{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_61806/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_61806","id":"gutenberg_61806","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61806","summary":null,"tags":["Black Muslims","Category: History - American","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"WHEN THE WORD IS GIVEN ...\n\n\n\n\nBy Louis E. Lomax\n\n\n  THE RELUCTANT AFRICAN\n  THE NEGRO REVOLT\n  WHEN THE WORD IS GIVEN ...\n\n\n\n\n  LOUIS E. LOMAX\n\n  _When the Word is Given_ ...\n\n  A REPORT ON\n  ELIJAH MUHAMMAD,\n  MALCOLM X,\n  AND THE\n  BLACK MUSLIM\n  WORLD\n\n  [Illustration]\n\n  THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY\n  CLEVELAND AND NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n  Published by The World Publishing Company\n  2231 West 110th Street, Cleveland 2, Ohio\n\n  Published simultaneously in Canada by\n  Nelson, Foster & Scott Ltd.\n\n  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21624\n\n  FIRST EDITION\n\n  WP963\n  Copyright \u00a9 1963 by Louis E. Lomax.\n\n  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced\n  in any form without written permission from the publisher, except for\n  brief passages included in a review appearing in a newspaper\n  or magazine. Printed in the United States of America.\n\n  Design by Larry Kamp\n\n\n\n\n  To James Leonidas Lomax, consecrated preacher, dedicated teacher, and\n  devoted parent. What little love there is among men today is due to\n  men like Uncle James.\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS\n\n\n    Introduction                                   11\n\n  =PART ONE=: _The Coming of the Prophet_\n\n    1. MAKE IT PLAIN, MR. MINISTER!                17\n\n    2. FROM MOSES TO MALCOLM X                     35\n\n    3. THE NATION OF ISLAM                         59\n\n    4. THE BLACK MUSLIMS AND THE NEGRO REVOLT      85\n\n  =PART TWO=: _The Prophet\u2019s Voice_\n\n    1. MUHAMMAD AT ATLANTA                        109\n\n    2. MALCOLM X AT HARVARD                       130\n\n    3. MALCOLM X ON \u201cUNITY\u201d                       149\n\n    4. MALCOLM X\u2019S \u201cUNIVERSITY SPEECH\u201d            159\n\n    5. MALCOLM X AT QUEENS COLLEGE                172\n\n    6. MALCOLM X AT YALE                          179\n\n  =A SUMMING UP=:\n\n    _Louis Lomax Interviews Malcolm X_            197\n\n    Suggested Additional Reading                  213\n\n    Index                                         215\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThis book comes at a time when the American race issue seems at a\nclimax. Disturbing though it may be, it is encouraging that such a\nbook as this can be written, that a group like the Black Muslims not\nonly lives among us but that it can be investigated and studied. This\nmeans that at long last we are about to become honest about the race\nquestion. Negroes are saying what they think; white people are pausing\nto listen. These are the prerequisites of dialogue in a free society,\nand I predict that on the whole the Black Muslims will have a healthy\ninfluence on our social structure.\n\nI know white people are frightened by Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad;\nmaybe now they will understand how I have felt all my life, for there\nhas never been a day when I was unafraid; we Negroes live our lives on\nthe edge of fear, not knowing when or how the serpent of discrimination\nwill strike and deprive us of something dear--a job here, a house\nthere, an evening out over there, or a life itself. But things are\nbetter now than they once were; I am convinced they will soon be\nbetter than they are now. I am optimistic because I feel Negroes are\nnow determined to better their lot; I believe we will win because there\nis every evidence that white people are beginning to yield some of\ntheir power, and that--power--is what the argument is really about.\n\nI have drawn on a spate of newspaper articles for this manuscript.\nI must give particular thanks to my friends Alex Haley and C. Eric\nLincoln, Professor of Social Relations, Clark College, Atlanta. Haley\u2019s\narticle on the Muslims and his unpublished notes were of immense help;\nLincoln\u2019s book, _The Black Muslims in America_, is the definitive work\non the followers of Elijah Muhammad and it was my bible as I tried\nfirst to understand and then to portray the Black Muslims. Dr. Lincoln\nand I shared research when he was preparing his fine work, and he has\nmost graciously given me his consent to draw freely from his material,\nparticularly that related to the origins and early history of the\nmovement.\n\nThanks to Ann Westbay and Frances Hannah for their work as typists.\nBoth of them also served as valuable critics as the manuscript took\nshape; for this additional service I owe them much appreciation.\n\nMost of all I am indebted to the Black Muslims themselves. For\nmore than four years, now, they have tolerated my questions and\npresence, knowing that I differ with them on many issues. Without\ntheir permission, over the years, this kind of book would have been\nimpossible.\n\nThe summer of 1963 saw the Negro Revolt move into full view; it also\nsaw the Black Muslims reach an almost incredible peak of public concern\nand notice. The intent of this work is to provide information and\ninsight as companions to that concern. For correct information is the\nultimate weapon of freedom. Even so, there are unpleasant and chilling\nthings in this book. The Black Muslims--for some--are an unpleasant\nand chilling people, but freedom includes the right to be chilling, and\nthe Black Muslims have no monopoly on unpleasantness.\n\nIn reality, Western man is on trial in this book. Without the failings\nof Western society, the Black Muslims could not have come into being;\nwithout the continued failings of our society, the Black Muslims cannot\nendure. Here, then, Western white man, is a bitter pill. Do with it as\nyou see fit.\n\n                                                          LOUIS E. LOMAX\n\n  _St. Albans, New York_\n  _July, 1963_\n\n\n\n\nPART ONE\n\n_The Coming of the Prophet_\n\n\n\n\n1. MAKE IT PLAIN, MR. MINISTER!\n\n\nThe ultimate comment upon racialism in this republic is that the\nall-black Nation of Islam--a Chicago-based theocracy whose citizens are\nknown as the Black Muslims--is one of the few religions ever produced\nby the American experience. Incensed liberals, Negro and white, will\ndeny my assertion that the Black Muslims are a religious body, but the\nissue, both legally and theologically, has been settled: Courts in\nseveral states have ruled that the followers of The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad are, indeed, adherents to a religious faith--as such, Black\nMuslim prison inmates have the right to hold services of worship as do\nother convicts. And no one who understands theologian Paul Tillich\u2019s\nargument that religion is nothing more than one\u2019s ultimate concern can\ndoubt that the teachings of number-two Black Muslim leader, Malcolm X,\nconstitute a religion.\n\nMalcolm X is the St. Paul of the Black Muslim movement. Not only was\nhe knocked to the ground by the bright light of truth while on an evil\njourney, but he also rose from the dust stunned, with a new name and a\nburning zeal to travel in the opposite direction and carry America\u2019s\ntwenty million Negroes with him.\n\n\u201cThis is the day of warning,\u201d Malcolm shouts to the Negro, \u201cthe hour\nduring which prophecy is being fulfilled before your very eyes. The\nwhite man is doomed! Don\u2019t integrate _with_ him, separate _from_ him!\nCome ye out from among the white devils and be ye separate.\u201d\n\nNobody knows just how many Negroes have said \u201cyes\u201d to Malcolm X\u2019s call.\nEstimates of the Black Muslim membership vary from a quarter of a\nmillion down to fifty thousand. Available evidence indicates that about\none hundred thousand Negroes have joined the movement at one time or\nanother, but few objective observers believe that the Black Muslims can\nmuster more than twenty or twenty-five thousand active temple people.\n\nThe Black Muslims are feverish proselytizers, however, and they get\namazing results from Negro prison inmates and the abandoned black\nmasses who live in a world of despair and futility. Early commentators\non the movement pointed to their work among prison inmates as further\nevidence that the Black Muslims were a dissolute lot. The opposite\nhas proved to be true--the Muslims have been able to change the lives\nof these men once they emerge from prison. While the percentage of\nrepeaters among ordinary Negro criminals runs very high, the Black\nMuslim converts seldom, if ever, return to a life of crime.\n\n\u201cMany of my followers--and ministers--were once criminals,\u201d Elijah\nMuhammad boasted in Washington, D.C., \u201cbut I changed all that by giving\nthem knowledge of _self_. Once they discovered who the devil was and\nwho God was, their lives were changed.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah,\u201d the crowd of some five thousand shouted as\nthey leaped to their feet and applauded with rejoicing.\n\nNon-Muslim Negroes used to scoff when Elijah wrote and talked about\n\u201cknowledge of self.\u201d They are less apt to scoff now that a new wave\nof race pride has engulfed the Negro and a coterie of clean-cut,\nwell-dressed, polite, and chillingly moral Black Muslim ex-convicts\nparade through the Negro community each day.\n\nThe same general approach, teaching race pride as knowledge of \u201cself,\u201d\naccounts for the success the Black Muslims have among low-income\nNegroes. For these people are in something of a prison, too; they see\nthemselves as failures and need some accounting for why they are what\nthey are, why they are not what they are not. These needs are met when\nthe wayward and the downtrodden sit at the feet of Malcolm X and hear\nhim proclaim the divinity of the black man, hear him blame the white\nman for sin and lawlessness and then go on to herald the impending\ndestruction of the \u201cblue-eyed white devil.\u201d\n\n\n_Bean Pie and Beatitudes_\n\nThe life of the Black Muslim centers around his temple--sometimes\ncalled a mosque--and the temple restaurant. They are usually located\nclose together, in the heart of the Negro ghetto, and are the nerve\ncenters of work and worship. Temple services are held two or three\ntimes a week and are generally preceded by family and group meals\nat the restaurant. Families--most of them former Methodists and\nBaptists--come in groups, the men dressed in black, the women in\nflowing white, and the children wearing pins or buttons to let the\nworld know of their commitment to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nThe restaurants--like the Black Muslim homes--strictly adhere to Moslem\ndietary laws. Muslim sisters glory in their ability to prepare dishes\nthat satisfy the traditional eating habits of the American Negro\nwithout violating these laws. The best example of imaginative Black\nMuslim cooking is their famous bean pie, something of a gourmet\u2019s\ndelight in the Negro community. Negroes in New York have been known to\ncome to Harlem from miles around just to buy a bean pie for the family\ntable. The restaurants also serve as business headquarters for the\nmovement; they are the distribution centers for Black Muslim newspapers\nand other periodicals, the place where one is invited to have a talk\nwith a Black Muslim leader. Temple Number Seven Restaurant at 116th\nStreet and Lenox Avenue in Harlem is where Minister Malcolm X holds\nforth: he can be seen there almost any time conducting the financial\naffairs of the movement and holding press conferences. Then, on a sign\nfrom one of his assistants, Malcolm bounds out of the restaurant to\nconduct temple service at Temple Number Seven, half a block away.\n\nThroughout the nation the Muslims generally meet in rented halls--a\nMasonic Temple in one town, over a pool room in another. Men and women\nenter the temple together, but once in the vestibule the families are\nseparated. Everybody is searched thoroughly and all sharp objects,\nto say nothing of weapons, are taken away. The search is carried out\nby well-trained sisters and brothers who work with the efficiency of\njail guards. They assign a small paper bag to each worshiper, and such\nobjects as nail files, pocket-knives, scissors--any sharp objects that\nmight conceivably be used as weapons--are put into the bag for safe\nkeeping until the parishioner leaves the temple. Even the ordeal of\nbeing searched is made palatable by a pleasant brother or sister who\nexplains that the visitor must be relieved of all weapons because once\nthe truth about the white man is explained, the visitor might run out\nand start his private Armageddon before the \u201cword\u201d comes.\n\nThe men and women are ushered into the temple through separate doors\nand are ordered to sit on opposite sides. The auditorium is generally\na drab room, one used by many groups in the course of a week. In\nBirmingham, Alabama, for example, the Black Muslims use the Masonic\nHall auditorium. The Sunday I visited the services there one could see\nposters, fans, and other materials left by groups who had used the same\nhall earlier in the week. The chairs of the auditorium are arranged\nin rows, a wide gulf between the \u201cbrothers\u201d side and that of the\n\u201csisters.\u201d Dark-suited young men, members of The Fruit of Islam, patrol\nthe floor incessantly. They dart about, nudging children to silence,\nawakening a slumbering brother or sister, and performing whatever\nduties might come to hand, all the while keeping up a rapid-fire\n\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d \u201cYou tell it like it is,\u201d in response to what the\nminister is saying.\n\nThe visitor finds himself inside a strange new world at a Black Muslim\nservice. Many religions separate men and women during their services,\nbut few Negroes are members of such faiths and so they are intrigued\nfrom the outset. Their sense of being in on something exotic, thus\nmeaningful, is increased when one of the lesser ministers takes the\nplatform and says a few words in Arabic. The Negro is told that this\nwas his language before the white man kidnaped his father and truncated\nhis culture.\n\n\u201c_As-Salaam-Alaikum!_\u201d the minister says--Peace be unto you.\n\n\u201c_Wa-Alaikum-Salaam_,\u201d the visitor is taught to reply--\u201cPeace also be\nunto you.\u201d\n\nThe Black Muslims have little or no liturgy. They do not sing in the\ntemple, for they have not yet developed hymns that enunciate their\nfaith. The nearest thing I have heard to a Black Muslim hymn is a\nplaintive and moving song written by Minister Louis X of Boston, \u201cThe\nWhite Man\u2019s Heaven Is the Black Man\u2019s Hell.\u201d It is often sung in the\ntemples, but only as a solo by some gifted member of the congregation.\n\nMany of the Black Muslims are excellent musicians; indeed, they are\nsidemen for some of the best-known jazz groups in the nation. I have\nbeen in temple meetings where a group of brothers set the stage for the\nservice by playing a protracted jazz riff. The music was as complex and\nas far out as anything you would hear at New York\u2019s Five Spot Caf\u00e9 or\nany other den of progressive jazz. As these accomplished jazz men play\nout their frustrations, the audience sits in cold silence. Sometimes\nthe musicians come on a beat or a shading that strikes some common\nchord, and the Muslims smile slightly and nod at one another. When the\nmusic is done--it goes on and on until it runs down, just as it does in\nthe jazz clubs--the congregation applauds, and somewhere a male voice\ncan be heard to say, \u201cAll praise due to Allah!\u201d\n\nThen the stage is set for the \u201cteaching.\u201d In lieu of the cross, the\nfocus of the Black Muslims\u2019 religious service is a huge blackboard\ndivided into two sections. On one side is a drawing of the American\nflag with the Christian cross superimposed on it. Under this flag is\nwritten, \u201cSlavery, Suffering and Death.\u201d On the other side of the\nblackboard is the half-crescent symbol of Islam, and under it is\nwritten, \u201cFreedom, Justice and Equality.\u201d Under both flags, running the\nfull length of the blackboard, is the somber warning: \u201cWhich one will\nsurvive the War of Armageddon?\u201d\n\nAnd it is against this backdrop that the minister gets up to \u201cteach.\u201d\nEach temple has its own minister, who is extremely well trained in what\nhe is to say and do. And he does it well.\n\nThe Black Muslims have but one message: The white man is by nature\nevil, a snake who is incapable of doing right, a devil who is soon to\nbe destroyed. Therefore, the black man, who is by nature divine and\ngood, must separate from the white man as soon as possible, lest he\nshare the white man\u2019s hour of total destruction.\n\nThis sermon, or \u201cteaching,\u201d is the high point of the service, what\neverybody has come to hear. An air of expectancy runs through the crowd\nas the moment to begin the teaching approaches. This is stock drama for\nthe Black Muslims whether the meeting be a national affair where Elijah\nhimself is to speak or a local meeting where the temple minister is to\nteach.\n\nThis air of expectancy is set stirring by the second-in-command, who\nkeeps up a running promise that something good is about to happen.\nAs warm-up man for Elijah\u2019s Washington, D.C., speech, Malcolm X\nelectrified a crowd of some five thousand in Uline Arena with this:\n\n\u201cYou are here to get some good news.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you must remember that what is good news for some is bound to be\nbad news for others.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah,\u201d the people shouted back.\n\n\u201cWhat is good news for the sheep,\u201d Malcolm continued, \u201cis bad news for\nthe wolf!\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain, Mr. Minister. Make it plain.\u201d\n\nThe good news, as everybody knew, was that Elijah would be there soon\nwith a message of freedom for the \u201csheep\u201d (the black man) and a message\nof destruction for the \u201cwolf\u201d (the white man).\n\nThe setting for local meetings is much the same. In New York Minister\nHenry X gets the crowd ready for Malcolm by saying, \u201cWe are here to\nreceive a blessing. The truth is going to be told here this afternoon.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praises due to Allah.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Messenger\u2019s Minister will be here shortly with word from the man\nwho saw God.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Minister is going to tell you who and what you are!\u201d\n\n\u201cSay the word.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen he is going to tell you who and what the devil is!\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen he is going to show you why you had better hurry up and get out\nfrom among the devil before you get destroyed with him.\u201d\n\nThis brings the crowd to their feet, cheering. The side door to\nthe upstairs temple swings open and Malcolm X, a tall, rawboned,\nIchabod-Crane-looking man, strolls in flanked by an Honor Guard. As\nhe walks to the platform his light-skinned, granite face is stern. He\nlooks and acts like a military officer who may give a fatal order any\nminute. His clothes, always a size or so too large, literally drape\nfrom his body, making him look more gaunt than he actually is.\n\n\u201cBig Red,\u201d as Malcolm was called when he was peddling prostitutes and\ndope on the streets of Harlem, is a dashing and handsome man. Women of\nall races and creeds are drawn to him. He speaks with an authority that\nis all but hypnotic.\n\n\u201cWhen I say the white man is a devil,\u201d Minister Malcolm shouts, \u201cI\nspeak with the authority of history.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d the people shout back.\n\n\u201cThe record of history shows that the white men, as a people, have\nnever done good.\u201d\n\n\u201cSay on, brother, say on.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe stole our fathers and mothers from their culture of silk and satins\nand brought them to this land in the belly of a ship--am I right or\nwrong?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou are right; God knows you are right.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe brought us here in chains--right?\u201d\n\n\u201cRight.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe has kept us in chains ever since we have been here.\u201d\n\n\u201cPreach on, Brother Minister, preach on.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow this blue-eyed devil\u2019s time has about run out!\u201d\n\nThe people leap to their feet, rejoicing.\n\n\u201cNow the fiery hell he has heaped upon others is about to come down on\nthe white man!\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah,\u201d the people shout.\n\n\u201cGod--we call him Allah--is going to get this white, filthy, hog-loving\nbeast off our backs,\u201d Malcolm promises.\n\n\u201cSay on--yes, yes, yes....\u201d\n\n\u201cGod is going to hitch him to the plow and make him do his own dirty\nwork.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, yes. Say on!\u201d\n\n\u201cGod is going to take over the garment district and make those white\ndogs push their own trucks.\u201d\n\nMen in the audience jump up and down and shout their approval: \u201cAll\npraises due to Allah. Praise His holy name!\u201d\n\n\u201cNow, now,\u201d Malcolm says, \u201ccalm down, because I want you to hear me.\nNow I want to tell you who God is. I want you to understand who Allah\nis so you will know who is going to get this white, dope-peddling beast\noff your back.\u201d\n\nMalcolm smiles. A ripple of laughter runs through the audience--you\nsee, they know who Allah is; they know who God is; they know just who\nis going to get the white man off their backs. But they have come to\nhear Malcolm \u201cmake it plain\u201d again.\n\n\u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that God--Allah--is not a\nspook; we don\u2019t worship any ghost for a God. We don\u2019t believe in any\ndead God.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur God is a live God.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe is walking around here with you, among you, in you.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d the people shout back.\n\n\u201cGod is black, like you; God is oppressed, like you; He looks like you;\nHe acts like you; He walks like you; He talks like you....\u201d\n\nBy this time, the people are back on their feet cheering. But Malcolm\nhas gone as far toward describing God as he will go for a while.\n\n\u201cNow,\u201d he says, \u201cyou have to listen with understanding to know what I\nam talking about.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe with you.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t let white devils in our meetings.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, no, no!\u201d\n\n\u201cBut we have to worry about some of you because the white man has\nmessed up your mind so bad that some of you will run back and tell\neverything. That\u2019s why we can\u2019t tell you everything; that\u2019s why you\nhave to listen carefully and with understanding if you are going to\nfind out just who God is. But if He walks like you, and looks like you,\nand talks like you, and suffers like you; and if He is with you, in\nyou, and all around you ... then ... well, you figure it out!\u201d\n\nThe people, particularly the men, lift their voices in a long shout,\nfor they have again been told that the black man, taken collectively,\nis God--Allah--that Allah will soon, now, destroy the devil, the white\nman.\n\nMalcolm X, as he does three or four times each week, has \u201cmade\nit plain.\u201d He has told black men that they--as God--must deliver\nthemselves from the evils and hurts of the white man. And that, of\ncourse, is what they came to temple to hear.\n\nOn another Sunday afternoon the message will take a different form.\nMalcolm this time elects to make his famous \u201cdeaf, dumb, and blind\u201d\nspeech. I, for one, believe Malcolm is at his best when he deals with\nthis issue.\n\nThe speech begins as Malcolm X literally heaps abuse on his audience.\n\n\u201cYou are deaf, dumb, and blind,\u201d he tells them. \u201cYou are lost in the\nwilderness of North America, and the black man\u2019s new day has been\ndelayed because of you. Now I am here to get you ready.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain,\u201d the people shout back.\n\n\u201cNow the first thing you must do is clean yourself up.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, that\u2019s right, that\u2019s right!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou must clean yourself up both physically and morally.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right! That\u2019s right!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou must learn that certain foods are unclean. The hog is a filthy\nbeast, and it is against God\u2019s will for you to eat it.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou can never clean yourself up as long as you have hog in your body.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain; make it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen you must clean yourself up morally.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, Brother Minister, that\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis white devil is responsible for all the dope and prostitution you\nsee here among us.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe has filled us with his immorality.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe has so confused us that our community is filled with addicts,\nthieves, and prostitutes.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd you will notice,\u201d Malcolm continues, \u201cthat these are Christians\nwho are dealing in dope and prostitution.\n\n\u201cAnd you and I know this is true because when we were Christians we\nused dope.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe lied.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe stole.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe were unfaithful to our wives.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe did everything antisocial and immoral.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut now that we know who God is, now that we have found Allah--our\noriginal true God--now that we have learned love and respect for self,\nnow that all this has happened, we have cleaned ourselves up.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praises due to Allah.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe love our own black women.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe protect our women and children from the devil and his works.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd we have stopped turning the other cheek!\u201d\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe respect authority, but we are ready to fight and die in defense of\nour lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praises due to Allah!\u201d\n\nBroadsides at Christianity delivered by Malcolm X and other ministers\nseem to make the strongest impression on the audience. The minister\nexplains that the Negro was introduced to Christianity while a slave, a\nbondsman to the man who taught him about Jesus. Employing any history\ntext, he reads at length, using \u201cthe white man\u2019s own writings to show\nthat Christianity is a white man\u2019s religion.\u201d This strikes home,\nbecause the average Negro has read enough to know that there is a\ngood deal of historical soundness in what the minister says. Then the\nminister goes on to point out that the Christian church (and they quote\nAdam Clayton Powell on this) \u201cis the most segregated institution in\nAmerica.\u201d And the Negro does not need a history book to know that this\nstatement has total validity.\n\nThen the minister goes on to attack Christianity on the grounds\nthat its practitioners are immoral. He calls the roll of criminals\nand public failures, making much of the fact that they are \u201call\nChristians.\u201d The minister uses clippings from the newspapers showing\nwhite clergymen and church-goers either sanctioning segregation or\nbeing neutral about it. During the Birmingham crisis I attended the\nBlack Muslim service and saw Minister James X deliver a devastating\nindictment of Christianity simply by showing pictures of Birmingham\nNegroes being turned away from white churches. One picture showed the\nrebuffed Negroes praying on the church steps while white bullies, their\nfists balled up, stood near-by.\n\nBlack Christians are also indicted for immorality; the minister points\nout that \u201cAll of us were once in the church and we did everything\nevil.\u201d I have watched this argument at work and come away amazed at the\nway the Black Muslims take the Christian ethic as a measuring stick;\nthey then arouse the guilt complex of the wayward Christians in the\naudience and then go on to blame Christianity for the individual\u2019s\nmoral failure. This, to be sure, is a contorted argument. But it works.\nChristians sit in the temple audience and confess their Christian\nfailing, then they repent themselves right out of the Christian church.\n\nAfter the sermon the visitors are asked to raise any questions that may\ntrouble them. The ministers deal with each question in detail, but the\nBlack Muslim ushers (The Fruit of Islam) make certain the questioner is\nnot an \u201cagitator,\u201d someone who has come into the temple just to start a\nphilosophical or theological argument.\n\n\u201cYou are in here to be taught, Brother,\u201d I heard one Black Muslim say\nto a visitor, \u201cnot to argue.\u201d And when the visitor frankly says he\ndoes not understand what the Black Muslims are up to, or that, after\nhonestly trying, he is unable to agree, the minister explains that this\nis not to be held against the visitor. \u201cYou are among the deaf, dumb,\nand blind,\u201d the minister explains kindly. Then he assures the visitor\nthat further study and estrangement from \u201cthe teaching of the devil\u201d\nwill open his eyes and ears.\n\nThe climax of each temple service comes when visitors are invited to\njoin the movement. There is great rejoicing when converts come forth.\nEric Lincoln, who has attended more of these services than I have, says\nthat the larger temples average a dozen or so converts at each meeting.\n\nOnce the visitor decides to join the temple, he is given a letter he\nmust copy by hand:\n\n                                                          Address\n                                                          City and State\n                                                          Date\n\n  Mr. W. F. Muhammad\n  4807 South Woodlawn Avenue\n  Chicago 15, Illinois\n\n  Dear Savior Allah, Our Deliverer:\n\n  I have been attending the teachings of Islam by one of your\n  Ministers, two or three times. I believe in it, and I bear witness\n  that there is no God but Thee, and that Muhammad is Thy Servant and\n  Apostle. I desire to reclaim my Own. Please give me my Original name.