroes.” MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 16, 1962, p. 19.

  218 except to cancel all his remaining college appearances. Ibid., p. 24.

  218 “and the sort of Ivy League suit (and bald head).” Peter Goldman interview, July 12, 2004.

  218 it also earned him Malcolm’s attention. See Peter Goldman, “Black Muslims Fail to Flourish Here,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 2, 1962.

  218 “understand the Nation of Islam?” Peter Goldman interview, July 12, 2004.

  219 “moment you saw him, [you felt] this incredible presence.” Ibid.

  219 Louis X's “A White Man’s Heaven Is a Black Man’s Hell.” Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 6.

  219 “device for disarming the blacks and, worse still, unmanning them.” Ibid.

  219 still believing “the threat was useful.” Peter Goldman interview, July 12, 2004.

  220 years of covert surveillance, but all of it unattributed. Marable, Living Black History, p. 150.

  221 “So it began eating away at [my] brother.” Louis Farrakhan interview, December 27, 2007.

  221 University of Bridgeport because of “throat trouble.” MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, November 16, 1962, p. 24.

  221 also found employment as a building supervisor. FBI—Goodman, Summary Report, New York Office, September 8, 1960.

  221 a “specialist in Islamic literature and history.” Ibid., October 27, 1961.

  221 to establish an NOI mosque in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Ibid., October 17, 1962.

  222 that year was named the mosque’s “main speaker.” Ibid.

  222 “Not in the buddy sense. He was always in command.ʺ Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, p. 19.

  222 “If you leave again, I’m not coming after you.” Rickford, Betty Shabazz, pp. 105-6.

  222 “that I would defend him. . . . It was a good place for Betty to be.” Louis Farrakhan interview, December 27, 2007.

  223 “get to the grade school level in Mississippi.” Goldman, The Death and Life of Malcolm X, pp. 8, 96.

  223 he would punch him “right in the mouth.” FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 11, 1963.

  224 among those who “suffer” from a “colonial mentality.” Malcolm X to the Editor, “What Courier Readers Think: Muslim vs. Moslem!,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 6, 1962; and Travel Diaries (Transcription): Middle East and West Africa, April-May 1964, MXC-S, box 5, folder 18.

  224 “that they are being led straight to Hell.” Yahya Hayari to the Editor, “What Courier Readers Think: A Blast at Muhammad,” Pittsburgh Courier, October 27, 1962.

  224 “from the evils of this Christian world overnight.” Malcolm X to the Editor, “Amsterdam News Readers Write,” Amsterdam News, November 24, 1962; and Edward Curtis, IV, “Islamism and Its African American Muslim Critics: Black Muslims in the Era of the Arab Cold War,” American Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3 (September 2007), pp. 88-89.

  224 literature and asked Osman for more. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, pp. 201-2; and Curtis, “Islamism and Its African American Critics,” p. 90.

  224 “Christians call him Christ, Jews call him Jehovah.�
� Ibid., p. 159.

  225 Malcolm, upset, left in a waiting automobile. Ibid., pp. 159-60.

  225 all the way from Louisville to hear Elijah Muhammad speak. There is a massive literature about Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay). For a general introduction to the subject, see: David Remnick, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero (New York: Random House, 1998); John Miller and Aaron Kenedi, eds., Muhammad Ali: Ringside (Boston: Bullfinch, 1999); Anthony O. Edmonds, Muhammad Ali: A Biography (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006); and Mike Marqusee, Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (New York: Verso, 1999).

  226 “I said to myself, listen, this man’s saying something!ʺ Interview with Muhammad Ali by Alex Haley, in Miller and Kenedi, eds., Muhammad Ali: Ringside, pp. 39, 42.

  226 “the first time I ever felt spiritual in my life.” Edmonds, Muhammad Ali, p. 37.

  226 “down-to-earth youngster,” as he later related. Remnick, King of the World, p. 165.

  227 “It certainly rubbed off on Ali.” Ibid.

  227 fund-raising drive and teaching classes for two weeks. MX FBI, Summary Report, New York Office, May 17, 1962, p. 11.

  227 priest of black cultural nationalism, known as Maulana Karenga. “Racial Militancy and Pride Urged at West Coast Rally,” Chicago Defender, November 28, 1962.

  227 “punctuated the statements made by Malcolm X.” Wallace Turner, “Militancy Urged on U.S. Negroes,” New York Times, November 26, 1962.

  228 “the white man. We must solve it for ourselves.” Ibid.; Robin D. G. Kelley and Betsy Esch, “Black Like Mao: Red China and Black Revolution,” Souls, vol. 1, no. 4 (Fall 1999), pp. 6-41.

  228 while selling Muhammad Speaks in Times Square. DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 185; and “Jail Term,” Militant (New York), February 4, 1963.

  228 to court, but he could not condone cowardice. FBI—Gravitt, Summary Report, New York Office, January 27, 1964.

  228 suppression of press freedom, and “the freedom of religious expression.” Telegram, Malcolm X to Mayor Robert Wagner, New York City, January 2, 1963, MXC-S, box 5, folder 18.

  228 he told the press, before filing formal complaints. “Muslims Protest Rights Violation by Police,” Chicago Defender, January 10, 1963; “Rights Violated,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), January 8, 1963; “Muslim Assails,” Democrat and Chronicle, February 15, 1963; and DeCaro, On the Side of My People, p. 185.