FBI FILES
1961
On September 7, 1961, LEWIS HENRI MICHAUX, owner of the National Memorial African Bookstore, 2107 Seventh Avenue, New York City, attended a mass rally for Unity, held at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue, sponsored by the Emergency Committee for Unity on Social and Economic Problems (ECUSEP), a newly formed committee representing most Negro groups in Harlem with its purpose being to confront problems of racial violence.
A. Peter Bailey
All those black books! I’ve never seen anything like it. The Howard University bookstore had some black books but mainly textbooks. When I walked into Lewis Michaux’s bookstore and saw all these histories, biographies and autobiographies, fliers and posters, it was mind-blowing.
And there’s this big sign out front— The House of Common Sense and the Home of Proper Propaganda. It’s a huge sign. I mean, you can read it from a block away. The store stands out. It just stands out.
I’m a reader and I’ve been a reader since I was a kid. No question, I’ll be going back to that store. The place is a gold mine. I hear it’s one of Malcolm X’s hangouts. I can understand why.
NORRIS
Guess I was wrong about the bookstore. Lewis made it work. He really made it work. Don’t ask me how, but that crazy s.o.b. got black people to buy books. White people too. And Afrocentric books. That’s a bet I never would’ve taken. Never! Poppa would be dancing in the streets. There’s nobody like Lewis. Nobody.
FBI FILES
1963
The AMSTERDAM NEWS, a daily newspaper published in Harlem, New York City, in its edition of March 9, 1963, published an article which appeared as follows:
“GHANAIAN CAPTAIN BRINGS SHIP HERE”
“Harlem and New York City had the enjoyable pleasure of viewing Ghana’s steadily growing influence in winning friends, true and understandable to her role in world affairs for the future of Africa and African people.
“Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s Black Star Line Merchant Fleet Captain Tachie Menson mastered the ‘Nasia River’ into the port of New York Monday.
“ Lewis H. Michaux, together with African nationals, were on hand to welcome the ship, officers, and crew. Mr. Michaux and African nationals presented Captain Tachie Menson with copies of a sketch depicting him as the inspirational reality of Marcus Garvey’s dreams of ‘black men sailing black-owned ships into ports of the world.’”
LEWIS
When I first met Kwame Nkrumah, he was still finding his way. Now he’s president of Ghana and sending me gifts. It’s nice to be remembered. Nkrumah’s captain and crew brought me one hundred pounds of African coffee right from the Ivory Coast. Mmm, mmm. I’ll keep it at the bookstore for sharing with select friends.
The coffee aside, it was gratifying to be standing on Nkrumah’s Black Star Line Merchant ship, knowing it was a tribute to Garvey.
FBI FILES
1963
LEWIS H. MICHAUX, leader of the ANAI, a back-to-Africa black nationalist movement, attended a meeting of the ANAI, 2107 Seventh Avenue, New York City, on April 13, 1963, which was held at Seventh Avenue between 125th Street and 126th Street, New York City. Approximately one thousand Negro individuals were in attendance at this meeting during which many antiwhite statements were made.
The subject is owner of the National Memorial African Bookstore, 2107 Seventh Avenue, New York City. In November, 1961, MICHAUX founded and became the first president of the organization called Harlem African Black Nationalists. In June 1963, the Harlem African Black Nationalists were incorporated as African Nationals in America, Incorporated (ANAI). MICHAUX’s bookstore sells antiwhite literature.
LEWIS
AUGUST 28 King is surely making an impact. Thousands of people gathered in D.C. today, and the entire nation watched him on television.
The man can talk, I’ll say that. “I have a dream” was potent. Free at last? In an ideal world, maybe . . . but I’m a realist. King’s dream, sadly, is just that. Real integration will never happen.
* * *
Who should show up in the store today but Norris. Haven’t seen him in a month of Sundays. He calls sometimes, but he doesn’t get to Harlem much. He’s still shooting pool but spends most of his free time at Rye Beach with Sinah and the grandkids.