\n  My slave name is as follows:\n\n                                                          Name\n                                                          Address\n                                                          City and State\n\nThis letter of application is dispatched to Chicago, and if the copy\ncontains no errors, the visitor is sent a detailed questionnaire that\ninquires into his family and employment status. This completed, the\napplicant is given a thorough investigation by local members of The\nFruit. If the applicant stands muster, he is admitted to membership in\nthe Black Muslim movement.\n\nThen, and only then, is the convert allowed to drop his \u201cslave\u201d name.\nIf his name is, say, John King, he becomes John X; if there are other\nJohns in the local temple, his \u201cX\u201d will denote that he is the third,\nfourth, or whatever number John to join that particular temple. Thus\nit is very common to find John 2X or John 7X. Lincoln discovered\na midwestern Muslim whose name was John 17X. The \u201cX\u201d is the Black\nMuslim\u2019s way of saying that his own origins--before the white man--and\nname are a mystery; it is also the Muslim\u2019s shout that he is an \u201cex,\u201d\nand \u201cno longer what I was when the white man had me deaf, blind, and\ndumb.\u201d\n\nI have sat with Black Muslims during temple meetings and have seen the\npeople, particularly the young children, come alive with a new sense of\nidentity; they seem to have a new reason to go out and do battle with\nthe rats and roaches in the slums that are their homes. A feeling of\nunity and love for one another grips the entire room as they silently\nstand to be dismissed.\n\nThey stretch forth their hands, palms upward, and in the name of Allah,\nthe most powerful and all-merciful God, they vow to go in peace. But\nevery Black Muslim temple meeting is saturated with expectation. It\nreaches its peak when the minister makes the promise that the War of\nArmageddon is drawing closer and closer. No one ever really says it,\nbut there is an intense feeling that one day soon, at just such a\nmeeting, the \u201cword\u201d--probably from Elijah Muhammad but through Malcolm\nX--will be given. Just what the word is nobody says; just what will\nhappen when the word is given nobody seems to know. Yet everybody--man,\nwoman, and child--is determined to be on hand when the \u201cword\u201d comes.\n\nSuch meetings as these have been going on all over the nation for\nseveral years. Most of us heard talk about the \u201ctemple people,\u201d as the\nBlack Muslims were called, but there was very little real information\nabout them. Nobody seemed to know just how many temple people there\nwere, how they were organized, what they were really about. The\nconsensus was that they were just another offbeat sect, one of the\nscores of \u201cIslamic\u201d movements that have sought to convert American\nNegroes during the past century. We had no idea of the power of the\nBlack Muslims as a religious and political organization capable of\nrallying mass support. But early in 1959 we got the message.\n\n\n_The Alert Is Given_\n\nShortly after dark on the night of April 14, 1958, police at Harlem\u2019s\n28th Precinct received what had all the appearances of a routine\ncall--a fight between two Negroes at the corner of 125th Street and\nSeventh Avenue. The dispatch officer barked into his microphone, and\nhis orders squawked out in a dozen radio cars patrolling the area. The\ncars, their revolving red lights glaring, sped to the scene of the\nincident. Police poured out of the cars, their clubs at the ready, and\nbegan to batter their way through the mob that had gathered.\n\nOne Johnson Hinton, a man nobody knew and who had nothing to do with\nthe fight, was one of the spectators who had stopped to watch the\nmelee. The police shoved and knocked aside several Negroes and finally\ncame upon Hinton. What happened then is still a matter of argument, but\none fact is agreed upon by all concerned: Hinton and the police entered\ninto a verbal exchange and a policeman knocked Hinton to the ground,\nhis head split open. A police ambulance was called and police took\nthe position that another Negro agitator had been subdued. But they\nwere in for a major surprise, and the city was on the brink of a race\nriot. Hinton, it turned out, was a Black Muslim, Johnson X, a member of\nMalcolm\u2019s Temple Number Seven in Harlem.\n\nWithin minutes after Hinton hit the ground the word spread that a Black\nMuslim had been assaulted by the police. An hour later some five\nhundred sullen, angry Black Muslim men put a cordon around the 28th\nPrecinct Station house where Hinton was being held. This meant trouble,\nand plenty of it. Precinct Captain McGowan realized he had the makings\nof a riot on his hands and sent out an urgent call for responsible\nNegroes to rush to the scene and intervene. One of the first to arrive\nwas James Hicks, editor of _The Amsterdam News_, a Harlem newspaper.\nHicks accurately sized up the situation and told Captain McGowan that\nonly one man, Minister Malcolm X, could manage the crowd and get them\nto disperse.\n\nThe police captain asked, in essence, \u201cWho he?\u201d\n\nShortly afterward Captain McGowan found out just who Malcolm X was.\nFlanked by several strapping, angry Muslim brothers, Malcolm walked\ninto the station house. As he entered the door, he gave a sign, and the\nhundreds of Muslim brothers surrounding the area knew their stand was\naffirmed. The call went out for still more Muslim brothers to converge\nupon the area.\n\nOnce inside the station, Malcolm X sat down for hard bargaining.\nFirst, there was the matter of Brother Johnson Hinton lying on the\nfloor of a jail cell with his head split open. Malcolm demanded that\nHinton be given immediate hospital treatment. This was agreed to. Then\nMalcolm went on to place on record the facts of the affair. Johnson\nwas standing on the street, he was not involved in the fight, he at no\ntime disobeyed a police order, and the police struck him out of sheer\nflailing frustration.\n\nAs Johnson Hinton was carried out of the station to an ambulance,\nMalcolm walked out the door and paused at the top of the steps. The\ndimly lit night was filled with Black Muslims and onlookers. Malcolm\nmade a slight gesture, and, according to both police and editor\nHicks, in exactly three minutes the streets were empty. The hundreds\nof Muslims simply vanished--at least the police thought they had\nvanished. In actuality they shifted their cordon to the hospital where\nHinton was being treated. And it was only after Malcolm emerged from\nthe hospital and gave another sign that the Black Muslims finally\ndispersed to their various homes.\n\n\u201cNo man,\u201d Police Captain McGowan said to James Hicks, \u201cshould have that\nmuch power over that many people. We cannot control this town if one\nman can wield that kind of power.\u201d\n\nJohnson Hinton now walks around with a silver plate in his head. An\nall-white jury awarded him seventy-five thousand dollars in damages\nagainst the City of New York. Those knowledgeable about the case and\nthe Black Muslims feel that seventy-five thousand dollars is a small\nfee to pay for the service Malcolm X rendered the city that night. As\nthe jury found, the police were absolutely wrong, and as Negroes know,\nHinton\u2019s was only one of the Negro heads that are cracked open without\nreason by the New York police each year.\n\nBut there was a difference between Johnson Hinton and all the other\nNegroes who get their heads split open in Harlem: Hinton had black\nbrothers and sisters who cared about him; he was a member of a tightly\nknit congregation of believers whose basic tenet is \u201cfight in defense\nof your life\u201d and whose main social ethic is \u201cbe ready to exact justice\nwhen one of your brothers is abused.\u201d The Muslims will deny it, but\nthey have a \u201ccrisis system\u201d that moves into action whenever a Muslim\nis abused. It involves a telephone pyramid--one man calls ten people\nand each of them calls ten--that in one hour can produce upward of a\nthousand Muslims at any given point in New York.\n\nAnd the night Johnson Hinton\u2019s head was split open was the night New\nYork police officials went into a huddle and named the Black Muslims,\nparticularly Malcolm X, as people to watch.\n\n\n\n\n2. FROM MOSES TO MALCOLM X\n\n\nThe black Muslims have been in the national spotlight for only four\nyears now, although the movement itself was born more than a quarter\nof a century ago. It attracted some attention in Chicago and Detroit\nbut did not emerge as a national concern until Minister Malcolm X,\nthen serving as leader of the New York Muslims and as a sort of roving\nbishop for the entire movement, burst upon the scene.\n\nAs is all too often the case with white people, the Establishment took\none look at the Black Muslims and lurched from apathy to frenzy. No\none paused long enough to study just what the Muslims believe, what\nmakes them a religion, how they function as a religion. One of the\nreasons why this has not been done is that the Establishment, both\nNegro and white, was afraid that open acceptance of the Black Muslims\nas a religion would legitimize them. Meanwhile, as I mentioned earlier,\ncourts in several states have issued findings that the Muslims are,\nindeed, a religion, and as such enjoy the same freedom as, say, Roman\nCatholics.\n\nBut this is to get ahead of the story. In truth, the scheme of events,\nboth economic and moral, that led to the formation of the Black Muslims\nfirst began to unravel on the west coast of Africa some five hundred\nyears ago. And we must begin _there_ and _then_ if we are to understand\nclearly the _here_ and _now_. Prior, and basic, to a full comprehension\nof the meaning of the Negro\u2019s African experience, we must pause and\nunderstand the role of religion in the life of a people.\n\n\n_The Negro as African and Tribesman_\n\nAmerican Negro slaves were captured from the west coast of Africa. They\nwere by no means products of a monolithic culture. They represented\nmany tribes and sub-tribes. They spoke a myriad of languages. Indeed,\none of the incredible ironies of the \u201cMiddle Passage\u201d was that the\nAfrican slaves chained together in the hold of a boat as it crossed the\nAtlantic were unable to talk to one another because they did not have a\ncommon language. Yet these were not uncivilized people. West Africans\nhad developed a complex society, as Lerone Bennett, Jr., suggests,\nlong before European penetration. Their political institutions,\nrooted in family groupings, spiraled outward into village states and\nempires. They had their armies and courts and, if this is of any\ncomfort to modern Americans, their own internal-revenue departments.\nSpeaking of Africa before the European penetration, anthropologist\nMelville J. Herskovits wrote, \u201cOf the areas inhabited by non-literate\npeoples Africa exhibits the greatest incidence of complex governmental\nstructure.\u201d Not even the kingdoms of Peru and Mexico could mobilize\nresources and concentrate power more effectively than could some of\nthese African monarchies, which are more to be compared with European\nstates of the Middle Ages than referred to in the common conception,\n\u201cprimitive state.\u201d\n\nAgriculture, herding, and artistry were important to the West African,\nbut the concept of private property was not widely accepted. The land\nbelonged to the community. The core of West African society was the\nfamily. Interestingly enough, most of the African tribes constructed\ntheir families along matrilineal lines--the family tree was traced\nthrough the mother. On the whole, the West Africans were a mixture\nof various stocks by the time of the slave invasions. Centuries\nof interbreeding had produced Africans of varying shapes, colors,\nand features. Although they spoke many languages, they approached\na semblance of linguistic unity in that only four of the African\nlanguages had been reduced to writing before the coming of the white\nman.\n\nWhatever their tongue or color the West Africans were a deeply\nreligious people. No greater injustice has been done to a people than\nthat committed by spurious American historical and anthropological\nwritings which suggest that African religion should be written off as\ninfantile animism. On the contrary, the West Africans had developed\ncomplex answers to such major tribal inquiries as \u201cWhat is man?\u201d\n\u201cWho is God?\u201d \u201cWhat is life?\u201d and \u201cHow final is death\u2019s sting?\u201d\nAt rock bottom, the religion of West Africa embraced a concept of\n\u201cLife Forces.\u201d The \u201cLife Force\u201d of the Creator was present in all\nthings animate and inanimate and was viewed as a particularized but\nmicrocosmic fragment of the Supreme Being, God, Who created the\nearth. As Lerone Bennett, Jr., suggests, this African concept of God\nas a vital force in everything bears a striking resemblance to Henri\nBergson\u2019s \u201c\u00e9lan vital.\u201d Religion formed the center of West African\nlife. Every event took on religious meaning. And there is no telling\nwhat towering civilization might have blossomed and survived there had\nthe white man not made his intrusion.\n\n\n_Africans as Moslems_\n\nThe character of this work demands that we examine the impact of Islam\non the black Africans, particularly on those of the West Coast, if we\nare to understand and evaluate the current preachings of The Honorable\nElijah Muhammad and Malcolm X.\n\nDr. John Hope Franklin feels that influences of the religion of\nMohammed on the African way of life have been exaggerated. It seems\ncertain that Mohammedanism had little influence upon black Africans\nprior to the fourteenth century. As early as the seventh century\nthe Moslems swept from Arabia over into Egypt. Subsequently, they\nmoved into North Africa with great success. But when they attempted\nto penetrate the land of the black African below the Sahara, they\nencountered complex resistance from the kingdoms of Ghana, Melle, and\nSonghay, where thriving cultures were already in operation. Some Negro\nmonarchs accepted Mohammedanism for economic or political reasons,\nbut their subjects clung to their tribal religions. The Moslems were\nnever able to win over the peoples of Melle, Hausa, Yoruba, and Susu\ndespite the fact that Negroes were accepted as their equals. And when\ninvited to enjoy both the economic and cultural advantages the religion\noffered, the masses of West African Negroes rejected Islam in favor of\ntheir own tribal way of life.\n\nIt is of singular significance that Christianity was already entrenched\nin North Africa when Mohammedanism made its appearance there in the\nseventh century. The two faiths became locked in a life-and-death\nstruggle for the control of North Africa. But in West Africa, the\nregion from which the bulk of the Negro slaves were taken, Christianity\nwas all but unknown until the Portuguese and Spanish set up their\nmissions in the sixteenth century. Almost from the onset Christianity\nwas beset by moral ambivalence; on the one hand the Spanish and\nPortuguese missionaries espoused a doctrine of equality and brotherhood\nwhile on the other hand Spanish and Portuguese slave traders were\nseizing thousands of Africans and shipping them off to the New World\nto become slaves. It was thus aboard \u201cThe Good Ship Jesus\u201d that the\nfirst slaves arrived in America. As John Hope Franklin comments, \u201cIf\nthe natives of West Africa were slow to accept Christianity, it was not\nonly because they were attached to their own particular form of tribal\nworship, but because it was beyond the capacity of the unsophisticated\nWest African mind to reconcile the teaching of brotherhood and the\npractice of slavery by the white interlopers.\u201d The European Christians,\nhowever, found no conflict between Christ and slavery and by 1860 the\ntwenty Negroes who landed at Jamestown in 1619 had become four million.\n\n\n_The Lord\u2019s Song in a Strange Land_\n\nThe literature of the American Negro rumbles with the controversy\nover the transplantation, or lack of it, of African culture. Some\nAfricanisms have survived in the New World, particularly in the West\nIndies and in Haiti. But the impact of the New World culture upon the\nAfricans--who were already culturally diffused--was decisive.\n\nWhat happened to the African is exemplified by the pious captain who\nheld prayer service twice a day on his slave ship. After the prayer\nservices were over, he retired to his cabin and wrote the now-famous\nhymn which begins \u201cHow sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer\u2019s\near, it quells the sorrow, drowns his fears, and drives away his\ntears.\u201d Further evidence of the complete Americanization of the African\nlies in the fact that descendants of the first Negro slaves--Negro\nChristians born in Spain and Portugal--settled in the New World long\nbefore the _Mayflower_ came. These Negroes were explorers, not slaves.\nSome of them accompanied the French into the Mississippi Valley, and\nothers went with the Portuguese into South America. Thirty Negroes were\nwith Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean, and several were with\nMen\u00e9ndez as he marched into Florida.\n\nThe bulk of the Negroes in America are descendants, at least partially,\nof Africans who arrived in this country first as indentured servants\nand who were then lowered into slavery. It was under the aegis of\nslavery that the black American accepted Jehovah as his God. It is this\nignominious first meeting between Jesus and the black American that\nMalcolm X probes so accurately and exploits so effectively.\n\n\n_Christ and His Cotton Curtain_\n\nWhen the Black Muslims call upon American Negroes to forsake\nChristianity and return to Islam, they not only flirt with historical\ninaccuracy, but they declare open war against the Negro church,\nwhich has been properly described by E. Franklin Frazier as the most\nimportant institution the American Negro has built. That the Black\nMuslims have had remarkable success in leading thousands of Negroes out\nof the Christian church and into the temples of Islam is clear evidence\nthat somewhere in the history of American Christendom faith failed\nthe Negro. And when it is realized that the Black Muslims are able\nto attract three times as many fellow travelers as they do members,\nthe failure of Christianity becomes even more pronounced. How and why\nthat failure came about lies deep in the swamps and plantations of the\nSouth, and we must return there and examine the record of that failure\nif we are to grasp fully the meaning of Malcolm X when he says,\n\u201cChristianity is a white man\u2019s religion.\u201d\n\nEvery people has a sense of the past, the handed-down record of what\nhas gone before, the Ark of the Covenant, as the collective experience\nof a people. For the American Negro this sense of the past begins in\nAmerica, not Africa, for it was in America that the American Negro was\nforged into a people. Under the tutelage of white plantation masters\nthe first slaves discovered a common language that made it possible\nfor them to communicate with each other and thus make a collective\nexpression of their resentment of the peculiar institution known as\nslavery. The white slave owner was Christian, and despite some efforts\nto prohibit Negro exposure to the Bible, most slave masters or, more\nparticularly, their wives--saw to it that the slaves heard the gospel.\nOne of the moving scenes of American history is that of slave and slave\nmaster gathered together in church on the plantation to hear the gospel\nof a Christ of brotherhood. Most plantation masters saw to it that\nthe minister kept his sermon confined to such texts as \u201cServants, be\nobedient to them that are your masters\u201d (Ephesians 6:5). There was a\ndeeper meaning for the slave in the religious life of the plantation.\nStrangely enough, it was the Old Testament with its rich history of the\nJews and their bouts with famines, pestilence, idolatry, and slavery\nthat attracted the imagination of the religious slave. Working in the\nfield by day, having his wife sold away from him down the river to\nanother plantation, seeing his son stripped naked to the waist and\ngiven a hundred lashes for being \u201cuppity,\u201d the Negro slave found a\ncruel parallel between his life and that of those who begged favor to\nlet them return to their homeland and who finally were delivered by\nGod, who visited a series of disasters upon the slave master. Here\nin the Negro plantation church--called by scholars \u201cThe Invisible\nInstitution\u201d--the Negro began to translate the history of the Jews\ninto words of deliverance and hope. It was thus that slaves began to\ntranslate the social history of the Jews into Negro spirituals:\n\n  _Didn\u2019t my Lord deliver Daniel?_\n\n  _Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land, tell Old Pharaoh let my\n  people go...._\n\n  _We are climbing Jacob\u2019s ladder, every round goes higher and\n  higher.... Soldiers of the Cross_\n\n  _Jordan\u2019s river is chilly and cold, none can cross but the true and\n  bold...._\n\n  _Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home...._\n\n  _Soon I will be done with the troubles of the world, going home to\n  live with God...._\n\nAt first it appeared that the American church would embrace integration\nof the Negro and lead the attack against the institution of slavery.\nIn 1784, for example, the Methodist Church declared slavery \u201ccontrary\nto the golden laws of God\u201d and went on to order its members to set all\nslaves free within twelve months. But Southern states led by Virginia\nforced a suspension of the resolution. Five years later the Baptist\nChurch passed pretty much the same resolution. But it, too, recanted\nunder pressure from the Deep South. Even so, many churches accepted\nNegroes as parishioners, though many whites feared that they could be\nflirting with disaster if they adopted a truly liberal policy with\nrespect to Negro membership. By the same token, they were leery of all\nNegro churches on the plantation. They feared that Negro ministers and\nchurch officials would exercise considerable authority over their slave\ncommunicants and thus the church could become a center of rebellion.\nThe American church was having other problems at the time, and its\nconcern with the Negro question was not prime. The Anglican clergy,\nflouting their Toryism, were causing many American parishioners to\nseek complete disassociation from the Church of England. In fact, every\nreligious denomination, with the exception of the Roman Catholic, was\nbusy establishing an American wing of its church in the hope that it\nwould be completely separate from its European sponsor. The Catholic\nChurch itself finally acquiesced and became separate under the control\nof a special Prefect Apostolic. This intercontinental war between the\nchurches of the New World and the Old eclipsed the problem of the Negro\nas far as white churchmen were concerned and set the scene for the\nestablishment of separate churches for Negroes.\n\nNegro Baptist churches began to sprout while the war for independence\nwas still being waged. George Liele, a Negro leader, founded a Baptist\nchurch in Savannah, Georgia, in 1779 that became the nucleus of the\nNegro Baptists in that state. Virginia Negroes organized a Baptist\nchurch in Petersburg in 1776, in Richmond in 1780, and in Williamsburg\nin 1785. According to Dr. John Hope Franklin, many of the white clergy\nin Virginia assisted Negroes in setting up and organizing their\nseparate churches.\n\nIt was in the North that the Negro church really burgeoned. Foremost\namong the Northern Negro churchmen was Richard Allen, an ex-slave\nwho had purchased his freedom from his Delaware master in 1777, the\nyear he also accepted Christ as his saviour. In 1786 Allen moved to\nPhiladelphia and began to hold prayer meetings for Negroes. His efforts\nto establish a Negro church were opposed by whites and some Negroes.\nBut when the officials of St. George\u2019s Church, where Allen frequently\npreached, began to segregate a large number of Negroes who came to\nhear him, it became clear to Allen\u2019s Negro detractors that the time\nwas right for a Negro church. The final break came when white church\nofficials pulled Allen, Absalom Jones, and William White from their\nknees while they were praying in what had been set aside as the white\nsection of the church. An innately dramatic man, Allen led the Negroes\nout of St. George\u2019s Church and organized Mother Bethel, now the central\nchurch of Negro Methodism. Allen and his followers organized what\nbecame the African Methodist Episcopal Church and by 1820 they had four\nthousand followers in Philadelphia alone. The organization spread as\nfar west as Pittsburgh and as far south as Charleston.\n\nIn New York City, because of discrimination and segregation Negroes\nwithdrew from the John Street Methodist Episcopal Church and\nestablished what is now the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,\none of whose leading bishops is Dr. Stephen Gill Spottswood, the\ncurrent chairman of the board of the NAACP. The same trend was\ndeveloping among Negro Baptists of the North. In 1809 thirteen Negro\nmembers of a white Baptist church in Philadelphia were dismissed to\nform a church of their own. The Negro Baptists of Boston set up their\nown church in the same year under the leadership of Reverend Thomas\nPaul. At the same time he was shepherding the Boston congregation, Rev.\nPaul also organized a Negro Baptist church in New York City. The church\nwas later named Abyssinian and is now pastored by the controversial\nminister-politician, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.\n\nBoth white and Negro clergymen agree that the development of separate\nchurches was inconsistent with the teachings of religion, but the\nNegro clergymen were adamant, feeling that a separate church would\ngive them an opportunity to develop leadership. More, there were\ntheological points that Negro churchmen found difficult to accept. One\nwas the notion, widely held among white Christians particularly in\nthe South, that the Negro was the descendant of Ham, the son of Noah,\nwho laughed at his father\u2019s nakedness and thus doomed himself and his\ndescendants to be hewers of wood and drawers of water--that is to say,\nservants--to the descendants of Noah\u2019s other sons. This theological\njustification for the concept of Negro inferiority reached its peak\nduring the early part of the nineteenth century, when a spurious body\nof anthropological and biological scholarship offered \u201cscientific\nproof\u201d of the Negro\u2019s innate inferiority both as a spiritual being\nand as a person. It was the \u201cLinnaean Web\u201d that did it: scientists\nat that time completely embraced the notions of Linnaeus that the\nclassification of peoples in terms of skull sizes and shapes as well\nas in terms of color was the first step toward knowledge. The American\nscene of the early 1800s was peopled with a variety of racial stocks,\nand the majority of the white Protestant group fell victims of the\nall-too-easy temptation to judge the worth of an individual merely\nby looking at the color of his skin or the shape of his nose. Thus,\nthe image of the hook-nosed Jewish peddler; the drunken, shiftless\nIrishman; the stupid, soggy German; the hot-tempered Italian; and the\nragged, lazy Negro.\n\nOnly in the Negro church, then, did the Negro find a sense of dignity\nand meaning. Only there was he made to feel a true and equal child of\nGod. The Negro church developed a peculiar theology that spoke to the\nfrustration of the American Negro, and it was there that the Negro\ntranslated Christianity into the hope of Negro deliverance.\n\nBut two factors, hardly noticed at the time, were to keep the Negro\nchurch from becoming a completely closed institution: first, the Negro\nchurch was a part of the Negro community, which was an affront to\nevery sensitive Negro citizen; the Negro community was an enclave of\nterror and police brutality, and the growing ambition of every Negro\nwas somehow to escape this troubled land and live out his days in a\nless menacing atmosphere. The other factor that operated against the\nNegro church was its consuming concern with the salvation of souls,\nthe readying of men for full and total adjustment in the world beyond\nthe grave. Like its white counterpart, the Negro church neglected the\nsocial ethic, was unconcerned about where men would live, what they\nwould eat, and how they would clothe themselves on this side of the\nJordan.\n\nMeanwhile, the nation lunged from slavery through Reconstruction\ninto the race riots of the early 1900s. White attitudes hardened,\nsegregation signs sprouted over every bathroom and drinking fountain,\nin every railroad train and bus, and the white segregationist invoked\nthe name of God to justify his lynchings, police brutality, injustice\nbefore the law, as well as the denial of every right the Constitution\nhad given to the Negro.\n\nNegro churchmen realized the situation was getting grave. A young\ntheologian, Benjamin E. Mays, now President of Morehouse College, and\none of the three American official mourners at the funeral of Pope John\nXXIII, wrote his doctoral thesis on the Negroes\u2019 God. That was almost\nforty years ago, and even then Dr. Mays suspected that the Negroes\u2019\nreligion had better take on more militancy and that this militancy\nshould be rooted in some kind of God concept.\n\nAt the end of World War II American Negro soldiers--so movingly\ndescribed in John Oliver Killens\u2019 novel _And Then We Heard the\nThunder_--came home determined to do something about their own society.\nThe children of these soldiers are now marching the streets of\nBirmingham, Jackson, and New York City. They were spawned by the same\nera that produced Malcolm X and comedian Dick Gregory, both of whom are\npart and parcel of the same movement. It is not coincidental that the\nfreedom riders and Malcolm X came upon the scene at the same time. They\nboth emerged from a growing Negro consensus that old paths have led\nnowhere, that they lead the wandering Negro around and around the foot\nof the mountain but never lead him on toward his goal.\n\n\n_The Peddler of Silks and Scripture_\n\nNineteen-thirty was the year after the big crash on Wall Street. For\nthe Negro in Detroit the crash had a double meaning. It not only\nmeant that he would be unemployed, that there would be no money, but\nthat the subtle discrimination of the North--the very thing that had\ncaused him to leave the South--would become bold and overt. Into the\nNegro ghetto of Detroit, late in the summer of 1930, there came a\npeddler, a man of unknown origin and lineage, who sold silks and satins\nfrom door to door. He was a strange-looking man. Because of his pale\nyellow coloring, some thought he was an Arab, others thought he was a\nPalestinian, and others felt that he had come from India. He called\nhimself W. D. Fard on most occasions. Other times he was variously\nknown as Mr. Farrad Mohammad, Mr. F. M. Ali, Professor Ford, and Mr.