So he walked in the store and, for a long time, just stood looking at the place. I could tell there was something on his mind. He wanted to speak but was having trouble finding the words. Then he said it. After all these years, Norris said, “I was wrong.” I thought the sky was going to fall.
I didn’t say I told you so. Just offered him a cup of my special African coffee.
Gus Travers
(OFF THE RECORD)
DECEMBER 2 Being a reporter has its perks. They weren’t letting whites in the door. I only got in the rally because of my press pass. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have heard him say it.
I know Malcolm X doesn’t pull his punches, but what was he thinking? Less than a week after the president’s funeral, he suggests Kennedy deserved it saying it was the “chickens coming home to roost.”
Some people in the audience laughed. Others seemed to take it in stride, but the press pounced on it. A few reporters were fighting over a pay phone.
LEWIS
One day Malcolm says to me, “Michaux, this white man’s got a lot to answer for.”
“Well, Malcolm,” I tell him, “you could say the chickens have finally come home to roost.”
He took his notebook out and put that down. Last week, after President Kennedy was shot, he commented about the chickens coming home to roost. They jumped on him for that. They couldn’t find nothin’ else to say against him.
LEWIS
When Malcolm returned from his hajj, his pilgrimage to Mecca, he came to the bookstore.
“Dr. Michaux,” he says. “I’m taking a new look at the old book.”
“What old book?” I ask him.
“Mr. Muhammad teaches that no white people can become members of the Muslim movement,” Malcolm said. “I went to Mecca and every nationality under the sun was there, and this proved to me that the present type of Islam that we have been taught here is just like black Christianity—segregated. And any religion, any man, that segregates because of color is out of order.”
Elijah Muhammad was preaching a false setup. It was going under the heading of Muslim, but it wasn’t the real thing.
Malcolm split with Elijah Muhammad because he wants to be a spokesman for black people period. Muhammad is only interested in you if you want to be a Muslim, and 80 percent of the so-called Negroes don’t want no religion. They’ve had it with that. They want a program where they can survive, and Malcolm is saying “Whosoever will, let him come.”
Christ, Himself, came to emancipate the common people, and the Bible says the common people heard Him gladly. Malcolm wants to be free, and he split with Mr. Muhammad so he won’t have to toe a certain line. He can set up his own program and that’s what he’s doing. The Organization of Afro-American Unity. He’s calling it—the OAAU. Anybody can join.
FBI FILES
1964
The AMSTERDAM NEWS edition of February 29, 1964, carried an article headlined, “Nationalist Pleads for Malcolm X,” which stated “Harlem’s Number One Black Nationalist This Week asks The Nation’s Number One Black Muslim to deal lightly with Muslim Minister Malcolm X. The plea from Harlem was sent to Chicago by Lewis Henri MICHAUX, owner of a Negro bookstore at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue. He sent the message to Elijah Muhammad, Spiritual Leader of the Muslims, on the eve of the Black Muslim’s Convention scheduled to be attended by thousands.”
On March 26, 1964, MICHAUX attended a press conference held by Black Muslim Minister MALCOLM X at the Park Sheraton Hotel in New York City, at which time MALCOLM X announced he was leaving the Nation of Islam to form his own movement.
On June 3, 1964, MICHAUX attended a rally sponsored by the supporters of Malcolm X, which was held at the Audubon Ballroom, 166th Street and Broad
way, New York City.
James E. Turner
I first saw Malcolm X at the bookstore where he comes to talk with Michaux. The corner outside the bookstore is a stage for street speakers in the tradition of Hyde Park in London and Union Square here in New York. Michaux, a major nationalist voice himself, introduces Malcolm at these rallies.
The more I listen, the more their analysis of our lack of power, our people having no sense of their history, those basic nationalist tenets—internal self-contempt, lack of ability to cooperate—begins to resonate.
LEWIS
The other day, I gave Malcolm a check to help with the start-up of his new religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.
He says, “I thank Allah for this money.”
I say, “Allah didn’t give you that money. I gave you that money.”