\nWali Farrad. One of his Detroit followers quotes him as having said,\n\u201cMy name is W. D. Fard, and I come from the Holy City of Mecca. More\nabout myself I will not tell you yet, for the time is not yet come. I\nam your brother. You have not yet seen me in my royal robes.\u201d\n\nThere are no documented facts as to just who Fard was or where he\ncame from. However, he found easy entry into the homes of lower-class\nDetroit Negroes, who were eager to purchase the silks he claimed were\nlike those worn by black men in Africa.\n\nDr. Eric Lincoln has gathered information showing that Fard also used\nhis presence in Negro homes to spread a curious doctrine which, in\nLincoln\u2019s words, found anxious ears \u201camong culture-hungry Negroes.\u201d\nThe evidence suggests that Fard mixed the peddling of silks with\nlectures on the black man\u2019s past. He became known as \u201cThe Prophet\u201d and\nconcentrated his teachings on his experience in the Near and Far East.\n\nFard often warned his listeners against certain foods and drinks. \u201c...\nhe would eat whatever we had on the table,\u201d one of his followers said,\n\u201cbut after the meal he began to talk. \u2018Now don\u2019t eat this food, it is\npoison for you. The people in your own country do not eat it. Since\nthey eat the right kind of food they have the best health always. If\nyou would just live like the people in your home country, you would not\nbe sick any more.\u2019 So we all wanted him to tell us about ourselves and\nabout our home country and about how we could be free from rheumatism,\naches, and pains.\u201d\n\nFard was also well versed in the Bible and he used it as a textbook\nwhile, at the same time, advising Negroes to renounce Christianity.\nRealizing that the Bible was the only religious literature known to\nthe Negro, Fard skillfully used it to support his version of the black\nman\u2019s history and the white man\u2019s destiny. In the beginning Fard\npeddled his wares by day and held house meetings at night. But as the\nDepression deepened and his attack upon the white man grew more bitter,\nthe crowds overflowed the small living rooms and dining rooms of the\nDetroit slum area. The followers of Fard hired a hall, which they named\nThe Temple of Islam. And that was the birth of the phenomenon known\ntoday as the Black Muslims. Fard seems to have been a very friendly,\nrelaxed man with an intuitive mastery of mass psychology. His attacks\non members of the white race and on the Bible shocked his listeners\ninto ecstasy and many became converts to his amazing brand of Islam.\n\n\u201cUp to that day I always went to the Baptist Church,\u201d one convert\nsaid. \u201cAfter I heard the sermon from the prophet, I was turned around\ncompletely. When I went home and heard that dinner was ready, I said,\n\u2018I don\u2019t want to eat, I just want to go back to the meeting.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt was inevitable that legends would pop up about a man like W. D.\nFard. Eric Lincoln has gathered and reported them as follows:\n\n  One such legend is that Fard was a Jamaican Negro whose father was a\n  Syrian Moslem. Another describes him as a Palestinian Arab who had\n  participated in various racial agitations in India, South Africa and\n  London before moving on to Detroit. Some of his followers believed\n  him to be the son of wealthy parents of the tribe of Koreish--the\n  tribe of Mohammed, founder of classical Islam. Others say that he was\n  educated at London University in preparation for a diplomatic career\n  in the service of the Kingdom of Hejaz, but that he sacrificed his\n  personal future \u201cto bring \u2018freedom, justice, and equality\u2019 to the\n  \u2018black men in the wilderness of North America, surrounded and robbed\n  completely by the Cave Man.\u2019\u201d Fard announced himself to the Detroit\n  police as \u201cthe Supreme Ruler of the Universe,\u201d and at least some\n  of his followers seem to have considered him divine. At the other\n  extreme, a Chicago newspaper investigating the Black Muslim Movement\n  refers to Fard as \u201ca Turkish-born Nazi agent [who] worked for Hitler\n  in World War II.\u201d\n\nAs for Fard himself, he said that he had been sent to alert the black\npeople of America to the unlimited possibilities of the universal black\nman in a world now usurped, but temporarily so, by white \u201cblue-eyed\ndevils.\u201d This teaching was a sweet shock to illiterate Negroes whose\nlives had been spent in fear of the white man. They were irresistibly\nattracted to a black man who would stand tall, call the white man a\nsnake, a devil--a blue-eyed devil, at that--and predict that his reign\nover the world would soon come to an ignominious end. And when Fard\ntaught that the white man was full of tricks, always to be suspected,\nnever to be trusted, the Southern Negroes who had come to Detroit in\nsearch of freedom only to find futility could not resist the temptation\nto shout \u201cAmen.\u201d As Eric Lincoln says, \u201cThe North was no promised\nland: It was the South all over again with the worst features of racial\nprejudice thinly camouflaged by sweet talk about equality.\u201d\n\nThe black Detroiters who heard Fard were starving, living in\novercrowded slums. They were the victims of police brutality, the\ncontinuing symbol of the power of the white establishment. They\nwere bitter toward the white workers who took over \u201cNegro jobs\u201d as\nwork became more scarce. Even the white welfare workers in Detroit,\naccording to Eric Lincoln, deliberately abused Negroes by making them\nwait long hours in line before passing out pitiful supplies of flour\nand lard. All this fear resulted in deep resentment and despair. The\nwords of Fard began to make more sense than ever.\n\nOnce Fard had secured a temple, the frequency of his meetings was\nstepped up and the movement became more formalized. Prospective members\nwere put through rigid examinations and were called upon to make\ncommitments and pledges. The sermons at Fard\u2019s meetings were always\nbased on the same subject: the untrustworthiness of the white man and\nthe need for the Negro to understand and return to his glorious history\nin Africa and Asia.\n\nEric Lincoln says that Fard, with no literature or material to\nespouse his cause, used the writings of Joseph F. \u201cJudge\u201d Rutherford,\nthen leader of Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses; Van Loon\u2019s _Story of Mankind_;\nBreasted\u2019s _The Conquest of Civilization_; the Quran; the Bible; and\ncertain literature of Freemasonry, to bring his people to \u201cknowledge of\nself.\u201d The followers of Fard were encouraged to buy radios so that they\ncould hear the expressions of Rutherford and Frank Norris, the Baptist\nfundamentalist preacher.\n\nOnce temple meetings began, however, Fard told his members that the\nwords of any white man could not be trusted, for the white man was\nincapable of telling the truth. He insisted that the white man\u2019s\nwritings were filled with a symbolism that must be interpreted.\nFard went on to establish himself as the interpreter and brought the\nthrong to its feet cheering when he said that the stupid white man was\nactually a tool in the hands of Allah, that the white man was a dumb\nidiot who unknowingly told the \u201ctruth\u201d and thus predicted his own doom.\nFard himself gave the movement its two basic theological pieces: _The\nSacred Ritual of the Nation of Islam_, still the key document for the\nBlack Muslims, and _Teachings for the Lost Found Nation of Islam in a\nMathematical Way_, a religious cryptogram distributed among Muslims but\nwhich only Fard could interpret.\n\nWithin four years after he had set up the first temple, Fard, who\nturned out to be an extremely able executive, not only had a burgeoning\nmembership of followers, but had founded a University of Islam, a\ncombination of elementary and high-school education devoted to higher\nmathematics, astronomy, and the \u201cending of the spook civilization.\u201d To\naugment all this, Fard established \u201cThe Muslim Girls Training Class\u201d\nto drill Muslim women in the art of being good housewives and mothers.\nAnd to put down any trouble with unbelievers and police, he organized\n\u201cThe Fruit of Islam,\u201d a quasi-military organization in which men were\ndivided into squads headed by captains and taught the tactics of judo\nand the use of firearms. Completing the temple structure, a minister\nwas appointed by Fard to run the entire organization.\n\n\n_The Man from Sandersville_\n\nOne of Fard\u2019s Detroit converts was Elijah Poole, a Negro from\nSandersville, Georgia, and the son of a Baptist minister. Poole was\nborn on October 7, 1897, one of the thirteen children of Wali and\nMarie Poole, both of whom had been slaves. After completing the fourth\ngrade--he was then sixteen years old--Poole left home. In 1923 he and\nhis wife, Clara Evans, along with their two children moved to Detroit.\nOf all the disenchanted Detroit Negroes, Elijah Poole was probably the\nbitterest. The lure of Detroit had proved a nightmare; he worked in\nfactories at several different jobs until the Depression hit in 1929.\nIn 1930 Poole attended one of the house meetings and heard Fard; in\nPoole\u2019s words, Fard took him \u201cout of the gutters in the streets of\nDetroit and taught me knowledge of Islam.\u201d\n\nAlmost from the onset Fard and Poole seemed to become fast friends.\nEarly members of the sect have stated that Elijah Poole became\nsomething of an errand boy for Fard and also helped him publish a\nnewspaper. The key fact in the relationship between Elijah Poole and\nFard was _time_. Poole came into the movement at the moment police in\nDetroit were breathing down Fard\u2019s neck. Indeed it was fear of trouble\nfrom the police--and nonbelievers--that caused Fard to organize The\nFruit of Islam. The same concern caused Fard to organize his temple in\nsuch a manner that he would seldom risk public exposure. Once Fard had\nfashioned his tightly knit organization he appointed a Chief Minister\nof Islam to preside over the entire movement.\n\nElijah Poole was tapped by Fard as the first Chief Minister of Islam\nand given the coveted \u201coriginal name\u201d _Muhammad_. Earlier in 1932,\nthree years after he joined the movement, Elijah Muhammad went to\nChicago and established what has since become known as Temple Number\nTwo, which is now the headquarters of the Black Muslim movement.\nTrouble in Detroit, however, seems to have cut short Muhammad\u2019s sojourn\nin Chicago. The history of this period is clouded by controversy, but\nthe following is the best sequence of events observers have been able\nto piece together:\n\nShortly after (perhaps before) Elijah Muhammad left Detroit for Chicago\none of the Muslim brothers got into trouble with the Detroit police\nbecause of his alleged part in the sacrificial killing of a fellow\nMuslim. It is a matter of record that the Muslims did teach sacrificial\nkilling at that time and that Fard was arrested in connection with the\ncharge. Muhammad has written of the incident in these words:\n\n  He was persecuted, sent to jail in 1932, and ordered out of Detroit,\n  Michigan, May 26, 1933. He came to Chicago in the same year, was\n  arrested almost immediately, and placed behind prison bars. He\n  submitted himself with all humility to his persecutors. Each time he\n  was arrested he sent for me that I may see and learn the price of\n  truth for us (the so-called Negroes).\n\nMuhammad gave Fard refuge in Chicago. Shortly thereafter Elijah\nwas named Fard\u2019s first Minister of Islam and returned to Detroit,\nwhere he took over the movement despite opposition from several\nof Fard\u2019s followers. Shaken by his encounter with police, Fard\nwithdrew from public view, leaving Elijah Muhammad to stand as the\npublic presence for the movement. During 1933 Fard was seen less and\nless; then, in 1934, he simply vanished. To this writing, state and\nfederal authorities have been unable to solve the riddle of Fard\u2019s\ndisappearance. As Eric Lincoln says, \u201cAll reports about the whereabouts\nof Fard wind up at a dead end.\u201d The report that he was seen aboard\na ship bound for Europe was never substantiated. The report that he\nmet foul play at the hands of Detroit police or some of his dissident\nfriends was never confirmed. And the dark hint that Elijah Muhammad\nhimself was in some way connected with Fard\u2019s disappearance has not\nbeen supported by any evidence.\n\nAlthough rumors persist to this day that Muhammad induced Fard to\noffer himself up as a human sacrifice, there is no evidence to support\nthem. Yet as Eric Lincoln comments, \u201cIt is interesting to note that\nFard is honored by [Black] Muslims everywhere as the \u2018Saviour\u2019 and is\ncelebrated as such every year on his birthday, February 26.\u201d\n\nOnce Fard fell from view, Muhammad became leader of the movement.\nHe was able to bring many dissidents back into the temple, but soon\nbroke with the Detroit faction and returned to Chicago to set up his\nheadquarters. Muhammad had learned church administration from his\nclergyman father and was able to organize several new temples of Islam.\nFard was apotheosized and referred to as the Prophet of Allah; Muhammad\nproclaimed himself the Messenger of the Prophet of Allah. To this day,\nthe wellspring of Muhammad\u2019s power flows from the fact that he was with\nFard in life and possibly in death. On one occasion he said, \u201cI have it\nfrom the mouth of God that the enemy had better try to protect my life\nand see that I continue to live. Because if anything happens to me, I\nwill be the last one that they murder. And if any of my followers are\nharmed, ten of the enemy\u2019s best ones will be killed.\u201d\n\nFard and Muhammad shared an affinity for getting into trouble with\nthe law. In 1934 Muhammad refused to transfer his children from the\nUniversity of Islam to another, accredited school, and he was convicted\nof contributing to the delinquency of a minor and placed on six months\u2019\nprobation. Eight years later the Messenger was arrested by federal\nauthorities, convicted of refusing to register for the draft, and\nsentenced to four years in the federal prison at Milan, Michigan.\nThe indictment, however, alleged that Muhammad taught Negroes that\ntheir interests were in a Japanese victory in World War II, since\nNegroes were ethnic brothers of the Japanese. Muhammad\u2019s pro-Japanese\nsentiments were probably influenced by Japanese efforts, principally\nthrough a skilled operative named Major Takahashi who was in Chicago\naround 1938, to proselytize among the Muslims and other Negro groups.\nRank-and-file Muslims, however, showed little interest in Takahashi\u2019s\npropaganda, just as they had shown little interest in Communist\novertures in 1932.\n\nLike other men with a messianic complex, Muhammad seemed to grow both\nin stature and spirit behind bars. First of all, he was clearly able\nto direct the movement even while he was in prison, and once he was\nreleased, he began uttering statements that made Fard and, indeed, the\nearly Elijah Muhammad sound conservative. In bold staccato phrases,\npunctuated by clearing of the throat so endemic to Southern Negro\npreachers, Muhammad shouted to the throng that the white man is a\nsnake, a devil by nature, evil, incapable of doing right. Despite the\nfact that he was still garbed in his \u201crelease suit,\u201d Muhammad told the\nChicago crowd that it made no sense for Negroes in this country to have\nfought against the Japanese, who were victimized by the same blue-eyed\ndevil who had victimized the American Negro. But Muhammad did not stop\nthere; he said that the American Negro had had no stake in World War\nII. \u201cRather,\u201d Muhammad said, \u201cthe American Negro should be saving his\nenergy and ammunition for \u2018The Battle of Armageddon,\u2019 which will be\nwaged in the wilderness of North America. This battle--and this is one\nof the central teachings of the Nation of Islam--will be for freedom,\njustice, and equality. It will be waged to success or under death.\u201d\nMuhammad always titillates his followers by telling them that he cannot\nat this moment let them know just when the battle will take place and\nwho the protagonists will be. But one has only to sit in the audience\nand hear his followers applaud and laugh to know that they fully\nbelieve that the time of the bloodletting is nigh and that the struggle\nwill be between black and white.\n\nDespite his boldness, the movement stagnated under Muhammad\u2019s\nleadership. In the mid-forties \u201cThe Big X\u201d came on the scene. And with\nthe arrival of Malcolm Little--christened into Islam Malcolm X and\nelevated by Elijah Muhammad to be Malcolm Shabazz, but known to the\npimps, prostitutes, and dope addicts as \u201cBig Red\u201d--the Black Muslim\nmovement really began to move.\n\n\n_Big Red_\n\nMalcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, and like Elijah\nMuhammad he was the son of a Baptist minister. The family soon moved\nfrom Omaha to Lansing, Michigan. Malcolm\u2019s father was a follower of\nthe Black Nationalist, Marcus Garvey, who felt that all Negroes should\nreturn to Africa and escape the oppression of the white man. The Ku\nKlux Klan burned down the family home when Malcolm was only six years\nold. \u201cThe firemen came,\u201d Malcolm says, \u201cand just sat there without\nmaking any effort to put one drop of water on the fire. The same fire\nthat burned my father\u2019s home still burns in my soul.\u201d\n\nFollowing Garvey\u2019s teaching that the Negroes should go into business,\nMr. Little then set out to build his own store. Soon after this,\naccording to Malcolm, \u201cmy father was found with his head bashed and his\nbody mangled under a streetcar.\u201d Malcolm Shabazz to this day remains\nconvinced that his father was lynched by white people who resented\neven the prospect of a Negro gaining some economic independence. With\nhis father\u2019s death, Malcolm\u2019s family was forced to separate. In moving\nterms, clenching his fists, and at times breaking into tears, Malcolm\nhas described to me how his mother boiled dandelion greens from day\nto day trying to keep her eleven children from starving to death. \u201cWe\nstayed dizzy and sick because we stayed hungry.\u201d At night Malcolm and\nhis brothers would go out and steal what food they could to fill their\nstomachs. The Littles were a clannish bunch. They struggled to stay\ntogether, but the pangs of hunger were too great, and they were ripped\napart. Malcolm was sent to an institution for boys.\n\nThis turned out to be the second molding factor in the life of\nMalcolm X. He was one of the few Negroes--if not the only one--in the\ninstitution and he developed a warm love for the white matron who\ndefended him when other kids were \u201ckicking him around.\u201d In the only\ncomplimentary statement I have heard him make about a white person,\nMalcolm says of the matron, \u201cShe was good to me. I followed her around\nlike a little puppy. I was a kind of mascot.\u201d She arranged for him to\nattend a near-by school where, although he was the only Negro pupil,\nhis keen mind put him at the head of the class, which only gained him\nthe resentment of both the teacher and the pupils.\n\n\u201cWhen I was in the eighth grade,\u201d Malcolm says, \u201cthey asked me what I\nwanted to become. I told them I wanted to study law. But they told me\nthat law was not a suitable profession for a Negro. They suggested that\nI think of a trade such as carpentry.\u201d\n\nThat ripped it! Malcolm soon left school and came east to New York,\nand in a matter of weeks penetrated the underworld where he became\na trusted lieutenant. Malcolm\u2019s early days in the underworld are\ndescribed in unpublished notes by writer Alex Haley in the following\nwords:\n\n  Admitted to the underworld\u2019s fringes, sixteen-year-old Malcolm\n  absorbed all he heard and saw. He swiftly built up a reputation for\n  honesty by turning over every dollar due his boss (\u201cI have always\n  been intensely loyal\u201d). By the age of 18, Malcolm was versatile \u201cBig\n  Red.\u201d He hired from four to six men variously plying dope, numbers,\n  bootleg whiskey and diverse forms of hustling. Malcolm personally\n  squired well-heeled white thrill-seekers to Harlem sin dens, and\n  Negroes to white sin downtown. \u201cMy best customers were preachers and\n  social leaders, police and all kinds of big shots in the business of\n  controlling other people\u2019s lives.\u201d\n\nHis income often reached as high as two thousand dollars a month. And I\nhave heard Malcolm talk of paying off the cops from a thousand-dollar\nbankroll which he pulled from the pocket of his two-hundred-dollar\nsuit. But not even \u201cBig Red\u201d had enough money to pay all of the\npolicemen and eventually Malcolm X went to prison for burglary.\n\nIt was in 1947, in the maximum security prison at Concord,\nMassachusetts, that Malcolm was converted to the teachings of The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad by one of his fellow prisoners who was a\nmember of the Detroit temple. From that moment Malcolm has neither\nsmoked, cursed, drunk, nor run after women. He is the most puritanical\nman I have ever met. I have interviewed him scores of times but he will\nnot meet me for an interview at any place where liquor is sold. He does\nnot object to my smoking, but in polite terms he makes it understood\nthat he would rather I didn\u2019t smoke around him. I have entertained him\nin my home along with other guests, and he has sat relaxed on the floor\nas we drink. He has never taken anything but coffee, although he knows\nfull well that none of us would ever betray him.\n\nIndeed, it is around the widely known and deeply admired morality of\nMalcolm X that one of the few pieces of humor about the Muslim movement\ncame into being.\n\nThe story is that Malcolm was attempting to convert a Negro Baptist to\nthe teaching of Islam.\n\n\u201cWhat are the rules of your organization?\u201d the Negro asked.\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d Malcolm said, \u201cmy brother, you have to stop drinking, stop\nswearing, stop gambling, stop using dope, and stop cheating on your\nwife!\u201d\n\n\u201cHell,\u201d the convert replied, \u201cI think I had better remain a Christian.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n3. THE NATION OF ISLAM\n\n\nAny objective evaluation of the Black Muslims as a religious body must\nbegin with a fresh look at religion itself, its origin and meaning. The\ncurrent, widespread antipathy toward the Black Muslims makes such a\nbasic review of the roots of religion all the more necessary. Above all\nwe must shut out the voices of those who insist that the Black Muslims\nare not a religion because they--the critics--don\u2019t like what the\nMuslims preach and do. After all, the Mormon Church holds, among other\nthings, that the Negro is inferior because he is the descendant of Ham,\nthe accursed son of Noah. As a result Negroes are allowed to join the\nMormon Church, but are barred from high church office. But none of us\nwill take the position that the Mormons are not a religion.\n\nTo understand the Black Muslims--and the Mormons, for that matter--we\nmust retrace that contorted and tribal path man and God have walked\ntogether en route to the here and now.\n\n\n_Religion as a Group Experience_\n\nThe world has always been a mystery to man. It excites his imagination,\nchallenges his courage, and piques his intellect. But the individual\nnever meets the world alone. He is of his group; the group is part of\nthe world he inherited on the day he discovered himself and the other\nmembers of his group--like the thunder and the lightning and the sun\nand the trees and the rivers and the canyons and the hurricanes and the\nmanna trees that are part of that which confounds him. Collectively\nconfounded, then, the group members react as one. They create a god\nalmost always in their own image and attribute to him all of the\nomnipotence and omnipresence required to account for a plot of matter\nspinning dizzily through space into nowhere. And if he is in their\nimage, then he is their father and they are his children. He watches\nover them and protects them from the pestilences that come by day and\nthe evils that crawl by night. They are his chosen people and he walks\nwith the warriors of the tribe as they go forth to battle temporal\nevil, which is to say, anything and anybody that differs from their\ntribe.\n\nIn return, the tribesmen insist that god make demands upon them. And\ngod grants their request: He commands them to bow down and worship\nhim, and to put no other god before him. He commands them to love one\nanother even as they love him and he loves them. His commandments on\nsocial ethics always parallel the social history of the tribe involved.\nIf one day some members of the tribe feel sick from having eaten the\nmeat from a given animal, then god decrees that such meat is unclean\nand that it is sinful to eat of it. If the social history of the\npeople discloses that the affinity between the man and his woman is\nso intense that the intrusion of any other man or woman upon that\nrelationship brings on community disorder, then god decrees that a man\nshall have one wife and a woman one husband, and then commands that the\nneighbors covet not the man\u2019s wife or the woman\u2019s husband. And when the\ntribe matures to the point of having old men, elders, steeped in the\nhistory of the tradition of the people, god orders that the aged be\nrespected and all be venerated as his leaders on earth.\n\nThus it is that the god of a tribe becomes \u201ctheir\u201d god. History is\nreplete with battle scars left when the gods of an opposing people\nfought it out on the plains and in the valleys. When tribe meets\ntribe in war, at least one of the tribes is bound to lose. But even\nin defeat the god of the tribe becomes more powerful than ever before\nas the tribe is convinced that, though it has lost a battle, it will\neventually win the war. Thus, in the words of one of the great tribal\nleaders, \u201cOur god is able to deliver. But if not, we will not bow down\nand serve your god.\u201d\n\nAlthough tribal life revolves around the god concept, few tribal states\nhave actually become theocracies. Religious leaders have taken their\nplace beside temporal leaders, and they function in concord, under the\numbrella of their god to make the state a practical institution.\n\nWith the dawn of modern history, gods began to fuse and merge as people\nbegan to widen the circle of their experience and accept the reality\nof tribal pluralism, and civilizations that have survived to matter in\nthe context of the current world are those that fly the banner of the\nworld\u2019s four or five major religions.\n\nModern man knows little of all this because he inherited already\nthought-out religions. Thus he has no idea how primitive and crude his\ngods once were. And it is precisely because of modern man\u2019s religious\nsophistication that the Black Muslims rasp: At stage center, and\nbefore an audience that is weary of racism and religious bigotry, the\nall-black Nation of Islam gleefully re-enacts the shoddy scenes of our\ncultural beginnings.\n\n\u201cWe are in the image of God,\u201d Malcolm says.\n\n\u201cMake it plain, Brother Minister. Make it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat means that God--we call him Allah--must be black like me!\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah.\u201d\n\n\u201cGod was here in the beginning.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes sir, that\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo we were here from the beginning\u201d--and Malcolm X smiles.\n\nThe people come roaring to their feet with shouts of thanks and\ndeliverance.\n\n\u201cAnd that which was here from the beginning must be the daddy of\neverything else. Am I right or wrong?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou right. That\u2019s right.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis blue-eyed devil talking about he is superior. It\u2019s about time he\nfound out that we are his pappy!\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain, Brother. Make it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow listen to this,\u201d Malcolm told a rally of three thousand on a\nHarlem street corner, \u201cand you will know why black is superior.\u201d\n\n\u201cCome on. Come, let\u2019s hear it!\u201d\n\n\u201cBlack is _the_ prime color. It is the strong color.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou can get any other color you want by mixing colors, but you cannot\nfind colors that you can mix and produce black. Only black can produce\nblack.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd if black is prime, that means it is God, that means it is good.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right!\u201d\n\n\u201cTherefore the less black you are the less good you are.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll praise due to Allah.\u201d And now the people sense the great truth\nthat is about to come, and they begin to break with laughter.\n\n\u201cTherefore when you are white, you are as nonblack as you can be.\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain, Malcolm. Make it plain.\u201d\n\n\u201cTherefore when you are white you are absolutely nongood; am I right or\nwrong?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou right!\u201d\n\n\u201cIn other words,\u201d Malcolm shouts, \u201cthe white man is therefore\nabsolutely evil, a snake and a devil, and his time of destruction draws\nnigh!\u201d\n\nWith this the crowd breaks with joy. The applause lasts for several\nminutes; white policemen standing guard at the meeting nudge white\nonlookers, telling them to \u201cmove on.\u201d\n\nThis argument, that God is black and the white man a devil, presents\nthe Black Muslims with the identical philosophical dilemma that has\nplagued most religions: How could a good (black) God create a bad\n(white) thing?\n\nThe doctrine concerning Yakub is the Black Muslims\u2019 attempt to answer\nthat riddle. In biological terms of reference, accepting the Muslim\nnotion that the black man is the original man, they must explain how\nthe black race produced white people. Elijah Muhammad states the\nargument in these terms: The Caucasian race was created out of the weak\nof the black race; they are the handiwork of Yakub, a black scientist\nwho rebelled against Allah. Dr. Eric Lincoln is correct when he says\nthat the doctrine of Yakub is the central myth of the Black Muslim\nmovement. But it is also the tenet the Black Muslims seem to know least\nabout.\n\nWriting in the _Pittsburgh Courier_, Elijah Muhammad detailed in these\nwords the mechanics by which the black scientist Yakub made the white\nman:\n\n  Who are the white race? I have repeatedly answered that question\n  in this [column] for nearly the past three years. \u201cWhy are they\n  white-skinned?\u201d Answer: Allah (God) said this is due to being grafted\n  from the Original Black Nation, as the Black Man has two germs (two\n  people) in him. One is black and the other brown. The brown germ is\n  weaker than the black germ. The brown germ can be grafted into its\n  last stage, and the last stage is white. A scientist by the name\n  of Yakub discovered this knowledge ... 6,645 years ago, and was\n  successful in doing this job of grafting after 600 years of following\n  a strict and rigid birth control law.\n\nAccording to Elijah Muhammad the experiment was a success, but it also\nresulted in the \u201cblue-eyed devils\u201d who now people the world and have\nlow physical and moral stamina. Muhammad then goes on to show the\nphysical superiority of the black man by underlining the victories\nof Negro ballplayers and prize fighters. He then points up what he\ncalls the low morality of the white man by citing the gas chambers\nof Germany, the atomic bomb of Hiroshima, and all the abuses white\nSoutherners (and Northerners) have heaped upon the Negro.\n\nSumming up the results of Yakub\u2019s experiment, Elijah Muhammad issues\nthis finding:\n\n  The human beast--the serpent, the dragon, the devil, and Satan--all\n  mean one and the same: the people or race known as the white or\n  Caucasian race, sometimes called the European race.\n\n  Since by nature they were created liars and murderers, they are the\n  enemies of truth and righteousness, and the enemies of those who seek\n  the truth....\n\nBut their certification of the white man as a devil, one incapable\nof doing good, rests on more than metaphysical grounds. It involves\nhistory. To make their historical point the Black Muslims part company\nwith the established world historians. They begin their argument by\nestablishing--with some accuracy--that the black man in Africa had a\ndeveloped civilization at the time that, in Malcolm\u2019s words, \u201cthe white\nsavages of Europe were living in caves and crawling around on their\nall-fours.\u201d It was the intrusion of the white man into Africa that\nspoiled things and brought slavery to the New World.\n\nThe decline of the black man in Africa is only temporary. The white\ndevil was given about six thousand years to flaunt his evil and then\nhe was to be destroyed as the black man returned to power. The white\nman\u2019s time ran out just as World War I was raging; the Black Muslims\novercame the fact that this was an excellent time for the prophecy to\ncome true--after all, white people were out to destroy each other--with\nthe argument that sets the American stage for the followers of The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nThe only reason the destruction of the white man didn\u2019t come off on\nschedule, according to the Muslims, is that so many black men are all\nmixed up with the white, that it is impossible to destroy the evil men\nwithout destroying some \u201coriginals,\u201d that is to say, Negroes. This,\nthen, is what Muhammad and Malcolm are talking about when they speak to\n\u201cthe lost-found black man in the wilderness of North America.\u201d They are\nreally saying that the restoration of black men to world power is being\ndelayed because of the American Negro; the white man has been given a\nnew dispensation, actually, not because he deserves it but to give the\nNegro time to separate from those scheduled for destruction.\n\nHerein lies the reasoning behind Muhammad\u2019s talk about a separate\nstate; this is why the Black Muslims with their tremendous power over\npeople are unable to participate in any of the current civil-rights\nactions; they can\u2019t help fight for better jobs, better schools, or\nbetter housing. They are committed to getting out from among the white\nman as soon as possible, lest they share his doom of the fire, which\nis sure not only to come next time, but to come soon.\n\nTo plug up the logical and emotional leaks in such an argument as this,\nthe Black Muslims must propagate a continuously expanding \u201cline.\u201d\nThey must maintain the \u201cIslamic\u201d tinge but at the same time keep\ntheir teaching within American terms of reference that Negroes can\nunderstand; they must take Negroes who have a struggle with English and\nteach them Arabic; they must convince the most Western of men that they\nare Arabs.\n\nThis cultural island-hopping can backfire, sometimes with amusing\nresults. I attended a Black Muslim bazaar with writer Alex Haley.\nElijah Muhammad was scheduled to appear but sent his son, Akbar,\ninstead. Akbar, a slender, dark-brown twenty-five-year-old, came before\nthe crowd of some two thousand garbed in a flowing white sheet. In\nMiddle Eastern Arabic circles Akbar would have been considered in his\nSunday best, but to Harlem Negroes Akbar\u2019s dress smacked of the Ku\nKlux Klan, hardly an image one wishes to raise in a man he hopes to\nconvert. Yet this is the cross-cultural problem the Black Muslims must\ncontinually deal with.\n\nI have seen Malcolm X do this with tremendous effectiveness. I once\ndebated with him on TV in Los Angeles. He took the stand of a Muslim,\nsaying that the Moslem faith was the black man\u2019s original culture.\nMalcolm must make this basic thrust or all else he says rests on\nhistorical sand. As we were leaving the studio, we were greeted by\nseveral white students, Moslems from Persia, who complained to Malcolm\nthat they had attempted to visit Muhammad\u2019s temples and were refused\nentry because they were white blue-eyed devils. Malcolm glossed the\nmatter over, and they all parted wishing Allah\u2019s blessing each upon\nthe other. In reality, Malcolm is not interested in any white people,\nMoslem or not. These Persians could no more get in a Black Muslim\ntemple than Governor Faubus could. \u201cLet\u2019s look at it this way,\u201d Malcolm\ntold the Persians. \u201cIf a lion is in a cage, his roar will be different\nfrom the roar of the lion who is in the forest. That,\u201d he concluded,\n\u201cis why you couldn\u2019t get in our temple. But both the lion in the forest\nand the lion in the cage are lions. That is what matters. Lions love\nlions; they hate leopards.\u201d\n\nTranslated, Malcolm was saying that the American Negro, as a Moslem,\nmust make different noises from the free Moslems of, say, Persia,\nbecause the American Negro is in a cage. The cage, of course, is white\ncivilization; that is why the roar of the American Negro Moslem is so\nprovincial; that is why Persians would do well to worship Allah in\ntheir own way in their own temples, while the Black Muslims and Allah\nhave their rendezvous in a dinky auditorium over a pool hall in Los\nAngeles\u2019 Negro ghetto.\n\nIt is in such meetings that Malcolm adds the historical ingredient to\nhis theology. It takes two forms:\n\nFirst, the Black Muslims excite Negroes to shouts by proving that\nthe Negro is somebody, a man with a past and a history. I know from\npersonal experience that Malcolm X is one of the best-versed people in\nAmerica on African history. I have sat with him in private and general\ngatherings where he has recited startling facts about the nature of\nearly African civilizations. When challenged, Malcolm is always able\nto produce a text--and a legitimate one at that--to support what he\nsays. Malcolm\u2019s teachings come as a surprise not because they are new,\npreviously unknown facts about Africa, but because the entire system of\neducation in the Western World, particularly in America, has carefully\ndistorted the true history of Africa to support the notion of white,\nmale supremacy. And so it is from Malcolm X, not from his sixth-grade\nhistory teacher--who is probably white--that the Negro child in the\nNorth learns the truth about Africa and what once really happened\nthere.\n\nThe second historical aspect of the Muslim doctrine involves an\nintensive study of the role of the American Negro in American history.\nHere again Malcolm and his followers walk into a void left by the\nAmerican education system. The black child in Harlem learns about the\nRevolutionary War but he does not learn that the man who set it off\nby leading the Americans in the Boston Massacre was a Negro, Crispus\nAttucks. The black child sees the clock work but he does not know that\nBenjamin Bannaker, a Negro, invented the pendulum. The black child\nvisits the blood bank but he does not know that a Negro, Dr. Charles\nDrew, discovered how to preserve blood and thus made the bank possible.\nNobody tells the Negro child these things in school. On the contrary,\nthe child is taught that American civilization flowed, for the most\npart, from white brains. And when Malcolm, to use his words, \u201cpulls\nthe cover off the white devil and tells black men the truth about\nthe work of their ancestors,\u201d the Negro child shrieks with pride and\njoy--probably for the first time in his life.\n\nMalcolm X brings his message of importance and dignity to a class of\nNegroes who have had little, if any, reason to feel proud of themselves\nas a race or as individuals. Their encounters with white people\nare always unpleasant situations in which Negroes find themselves\nembarrassed or emasculated. Think it out for yourself: What contact\ndoes the Negro in Harlem have with the white man?\n\nThe white man is the _man_ they must meet every morning when they go\nto work in the garment district; the _man_ they must meet when the\nrent is due; the _man_ they face when they go to the pawnshop; the\n_man_ who comes and sells things on credit; the _man_ who buys the\ninstallment paper and comes to collect the payments; the _man_ who\ngets work when they cannot; the _man_ whom they see on TV loosing\ndogs on Negro children; the _man_ they face as a schoolteacher who\ndoes not understand them and who is often contemptuous of them--the\nman, the man, the man, the white man, the goddam white man! And when\nMalcolm X says the white man is a devil, they roar \u201camen\u201d because every\nexperience they have with a white man is a devilish one.\n\nChilling though it may be, the Black Muslims have erected their\nteaching on a group experience common to all American Negroes. Few of\nus concur in their conviction and sentencing of the white race. But\nnone of us can question the accuracy of the indictment on which that\nconviction rests.\n\n\n_Elijah Goes to Mecca_\n\nThe _hajj_, the long, dusty pilgrimage to Mecca that every Moslem\nlooks forward to, is the final criterion of whether one is or is not a\nMoslem. Only certified followers of Islam are allowed to enter Mecca\nduring the holy period of the pilgrimage.\n\n\u201cElijah Muhammad is not a Moslem,\u201d said Imam Talib Ahmad Dawud in\n1960. \u201cHe is just plain Elijah Poole of Sandersville, Georgia.\u201d Dawud,\nan American Negro and leader of the Muslim Brotherhood USA, was then\nlocked in a bitter struggle with the Black Muslims over the question\nof their religious authenticity. But the Imam\u2019s remarks couldn\u2019t have\nbeen more ill-timed. Even as Dawud was denouncing the Black Muslims,\nElijah was packing his bags for a trip \u201cback home where I can visit and\npray with my own people.\u201d Several days after he departed from New York,\nElijah placed his credentials before the eagle-eyed _hajj_ committee,\nthe final judge of who may march to Mecca and pray. Elijah Muhammad was\nadmitted without delay, and Black Muslims--the word was cabled back and\ncame over the wire services--held meetings of praise and thanks all\nover the nation.\n\nThat was that. Muhammad was admitted to the _hajj_, he made the holy\nwalk to Mecca. Who, then, is to dispute his religious credentials?\n\nMuhammad\u2019s journey to Mecca brought an end to all the arguments about\nhis true affiliation with traditional Islam. When Mike Wallace and I\nwere preparing a TV documentary on the Black Muslims, the orthodox\nMoslems denounced the movement. \u201cThey teach race hate,\u201d one Islamic\nspokesman told us, \u201cand that means they couldn\u2019t be Moslems.\u201d The\nFederation of Islamic Associations of Chicago is the official Moslem\norganization in the United States and Canada. They have denounced\nElijah; they have praised him for conducting the largest Arabic school\nin America and for accepting the Koran as law, but federation officials\nare \u201csuspicious\u201d of him. These Moslems, however, are largely of\nEuropean descent, although their ranks are peppered with a few Negro\nconverts. Their rejection of Elijah rests on his argument concerning\nracism, and they flinch when Muhammad calls himself \u201cThe Messenger of\nAllah.\u201d\n\nRejection from such a group is grist for the Black Muslims\u2019 mill.\nMalcolm X holds them up to high ridicule and scorn, saying they have\nbeen corrupted by Christianity and that they look very much like \u201cthe\nblue-eyed devil who enslaved us and took away our culture.\u201d In his\n\u201cUniversity Speech\u201d (see Part Two of this book) Malcolm rains fire upon\nthese \u201cEuropean Moslems\u201d who have \u201cpassed us by in an attempt to make\nour slave masters Moslems.\u201d\n\nThere are several clear differences between Black Muslims and orthodox\nMoslems. Whether these differences read Elijah and his followers out\nof the Islamic brotherhood is a matter to be determined by Islamic\nofficials. These are some of the differences between the two groups:\n\n--The Black Muslims will not allow white persons in their temples;\northodox Moslems accept worshipers of all races.\n\n--The Black Muslims maintain a separate movement; there seems to be\nlittle or no organizational link with the orthodox Moslems. The Black\nMuslims do not visit the orthodox Moslem temples, and the orthodox\nMoslems do not come to hear Malcolm X.\n\n--Nowhere in the Koran or in any orthodox Moslem literature is there\nsupport for the Black Muslim\u2019s teaching about the evil scientist Yakub.\nNor is there any support in the teachings of orthodox Moslems to\nsupport Elijah\u2019s account--see his \u201cAtlanta Speech\u201d in Part Two--that\nthis world was once the moon and was blown up by an evil scientist who\nwanted to destroy true followers of Allah.\n\n--Orthodox Moslems universally condemn the Black Muslim teaching that\nthe white man is a devil by nature.\n\n--Orthodox Moslems universally object to the Black Muslim preachment\nconcerning a separate state.\n\nBut once Muhammad walked into Mecca these differences ceased to matter.\nTo be sure, orthodox Moslems want no part of Elijah and, if pushed,\nwill denounce him. But the _hajj_ committee has rendered what must be\naccepted as the final verdict.\n\nBehind this trip to Mecca lies a typical Black Muslim story. Malcolm\nX had visited the Near and the Far East the year before. His mission\nwas to make certain key contacts for Muhammad. I followed Malcolm by\nsome several months into Cairo, Egypt, and talked with Moslem officials\nwho had received him with open arms. Malcolm was in Cairo during the\nholy season, at the very time when thousands of chanting Arabs were\nwending their way toward Mecca. Malcolm himself was cleared to make\nthe _hajj_; he could have gone to Mecca in 1959 and that would have\nsettled the controversy once and for all. Malcolm elected not to go,\nnot to upstage his teacher and leader. Instead he returned home with\nthe word that all was well in Mecca, that Elijah and his family would\nbe received there with open arms.\n\nThe following year, while Malcolm remained at home, Elijah went to\nMecca.\n\nMalcolm\u2019s ambassadorial work in Cairo--and that is precisely what it\nwas--stunned many of his American detractors. Others of us who had\nbeen close observers of the movement were not surprised. We knew that\nMalcolm has always maintained excellent relations with top Arabs at\nthe United Nations. Few, if any, of these meetings were ever public.\nBut they did occur and there is every indication that they are still\ngoing on. The road to Mecca was cleared long before Malcolm and Elijah\nleft these shores; powerful pro-Nasser Arabs are quietly in Malcolm\u2019s\ncorner, and many Black Muslim bazaars open with the reading of cabled\ngreetings from \u201cOur Beloved Brother Gamal Abdel Nasser.\u201d\n\nThe emphasis of orthodox Islam is universal love and brotherhood among\nmen of all races. The central teaching of the Black Muslims is that all\nwhite men are devils and will soon be destroyed. It seems superfluous\nto point out the wide disparity between these two views. But both\nMuslim and Moslem worship Allah. And that--at least so the _hajj_\ncommittee said--is all that matters.\n\nThe answer to this ambiguity, I suspect, lies in the gangling structure\nof the Moslem hierarchy. Unlike, say, the Catholic Church, the Moslem\nfaith is not a tightly knit, fully administered organization. I have\ntalked with Moslems about all this, and while they would rather that\nElijah did not say much of what he says, they are still smarting over\nthe Christian Crusades and readying for the moment of truth with the\nJews. The Black Muslims carefully describe themselves as \u201canti-Zionist\u201d\nrather than as against the Jews. But herein, I suspect, is the\nresolution of the entire matter of Elijah\u2019s relationship to orthodox\nIslam.\n\nA high Islamic official in Cairo explained it to me in these words: \u201cOf\ncourse your Black Muslims are improperly informed. But they are turning\nmen to Allah, away from Christianity, toward Mecca. This is what we\nwant; this is what we must have. We need new blood in western Islam. If\nMuhammad can give that new blood we welcome him. As for his teachings,\u201d\nthe official continued, \u201cwe will see to it that the correct view is\ngiven to the black man in America. Now the thing is to get them facing\ntoward Mecca.\u201d\n\n\n_Is This a True Religion?_\n\nAlthough Elijah has made his holy pilgrimage to Mecca, the debate over\nthe religious validity of the Black Muslims still rages, with the\nmovement\u2019s critics holding to their charge that Elijah Muhammad teaches\nhate whereas true religion teaches love. A case can be made that these\ncritics are doubly in error, first in their assumption that their own\nfaith teaches universal love, and secondly in their conclusion--aided\nby news accounts--that the Black Muslims actually preach hatred of\nothers.\n\nEvery religion is a closed network of believers; it has its dogma, its\nritual, its gods. The followers of that faith are taught to love one\nanother and are urged to proselytize sinners (outsiders) wherever they\ncan be found. Most religions draw creedal, not racial, lines. Persons\nof any race may embrace the tenets of the faith and become members.\nHowever, this is not always the case and racial overtones have crept\ninto major world faiths.\n\nThe late, and loved, Pope John flirted with immortality by coming to\ngrips with the issue of racism in religion. Not only did he infuse the\nChurch with the fresh air of universalism, but he halted a service\nbecause a priest violated--forgot, actually--His Holiness\u2019 order that\na reference to the Jews as a \u201cperfidious people\u201d be stricken from the\nCatholic prayer service. The pending second session of the ecumenical\ncouncil may see the introduction of a proposal that would call on the\nChurch to speak out against anti-Semitism. The proposal was not brought\nup in the first session because the Church fathers feared what the\nArabs might say!\n\nThe Jews and the Protestants face essentially the same problems as the\nRoman Catholics. St. Paul rose to glory because he translated being\na Jew from a biological to a spiritual proposition. Many Jews have\nnot accepted that translation and they snicker when Sammy Davis, Jr.,\nwalks into their temple. Racism is such a fact of American Protestant\nchurch life that most major denominations are divided along racial\nlines. Then there is the question of religion and geography. The\nworld\u2019s major faiths were spawned in certain areas and took root among\npeople of a common ethnic stock. Thus the followers of Buddha are apt\nto be Orientals; but for slavery and colonization all of the followers\nof Christ would be European. But for the same kind of cultural\nintermingling, Allah\u2019s followers would be the peoples of Asia Minor\nand North Africa, and the black peoples below the Sahara would still\nbe practicing the varied tribal and family faiths mentioned earlier in\nthis essay.\n\nBut time and trouble make saints of everybody ... and universalism\noccurs only when feuding faiths clash on the plains of practical\nreality. Thus American Protestants now have a commission that is given\nover entirely to eliminating all anti-Semitism from the gospel of\nChrist. The Episcopal Bishop of California, James Pike, has gone so\nfar as to suggest that we take down the cross as a symbol of our faith\nlest this encourage the teaching that the Jews killed Our Lord. This\nteaching--that the Jews killed Christ--is no longer fashionable as it\nwas when I was baptized. Now one is told that the Romans killed Christ.\nAnd since the once-heathen Romans are now Christians--even though they\nare Catholics--I suppose this makes things better.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNow let\u2019s turn to the other side of the coin.\n\nDuring a recent lecture before the Jewish Graduate Club at Columbia\nUniversity I talked about the need for all orthodox religions to relax\ntheir dogmas and accept other peoples as equals. One fiercely intent\nman leaped to his feet and shouted to me, \u201cYou want to rob us of our\nculture because you people don\u2019t have one of your own!\u201d This was sheer\nnonsense and the host rabbi rose to say so. But I pressed the issue:\nCould I join their temple? The younger Jews shouted \u201cYes--we would love\nto have you.\u201d The older fellows were not quite so sure.\n\n\u201cAre you as Jews chosen of God, thus the only ones who are really\nblessed?\u201d I asked one of the fundamentalists.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d he shot back.\n\n\u201cAre you chosen in a way that I can never be?\u201d I continued.\n\n\u201cYes.\u201d He faltered. \u201cYou are not a Jew; you cannot be among the elect.\u201d\n\nBy this time the younger Jews were on their feet screaming\ndenunciations of him. But the issue of ethnic exclusiveness that splits\ntoday\u2019s Jewish community had been laid bare.\n\nDogma and ritual are further evidences of the tribalism endemic to\nreligion. I was born and raised a Baptist; long before I could read and\nwrite I knew that any person who had not been immersed in water was\ndoomed to Hell. There was nothing to argue about, no need for polemics\nand reasoning; there would be no Methodists in Heaven!\n\nThe point of truth is this: Ethnic and dogmatic bigotry are imbedded\nin every religious faith plying its wares in the world market; we\nreligious liberals are students of apologetics, sophisticated believers\nwho prefer to forget our crude and tribalistic roots in favor of an\nenlightened social ethic. Alas, along came Elijah and made us see\nourselves as we once were; along came Malcolm X and made us understand\nwhat we are now, and why.\n\nThe argument that the Black Muslims are not a valid religion because\nof the exclusivity of their fellowship, then, is clearly spurious.\nEvery religion is a sort of sanctified country club, a coming together\nof peers in the name of their god. The second argument against the\nreligiosity of the Black Muslims is equally spurious: Like all faiths,\nthe Black Muslims never say hate the other fellow; they say love your\nown kind. Religious bigotry is Western civilization\u2019s major moral blind\nspot, and Malcolm X has taken up squatters\u2019 rights just there.\n\nThus it is that secularism must save the church--the layman must lead\nthe clergyman to the mourner\u2019s bench and make him confess brotherhood\nin the name of a democratic and pluralistic society. The nature of our\nsocial moment demands that we free God from racialism and dogmatics.\nRacialism, the malignant one of the two cancers, must be dealt with\nfirst since it is the prime moral issue of our time. And it must be\ndealt with by all peoples of all faiths working in concert. Should our\nsocial order change, should we somehow come to grips with the evils\nthat have spawned the Black Muslims, the movement would be forced to\nrefine itself or perish.\n\nMalcolm X is the best authority for this. I have often pressed him on\nhis categorical denunciation of the white man as a devil, and his reply\nis always the same: \u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the\nwhite man is a devil. We hold to that teaching because history proves\nthe white man is a devil. If he is not a devil,\u201d Malcolm X concludes,\n\u201cthen let him prove it. Let him give justice, freedom, and equality to\nour people.\u201d\n\nI have deliberately kept my analysis of the Black Muslims in personal\nterms of reference because this is precisely how most Negroes feel\nabout the matter--after all, the attraction of the movement for Negroes\nis one of the major points of this essay.\n\n\u201cOf course I disagree with Malcolm,\u201d the wife of a Negro newsman told\nme. \u201cBut I disagree with a lot of other religions, too. If he teaches\nhate, so do they; what\u2019s the difference? I wonder why the white people\nare after him.\u201d She smiled. \u201cCould it be because he is colored?\u201d\n\nThe Black Muslims have their God, their gospel, their ritual trappings,\ntheir approval from official heads of the Islamic faith. As a religion,\nthen, there is little left to do but disagree with them and then leave\nthem alone.\n\nThis, of course, pains liberals, Negro and white, who want to hear a\nringing denunciation of the Black Muslims. Negro leaders are always\nquick to denounce Elijah, but the Negro masses are strangely silent.\nThere is a reason for this silence, something both the Negro leadership\nand the white power structure would do well to examine: Deep down in\ntheir hearts, as James Baldwin so accurately states, the black masses\ndon\u2019t believe in white people any more. They don\u2019t believe in Malcolm\neither, except when he articulates their disbelief in white people.\nIn the end--and this is the thing white people will be a long time in\ngrasping--the Negro masses neither join nor denounce the Black Muslims.\nThey just sit at home in the ghetto amid the heat, the roaches, the\nrats, the vice, the disgrace, and rue the fact that come daylight they\nmust meet the man--the white man--and work at a job that leads only to\na dead end.\n\nThis brings me to the core of the matter, to the final measure of every\nreligion: it is a thing called _compassion_, a concern and caring\nabout the other fellow. It is rooted in the glaring awareness that we\nall have fallen short of the high mark set for us, and thus we need the\nhonest sympathy and understanding of all men everywhere.\n\nFor though you may have your God, your holy book, your ritual, and\nyour symbols; though you may give of your wages to build the temple;\nand though you may have been to Mecca, or Jerusalem, if you have not\ncompassion you are but meanness couched in Scripture, you are but an\nancient stink, a reason for men to hold their noses as they crawl on\ntoward a land of human understanding and brotherhood.\n\n\n_The Nation_\n\nOnce the convert becomes a Black Muslim he is baptized as a citizen in\nthe Nation of Islam. They have a flag, a symbol, and a cause. From this\nday forward his life centers around activity at the Muslim restaurant\nand temple.\n\nWho are these Black Muslims? Where do they live, and what do they do\nfor a living?\n\nThese questions baffle all observers because any Negro you encounter\ncould be a Black Muslim. Usually the men wear identifying pins, and the\nMuslim women can generally be spotted by their dress, particularly the\nlong, flowing headpiece. But these identifying signs are not always\npresent. I have encountered Black Muslims working in printing plants,\nin barbershops, as messenger boys, as night-club entertainers, and\nas cab drivers. I will never forget taking a stroll in Central Park\nwhere I came across a Muslim sister working as a nursemaid to three\nwhite children! Since most nurses and maids are Negroes, the rise\nof the Black Muslims has sent a quiet but very real chill through\nthe employment agencies in several major cities. After all, there is\nno telling what these Muslim women will do when the \u201cword\u201d comes,\nwhen the Battle of Armageddon is declared. And there is no way for\nemployment agencies to determine if Negro applicants are Black Muslims\nbefore sending them out as servants in white homes. Nor is there any\nway for heads of households to know just who their butlers and cooks\nare. To borrow from James Baldwin, nobody knows their name. It could be\n\u201cX.\u201d\n\nThe Black Muslims flatly refuse to discuss their organizational\nfinances with anyone. However, observers of the movement are\nconvinced that the tithes collected at temples and the income from\ntemple restaurants form the basis of the Muslim economy. The local\nrestaurant--and most of them are called \u201cShabazz\u201d restaurants after\nMalcolm X whose \u201crestored\u201d Arab name is Shabazz--is under the\nsupervision of the local minister. He seems to have fairly complete\ncontrol, but all matters are subject to review by Malcolm X as Elijah\u2019s\nroving ambassador. The local ministers are allowed a certain portion of\nwhat they raise, but only top insiders know just how Mr. Muhammad makes\nthis determination. The major leaders of the movement all seem to have\ntaken a vow of poverty and live on expenses furnished by the movement\nitself. I know this is true of Malcolm X and I suspect it to be true of\nothers.\n\nBut it must be remembered that the Black Muslims are both thrifty and\nindustrious; they are encouraged to open their own businesses and\nmany of the top leaders are themselves businessmen. Elijah Muhammad,\nJr., runs one of the largest bakeries in Chicago; Raymond Sharrieff\nis said to have ownership in a clothing store there. All evidence\nindicates that local Muslim leaders finance themselves through various\nenterprises and that the bulk of the funds raised in the temple itself\nflow on to the movement headquarters in Chicago.\n\nWhoever and wherever these Black Muslims are they lead an exacting,\nregimented life. In their homes they practice strict dietary\nlaws--precisely those of the kosher Jews--and avoid contact with\nwhite people as much as possible. The private role of both the man\nand the woman in the family is clearly defined, and the children are\nindoctrinated with the faith while they are still young. Muslim men\nare watched by The Fruit and must engage in some kind of gainful\nemployment. They are encouraged to go into small business whenever\npossible; they are assured of patronage from their fellow Muslims.