He laughs and says, “So, I thank you, Brother Michaux.”
A. Peter Bailey
I’ve only been in Harlem two years, but those years have been life-changing. Meeting Brother Malcolm, finding Mr. Michaux’s bookstore, and now getting involved in the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
At the meeting yesterday, when people were taking on jobs, no one offered to do the newsletter. Caught up in the moment, I volunteered. I’ve never done any journalistic writing. Never even wrote for my high school newspaper, and here I am, editor of the OAAU’s paper, the Blacklash. I’ll be learning as I go, but I’m up for it. I believe in this work and Brother Malcolm seems to have faith in me. He wants to bring all people of African descent together as a force for human rights. I guess he’s starting with people like me.
I stop by the store at least once a week now. When I’m there, I don’t just read. I listen. I listen to Brother Michaux talking about books and current events. He and his peers are like older brothers to the rest of us. They discuss issues and argue. I just stand around and get free history lessons.
Helen Brown, Bookstore Secretary
Lewis is correct. We have to get the word Negro out of our language. We have to stand up for our blackness.
Negroes are victims. Even if we see ourselves as black, we can’t always control how others see us. I can say and believe that I’m a black woman, but if the man with the power sees me as a Negro, he treats me as a Negro—as a victim.
Since Lewis told me about getting twenty lashes for stealing a sack of peanuts as a boy, I can’t seem to get it out of my mind—the look on his face, the humiliation, the resentment. This wound has never healed. But it surely didn’t break his spirit. On the contrary, it fortified him.
Seems Lewis was born a black man. There was never any Negro in him. Our young people have to learn not to be victims. Many are getting it, and this bookstore is helping.
Bookstore Customer
FEBRUARY 21 Mr. Michaux edged his way through the crowd of us, all standing in front of the store. He seemed dazed.
Somebody said, “You were there, Professor. What happened?”
“I wasn’t,” Mr. Michaux said. He could hardly speak.
People started talking among themselves.
“Quiet now,” I couldn’t help saying. “Quiet.” Everybody hushed and waited.
Finally, he began.
“I was to be on the platform with him at two o’clock to introduce his organization. I was about twenty-five minutes late because I had to go to Rockefeller Center to get my boy. He was skating down there.” His eyes filled up.
After a moment, he continued.
“When I got to the Audubon, everybody was rushing out, screaming and hollering. I went inside and there he was, lying dead.” Mr. Michaux shook his head. “I was supposed to be sitting beside him.”
The bookstore had always been a noisy place with lots of talk. But the news of the murder left everyone without words. Most of us had heard Malcolm speak right there out front. I felt the gratitude of having had the experience, and the sadness and bitterness of knowing that none of us would ever hear Malcolm again.
NEW YORK REGISTER
FEBRUARY 22, 1965
MALCOLM X MURDERED IN HARLEM
FOLLOWERS SHARE FRUSTRATION AND SORROW
BY GUS TRAVERS
Black nationalist Malcolm X was killed at the Audubon Ballroom where he was scheduled to speak yesterday on behalf of his Organization of Afro-American Unity. As he stood at the lectern, a loud argument distracted the crowd of onlookers, and a man armed with a shotgun rushed the stage and fired twice, fatally wounding the former Nation of Islam member.
Weeks before Malcolm X was to speak, he ordered an end to security checks of those who would be entering the hall.
“If I can’t be safe among my own kind,” he said, “where can I be?”
Despite the Valentine’s Day firebombing of his home, he attended today’s rally as scheduled. Those closest to him said he seemed unusually anxious when he arrived at the ballroom—almost as if he knew his days were numbered.
During the first seconds of his address before four hundred attendees, the threats on his life were carried out. Three alleged members of the Nation of Islam (NOI), one armed with a 12-gauge shotgun, the others with handguns, stood and opened fire, sending bullets ripping though the controversial black leader.
Malcolm X was pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Vanderbilt Clinic Medical Center. He was thirty-nine years old.