\nA number of Negro businessmen have been attracted to the Nation of\nIslam because it provides them with a ready source of customers. Other\nMuslim brothers can be seen on the streets every day selling Muslim\nnewspapers. They are allowed to keep a goodly portion of what they\nearn and are thus independent. The temple restaurants employ scores of\nMuslim men and women, thus decreasing the ranks of their unemployed.\nOther Muslims are door-to-door salesmen and find easy entry in the\nNegro community, where the white door-to-door salesmen have become\nanathema.\n\nBut the average Black Muslim works for some white man somewhere in some\ncapacity. He is urged to learn a trade and thus ready himself for the\nday when he will be called upon to be one of the heads of industry and\ncommerce in the Muslims\u2019 own, separate state.\n\nThe Black Muslim men are lectured constantly about family\nresponsibility and are subject to trial before their peers if they\nviolate the rules of the order. Punishment can vary from a small fine\nto temporary or permanent banishment from the temple. No Muslim will\nassociate with an offender for the duration of his exile. It is said\nthat Malcolm X\u2019s brother was once banished and that Malcolm refused\neven to write the man until the period of punishment had been served.\n\nBlack Muslim women are schooled in the art and need for homemaking,\nand are taught to take a back seat in the presence of their husbands.\nMuslim women almost never talk to strangers--non-Muslims, that is--and\nmaintain a general silence that is unnerving. They also eschew make-up\nand fancy dress. When I first encountered the Muslims some five years\nago, this ban on feminine adornment was rigidly enforced. But there\nseems to have been a strong revolt among temple women and the ban has\nbeen relaxed to the point where employing make-up is now optional. Yet\nI have seen few Muslim women exercise this option. The wife of a major\nMuslim official, say Joseph X of New York, certainly wouldn\u2019t exercise\nit.\n\nThe Black Muslims are a male-oriented organization. A man reaches real\nstature in the movement when he becomes a member of The Fruit of Islam,\nthe functional and disciplinary arm of the movement. The Fruit hold\nseparate temple services, where they are taught, among other things,\nevery possible method of self-defense. Every local temple has a Captain\nof The Fruit--in New York it is Joseph X--and the entire network is\nheaded by the son-in-law of Elijah Muhammad, Raymond Sharrieff. The\nFruit enforce brotherhood among the men of the temple and form the\nhonor guard whenever Malcolm X or Elijah Muhammad makes a public\nappearance. The Fruit work under the local minister, but there is a\nline of authority that runs down to the local captains directly from\nSharrieff\u2019s Chicago headquarters. The Muslim Girls Training Class\n(MGT), for young women, is headed by Sister Lottie X, also of Chicago.\n\nThe division of authority seems to be along these lines: The local\nFruit and MGT work under the local minister on local matters. But\nunless the matter in question is one of clearly defined doctrine the\nlocal minister gets clearance from Chicago before issuing his orders.\nOn national matters, those affecting the movement as a whole, The\nFruit and the MGT take orders directly from headquarters. These orders\nare issued to members of the temple who obey without question.\n\nOne of the functions of The Fruit and the MGT is fund-raising. None\nof the rumors about Muslims receiving help from outside--Communist or\nsegregationist--sources has proved true. The fact of the matter is that\nthe Black Muslims are hard-working, frugal people; they never buy on\ninstallment, and they give a tenth--at least--of their earnings to the\ntemple. This income is augmented by bazaars, plays, rallies, and the\nsale of their own newspapers and magazines. Then there is the matter\nof the various lawsuits the Muslims have carried on with astonishing\nsuccess. The Black Muslims have collected upward of a quarter of a\nmillion dollars I know about in the past four years or so, mostly as a\nresult of police brutality against their members. These suits are filed\nin the name of the individual Muslim but they are carried on by the\ntemple, and I suspect the temple shares in the results.\n\nFurther regimentation of life within the Nation is achieved by\ndemanding that members send their children to Black Muslim schools\nwherever possible. In two cities, Chicago and Detroit, the Muslims have\n\u201cuniversities\u201d where they train the children from kindergarten through\nhigh school. It will be recalled that Elijah Muhammad first got into\ntrouble with the law when he decided to send his children to the Muslim\nschool rather than the public schools. Now authorities in both cities\nhave approved the Muslim schools as accredited centers of learning.\n\nThese schools are well disciplined and skillfully run. Early in 1962\nthere was considerable concern in Chicago over just what the Black\nMuslims were teaching in their schools. A biracial committee visited\nthe University of Islam there and came away stunned. Said committee\nmember Judge Edyth Sampson, a former U.S. delegate to the United\nNations, \u201cThese people are doing a magnificent job with their young\nstudents. I am deeply impressed by what I saw.\u201d\n\nWhat Mrs. Sampson and her fellow committee members saw was essentially\nthis: Black Muslim boys and girls stand muster for cleanliness and\ndecorum each morning. The classes are separated, boys in one section,\ngirls in the other, and the students\u2019 day is divided between religious\nand secular education. They are taught both English and Arabic; they\nare drilled in the history of the black man in Africa and America. Then\nthey are taught the history of the Black Muslim movement from Fard down\nto Minister Malcolm X.\n\nIn 1963 Sister Christine X, one of the directors of the school,\nauthored a new first reader which is now being employed. The exercises\nin the book are something American educators would do well to study:\n\n  My name is Nora X. My father\u2019s name is James X, and my mother is\n  Frances X. We are Muslims. We have our own flag. Our flag is over\n  there on the wall. The symbols on our flag are a star and a crescent.\n\nThen the students are told to use the following words in sentences:\nAllah, black, Muhammad, God, Temple, nation, flag, Armageddon, Elijah.\n\nOther exercises in the book call for the student to write short essays\non Mr. Muhammad and other notables within the movement. Then as the\nstudents progress through school they are taught to link subject\nmatter to the history of the black man. For example, when the students\nare being taught mathematics they are repeatedly reminded that much\nof modern math is based on work done by the Egyptians; they are not\nallowed to forget that English is not their native tongue, that their\nlanguage is Arabic, that the white man robbed them of their tongue\nwhen he kidnaped their foreparents from Africa.\n\nThe thing that arrests me most about these schools is that they are\nnow turning out the first generation of youth completely schooled\nin the Black Muslim doctrine. Unlike Malcolm X, John Ali, and other\nprominent Muslims of today who had to be \u201cde-brainwashed\u201d before they\nsaw the light, the movement now has several score teen-agers who have\nbeen grounded in their faith just as a devout Catholic child is reared\nin his. As of now the movement suffers greatly from a lack of trained\nleaders. Only a handful of capable men and women are available to the\norganization and the nature of their doctrine is such that trained\nNegroes are hardly apt to join. But a few more years will see the\nemergence of well-trained Black Muslims who, I am certain, will give\nthe organization more administrative order than it now has.\n\nMeanwhile the Black Muslims are bombarding Negroes all over the\nnation with their message to the \u201clost-found, so-called Negro in the\nwilderness of North America.\u201d For a number of years Mr. Muhammad\nhad a weekly column in some of the nation\u2019s best Negro newspapers.\nNow the Muslims publish their own weekly, _Mr. Muhammad Speaks_,\na thirty-six-page tabloid that has the largest circulation of any\nNegro newspaper being published. The Muslims also conduct a weekly\nradio program on stations in some forty cities throughout the nation.\nAll this is augmented by the appearances of Malcolm X on radio and\nTV programs each week. All in all, the Black Muslims have covered\nthe nation; their basic teachings are known and debated by Negroes\neverywhere.\n\nOn the whole, then, the state of the Nation of Islam is good; its\npopulation is growing, its economy is well into the black, and its\nforeign relations--though strained--are better than they have ever been\nbefore.\n\n\n\n\n4. THE BLACK MUSLIMS AND THE NEGRO REVOLT\n\n\n_The Separate State_\n\nOn the day every television network carried scenes of Birmingham police\ndogs attacking Negro children, Malcolm X submitted to an interview.\nAsked what he thought of the events at Birmingham, Malcolm said:\n\u201cMartin Luther King is a chump, not a champ. Any man who puts his women\nand children on the front lines is a chump, not a champ.\u201d\n\nThis was Malcolm\u2019s most inglorious hour. It will take him months of\nhard work to regain the ground he lost among non-Muslim Negroes with\nthat single statement. Even the Negro moderates, those who disapprove\nof the direct-action technique, were silenced by the dogs, fire hoses,\nand club-swinging policemen. Since Birmingham I have been on a lecture\ntour that carried me to eight major cities in as many states; I found\nthat Negroes were melted into one by the fire of that battle; I saw\na unity I have never seen in rank-and-file Negroes before; I felt a\nmutual love that is all but unknown among Negroes; I sensed a dislike\nfor white people that borders on the disgraceful. Martin King--and we\nknow his strengths as well as his weaknesses--triggered Birmingham.\nThis nation\u2019s Negroes were with him. If he was a \u201cchump,\u201d so were we\nall.\n\nMalcolm\u2019s statement had the effect of making every Negro who wept\nwhen he saw dogs attacking Negro children feel like a moral idiot;\nMalcolm\u2019s analysis--if proper--means that every Negro woman who shouted\nresentment when she saw her black sisters knocked to the ground is\nspiritually illiterate and intellectually stupid. Malcolm--in a\ncontorted way, to be sure--allowed himself to become one with Bull\nConner. Malcolm X, the brilliant student of mass psychology, blundered\nbadly.\n\nThe Black Muslims had a multiple choice at Birmingham: They could have\njoined us in the demonstrations; they could have kept quiet; they could\nhave denounced us. I was there and watched the Black Muslim position\ntake shape. Minister James X of the Birmingham temple wanted Malcolm\nto come and make a major speech during the turmoil; Minister Jeremiah\nX, minister to the Atlanta temple and roving southern bishop for the\nmovement, was of much the same mind. Knowing the Black Muslim line of\nauthority as I do, I am certain that James and Jeremiah reflected not\nonly Malcolm\u2019s desire to come but Elijah Muhammad\u2019s decision to let\nthe Big X fly to Birmingham if the proper stage were set. The matter\nwas debated by Negro non-Muslims who could have set just such a stage.\nSome felt it would be a good thing to have Malcolm speak in Birmingham,\nsince the Klan held a rally there at the peak of the crisis. Others\nfelt the Black Muslims should stay out of the picture. There was a\nstandoff on the question, and silence prevailed. Non-Muslim Negroes\nknew Malcolm X could not speak in favor of integration. And they\nprayed--both to Jehovah and Allah--that Big Red would take advantage\nof that excellent opportunity to keep quiet.\n\nMalcolm elected to speak against us. We were all pained by his\noutburst, but now--after several weeks of reflection--it is clear that\nMalcolm did precisely what he had to do. For the Negro revolt had\ncaught up with the Black Muslims.\n\nThe Black Muslims came to power during a moral interregnum, at a time\nwhen it seemed certain that this nation would refuse to obey its own\ndesegregation laws. But the sudden new militancy of the Negro has\nforced an unscheduled confrontation between the Muslims and this\nrepublic: America must prove that it is not a nation of white devils\nor perish. The Black Muslims, on the other hand, must face the reality\nof change in the American way of life. The Negro has always privately\ntalked loud and bitterly about the American white man. The Black\nMuslims brought that talk into the open, on television and radio, and\nmade it plain for all to see and hear. This was good for both the Negro\nand the white man: it shocked and frightened white people to hear what\nwe have been thinking and saying about them for five hundred years; the\nBlack Muslims were a catharsis for us, purging our innards of the bile\nbrought on by slavery and segregation. Released from consuming anger we\ndropped the fa\u00e7ade of puritan legalism and went racing into the streets\nscreaming that defiance which is endemic to the tribe of restless\nnatives we American Negroes most certainly are. Thus the inspired Negro\nstudents who took our fight into the streets, who shouted \u201cnow or\nnever,\u201d have challenged the Black Muslims by interposing the theology\nof desegregation. In _The Negro Revolt_ I described that theology in\nthese words:\n\n  The sit-ins raged throughout the spring of 1960 and convinced\n  even more people that direct mass action was the shorter, more\n  effective route to their goal of desegregation. But, from an\n  internal viewpoint, more significant than the stale coffee and soggy\n  hamburgers was the brand of Negro that was emerging. They were\n  no longer afraid; their boldness, at times, was nothing short of\n  alarming. And although few people knew it, a new religion, peculiar\n  to the Negro, was being born.\n\n  This faith, given incipient articulation by Martin Luther King,\n  was the culmination of a hundred years of folk suffering. Like all\n  faiths, it is peculiar to the people who fashioned it; it was a\n  hodgepodge, as every faith is, of every ethical principle absorbed\n  by my people from other cultures. And so the best of Confucius,\n  Moses, Jesus, Gandhi, and Thoreau was extracted, then mixed with the\n  peculiar experience of the Negro in America. The result was a faith\n  that justified the bus boycott and inspired Negro college students to\n  make a moral crusade out of their right to sit down in a restaurant\n  owned by a white man and eat a hamburger.\n\n  As Pastor Kelly Miller Smith walked to the lectern to begin his\n  Sunday sermon, on that first Sunday of March, 1960, in Nashville,\n  Tennessee, he knew his parishioners wanted and needed more than\n  just another spiritual message. The congregation--most of them\n  middle-class Americans, many of them university students and faculty\n  members--sat before him waiting, tense; for Nashville, like some\n  thirty-odd other Southern college towns, was taut with racial tension\n  in the wake of widespread student demonstrations against lunch\n  counter discrimination in department stores.\n\n  Among the worshipers in Pastor Smith\u2019s First Baptist Church were some\n  of the eighty-five students from Fisk and from Tennessee Agricultural\n  and Industrial University who had been arrested and charged with\n  conspiracy to obstruct trade and commerce because they staged\n  protests in several of Nashville\u2019s segregated eating places. Just two\n  days before, Nashville police had invaded Mr. Smith\u2019s church--which\n  also served as headquarters for the demonstrators--and arrested one\n  of their number, James Lawson, Jr., a Negro senior theological\n  student at predominantly white Vanderbilt University, on the same\n  charge.\n\n  \u201cFather, forgive them,\u201d Mr. Smith began, \u201cfor they know not what they\n  do.\u201d And for the next half-hour, the crucifixion of Christ carried\n  this meaning as he spoke:\n\n  \u201cThe students sat at the lunch counters alone to eat, and when\n  refused service, to wait and pray. And as they sat there on that\n  Southern Mount of Olives, the Roman soldiers, garbed in the uniforms\n  of Nashville policemen and wielding night sticks, came and led the\n  praying children away. As they walked down the streets, through a red\n  light, and toward Golgotha, the segregationist mob shouted jeers,\n  pushed and shoved them, and spat in their faces, but the suffering\n  students never said a mumbling word. Once the martyr mounts the\n  Cross, wears the crown of thorns, and feels the pierce of the sword\n  in his side there is no turning back.\n\n  \u201cAnd there is no turning back for those who follow in the martyr\u2019s\n  steps,\u201d the minister continued. \u201cAll we can do is to hold fast to\n  what we believe, suffer what we must suffer if we would forgive them,\n  for they know not what they do.\u201d\n\n  This new gospel of the American Negro is rooted in the theology of\n  desegregation; its missionaries are several thousand Negro students\n  who--like Paul, Silas, and Peter of the early Christian era--are\n  braving great dangers and employing new techniques to spread the\n  faith. It is not an easy faith, for it names the conservative Negro\n  leadership class as sinners along with the segregationists. Yet this\n  new gospel is being preached by clergymen and laymen alike wherever\n  Negroes gather.\n\nHere, then--in the American Negro\u2019s mind and for his loyalty--is being\nwaged one of the several battles gods have fought during the history\nof man. This particular encounter is between a home-grown Allah who\nis one with black men the world over, but who has a special yen for\nthe American Negro, and a transmuted Jesus who was born in Judea,\ncrucified on Golgotha\u2019s heights, rose from the dead to ascend into\nheaven, but submitted to reincarnation as a student sit-in. And so it\nis that Allah and Jesus fight it out for the spiritual allegiance of\nthe American Negro at a lunch counter in Woolworth\u2019s.\n\nThis is indeed a long way from the mountains near Olympia and the\nflats of Greece where the gods once romped and fought for glory. But\ngods follow man; wherever man is, wherever the great issues of man\nare being determined, there also one will find the gods. Man and the\nissue are now centered around the rise and current crisis of Western\ncivilization. The British historian-theologian Arnold Toynbee suggests\nthat the black Westerner may well determine the fate of Atlantic\ncivilization. The gods apparently agree, and they have come to our\nshores to ply their wares. But Western man, particularly the Negro, is\ndemanding more of his gods than man once did.\n\nOnce upon a time all god had to do was promise man life after death,\nan eternal remission for the sins man committed on earth while trying\nto sing a hymn in a strange land. But the gods can no longer get away\nwith such shoddy realism; men want to eat good food, sleep without\nbeing awakened by nibbling rats, work at jobs commensurate with their\nabilities, live where their earning power allows them, and use all\nfacilities paid for out of public funds.\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t want to eat a hot dog in this store,\u201d Jeremiah X said to me\nas we watched scores of Birmingham youngsters stage sit-ins; \u201cwe want\nthe store and the ground on which it sits.\u201d\n\nThis is the dilemma the Black Muslims now face: They must eschew\neverything tinged by \u201cintegration,\u201d yet they must seek acceptance\namong the black masses who are risking their all--particularly in the\nSouth--for the sake of fuller involvement in the American mainstream.\nThe Muslims\u2019 reply, of course, is the separate state, a place where\nall American black men will live, have their own government, readopt\nArabic, reaccept Allah, and ready themselves for the hour when the\n\u201cword\u201d will be given and Armageddon will proceed.\n\nThe tragedy of this is that Black Muslim leaders, including Elijah\nMuhammad, have said they know such a state will never come into\nbeing. This admission by them relieves me of the need to discuss the\nimpracticality of the proposal. Rather, I am engaged by the fact that\nthe Black Muslims continue to urge Negroes to back the demands for such\na state rather than act to better their plight in the nation as it now\nis.\n\nTheir promise of a separate state, like the chariot that was scheduled\nto swing low and take us home a century ago, is but another of the\nmirages that has kept the American Negro from digging water in the land\nthat is his and under his feet. Black Muslims are forbidden to vote;\nthus they cannot help us overcome such men as Eastland and Talmadge.\nThey are against all forms of integration; thus they cannot help us in\nthe fight for better jobs, schools, and housing.\n\nThe Negro masses are beginning to indict the Black Muslims for\nimpotence; they talk but cannot act; they criticize but cannot correct.\nThus the Black Muslims are running the risk of becoming just another\nsect, an offbeat faith that expiates destiny by the shouting of voices,\nthe stomping of feet, and the banging of tambourines. Their early\npromise of becoming a meaningful new faith has been made pallid by\ntheir lack of an activated social gospel. To put it bluntly, the Black\nMuslims are flirting with the same doom that overtook Christianity.\n\nAs the interview in Part Two shows, I have questioned Malcolm X in\ndepth about this. He is adamant, his voice has the ring of finality.\nIn substance, his position is this:\n\n  The Negro Revolt will fail because integration will not work; it\n  will not work because the white man is wicked by nature and will not\n  give Negroes full participation in American life. It is not that the\n  white man refuses to integrate, but that his wicked nature makes it\n  impossible for him to give justice, equality, and freedom to other\n  peoples. Even the victories that have been won are tricks, token\n  integration offered to a few Negroes to quiet the Negro masses. When\n  Negroes realize they have been tricked, that the white man has no\n  intentions of integrating, trouble will break out. And this is when\n  the Black Muslims will inherit the earth, particularly America. This\n  nation could avoid all this by granting Negroes states of their own.\n  But they are too wicked to do even that. So let Armageddon rip.\n\nEven so, I pressed Malcolm:\n\n  LOMAX: Minister Malcolm, will the Black Muslims join picket lines and\n  demonstrations for better jobs, housing, and schools?\n\n  MALCOLM X: Only The Honorable Elijah Muhammad can answer that.\n\n\n_The Friends and Followers of Malcolm X_\n\nIt pains Malcolm X that most people consider him _the_ spokesman for\nthe Black Muslims. Malcolm prefaces all his public statements with\nthe phrase, \u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that ...\u201d;\nhe attributes his every thought and action to the teachings of Mr.\nMuhammad. \u201cThe Messenger is the Prophet of Allah,\u201d Malcolm once\nexplained to me, \u201cand I am but Elijah\u2019s servant.\u201d\n\nFollowing a Los Angeles TV debate between Malcolm X, two other Negroes,\nand me, my aunt invited some fifty people to meet the members of the\npanel at her home. Malcolm X appeared and of course became the center\nof attraction. The guests were upper-middle-class Negroes--doctors,\nlawyers, teachers, professionals all. Some ten white persons were also\npresent. One woman asked Malcolm why he prefaced his remarks by saying,\n\u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that....\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause,\u201d Malcolm said cuttingly, \u201cMr. Muhammad is everything and\nI am nothing. When you hear Charlie McCarthy speak, you listen and\nmarvel at what he says. What you forget is that Charlie is nothing but\na dummy--he is a hunk of wood sitting on Edgar Bergen\u2019s lap. If Bergen\nquits talking, McCarthy is struck dumb; if Bergen turns loose, McCarthy\nwill fall to the floor, a plank of sawdust fit for nothing but the\nfire. This is the way it is with the Messenger and me. It is my mouth\nworking, but the voice is his.\u201d\n\nMalcolm X may well be Elijah Muhammad\u2019s Charlie McCarthy, but it was\nCharlie McCarthy who made Edgar Bergen rich and famous. By the same\ntoken, observers are convinced that whereas Elijah Muhammad is the\nmaximum leader of the movement, Malcolm X is the man who will have\nto save the Black Muslims from becoming just another sect or cult.\nMalcolm\u2019s role rests on more than his indisputable ability and public\npresence; it is augmented by the absence of other talented men in\nthe movement. I have met and talked with every major figure in the\nBlack Muslim hierarchy, and there is not one among them who can do\nthe job that must be done if the organization is to make a continuing\nimpression on non-Muslim Negroes. This is not to say that there are\nno able administrators within the movement; on the contrary, I, for\none, am convinced that Malcolm is not a good administrator, that men\nlike John X are better suited than he for this role. But John X cannot\ncapture the mind and imagination of TV viewers as Malcolm X has done.\nBoth of Muhammad\u2019s sons are extremely able, but they cannot cause the\nnation\u2019s press to beat a path to Muhammad\u2019s door, as Malcolm has done.\n\nMalcolm X now holds down three jobs: he is minister of Temple Number\nSeven, New York; minister of Temple Number Four, Washington, D.C.; and\ntraveling bishop-trouble shooter for the entire movement. Malcolm roams\nthe nation holding press conferences and being the _official presence_\nwherever Muslims get into trouble with the police; he moves between\ntemples, making sure that internal problems are handled correctly; he\nmoves from town to town organizing new temples and addressing mass\nrallies; he has spoken at most major universities outside the South and\nfills the air waves with his beguiling jargon.\n\nThen Malcolm commutes several times a month to Phoenix, Arizona, where\nthe asthma-stricken Elijah Muhammad now lives, for further guidance and\npolicy conferences. Hardly a day passes that Malcolm does not speak\nwith the Messenger from wherever he is by telephone. I know from many\npersonal experiences that even so trivial a request as one for Malcolm\nto sit for an interview is cleared with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\nI also know that Muhammad sometimes says \u201cno\u201d and that Malcolm obeys.\nMany commentators make much over what they call the \u201cNew York-Chicago\u201d\ncleavage within the Black Muslim movement. I am inclined to doubt\nthe reality of that cleavage, but I am also convinced that there are\nstresses and strains within the movement, the same kinds of stresses\nand strains that afflict any organization that involves human beings.\n\nElijah Muhammad officially lives in Chicago but actually spends almost\nall of his time in Arizona. This is for reasons of health alone and\ntalk to the contrary is untrue. From Phoenix the Messenger runs\neverything. Chicago is the nerve center of the movement, and Elijah\nactivates it by telephone calls and couriers. It is now clear that\nElijah has delegated to Chicago the responsibility for turning out the\nmovement\u2019s publications and over-all policy statements. It is equally\nclear that the finances and other administrative chores of the movement\nare carried out in Chicago. Malcolm at one time carried some of these\nresponsibilities, particularly the publishing of the Muslim newspaper,\nand many observers thought they saw an intraorganizational fight when\nthese responsibilities were taken from him and given to Chicago. They\nare wrong; what they saw was a freeing of Malcolm X, a decision by\nMuhammad that Malcolm was needed as ambassador-at-large for the Black\nMuslims, that he should not be tied down to the responsibility of\nediting and publishing a weekly newspaper. This decision by Muhammad\nwas made possible because John X, a former FBI agent and perhaps the\nbest administrative brain in the movement, was shifted from New York to\nChicago.\n\nRaymond Sharrieff is without doubt the strong man of the movement. He\nis tall, big, and quiet, as a strong man should be. But his strength,\ntoo, flows down from that enigmatic man, Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad has\nbeen able to harness Malcolm X, John X, and Sharrieff to the same plow\nand make them pull in tandem. But once Muhammad dies--at least, so most\nobservers feel--this triumvirate will fly apart and wreck the movement.\nI doubt it. The Black Muslims know the world is waiting for just this\nto happen, and I am positive they have already made certain that it\nwill not happen.\n\n\n_The New Policy_\n\nSuccession is not the major question facing the Black Muslims; the\nyoung, thinking men in the hierarchy know what the big issue is, know\nthat they must issue a new policy statement if they are to capture\nthe minds of the Negroes who are carrying out the current revolution.\nCalling the white man a devil and exhorting all Negroes to prepare for\nlife in a separate state simply is not enough to win over the children\nwho marched at Birmingham and all over this republic. No, if the Black\nMuslims are to get a hearing, they must have more than this to say.\n\nThis new policy statement is the prime concern of the Black Muslim\nmovement. Several factors are involved:\n\nFirst, the consensus among the Black Muslim hierarchy is that\nthe current Negro demonstrations will end in bitter defeat and\ndisappointment. These men, including Elijah Muhammad, are unalterably\nconvinced that white America will not honor the promise of integration.\nThen, at least so the thinking goes, the Negro people will set off\ntrouble; they will denounce and abandon Martin Luther King, Roy\nWilkins, and James Farmer; they will turn for leadership to someone\nwho foresaw the defeat clearly. In the meantime, however, good but\nmisguided Negroes will take to the streets and demonstrate because they\nstill have faith in integration, they still believe in the ability of\nwhite people to do the right thing.\n\nI predict the Black Muslims will erect a policy of _active\nwait-and-see_; they will not join picket lines and participate\nin demonstrations, but they will take a more active part in\ngeneral community life. This, I think, is the meaning behind the\nrecent announcement that the Black Muslims are considering active\nparticipation in politics. The suggestion was made during the\nmovement\u2019s annual convention in Chicago early in the spring of 1963.\nIt is still not clear just what the Muslims have in mind, but I see\nthem first moving to register their people and then supporting Negro\ncandidates who share some of the Muslims\u2019 concerns.\n\n[Illustration: Malcolm X addressing a Harlem rally protesting crime.\nMany civic and elected officials share the platform with him, look on\nas Malcolm X says, \u201cDope, prostitution, and numbers could not flourish\nhere in Harlem without the knowledge of the police!\u201d\n\n(_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]\n\n[Illustration: Malcolm X raising money during a Washington, D.C., rally\nat which Elijah Muhammad spoke. Black Muslims give a portion of their\nwages to the temple each week, and these donations are the movement\u2019s\nmajor source of income. However, Muslims do raise additional funds at\nrallies and bazaars. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: A Muslim meeting at Urlene Arena, Washington, D.C.\nMalcolm X confers with Wallace Muhammad. (_Richard Saunders from\nPictorial_)]\n\n[Illustration: Muslim women at Urlene Arena meeting.\n\n(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]\n\n[Illustration: Malcolm X speaking at Harvard Law School. All over the\nnation he has told such audiences of the Black Muslims\u2019 teaching.\n\n(_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]\n\n[Illustration: Black Muslims demonstrating in front of courthouse\nduring trial of one of their brothers. (_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]\n\n[Illustration: Members of The Fruit of Islam stand inspection.\n\n(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]\n\n[Illustration: Malcolm X \u201cmakes it plain\u201d at Temple Number Seven in\nHarlem.\n\n(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]\n\n[Illustration: Elijah Muhammad, who makes all major decisions, confers\nwith his chief aids: (_top left_) Raymond Sharrieff, chief of The Fruit\nof Islam; (_top right_) Malcolm X; (_bottom left_) National Secretary\nJohn X; (_bottom right_) Elijah Muhammad, Jr., gives orders to The\nFruit of Islam by walkie-talkie, while Malcolm X listens.\n\n(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: Malcolm X makes phone call from Muslim store in Chicago.\n\n(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: Minister Henry X takes Muslim youths on tour of the\nMuseum of Natural History. \u201cThis was our culture before the white man\nkidnaped us,\u201d he tells them. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: Four Muslim sisters have dinner at a temple restaurant.\n\n(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: Muslim women making their own costumes--long flowing\ndresses and headpieces. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\n[Illustration: Muslim youngsters being taught Arabic at the University\nof Islam in Chicago, the largest Arabic school in the nation. The\nUniversity is accredited and trains youth from kindergarten through\nhigh school. Picture above blackboard is of Elijah Muhammad. The star\nand crescent is the symbol of the Nation of Islam.\n\n(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]\n\nThese candidates will not be Black Muslims; they will be \u201crace\u201d men who\nare willing to \u201cspeak out,\u201d an act that is so dear to the hearts of\nMuslims. These Negro candidates will not back such Muslim programs as\nthe quest for an all-black state, but neither will they denounce the\nBlack Muslims. Some Black Muslims may run for office, however. Malcolm\nX has often flirted with the idea of seeking a Congressional seat, and\nthere are those, including me, who feel he would win if he selected the\nright area.\n\nThis would mean that the Black Muslims would work with political\ncandidates who must also work with other groups, some of whom would\nsupport direct action. This would indirectly ally the Muslims with\ndirect action and would improve their image, provided they accompanied\nsuch action with the cessation of attacks on men like Martin Luther\nKing and Roy Wilkins. As I see it, this is the best possible position\nfor the Black Muslims: it would ally them with the Negro push for\nbetter housing, jobs, and schools while at the same time allowing them\nto abstain from direct action; it would also free them to say that a\nseparate state is still _the best_ answer. Most of all, such a move\nwould lift the Black Muslims to the level of respectability they have\nso long wanted. Other Negro spokesmen would have to practice summitry\nwith the Muslims, and they would become an accepted rather than feared\nforce in the Negro community.\n\nA second factor involved in the Black Muslim search for a new policy\nturns on Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah, who has just\nreturned to America after two years of study at Egypt\u2019s famed Al-Azhar\nUniversity. Al-Azhar is the cultural center of orthodox Islam, and its\nprofessors are the brains of that faith. It is beyond question that\nElijah\u2019s position has been enhanced by Akbar\u2019s period of study there;\nit is just as certain that the Black Muslim movement will be affected\nby Akbar\u2019s return.\n\nAt this writing Akbar has been home less than a month. He is in the\ncompany of Malcolm X and will make a nation-wide tour of Muhammad\u2019s\ntemples, where he will lecture on traditional Islam and the influence\nof Africa in current world affairs.\n\nAlready his influence is being felt.\n\n\u201cAkbar Comes to Harlem\u201d was the billing for a major Black Muslim rally\nheld shortly after his return. The New York press, Negro and white, was\nfilled with ads and special announcements inviting people to come out\nand hear Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah Muhammad, report\non his sojourn and studies in Africa and Egypt. Much was made of the\nfact that Akbar had been a student at Al-Azhar University. Even more\nwas made of the fact that he had attended the recent summit meeting of\nAfrican heads of state as a correspondent for the Muslim newspaper,\n_Mr. Muhammad Speaks_.\n\nObservers of the movement were certain that his speech would be heavily\npro-African, that he would argue for a closer relationship between the\nBlack Muslim movement and traditional Islam, and that he once again\nwould remind American Negroes of their African heritage. But Akbar\nMuhammad\u2019s two-hour talk before some four thousand Negroes on that\nSaturday afternoon in Harlem proved to be a complete surprise; further,\nit laid bare the only real schism there is within the Black Muslim\nmovement.\n\nAfter a highly charged introduction by Malcolm X the distinguished\nspeaker rose. Twenty-five-year-old Akbar Muhammad is much like his\nfather, medium brown, diminutive, slightly built. He stood at the\nlectern stroking his goatee during the three-minute ovation from the\ncrowd. Then he spoke: \u201c_As-Salaam-Alaikum_.\u201d His Arabic was exquisite.\nHis inflection alone was enough to let the black masses know they were\nhearing something different from the southern-accented \u201cPeace be with\nyou\u201d they hear from the ordinary Black Muslims. All up and down the\nblock Muslims leaped into the air with ecstasy, praising Allah for the\n\u201cback home\u201d diction one of their leaders had acquired.\n\nAkbar had been speaking a scant five minutes when the crowd became\nstrangely silent. Elijah\u2019s son was clearly giving a new teaching, a\ngospel that contradicted much of what Malcolm X and others had been\nsaying for the past few years.\n\n\u201cWe must have unity among Negroes,\u201d Akbar said.\n\n  It is time for all of us--CORE, the NAACP, Dr. Martin Luther King,\n  the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Black\n  Muslims--to sit down together behind closed doors and unite. Negro\n  leaders must now stop calling each other names. We must stop calling\n  Dr. King names, and he must stop talking about us before the enemy.\n  We may not be able to walk all the way to freedom together, but we\n  can walk half the way together, so let\u2019s unite and walk together as\n  far as we can.\n\nThe audience began to warm to his strange message. The notion of unity\namong Negro leaders--including the Muslims--was not new. Malcolm X\nhad launched the same theme three years ago but found no takers among\nestablished Negro leaders. Recently, however, the breach had widened;\nMalcolm called Martin Luther King \u201ca chump, not a champ\u201d; King took to\na New York pulpit and denounced \u201cthose among us who would have us live\nin a separate state.\u201d The night of that sermon King was pelted with\neggs as he entered the church. Malcolm X denied that the Black Muslims\nwere responsible for the incident but he also refused to say he was\nsorry that it had happened. All this was less than two weeks before the\nspeech by Akbar.\n\nI watched the setting as Akbar continued to speak. The stage obviously\nhad been readied for him. This was no ordinary rally: Elijah Muhammad,\nJr., had flown in from Chicago to be present, along with John X Ali,\nNational Secretary for the movement. Ministers Jeremiah (Baltimore),\nLouis X (Boston), and Thomas J. (Hartford) were there. Minister Woodrow\n(Atlantic City) was on hand with his camera crew, and Joseph X, captain\nof the New York Fruit, turned his men out in full dress. This was\nclearly a major move, and the Muslims had worked hard to underscore its\nimportance.\n\nBut what did it all mean?\n\n\u201cNow if we can unify,\u201d Akbar continued, \u201cwe can get help. I have just\ncome from Africa,\u201d he said with a sly smile, \u201cand I bring you a message\nfrom our African brothers. Now you newsmen get this correct. I am only\nbringing a message to the people, a message sent by their brothers\nin Africa. This is the message: Spokesmen from African states--I\u2019ll\neven go so far as to tell you that they are on the west coast of\nAfrica--told me to tell you that if you unite, they are ready to help\nus win our freedom. They are ready to help us with arms, men, and\nknow-how!\u201d\n\nThe crowds at such street rallies in Harlem are always infiltrated with\nblack nationalists, and the mere thought of Africans sending arms, men,\nand know-how to aid the American Negro was enough to set off rejoicing.\n\nTo the dismay of newsmen, who hoped he would go into the who, what,\nwhen, where, and how of all this, Akbar let the matter drop. Instead he\nturned to a discussion of the white man.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t hate any man because of the color of his skin,\u201d Akbar said. \u201cI\nlook at a man\u2019s heart, I watch his actions, and I make my conclusions\non the basis of what he does rather than how he looks.\u201d\n\nThere are two ways of interpreting what Akbar said: He could have been\nsaying that action, not skin color, was the determining factor in any\nmoral judgment; or he could have been spouting the Muslim line that\nthe white man can prove he is not evil by nature by acting correctly.\nEither way, what Akbar was saying is a long way from the strong line\npreached by both Malcolm X and Elijah. And when this is coupled with\nAkbar\u2019s public denunciation of those Negro leaders who call other Negro\nleaders names, his speech takes on an even stranger character.\n\nAkbar closed his talk with a call for unity among black men all over\nthe world. \u201cWhat we must have,\u201d he said, \u201cis unity among American\nNegroes; once we get that, Africans are willing to help us with men,\nguns, and know-how. Then we can proceed to unity of black men all over\nthe world.\u201d\n\nAs Akbar finished, the crowd applauded with vigor; they were all\naware that they had witnessed a peculiar thing. First, Akbar had not\nmentioned the separate state a single time during his speech. This is\nindeed strange coming from the son of the Messenger, the man whose\nbasic tenet is a call for \u201cseveral states\u201d where Negroes can form\ntheir own government. Second, Akbar did not once use the phrase, \u201cThe\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad.\u201d He made only one reference to his father,\nand that came when he said, \u201cThe Teacher tells us that we should\nprepare ourselves for black unity.\u201d Most of all, Akbar\u2019s talk had none\nof the strident denunciations of white men that one expects to hear at\na Black Muslim rally.\n\nIt was Malcolm X who pointed up the strangeness of the doctrine we had\nheard.\n\n\u201cI am guilty!\u201d Malcolm told the crowd after Akbar finished. \u201cI am\nguilty of calling other Negro leaders names. As you know, no one has\ndone more of that recently than I have. But today we have heard a new\nteaching, and we are all going to abide by it.... Now brothers with\nthe white buckets will pass among you. And you integrate those white\nbuckets with some green dollar bills. Meanwhile I am going to talk\nto you.... If you help Mr. Muhammad, you are helping the man who has\nhelped you. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who has told you\nthe truth about yourself; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who\nhas told you the truth about the white man.... The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad is the man who has made it possible for Brother Akbar to go\nto school back home in Egypt; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man\nwho tells you to stand up; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man\nwho tells you to look up; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who\ntells you to clean yourself up, provide for your wife and children,\nprotect your family. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you stop\ndrinking; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you stop stealing;\nThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you be true to your family; The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad will get that monkey [dope addiction] off\nyour back; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will get this white, blue-eyed\ngorilla off your back!\u201d\n\n\u201cMake it plain, Brother Minister, make it plain.\u201d\n\nBlack men and their women all up and down the streets shouted and\njumped for joy. This was what they had come to hear in the first place.\nBig Red had made their cups run over. Now they were ready to go home.\n\nThe Harlem rally was Akbar\u2019s hour. Malcolm X had given the Messenger\u2019s\nson, the bright kid away at school in Egypt, a major New York hearing\nwith the press in full attendance. And Akbar had acted like an Arab;\nhe had talked traditional Islam and preached black unity. It was\nabundantly clear that Akbar is much more committed to Africa than he\nis to a separate black state here in America. He reflects the Arabs\u2019\ninvolvement with black unity throughout the world. And here lies the\nschism, for it is clear that Malcolm X is closer to Elijah Muhammad,\nin terms of just what the American Negro should do, than is Elijah\u2019s\nown son. This schism, however, is not as wide or as serious as the\nMuslims\u2019 detractors would have it. Elijah\u2019s big point is that the Negro\nshould have a separate state; the Arabs simply shrug this off. But the\nimminent fall of white civilization is something upon which they all\nagree and for which they are all preparing.\n\nOne can expect, then, that the Black Muslims will become more \u201cIslamic\u201d\nand more \u201cpolitical\u201d in the days just ahead. The new emphasis on\ntraditional Islam will be primarily a matter of ritual and temple\norganization; the new \u201cpolitical\u201d attitude will be an attempt at a\nsocial ethic that would place the Muslims in favor with the black\nmasses without committing them to \u201cintegration\u201d causes.\n\nBut this is a holding operation, something the Black Muslims, like\nGod, suffer to be so. They are going to effect an accommodation with\nthe Negro Revolt, but they are certain that the American white power\nstructure will defraud us all. Then the Nation of Islam can say, \u201cWe\ntold you so,\u201d and sound the bugle for Armageddon.\n\nHow sound would such a new policy be?\n\nFrom an organizational point of view I think it would make sense. Not\nonly is it the most liberal position they can possibly accommodate, but\nit shows that some--perhaps quite a few people--inside the movement are\nthinking creatively. As a non-Muslim, I have much the same reservations\nabout the new policy as I had about the old. I don\u2019t share their total\npessimism on how the Negro Revolt will end. I can foresee a situation\nin which the white power structure fails to yield and Negroes start\ntrouble; that not only can happen, but it probably will happen in\nisolated pockets before the race issue is settled. I doubt that the\ntrouble will be nation-wide, but even widespread rioting would not\nnecessarily mean the triumph of the Black Muslims.\n\nTo state it bluntly, Negroes, as we have done in the past, can have a\nrace riot without becoming Black Muslims!\n\nLet there be no denying that such a tragedy will play into the hands\nof the Black Muslims; there are, indeed, grave risks involved, and the\nbest way to avoid them is to see to it that the tragedy doesn\u2019t occur.\n\n\n_Peace Be Unto You_\n\nThe Black Muslim movement is undeniably a sect, if for no other reason\nthan that it is dominated and run by charismatic leadership. The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad is the mystical and powerful presence of the\nmovement, the meaning around which everything else occurs and orbits.\nElijah Muhammad has never claimed immortality; thus even the Black\nMuslims know he will eventually die. Critics of the movement predict\nthat there will be a frenetic, perhaps bloody, scramble for leadership\nat Muhammad\u2019s death. My prediction is that the Black Muslim hierarchy\nwill gather in conclave and that they will come out with a new leader.\nThat leader will not be Malcolm X. Rather, I suggest that Malcolm,\nJohn, and Sharrieff will be retained in the posts they now occupy and a\nyounger man--almost certainly one of Muhammad\u2019s sons--will be the new\nMessenger.\n\nThere are three reasons why I feel this will prove true:\n\n1. The mystique of the movement is that Muhammad met and knew\nAllah--Fard. Thus it follows that the flesh and blood of Muhammad has\ninherited the magic of that encounter. Muhammad will be raised to\nsainthood, and the Muslim gospel will continue to be prefaced with the\nphrase, \u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us....\u201d Thus the new\nMessenger should be a physical reminder of Elijah.\n\n2. John and Sharrieff are sensible, practical men. They know the\nimpact Malcolm has made on the American scene, and they will keep him\nprecisely where he is, for this is the only way they can stay where\nthey are.\n\n3. Finally, I am persuaded of the morality of these Black Muslim\nleaders. Think of their doctrine what one may, I am convinced that they\nwould no more fight publicly over the question of leadership than would\nthe cardinals of the Roman Church. Indeed, I feel the conclave will\nmove just as the Catholic Church has often moved, that the question\nof a new leader will be overshadowed by a debate over policy. I see\nMalcolm, then, not as the maximum leader, but as prime minister and\nbehind-the-scenes policy maker.\n\nThis is no cause for rejoicing. Akbar Muhammad, who I suspect will be\nthe new Messenger, is steeped in traditional Islam. He will bring to\nthe maximum-leadership post the zeal and determination one associates\nwith the early Mohammedans. Followers of Allah have always been strong\non internal brotherhood and notoriously short of patience and mercy\ntoward outsiders. Those of us who have studied the movement have had\nto stand muster before Raymond Sharrieff, and to a man we are agreed\nthat we would not enjoy tangling with him and The Fruit. Once Elijah\nis dead, I suspect the prospect of tangling with him will be even less\ninviting.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d Malcolm X said to me. \u201cEverybody is talking\nabout differences between the Messenger and me. It is absolutely\nimpossible for us to differ. What he says is law; that is what is done.\nBut I\u2019ll tell you this,\u201d he added. \u201cMr. Muhammad was with Allah, and\nhe has been granted divine patience; he is willing to wait on God to\ndeal with the devil. Well, the rest of us have not seen Allah; we don\u2019t\nhave this divine patience, and we are not so willing to wait on God.\nThe younger Black Muslims want to see some action!\u201d\n\nFor the first and, to my knowledge, only time Malcolm deviated from\nthe Messenger\u2019s position when he said that. Malcolm X means it, he is\nnot alone: Akbar means it, John X means it, Sharrieff means it, and\nWallace, another son of Elijah\u2019s, means it. These men are waiting for\nintegration to fail. This republic would do well to take them seriously.\n\nThe Black Muslims will endure but they will not prevail. Rather, they\nwill linger for years to come and be a constant reminder of what this\nrepublic did to thousands who sought its promise. They will integrate\nthis nation\u2019s body politic and make us continually aware of what can\nhappen if white men don\u2019t learn to love before black men learn to hate.\nAnd maybe one day before I die we can all join together--black and\nwhite and Malcolm X--and say, \u201c_As-Salaam-Alaikum_.\u201d That is to say,\npeace be unto you.\n\n\n\n\nPART TWO\n\n_The Prophet\u2019s Voice_\n\n\n\n\n1. MUHAMMAD\n\nAT ATLANTA\n\n\n\u201c_Come and see and hear the most fearless black man in America today;\nthe man who is going to defy the Ku Klux Klan!_\u201d\n\n_This is the way the Black Muslims billboarded Elijah Muhammad\u2019s\nnow-famous \u201cAtlanta Speech\u201d of 1961. For when it was announced that\nMuhammad was to speak in Atlanta, the Klan issued a statement that\nthey, too, would hold a rally and a march on the same day, at the same\ntime. The Black Muslims\u2019 propaganda machinery went into action, and the\nAtlanta Speech was advertised as a major confrontation between Elijah\nand the Klan. Something a little different from that is what actually\noccurred._\n\n_Malcolm X flew into Atlanta several days before the scheduled meeting\nand began talks with police and other city officials. Malcolm was\nassured that the police would enforce law and order, that the Black\nMuslims could proceed with their meeting without fear of trouble from\nthe Klan or anyone else._\n\n_Even so, the Black Muslims took advantage of every opportunity to\ndramatize their presence and activities. Long before the meeting began\nmembers of The Fruit of Islam took up posts on rooftops overlooking\nthe route Muhammad would travel to Magnolia Hall. Even more Fruit\ncordoned the hall itself. With a seating capacity of only five hundred,\nthe auditorium was jammed hours before the meeting began; another two\nthousand people lined up along the dirt road leading to the auditorium\nand heard the speech over loud-speakers. They would have fared just\nas well had they stayed home since the entire five-hour speech was\nbroadcast over a local Negro-oriented radio station._\n\n_The expectation mounted as word came that Muhammad had landed at\nthe airport; several minutes later it was announced that Muhammad\nwas taking a few moments of ease at the home of the local minister;\nthen word came that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was en route to the\ntemple._\n\n_The Fruit of Islam formed themselves into a double column that\nstretched from the platform inside the auditorium, out the front door,\ndown the steps, and across the sidewalk to the curb where Elijah would\ndisembark._\n\n_As the crowd cheered, a long black limousine pulled up to the\nauditorium and Elijah Muhammad--a five-foot-five, unimpressive little\nman--along with a retinue of some six members of his family swept into\nthe building down the corridor formed by The Fruit. The applause inside\nthe temple was loud and sustained; nervously adjusting his bow tie,\nElijah Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, took several bows before the\npeople resumed their seats._\n\n_After a long and impassioned introduction by Malcolm X, Elijah\nMuhammad rose to speak. Most of that long, rambling lecture follows.\nIt is a full statement of Black Muslim doctrine replete with attacks\non Negro leaders--Negro preachers in particular. Herein we will find\na detailed account of how the evil black scientist Yakub created the\nwhite world; we learn why the white race has endured for so long; but\nmost of all Elijah used the Atlanta Speech to make an impassioned\nplea to Negroes to become \u201cfearless.\u201d [Observers feel that Muhammad\u2019s\nrepetitious urging that Negroes cease to fear white people is one of\nhis strongest attractions for the Negro masses.]_\n\n_Of particular interest, at least to me, is the Paulinean stance Elijah\nMuhammad assumes in this speech. He begins by offering greetings of\npeace and the good life; then he goes on to thank his local minister,\nJeremiah X, for having arranged this meeting. This done, Muhammad links\nthe Black Muslims with the \u201c725 million more brothers and sisters in\nthe World of Islam,\u201d and issues a special note of thanks to those of\nhis followers who have come from as far away as California._\n\n_Finally, I wish to underscore the closing of this speech: \u201cI am God\u2019s\nlast Messenger to you. You must accept Allah as God.\u201d This is the only\ntime I have encountered the doctrine of Elijah as the last Messenger.\nBut it bolsters my suggestion that when he dies, Muhammad will still\nbe \u201cThe Messenger\u201d and that the new leader of the movement will be\na younger man, a titular head, while strong men like Malcolm X and\nRaymond Sharrieff carry the load._\n\n\nAS-SALAAM-ALAIKUM: In the name of Allah, the most Merciful God, to whom\nall holy praises are due, the Lord of all the worlds; the most Merciful\nFinder (of) and Lifegiver to the Lost-found, mentally dead so-called\nNegroes here in the Wilderness of North America.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMy Beloved Brothers and Sisters:\n\nI am more than honored by your presence here this afternoon and your\nsincere welcome to me and to my followers here in this great city of\nAtlanta.\n\nI thank Allah for Minister Jeremiah, my faithful minister here whose\ntireless efforts in Atlanta and throughout the South have made this\ngreat gathering here today possible. The work that Minister Jeremiah\nhas been doing here in the South has pleased Allah, and it has pleased\nme too.\n\nYear after year I receive letters from many converts here in Atlanta,\nand I know that the Word of Allah is spreading rapidly among our people\nhere in the South because of the ever increasing volume of your letters\nto me.\n\nAnd, my beloved people, I want you to know that those of you here in\nAtlanta and in other parts of the South who accept Islam, which is the\ntrue religion of Almighty God, are not alone. Not only do you have a\nfast-growing number of brothers and sisters in all of the Northern\ncities, but you have 725 million more brothers and sisters in the World\nof Islam.\n\nI am also thankful to my followers who have traveled here to Atlanta\nto be with me today from my various temples throughout America, and\nespecially the caravan of young Muslims who motored over 2,000 miles\nall the way from Los Angeles, California, to be here on this grand\noccasion.\n\nMy followers are with me wherever I go, and it is wonderful to have\nsuch sincere people who will follow you all around the country like\nthis because it shows unity, and it also shows there is no religion\nthat can produce unity like the unity produced by Islam. Yes, today\nthe Muslims are in all the major cities of America, and if you look\naround in the smaller cities you will find us there also. Just walk\naround saying, \u201cAs-Salaam-Alaikum,\u201d and pretty soon someone will reply,\n\u201cWa-Alaikum-Salaam.\u201d\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters, again I must thank Allah for permitting\nme to be in your presence here in Atlanta this afternoon. I am thankful\nalso to the Atlanta Police Department for the courtesies they have\nshown us here in this city, and I want everyone to know we are a people\nwho are grateful to anyone who is nice to us, and peaceful toward us.\nWe are a people of peace. We are seeking to spread brotherly love\namong the so-called Negroes for it is they who have been deprived of\nbrotherly love. We (Muslims) have come through the same trials and\ntribulations as they have, and now we want them to see and share the\nbrotherhood that Islam has given us.\n\nIslam is not a new religion. Islam is not a religion that has been\norganized by the white man. Islam is the religion of God Himself, and\nIslam is the religion of all the prophets of God, from Adam to Muhammad\n(the last). Islam was the religion of Moses, Noah, Abraham, and\nJesus. Islam will be the last of the three great religions (Buddhism,\nChristianity, and Islam) that now dominate the earth.\n\nIslam must be the last of these three great religions because God\nHimself is the Author of Islam, and Islam is to bring peace and\ncontentment after this war and trouble-making world which you now know\nhas been destroyed ... and you can see that this trouble-making world\nis already on its way out.\n\nIslam has not made great progress for the past 6,000 years because this\nis the religion that God Himself would spread in the \u201clast days.\u201d If\nIslam had been forced upon all the people of the earth during the past\n6,000 years there would not have been any \u201cWorld of Christianity,\u201d\nthere would not have been any \u201cWorld of Buddhism\u201d ... and there would\nnever have been anything like the \u201cCaucasian World.\u201d Islam would have\nprevented their progress. God Himself has held Islam \u201cin check\u201d to give\nthese other \u201cworlds\u201d free reign during the past 6,000 years.\n\nBut, Islam was the religion of the black people who lived before Adam\nwas made, as far back as 66 trillion years ago when the earth and the\nmoon were together and formed one and the same planet ... and which at\nthat time was called \u201cmoon\u201d instead of earth.\n\nAccording to the word of Allah to me, one of our wise black scientists\nwas upset over the dialect the people were speaking, and he wanted to\nchange the language and make all of the people speak the same dialect.\nHe became angry because he could not get the others to go along with\nhim, and when he saw that he could not accomplish what he wanted, he\ndrilled a huge shaft into this planet for about four or five thousand\nmiles deep, and filling that hole with high explosives he set it off,\nwith the intention of destroying all civilization. He thought he would\nget rid of us.\n\nThat part of the planet which we call \u201cmoon\u201d today was blasted 12,000\nmiles from its original pocket that it had been rotating in at the time\nof the explosion, and this part that we call \u201cearth\u201d today dropped\n36,000 miles from that pocket and found another pocket and started\nrotating again ... (it all happened in the twinkling of an eye) ... and\nthat part (moon) that was blasted away dropped all of its water upon\nthis part (earth), and this is why three-fourths of the earth\u2019s surface\ntoday is covered by water, and also why there is no life on the moon.\n\nWe are the people who devised that great destruction of our planet.\nThat part (moon) that you see up there in the sky shining at night was\nonce joined with this part (earth) that we now five on. Before the\nexplosion the entire planet was then called \u201cmoon.