The feud between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam is well known. Talk of revenge by many of the murdered leader’s followers, who suspect Muhammad orchestrated the assassination, led police last night to bring three hundred additional officers from Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx to keep the peace in Harlem. There were no incidents of public unrest.
Many Malcolm X supporters gathered outside the Hotel Theresa, where the black leader kept an office. Others convened across the street in front of the National
Memorial African Bookstore, where the self-described human rights advocate often led rallies or consulted with the store’s owner, Lewis Michaux. But there was no further display of violence—only talk of the tragedy and Malcolm X’s legacy.
One man outside of the bookstore said, “Malcolm spoke up for the people. He was doing what he thought was right. Any time leaders speak for the people they are killed.”
“Why wasn’t he protected?” asked a man dressed in a suit and tie. “The handwriting was on the wall.”
“We all know who wanted him dead, but there won’t be any justice because the power elite doesn’t care. They’re glad that somebody else got rid of Malcolm so they won’t have to,” added a young man dressed entirely in black.
A passerby commented, “Isn’t he the one who said the chickens have come home to roost? Well now he knows what that’s like.”
Tears streaked the face of a woman holding a sign that read: “He didn’t die in vain.”
Outspoken bookstore owner, Lewis Michaux, was uncharacteristically silent.
BETTIE
FEBRUARY 22 New York City police officers came to the house to question Lewis about Malcolm’s murder. With Lewis Jr.—just nine years old—standing right there. Can you imagine?
I brought him right into the kitchen and turned up the radio.
LEWIS JR.
FEBRUARY 22 I’m sad those men killed Mr. Malcolm, but I’m glad my dad is all right. I’m glad I went skating and Dad came to get me. I’m glad.
Gus Travers,
New York City Newspaper Reporter
(OFF THE RECORD)
FEBRUARY Up in Harlem today, I see Michaux’s been composing again. There’s a new sign outside his bookstore:
MAN, IF YOU THINK BRO. MALCOLM IS DEAD,
YOU ARE OUT OF YOUR COTTON PICKING HEAD.
JUST GET UP OFF YOUR SLUMBERING BED,
AND WATCH HIS FIGHTING SPIRIT SPREAD.
EVERY SHUT EYE AIN’T SLEEP.
EVERY GOOD-BYE AIN’T GONE.
Inside, Michaux is at work, sharing books, talking with customers as usual. But something’s missing. That spri
ng in his step. That energy.
He’s mourning.
LEWIS
They had to get rid of Malcolm because he was rocking the boat. Malcolm was the freest man.
The Nation of Islam did a lot for him, but you can’t hog-tie a man’s knowledge. After training a man to do a thing, sometimes the student is better than the teacher. What happened was jealousy. All the press and everybody wanted to talk with Malcolm, not old Elijah Muhammad, ’cause Muhammad can’t talk, can’t entertain an audience. Malcolm kept an audience spellbound.
Malcolm is reincarnated in the minds and spirits of our young people. Garvey woke ’em up. And Malcolm got ’em up. When a man tells the truth, a lot of people claim he’s stirring something up. But if the truth stirs it up, let it come! Let it come!
A. Peter Bailey
I remember when I first heard Brother Malcolm.
I moved to Harlem on a Friday night the summer of ’62. Saturday afternoon I walked along Lenox Avenue, just to look around. I got up to 116th Street and saw a crowd gathering. Someone said Malcolm X was going to speak. What little I’d heard had made him out to be a bogeyman, so I was curious.
When Brother Malcolm spoke, he always quoted books and articles, and made you want to go get the books and read those articles. That’s how I started going to the bookstore. Mr. Michaux was Malcolm’s master teacher. Brother Malcolm would go there, and from what I understand, he would get into those books and Brother Michaux would just close up the shop and leave him in there. What Malcolm learned from him, he would impart to us. So there was that link. The store was one of Brother Malcolm’s major learning places, especially when it came to history. And he would speak there at the space in front of the store. They would set the ladders out, and he would climb up and speak.
No Crystal Stair Page 7