\u201d (Not really by\nthe word \u201cmoon\u201d that we use today, but by a word in Arabic that means\npractically the same thing.) We will have another great destruction,\nand we will provide that one too. We ourselves (the black nation) are a\npeople who can never be destroyed. There never was a time when we (the\nblack nation) didn\u2019t exist. We don\u2019t have any birth record of the black\nnation. We have no beginning and we have no ending. So don\u2019t talk\nabout getting rid of the Black Man, because you cannot do it.\n\nAgain I say, we are happy to be in Atlanta today, the capital of\nGeorgia ... my birth state. I was born in this state, and grew up in\nthis state. I was a grown man, married and the father of children even\nbefore I left this state. So don\u2019t try and make me acquainted with\nGeorgia. I am already acquainted with Georgia.\n\nThis great city of Atlanta with its five colleges, institutions of\nlearning, is one of America\u2019s most important cities, and is even the\ngateway to the South. We thank the city for permitting us to enter it,\nand the courtesy of the police department, and the mayor of this great\ncity, and the governor of the state. We are happy to be called one of\nyour own state-borned sons.\n\nMy beloved people, I am one of your brothers; I am not a foreigner, but\nI have a Divine Message from the Lord of the Worlds that sounds foreign\nto you because you have not heard it before.\n\nI want you to know that we so-called Negroes are the people who have\nbeen on this planet for trillions of years. I say so-called Negro\nbecause you are not a Negro. You are members of the Asiatic Nation,\nfrom the Tribe of Shabazz. There is no such thing as a race of Negroes.\nThis is a false name given you during slavery by your slave master,\nwho, after robbing you completely of your knowledge of your homeland,\nyour parents, and your culture, called you \u201cNegro\u201d or Nigger because\nthat word means something that is \u201cNEUTER\u201d or \u201cNEUTRAL.\u201d Therefore you\nare now a little group of people on this earth who stand out because\nyou have become neutralized by ignorance of yourself and your own kind,\nand of your enemy. You are \u201cneutral\u201d ... not united with yourselves,\namong yourselves, nor are you united with your own people of your own\nworld.\n\nSince ignorance of self and hatred of self makes you reluctant to\nunite with your own kind, and despite your love and worship of your\nslave master he will not let you unite with him ... thus you are in\nthe middle, standing alone, neutralized by your own lack of knowledge,\nunacceptable to either friend or foe ... NEGROES!!!\n\nThis is why you are called NEGRO. The slave master gave you this name\nbecause he understood the meaning of it, although Webster has cunningly\nkept you away from the true meaning of it by saying it refers to black\npeople ... and especially the black African who has no education or\nindependence.\n\nMy dear brothers and sisters, and distinguished educators of Atlanta,\nyou have often wondered why you had to call yourselves by this name\n\u201cNegro.\u201d It has been due to the fact that you didn\u2019t know its origin\nand you didn\u2019t know your origin. You have been asleep. You don\u2019t know\nwhom you are from, where you are from, where you are going, how you\nshould stand, how you should sit ... you know nothing at all but what\nyour slave master chooses to tell you, and since he tells you only that\nwhich will benefit himself and his own kind, you have been made into a\nNEUTRAL person ... a shiftless, helpless NEGRO.\n\nIf the white man says to you, \u201cJohnny, go back home, I have no work for\nyou today,\u201d you go back home and sit down and wait for the white man\nto send for you (when he sees fit) to come back and work on his job.\nYou don\u2019t try to create a job for yourself. You are shiftless because\nthe lack of \u201cproper\u201d education and self-knowledge has left you lifeless\n(mentally, economically, and otherwise).\n\nI am not making fun of you. I am trying to lead you to the point where\nyou can see the basic cause of your condition. I am one of you. I came\nthrough the same trials and tribulation and the same hell that you\ndid. What I say about you I am also saying it about myself. I am your\nbrother; I am here, if necessary, to give my life to save yours. I am\nnot running from death. I am running to save your life. So take me for\na friend and not an enemy.\n\nYou must learn to make jobs for yourselves so that the next time \u201cboss\u201d\ntells you he does not have any work for you, you can tell him that you\nare going to do some work for yourself.\n\nThree hundred years under the persecution of your slave master has made\nyou into a blind, deaf, and dumb ... and an absolutely \u201cdead\u201d people.\nHe has taught you to eat the rotten and worse type of foods, even the\nflesh of that poisonous animal, the swine (pork) ... filling your\nstomach with this poison meat (pork) has deteriorated you physically,\nmentally as well as morally. The Arab word for the pig is \u201cKhainsuer.\u201d\n(\u201ckhain\u201d means \u201cI see,\u201d and \u201csuer\u201d means \u201cvery foul.\u201d) This word\nthus means \u201cI see something that is very foul, filthy, diseased\u201d ...\nsomething that is not fit to be eaten by intelligent, civilized people.\n\nYour slave master reared you on this poisonous meat, which has dulled\nyour brains, and you ceased to think about your past history, and then\nyou were deprived easily of the knowledge of your own God and your own\nreligion. Thus it became easy for the slave master to deprive you also\nof the knowledge of your own kind, and the knowledge of his kind. Now\nyou don\u2019t know the way back to your own kind, and his kind won\u2019t accept\nyou ... so they call you Nigger or Negro, which means deaf, dumb, and\nblind ... neutral, dead, lifeless.\n\nWe, the Nation of Islam, who believe in freedom, justice and equality\nstand not only before you today, but before the entire world as we\ndeclare this truth about the American so-called Negroes. The nations\nof earth are faced today with a worse problem than has ever presented\nitself in the history of mankind, and the primary ingredient of\nthis great \u201cworld problem\u201d involves the condition and position of\nthe so-called Negro here in America ... 20 million ex-slaves who\nhave become a nation within a nation and who are now crying out for\nsomething that they can call their own. This is creating a problem\nnot only for America, but for the entire world, and that problem is:\nhow to give you a knowledge and understanding of yourself, teach you\nthe knowledge of your own God and your own religion, and to teach you\nthe knowledge of your own nation so that you can make a stand for\nyourselves as other nations are making for themselves.\n\nThis problem is so delicate and complicated that only God Himself can\nsolve it. I am not a man who has grabbed a suitcase with a bible in\nit upon my own impulses. No! I stand before you as a man who has been\nchosen for you by God Himself. I did not choose myself. This must be\nmade clear! The Divine Revelation which I have received and which I am\npreaching to you and to the entire world came to me from the Mouth of\nGod.\n\nI did not see Him in a vision and receive my mission in a vision as\nothers before me received theirs. I was in the Presence of God for over\nthree years, and I received what I am teaching you directly from His\nMouth.\n\nLet the infidels curse and swear at me. Let the infidels go on the\nwarpath of propaganda against Elijah, but I warn you: \u201cYou better\nlisten today to him who has received his instructions directly from the\nMouth of Almighty God.\u201d I did not receive this gospel from a paper, nor\na book, nor from a vision, nor from an angel, but directly from the\nMouth of Almighty God Himself.\n\nMy beloved people: I know your problems and your burdens; I know your\nproblems and your burdens; I know what you go through; you don\u2019t have\nto tell me ... for I have the ABSOLUTE CURE for all your problems and\nailments. All you have to do is listen to what I say, and then jump up\non your feet and follow me.\n\nI don\u2019t want you to be too proud, as others were in former times;\nthey were too proud to follow the words of the prophets. I don\u2019t want\nyou to be like that. I want you to place more value on your life than\nthey did. Think something of your future, and your children, and your\npeople. Accept Allah and His religion and follow me and I will lead you\nto Him and to a heaven right here on this earth. Come and follow me,\nand you will not have to wait until after you die to see God, nor will\nyou have to wait until after you die to enjoy a heaven somewhere up in\nthe sky.\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters: after receiving this Divine Revelation\nthat I am teaching you from the Mouth of God, I have not stopped one\nday for the last twenty-nine years. I have been standing, preaching\nto you throughout these past twenty-nine years, while I was free and\neven while I was in bondage. I spent three and one-half years in\nthe federal penitentiary and also over a year in the city jail for\nteaching this truth. I was also deprived of a father\u2019s love for his\nfamily for seven long years while I was running from hypocrites and\nother enemies of this word and revelation of God, and which will give\nlife to you and put you on the same level with all other civilized and\nindependent nations of this earth ... and this is the greatest desire\nof Almighty God Allah and Elijah Muhammad. This afternoon I want to\nteach the so-called American Negroes the true knowledge of themselves\nthat will lift them from the bottom and place them back at the top of\ncivilization.\n\nI know how you feel. I know how you think. You think as Ezekiel says of\nyou. Ezekiel says, \u201cThis whole House of Israel, they say their hope was\nlost and they were cut off from their fathers.\u201d You are a people who\nare all hopeless because you think there is no hope for you. You think\nthat because you have been cut off from your own people for so long\nthere is no chance of you ever uniting or of ever becoming anything\nbut what you now are. I say you are wrong. The God of your Fathers,\nwhose proper name is Allah, will strengthen you and cause you to stand\nupon your own feet as an independent people in the eyes of other people\non this earth.\n\nThis Truth that I am teaching will raise you up from the grave, not out\nof the earthly grave, but out of the \u201cgrave of ignorance.\u201d You just\nneed the knowledge of yourself, your own God and your own religion. God\nhas missioned me to give you this Truth: freedom, justice, and equality.\n\nThese are the things I must teach you about: freedom first, because\nyou have never been free here in America. You know nothing about\nthe pleasures or happiness of a free person. You know nothing about\njustice. You know nothing about equality, or being equal with other\ncivilized nations of earth.\n\nI know you and your thoughts about me and what I teach. Inwardly,\nsome of you are with me 100 per cent, but outwardly you are not. Why?\nBecause you have the greatest enemy over you a man can have, and that\nis \u201cFEAR.\u201d Fear is your greatest enemy. You were filled with fear of\nyour slave master when you were little babies, over 400 years ago when\nour fathers were brought in chains to the Western Hemisphere on a slave\nship that was named \u201cThe Good Ship Jesus.\u201d The captain of that ship was\nan English Christian named John Hawkins.\n\nThe American white people had come to this country from Europe and had\nalready begun to subdue the Indians. We were brought here to a people\nwho could not speak our language nor could we speak theirs. Thus the\nlanguage of our forefathers was soon destroyed, and you know nothing\nabout it today. The language of the slave master was forced upon our\nforeparents, and they were brought up also wearing the names of the\nslave masters. Today, you are still speaking their language and\nwearing their names.\n\nDuring 300 long years of slavery you were deprived of the privilege\nof even going to church, and there were no such things as schools for\nyou in those days. Besides depriving you of education the slave master\ndid not teach you about God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost that he is now\nteaching you about today. You were never allowed to sit with them in\ntheir churches until just a few years ago.\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters, think over this: for over 400 years you\nhad no knowledge of yourselves, no knowledge of your own religion, and\nno knowledge of the biblical prophecies and predictions pertaining to\nthe \u201clost people\u201d who would be on this planet until the last days,\nand whom God Himself would have to search for and then save them from\nthe clutches of their enemies. You have never been given a knowledge\nof that because your slave master knew those prophecies were speaking\nabout you (the American so-called Negroes).\n\nFor less than 100 years now a little bit of the Christian religion has\nbeen taught to you in a diluted form, but never the full text of it.\nYou have never learned the prophetic fate of Christianity, nor do you\nknow anything about the Caucasian people who have translated the bible\ninto their language. Yet, you are a people who think you know all about\nthe bible, and all about Christianity, and you are even foolish enough\nto believe that nothing is right but Christianity.\n\nYour slave master tampered with the words of the bible; he \u201ctranslated\u201d\nit; he \u201crevised\u201d it; he fixed the reading of it to make you a worse\nslave than your foreparents were. The slave master is the \u201cgod\u201d who\n\u201csent\u201d some of your fellow slaves to preach to you. Their favorite text\nwas, \u201cServant, obey your master.\u201d But he didn\u2019t really have to preach\nthat because the lashes of the whip upon the backs of your parents for\n300 years had beaten them into obedient submission.\n\nBut, my beloved brothers and sisters, the Christian religion you now\nare believing in so strongly came down to you from your slave masters.\nThey kept that religion and its secrets guarded from your parents\u2019 ears\nfor 300 years. What was then so sacred in Christianity? What was so\nsacred in the bible which they kept locked away from the slaves? What\nwas so sacred about these things that the slave master did not want his\nslaves to read or even hear preached? If it was so good, why didn\u2019t he\nwant his slave to hear this good then? Why didn\u2019t he want his slave to\nbelieve in God then?\n\nFirst of all, the slave master did not want the slaves to know the\ntruth about God nor about His true religion, fearing that the slave\nwould then begin looking for his God to deliver him from his white\noppressors.\n\nI know some of you are afraid to listen to this truth but I am going to\npreach it to you until you are free of that fear. A man told me a few\nyears ago that I would be wasting my time to come to Georgia. He said\nthat the Negroes in Georgia were more afraid of white people than you\nwill find anywhere else on this earth. I told him that I myself was\nborn in Georgia and did not see why they should be afraid of the white\nman. I told him that I was a grown man, married and with two children\nwhen I left Georgia. I also told him that they need not fear the white\nman; the only thing they need to fear is the fear within themselves.\n\nI say to you that your fear of the white man is THE GREAT EVIL. Fear\nis of such nature that it will make you deprive yourself of your\nown salvation. Fear is the enemy that will make you stoop and bring\nyourself to disgrace before the world. Fear is the real enemy that you\nand I should throw into the garbage can.\n\nMy beloved brothers and sisters, how could you accept of God, Jesus and\nthe Holy Ghost. How do you know? I am not asking you to answer these\nquestions, because God has missioned me to answer them for you. You\ndon\u2019t know the answers. All you know is what you have heard your slave\nmaster say.\n\nYou say Christianity is the right religion and that you believe in God\nthe Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. You believe that this\nJesus is God\u2019s son, and that He gave His son to save you. You say that\nthe Holy Ghost \u201coverpowered\u201d a virgin girl named Mary, yet you don\u2019t\ncall the child the son of the Holy Ghost, you call the child \u201cthe son\nof God.\u201d You charge God with being the father of this virgin girl\u2019s\nchild.\n\nMy beloved brothers and sisters, how could you accept a religion that\nteaches you to believe the God of Righteousness was responsible for\nmaking a virgin girl in Palestine pregnant with a child 2,000 years\nago, called this child his \u201cson,\u201d and let this \u201cson\u201d die for the sins\nof the wicked world?\n\nWhen a man is not married to a woman and he commits such a sinful act\nit is called adultery. God is not married to a woman, and if He commits\nsuch a sinful act that produces a child out of wedlock, which actually\nopens the gateway of adultery to the entire world, then it is a shame\nto ask me to believe in that god.\n\nWe in Islam do not ascribe \u201csonship\u201d to Almighty God, because He has\nno son. All of us are His \u201cspiritual\u201d children, but He has no physical\nson. To say that God has produced a physical son out of wedlock\n(without being married to the mother of that son), and then placed this\nson before our eyes and said, \u201cThis is my beloved son; all who believe\nin him and follow him shall be saved,\u201d actually opens the gateway for\nall kinds of adultery and other indecent acts.\n\nGod had already told His prophet Moses that the people should be stoned\nto death for adultery. Now if God had come 2,000 years after giving the\nlaw against adultery to Moses, and after \u201ccourting\u201d or \u201coverpowering\u201d\nMary, and she was a virgin girl who had never been touched by any man,\nand yet she became pregnant with His child, and that child is the flesh\nand blood \u201cson\u201d of God ... then the Christians are charging God Himself\nwith having committed adultery with Mary.\n\nThis just could not have been done if God was a spirit. If He was a\nspirit He could not father a flesh and blood son. He would have to\nhave a son like Himself. If He was a spirit, then His son would have\nto be a spirit too. And, if He did beget a son by Mary, then all other\nwomen would be justified in producing sons that same way, by committing\nadultery and then blaming it on the \u201cspirit.\u201d\n\nThe Western World is always defending Christianity and they mock me and\nother Islamic teachers. They do not want Islam preached to you, but the\nreason you are hearing it today is because it is time. This preaching\nof Islam to you today cannot be stopped; it is like the rising of the\nsun ... right on time.\n\nHere in America there are also three and one-half million indirect\nbelievers in Islam, in the secret order called Shriners, or Higher\nMasons. When you take the thirty-third degree in masonry you are no\nlonger called a Mason; you are then called a Moslem Son, and in that\norder (or degree) you are taught the prayers of the Moslems and you\ncome under the teachings of Islam. In that High Degree you are taught\nto turn your face Eastward, toward the Holy City of Mecca in Arabia.\nAll of this is part of the Moslem religion, Islam.\n\nToday, Islam must be taught to the so-called American Negroes. You must\nlearn about this religion, because there can be no judgment of the\ndevil and his wicked world until after you (the lost people of God)\nhave heard the truth about God and the truth about the devil as I am\nteaching you today. It is only after you have heard the teachings of\nIslam that you can make a wise choice between God and the devil.\n\nWe are not trying to force you to accept Islam, but we are trying to\nmake you realize that we know what is in store for the world; we know\nwhat tomorrow will bring. Therefore, we are not in fear of losing our\nlives, but we will lay down our lives this very minute for the truth.\nWe are not running from death; we are running only to save lives ...\nYOUR LIVES!!!\n\nYou must have freedom, justice, and equality. You cannot be free as\nlong as you are calling yourselves by your slave master\u2019s name; you\ncannot be free as long as you do not know who you are; you cannot be\nfree as long as you do not know your own people; you cannot be free as\nlong as you don\u2019t know how to even ask for freedom.\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters, God has given me the key that will open\nthe door of freedom, justice, and equality that has been locked against\nyou. You must be taught a knowledge of your own God. My mission is to\nmake you acquainted with Him, to prepare you to meet Him face to face.\n\nGod is not a mystery today; He is not something invisible. He is not a\nspirit. He is not something other than flesh and blood; He is in the\nflesh and in the blood. God is a human being! God would have no joy or\npleasure in humans (us) if He Himself were something other than a human\nbeing. God would have no joy or pleasure in the material universe if He\nHimself were other than material.\n\nThe devil is also a flesh and blood human being. The devil is not an\ninvisible spirit. The bible and the Holy Quran both plainly state that\nGod is going to destroy the devil in a Lake of Fire in \u201cthe last days.\u201d\nIf the devil was an invisible spirit he could not be destroyed. You\ncan destroy a man but you cannot destroy a spirit. So I repeat to you,\nmy beloved brothers and sisters, God and the devil both are flesh and\nblood human beings.\n\nThere is no such thing as seeing God or the devil after you die. There\nis no such thing as a heaven up in the sky or a hell down in the\nground. All of that is fantasy, false stories made up by your slave\nmaster to further enslave you. God is a man! The devil is a man! Heaven\nand hell are two conditions, and both are experienced in this life\nright here on this earth. You have already suffered the worse kind of\nhell in the hands of the only real devil!\n\nIt is the devil who did not want you to know this truth that God has\nmissioned me to teach my people. He is afraid that when you learn his\nreal identity you will then separate yourselves from him and thereby\nescape the fiery destruction God has prepared for him. He wants to keep\nyou from your salvation in the hereafter. He knows that without this\ntruth that I am teaching you, you could never avoid the fire that God\nhas ordained for him and enter into the Hereafter. And by HEREAFTER,\nwe mean the Kingdom of Righteousness that God will establish \u201chere\u201d on\nthis earth \u201cafter\u201d the devil has been destroyed in the Divine Lake of\nFire.\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters, it has been predicted by all the prophets\nthat God is coming. Well, if God is coming (and He must be coming\nbecause the whole world claims to be \u201c_looking_\u201d for Him), then He\nmust be something visible. If He is an invisible spirit then the world\nwouldn\u2019t be \u201c_looking_\u201d for Him to come. The world couldn\u2019t say, \u201cWe\nwill _see_ Him\u201d ... because we don\u2019t \u201c_look_\u201d for a spirit, we _feel_\nfor a spirit.\n\nIf God is a spirit and He says He made Adam in His own image and\nlikeness, then I say to you Adam would have been a spirit. But God did\nnot make a spirit; He made a man like Himself. Man looks like God and\nGod looks like man because God is a man.\n\nMan acts like God; he acts with power. Man does not just sit down and\nwait for the wheat to grow itself, harvest itself, make itself into\nflour, bake itself, and then bring itself to him to eat, does he? No!!!\n\nMan plants the wheat, man cultivates it, man threshes it, man grinds it\ninto flour, man bakes the bread, and then man eats it. If man sits all\nday in the house waiting for a spirit to produce that bread he would\nstarve to death. No spirit in heaven or in hell will bring you bread\n... and no spirit in heaven or in hell will bring you freedom, justice,\nor equality.\n\nI say to you, my beloved brothers and sisters, your slave master and\nhis imps (the Negro preachers) have blinded you by such ignorant\nteachings and today you are still foolishly sending your praises and\nyour prayers to an invisible God who is supposed to be somewhere out in\nspace, and who cannot be found by you until after you die. And, this\nsame ignorant doctrine has you believing there is an invisible devil\ndown in the earth somewhere beneath your feet ... while in reality the\ndevil is right here on top of the earth, walking around on two feet\nlike you are, and you are looking at him every day.\n\nGod is a man, a flesh and blood being, but He is a Divine Being. Why\ndo we call God a Divine Being? Because He is a being like we are but\nHis wisdom, power, and other capabilities and attributes are Supreme\n... making Him the Highest Power, the Supreme in Power, or Supreme\nPower. He is a being like ourselves, but He has the Divine Capacity of\nexercising His Power or to project through His Power the powers of the\nUniverse ... and therefore we call Him the Supreme Being and the God\nof the Universe. He has the Divine Power to will whatever He wishes\nand to bring it into existence with His Divine Will. But He is not an\ninvisible spirit somewhere up in the sky. His home is right here on\nthis earth.\n\nI would defy any spirit outside the spirit that is in a man to do\nanything for me or to me. I would defy any devil that is outside of a\nman to do anything for me or to me. But I do recognize the devil in\nthese that can do us harm and have done us harm. No spirit independent\nof man can do us harm or good.\n\nBeloved brothers and sisters, let us bring our minds out of the sky;\nlet us stop being spooky; let us learn to face reality; let us look\naround here on this earth as other intelligent and civilized people\nare doing. Here in Atlanta is the seat of education for the so-called\nNegroes in this country. Yet most Negroes here are still locked into\nthe most crowded and undesirable areas. Therefore, I would like to\nknow what are our educated people doing with this education to elevate\nthe living standards of your own people, and to eliminate the misery\nand poverty yet suffered by the so-called Negro masses who do not have\neducation?\n\nYou who are college graduates, and you who are educators and\ninstructors here in Atlanta, Georgia: I would like for you to tell me\nwhat you are doing with this education you have received from the white\nman toward making your own people more independent? What are you doing\nfor your people with your education? Should not you take that education\nto unite your people and bring them up out of the \u201cmud of ignorance,\u201d\nand make them an independent people? But with all your education you\nyourself are still dependent upon your slave master for a job, and for\nyour food, clothing and shelter. With your education, you have enough\nland and farmers to do something about the condition of the so-called\nAmerican Negro.\n\nBut you must first agree that the most important ingredient has been\nomitted from your education, and that is the knowledge of God, the\ndevil, of yourself, and of your enemy. Accept Allah and His true\nreligion (Islam), and come and follow me. I am God\u2019s Messenger to you.\nI have the keys to your salvation. Come and follow me and I will show\nyou how to use your education, your skills and talents, for the good of\nyour own people and yourself.\n\nIn the unity and harmony and Brotherhood created by the religion of\nIslam, it is easy for us to pool our knowledge and finance to set up\nfarms and grow food to feed our people; we can set up factories to\nmanufacture our own necessities, and other businesses with which we can\nestablish trade and commerce and become independent as other civilized\npeople are. Then, in this way you will be using your education to bring\nyour people out of the slums and the breadlines. They will cease to be\nthe \u201clast hired and the first fired,\u201d when you use your education to\nmake jobs for them.\n\nI thank you, my beloved brothers and sisters, for being here this\nafternoon, and listening so attentively to this truth. I am God\u2019s last\nMessenger to you. You must accept Allah as God. You must know that\nIslam is your religion. Come and follow me; let me teach you, and I\nwill put 20 million so-called American Negroes overnight on the road\nto success ... on the road toward complete independence in a home of\nyour own, where you will never any more have to beg anyone for freedom,\njustice, or equality.\n\nThank you, my beloved brothers and sisters. May Allah forever bless\nyou, as I leave you with the greetings of the peaceful and the\nrighteous: As-Salaam-Alaikum ... which means, \u201cPeace be unto you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n2. MALCOLM X AT HARVARD\n\n\n_This 1960 speech, delivered by Malcolm X before a jam-packed Harvard\nLaw School Forum, comes from what I have called the Black Muslims\u2019\n\u201crasping\u201d period. These were their early days on the national scene,\nand it would be interesting to find out if Malcolm would make just such\na speech now._\n\n_Malcolm is clearly on the defensive in the first half of his long\ntalk; he is responding to criticism rather than spreading his own\ngospel. It is only after he has answered charges that the Black\nMuslims are not orthodox Muslims; only after he has denied that the\nBlack Muslims teach hate; and after he has put the Negro middle class\nin their place for their criticism of him--only after all this does\nMalcolm get down to what he really went to Harvard to say._\n\n_In essence it is this: The American Negro must have a separate state.\nThis is the only way white men can atone for their sins and escape\ndestruction; this is the only way Negroes can return to their own._\n\n_The Harvard Speech is the best statement--and defense--of the proposed\nall-Negro state that the Black Muslims have issued. It shows why I\nsuggest that the Black Muslims are completely \u201cAmericanized\u201d in their\naims and approaches. Indeed, the reader will get a good chuckle when\nMalcolm delivers a blistering attack on non-American Moslems, some one\nhundred thousand of them he says, who have migrated to this country but\nhave been unable to gather converts. Then Malcolm reminds them that\nElijah has been able to garner thousands. So then, Malcolm continues,\ndoes this not mean that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is indeed the\nMessenger?_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:\n\nWe thank you for inviting us here to the Harvard Law School Forum this\nevening to present our views on this timely topic: THE AMERICAN NEGRO;\nPROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. But to understand our views, the views of the\nBlack Muslims, you must first realize that we are a religious group,\nand you must also know something about our religion, the religion of\nISLAM.\n\nThe Creator of the Universe, whom many of you call God or Jehovah, is\nknown to the Muslims by the name ALLAH. Since the Muslims believe there\nis but ONE GOD, and that all the prophets came from this ONE GOD, we\nbelieve also that all prophets taught the same religion, and that they\nthemselves called that religion ISLAM, an Arabic word that means the\ncomplete submission and obedience to the will of ALLAH.\n\nOne who practices this Divine Obedience is called a MUSLIM (commonly\nknown, spelled, and referred to here in the West as Moslem).\n\nThere are over 725 million Muslims on this earth, predominantly in\nAfrica and Asia, the non-white world ... and we here in America who are\nunder the Divine Leadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are an\nintegral part of the vast World of Islam that stretches from the China\nSeas to the sunny shores of West Africa.\n\nA unique situation faces the 20 million ex-slaves here in America\nbecause of our unique condition, thus our acceptance of Islam, and\ninto Islam, affects us uniquely ... differently than all other Muslim\n\u201cconverts\u201d anywhere else on this earth.\n\nMr. Elijah Muhammad is our Divine Leader and Teacher here in America.\nMr. Muhammad believes in and obeys God 100 per cent, and is teaching\nand working among our people to fulfill God\u2019s Divine Purpose today.\n\nI am here at this Harvard Law School Forum this evening to represent\nMr. Elijah Muhammad, the spiritual head of the fastest-growing group of\nBlack Muslims in the Western Hemisphere.\n\nWe who follow Mr. Muhammad know that he has been divinely taught and\nsent to us by God Himself. We believe that the miserable plight of\nthe 20 million black people in America is the fulfillment of divine\nprophecy. We believe that the serious race problem that our presence\nhere poses for America is also the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We\nalso believe that the presence today in America of The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad, his teachings among the 20 million so-called Negroes, and his\nnaked warning to America concerning her treatment of these 20 million\nex-slaves is all the fulfillment of divine prophecy.\n\nTherefore, when Mr. Muhammad declares that the only solution to\nAmerica\u2019s serious race problem is complete SEPARATION of the two races,\nhe is fulfilling that which was predicted by all of the biblical\nprophets to take place in this day.\n\nBut, because Mr. Muhammad takes this uncompromising stand, those of you\nwho don\u2019t understand biblical prophecy wrongly label him as a racist, a\nhate teacher, or of being anti-white, and of teaching black supremacy.\n\nBut, this evening, we are all here at the Harvard Law School Forum\ntogether: both races, face to face. During the next few moments we can\nquestion and examine for ourselves the wisdom or the folly of what Mr.\nMuhammad is teaching.\n\nMany of you who classify yourselves as \u201cwhite\u201d express surprise and\nshock at this truth that Mr. Muhammad is teaching among your 20 million\nex-slaves here in America, but you should be neither surprised nor\nshocked.\n\nAs students, scholars, professors and scientists you should be well\naware that we are living in a world and at a time when great changes\nare taking place. New ideas are replacing the old ones. Old governments\nare collapsing, and new nations are being born. The entire \u201cold system\u201d\nwhich has held the Old World together has lost its effectiveness, and\nnow that Old World is going out. A new system or New World must replace\nthe Old World.\n\nJust as the old ideas must be removed to make way for the new, God has\ndeclared to Mr. Muhammad that the evil features of this wicked Old\nWorld must be exposed, faced up to, and removed in order to make way\nfor the New World that God Himself is getting ready to establish.\n\nThe Divine Mission of Mr. Muhammad here in America today is to prepare\nus for this New World of Righteousness, by delivering to us a message\nthat will give us a better understanding of this Old World\u2019s many\ndefects ... and then we will all agree that God must remove this wicked\nOld World.\n\nWe see by reports in the daily press that even many of you who are\nscholars and scientists think that this message of Islam that is being\ntaught here in America among your 20 million ex-slaves is \u201cnew,\u201d or\nthat it is something Mr. Muhammad himself has made up.\n\nMr. Muhammad\u2019s religious message is not \u201cnew.\u201d All of the scientists\nand prophets of old predicted that a man such as he, with a doctrine\nor message such as this that Mr. Muhammad is spreading among your 20\nmillion ex-slaves, would make his appearance among us at a time such as\nwe are living in today.\n\nIt is also written in your own scriptures that this prophetic figure\nwould not be raised up from the midst of the educated class, but that\nGod would make His choice of a man from among the lowly, uneducated,\ndowntrodden and oppressed masses ... among the lowest element of\nAmerica\u2019s 20 million ex-slaves.\n\nJust as it was in the days when God raised up Moses from among the\nlowly Hebrew slaves, and missioned him to separate his oppressed people\nfrom a slave master named Pharaoh, and Moses found himself opposed by\nthe scholars and scientists of that day, who are symbolically described\nin the bible as \u201cPharaoh\u2019s Magicians.\u201d...\n\nAnd just as Jesus, himself a lowly carpenter, was also missioned by\nGod in that day to find his people (the \u201clost sheep\u201d) and separate\nthem from their Gentile enemies, and restore them back among their\nown people ... Jesus also found himself opposed by the scholars and\nscientists of his day, who are symbolically described in the bible as\n\u201cscribes, priests, and pharisees.\u201d\n\nJust as the learned class of those days disagreed and opposed both\nMoses and Jesus primarily because of their humble origin and status,\ntoday Mr. Elijah Muhammad is likewise being opposed by the learned,\neducated intellectuals from among his own kind primarily because of his\nhumble origin and status in their eyesight, and efforts are made by\nthese modern-day \u201cmagicians, scribes, and Pharisees\u201d to ridicule Mr.\nMuhammad by magnifying the humble origin of his many followers.\n\nMoses was raised up among his enslaved people at a time when God was\nplanning to remove the power of the slave master and bring about a\ngreat change by placing the slaves in a land of their own where they\ncould give birth to a \u201cNew Civilization,\u201d completely independent\nof their former slave master. Pharaoh opposed God\u2019s plan and God\u2019s\nservant, so Pharaoh and his people were destroyed.\n\nJesus was sent among his people again at a time when God was planning\nto bring about a great change. The new dispensation preached by Jesus\n2,000 years ago ushered in a new type of civilization, the Christian\ncivilization, better known as the Christian world.\n\nThe Holy Prophet Muhammad (may the peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon\nhim) came 600 years after Jesus with another dispensation that did not\ndestroy or remove the Christian civilization, but it did put a dent in\nit, a wound that has lasted even until today.\n\nNow today, God has sent Mr. Elijah Muhammad among the downtrodden and\noppressed so-called American Negroes to warn us that God is again about\nto bring about another great change ... only this time, it will be a\nFINAL CHANGE! This is the day and the time for a COMPLETE CHANGE.\n\nMr. Muhammad is teaching that the religion of Islam is the only\nsolution to the problems confronting our people here in America, but he\nalso warns us that it is even more important for us to know the base or\nfoundation of that which we must build upon tomorrow.\n\nTherefore, the way in which Mr. Muhammad teaches us the religion of\nIslam, and the particular kind of Islam he teaches us, may appear to be\ndifferent from that which is taught in the Old World of Islam, but the\nbasic principles and practices are the same.\n\nYou must remember: the condition of America\u2019s 20 million ex-slaves is\nuniquely pitiful. But, just as the old religious leaders in the days\nof Moses and Jesus refused to accept Moses and Jesus as religious\nreformers, today many of the religious leaders in the Old Muslim\nWorld may also refute the teachings of Mr. Elijah Muhammad ... not\nrealizing the unique condition of these 20 million ex-slaves, and by\nnot understanding that Mr. Elijah Muhammad\u2019s teachings are divinely\nprescribed to rectify the miserable condition of our oppressed people\nhere ... but as God made Pharaoh\u2019s Magicians bow before Moses, and the\nScribes and Pharisees bow before Jesus ... it is God\u2019s plan today to\nmake all opposition (both at home and abroad) bow before this truth\nthat is now being taught by The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nWe are 4,000 years from the time of that great change which took place\nin Moses\u2019 day ... we are 2,000 years from the time of that great change\nthat took place in Jesus\u2019 day ... and if you will but look around you\non this earth today it will be as clear as the five fingers on your\nhand that we are again living at the time of a great change right now.\n\nGod has come to close out the entire Old World ... the Old World\nin which for the past 6,000 years practically the entire earth has\nbeen deceived, conquered, colonized, ruled, enslaved, oppressed and\nexploited by the CAUCASIAN RACE.\n\nWhen Pharaoh\u2019s civilization had reached its peak, and his time to\nrule over the slaves was up, God appeared unto Moses and revealed to\nhim that He had something different for his people. Likewise, God has\ntold Mr. Muhammad that He has something different for his People (the\nso-called Negroes) here in America today, something that up until now\nhas never before been revealed ... Mr. Muhammad teaches us that this\nOld World has seen nothing yet ... the REAL THING is yet to come.\n\nThe Black Muslims who follow Mr. Muhammad are not only making our exit\nout of the door of the Old World, but the door to the New World is yet\nto be opened ... and what is inside that door is yet to be revealed.\n\nThis present teaching of Mr. Muhammad among your 20 million ex-slaves\nis only to prepare us to walk out of this wicked Old World in as\nintelligent, pleasant, and peaceful a way as is possible.\n\nThis present teaching among the so-called American Negroes is designed\nonly to show proof to us why we should give up this wicked Old House.\nThe roof is leaking; the walls are collapsing, and we find it is no\nlonger able to support the tremendous weight caused by our continued\npresence in it.\n\nAnd since the knowledge of the deterioration and eventual collapse of\nthis Old Building has come to Mr. Muhammad from Almighty God Himself,\nwhose proper name is ALLAH, the Lord of all the Worlds, the Master of\nthe Judgment Day ... The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is pointing these\ndangerous present conditions and future events out to you who have\nenslaved us, as well as to us.\n\nWith the proper support and guidance our people can get out of this\nsagging Old Building before it collapses.\n\nBut this support and guidance that we need actually consists of being\ntaught: a thorough knowledge of the origin, history and nature of\nthe Caucasian race, as well as a thorough knowledge of our own black\nnation. We must have a knowledge of the true origin and history and\nthe white man\u2019s Christian religion, as well as an understanding of the\nIslamic religion that prevails primarily among our brothers and sisters\nin Africa and Asia.\n\nYou will probably ask us: Why then, if this Old House is going to\ncollapse or go up in smoke, are the Black Muslims asking for some\nstates to be set aside for us right here in this country ... it\u2019s like\nasking for a chance to retain rooms in a house that you claim is doomed\nfor total destruction?\n\nGod is giving America every opportunity to repent and atone for the\ncrime she committed when she enslaved our people, just as God gave\nPharaoh a chance to repent before He finally destroyed him because he\nwas too proud to free his slaves and give them complete justice.\n\nWe are asking you for territory here only because of the great\nopposition we receive from this government in our efforts to awaken our\npeople, unite them, separate them from their oppressors, and return\nthem to our own land and people.\n\nYou should never make the drastic mistake of thinking that Mr. Muhammad\nhas no place to take his followers in the World of Islam. No sir! He\nis not shut out there like many of you wish to believe. All who accept\nIslam and follow him have been offered a home in the Muslim World.\n\nOur people have been oppressed and exploited here in America for 400\nyears, and now with Mr. Muhammad we can leave this wicked land of\nbondage, but our former slave master is yet opposing his efforts and is\nunjustly persecuting his followers who have left the Christian church\nand accepted the religion of Islam.\n\nThis is further proof that our Caucasian slave master does not want\nus or trust us to leave him and live elsewhere on this earth, and yet\nif we stay here among them he continues to keep us at the very lowest\nlevel of his society.\n\nPick up any daily paper or magazine and examine the anti-Muslim\npropaganda and the false charges leveled against our beloved religious\nleader by some of America\u2019s leading reporters. This only points up the\nfact that the Caucasian race is never willing to let any black man who\nis not their puppet or parrot speak for our people or lead our people\nout of their enslaving clutches without giving him great opposition.\n\nThe Caucasian slave master has opposed all such leaders in the past,\nand even today he sanctions and supports only those Negro spokesmen who\nparrot his doctrines, his ideas ... or those who accept his so-called\n\u201cadvice\u201d on how our people should carry on our struggle against his 400\nyears of tyranny.\n\nThe Christian world has failed to give the black man justice. This\nChristian government has failed to give 20 million ex-slaves justice\nfor our 310 years of free slave labor. Despite this, we have been\nbetter Christians even than those who taught us Christianity. We have\nbeen America\u2019s most faithful servants during peace time, and her\nbravest soldiers during war time. And still, white Christians have been\nunable to recognize us and accept us as fellow human beings. Today we\ncan see that the Christian religion of the Caucasian race has failed\nus. Thus the black masses are turning away from the church back to the\nreligion of Islam.\n\nThe government sends its agents among our people to tell lies: they\nhave a well-organized all-out effort to harass them, in an effort to\nfrighten those of our people in this country who wish to accept the\nreligion of Islam, and unite under the spiritual guidance and divine\nleadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nTherefore, Mr. Muhammad has declared to you, and to your government,\nthat if you don\u2019t want your 20 million ex-slaves to leave you and\nreturn to our own land and people ... and since your actions have\nproved that the Caucasian race will not accept these 20 million\nex-slaves here among them as complete equals ... then let us separate\nourselves from you right here, into a separate territory that we can\ncall our own, and on which we can do something for ourselves and for\nour own kind.\n\nSince we cannot live among the Caucasians in peace, and there is not\nenough time left for us (this new Negro) to wait for the Caucasian race\nto be \u201cre-educated\u201d and freed of their racial prejudices, and their\ninbred beliefs and practices of white supremacy ... I repeat: Let our\npeople be separated from you, and give us some territory here that we\ncan call our own, and live in peace among ourselves.\n\nAccording to recent news dispatches appearing in daily papers\nthroughout this nation: In prisons all over the country the wardens are\nunjustly persecuting the inmates who want to change from the Christian\nreligion and accept the religion of Islam and follow the spiritual\nguidance of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nThese prison wardens even admit that when the inmates change from\nChristianity to Islam they become model prisoners, but despite this\nthey are being persecuted and prevented from reading the Holy Quran,\nthe same Holy Book that is read daily by hundreds of millions of our\ndarker brothers and sisters in Africa and Asia.\n\nWhen the true facts about this religious persecution are made known\namong the 725 million Muslims in the World of Islam, that strategic\narea that stretches from the China Seas to the shores of West Africa,\nhow do you think the American Caucasians will then look in the eyes of\nthose non-white people there?\n\nThe very fact that there is a concerted effort against Islam by wardens\nacross the country is proof that the American government is trying to\nstamp out the religion of Islam here in a frantic effort to keep it\nfrom spreading among her 20 million ex-slaves whom she continues to\nconfine to the lowly role of second-class citizenship.\n\nFurther proof of this is the fact that these 20 million so-called\nNegroes have never even been taught about the religion of Islam during\nthe entire 400 years since the Caucasian first brought our people here\naway from our African Muslim culture in chains ... and despite the fact\nthat Islam is, and always has been, the prevailing religion among our\npeople in Africa.\n\nNow the American Caucasian, in a last act of desperation, is accusing\nMr. Muhammad of not being a true Muslim, and of not teaching true\nIslam. If the American Caucasian knows so much about true Islam, and\nhas suddenly become such an authority on it, why hasn\u2019t he taught it to\nhis 20 million ex-slaves before now?\n\nAlso, the American Caucasian today loves to print glaring headlines\nsaying that the orthodox Muslims don\u2019t recognize or accept Mr. Muhammad\nand his Black Muslims as true Muslims.\n\n\u201cDivide and rule\u201d has long been the Caucasian strategy to continue\ntheir colonization of dark people. The American Caucasian actually\nhas colonized 20 million black people here in this country simply\nby dividing us from our African brothers and sisters for 400 years,\nconverting us to his Christian religion, and then by teaching us to\ncall ourselves \u201cNegroes\u201d ... and telling us we were no longer African\n... (I guess he says this because our exposure to this \u201csuperior\u201d white\nculture makes us \u201cdifferent\u201d ... so-called \u201ccivilized.\u201d)\n\nAs hundreds of thousands of the ex-slaves here in America today refuse\nto attend the church of the Caucasians who enslaved us, shunning all\nfurther use of the word \u201cNegro,\u201d and because we are accepting ALLAH as\nour God, Islam as our religion, and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad as\nour religious leader and teacher ... now the Americans who enslaved us\nare reverting back to the old trick of their fellow colonialists ...\n\u201cdivide and rule\u201d ... by trying to separate us from the Muslim World,\nthinking that they can in this way alienate us from our people in\nAfrica and Asia who also serve and follow Almighty God, ALLAH.\n\nThere are probably 100,000 of what you (whites) call orthodox Muslims\nin America, who were born in the Muslim World, and who willingly\nmigrated here. But, despite the fact that Islam is a propagating\nreligion, all of these foreign Muslims combined have not been\nsuccessful in converting 1,000 Americans to Islam.\n\nOn the other hand, they see that Mr. Muhammad, all by himself, has\nhundreds of thousands of his fellow ex-slaves turning Eastward toward\nMecca five times daily giving praises to the Great God ALLAH.\n\nNo true Muslim, in his right mind, would denounce or deny this meek\nand humble little black man, who was himself born in Georgia, the very\nworst part of this country, as a leader, a defender of the faith, a\npropagator of the faith, who has rekindled the light of Islam here in\nthe West.\n\nHis Caucasian opposers have never gotten even one responsible Muslim\nofficial to criticize or denounce Mr. Muhammad. They succeed only in\ngetting some jealous or envious little peddler or merchant who migrated\nhere and wants to be recognized as some sort of leader himself, and who\nwill therefore accept the Caucasian\u2019s thirty pieces of silver to attack\nthis man of God.\n\nHow would Mr. Muhammad ever make a trip into the forbidden areas\nof Arabia, and visit the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina ... being\nwelcomed and honored by its most respected religious leaders ... the\ngreat Imams themselves ... if he himself was not recognized as a great\nreligious man, and a man of God, doing miraculous works by spreading\nALLAH\u2019s name here in the West among the 20 million ex-slaves of America?\n\nHow could Mr. Muhammad visit the capitals of the Muslim World, and be\nreceived by its respected leaders, if he too was not recognized and\nrespected as a Muslim leader by them?\n\nHe visited Al-Azhar, the oldest Mosque and Muslim University in the\nworld, and had tea with the Chief Imam, the Grand Sheikh Shaltuat, who\nkissed him on his forehead in true Muslim fashion ... yet the American\nCaucasians, hoping to block his success among our people, continue to\noppose him and say he is not a true Muslim.\n\nAgain you will say: Why then don\u2019t he and his followers leave this\nhouse of bondage right now, and go and live in the Muslim World? All\nof the Black Muslims can live in the Muslim World tomorrow, but The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad wants justice for the entire 20 million\nso-called Negroes.\n\nYou and your Christian government make the problem even more\ncomplicated. You don\u2019t want your 20 million ex-slaves to leave you, yet\nyou won\u2019t share equal justice with them right here.\n\nSince you don\u2019t want them to leave this country with us, and you won\u2019t\ngive them equal justice among your kind ... then we will agree only if\nyou let us separate ourselves from you right here.\n\nJust give us a portion of this country that we can call our own. Put us\nin it. Then give us everything we need to start our own civilization\nhere ... that is, support us for 20 to 25 years, until we are able to\ngo for ourselves. This is God\u2019s plan. This is God\u2019s solution. This is\njustice, and compensation for our 310 years of free slave labor.\n\nOtherwise America will reap the full fury of God\u2019s wrath, for her\ncrimes against our people here are many. As your bible says: \u201cHe that\nleads into captivity shall go into captivity; he that kills with the\nsword shall be killed by the sword.\u201d This is the law of justice and\nthis is in your own Christian scriptures.\n\nThe black masses are shaking off the drugs, or narcotic effect of the\ntoken integration promises. A cup of tea in a white restaurant is not\nsufficient compensation for 310 years of free slave labor. The black\nmasses as represented by the Black Muslims will never be satisfied\nuntil we have some land that we can call our own.\n\nAgain I repeat: we are not asking for territory here because Mr.\nMuhammad has no place else to take us. But, to benefit the entire 20\nmillion so-called Negroes, 20 million ex-slaves, who, despite the\nfact that the Emancipation Proclamation was issued 100 years ago....\nThese oppressed people are still begging their former slave master for\nrecognition as human beings ... therefore, Mr. Muhammad is asking this\ngovernment to stop toying with our people, stop fooling them year in\nand year out with false promises of token integration.\n\nToken integration will not solve our problem. This is a false solution.\nA \u201ctoken\u201d solution. It is a hypocritical approach to the problem, a\ntricky scheme devised by you, and propagated by your Negro puppets whom\nyou yourself have appointed as our \u201cleaders\u201d and \u201cspokesmen.\u201d\n\nIntegration is not good for either side. It will destroy your race, and\nyour government knows it will also destroy ours ... and the problem\nwill still remain unsolved.\n\nGod has declared that these 20 million ex-slaves must have a home of\ntheir own. After 400 years here among the Caucasians, we are absolutely\nconvinced that we can never live together in peace, unless we are\nwilling to remain subservient to our former masters ... therefore,\nimmediate and complete separation is the only solution.\n\nNAACP Attorney Thurgood Marshall has admitted publicly that six years\nsince the Supreme Court decision on DESEGREGATION of the schools,\nonly 6 per cent desegregation has taken place. This is an example of\nintegration!\n\nA kidnaper, a robber, an enslaver, a lyncher is just another common\ncriminal in the sight of God, and the above-mentioned criminal acts\nhave been committed on a mass scale for 400 years by your race against\nAmerica\u2019s 20 million so-called Negroes.\n\nIt is true that today America professes to be sorry for her crimes\nagainst our people, and she says she wants to repent, and in her\ndesire to atone or make amends she offers her 20 million ex-slaves\nflowery promises of \u201ctoken\u201d integration.\n\nMany of these downtrodden victims want to forgive America; they want to\nforget the crimes you have committed against them, and some are even\nwilling to accept the formula of \u201ctoken integration\u201d that you yourself\nhave devised as the solution to correct the problems created by your\ncriminal acts against them.\n\nIn a court of justice the criminal can confess his crimes and throw\nhimself on the mercy of the court if he has truly repented, but\nneither the criminal nor his victims have any say-so in suggesting the\nsentence that is to be passed upon the guilty ... or the price that the\nconfessed criminal must pay. This is left in the hands of the Judge. We\nare living in the Day of Judgment right now. God is the Judge that our\nAmerican slave master must now answer to.\n\nGod is striking this great country with tornadoes, storms, floods,\nrain, hail, snow ... and terrific earthquakes are yet to come. Your\npeople are being afflicted with increasing epidemics of illness and\ndisease, divine plagues that God is striking you with because of your\ncriminal acts against the 20 million ex-slaves ... and today instead of\nrepenting and truly compensating our people for their 310 years of free\nslave labor that built up this great country for you, you buy out the\nNegro leaders with 30 pieces of silver and get them to sell our people\non accepting your \u201ctoken integration.\u201d\n\nWhen one uses a \u201ctoken\u201d on the bus or streetcar that \u201ctoken\u201d is a\nsubstitute for the real money. Token means \u201ca substitute,\u201d that which\ntakes the place of the real thing.\n\nToken integration takes the place of the real thing. Two black students\nat Georgia University is TOKEN integration. Four black children in New\nOrleans white schools is TOKEN integration. A handful of black students\nin the white schools in Little Rock is TOKEN integration. None of\nthis is REAL integration; it is only a pacifier designed to keep these\nawakening black babies from crying too loud.\n\nThe white man\u2019s violent rebellion, and relentless struggle against\nTOKEN integration is sufficient to prove what would happen if the Negro\nleaders demanded REAL INTEGRATION.\n\nAlso, according to the above-mentioned rate of speed since the\ndesegregation decisions of the Supreme Court, it will take us another\nthousand years to get the white man in the South sufficiently\n\u201cre-educated\u201d to accept our people in their midst as equals ... and if\nthe rest of the truth is told, it will also take the white man here\nin the North, West and East just as long as his brother in the South\n... if the frightened Uncle Tom leadership ever stops accepting his\nmaster\u2019s \u201ctokens\u201d and begins to demand the real thing.\n\nTo many of you here at the Harvard Law School Forum this evening,\nthis sounds ridiculous; to some it even sounds insane. But these 20\nmillion black people here in America now number a nation in their own\nright. Do you believe a nation within another nation can be successful?\nEspecially when they both have equal education?\n\nOnce the slave has his master\u2019s education, the slave wants to be like\nhis master, wants to share his master\u2019s property, and even wants to\nexercise the same privileges as his master even while he is yet in his\nmaster\u2019s house.\n\nThis is the CORE of America\u2019s troubles today; and there will be no\npeace for America as long as 20 million so-called Negroes are here\nBEGGING for the rights which America knows she will never grant us.\n\nEven this limited education America has granted her ex-slaves has\nalready produced great unrest ... and Almighty God says the only way\nfor America to ever have any future peace or prosperity is for her 20\nmillion ex-slaves to be SEPARATED from her ... and it is for this\nreason that Mr. Muhammad teaches us that we must have some land of our\nown.\n\nIf we receive equal education, how long do you expect us to remain your\npassive servants, or second-class citizens? There is no such thing as\na second-class citizen. We are FULL CITIZENS or we are not citizens at\nall.\n\nWhen you teach a man the science of government he wants an equal part\n(or position) in that government ... or else he wants a government\nhimself. He begins to demand equality with his master.\n\nNo man with equal education will serve you. The only way you can\ncontinue to rule us is with a superior knowledge, or by continuing to\nwithhold equal education from our people.\n\nAmerica has not given us equal education, but she has given us enough\nto make us want more ... and to make us demand equality of opportunity\n... and this is causing unrest ... plus international embarrassment ...\nthus the only solution is immediate SEPARATION.\n\nAs your colleges and universities turn out an ever increasing number\nof so-called Negro graduates with education equal to yours, they will\nautomatically increase their demands for equality in EVERYTHING else.\nThis equal education will increase their spirit of equality and make\nthem feel that they should have EVERYTHING that you have, and their\nincreasing demands will become a perpetual headache for you ... and\ncontinue to cause you international embarrassment.\n\nIn fact, the same Negro students you are turning out today will soon be\ndemanding the same things you now hear being demanded by Mr. Muhammad\nand the Black Muslims.\n\nIn my conclusion: I must remind you that since your own Christian bible\nstates that God is coming in the \u201clast days,\u201d or at the \u201cend of the\nOld World,\u201d and that God\u2019s coming would bring about a GREAT SEPARATION\n... and since we see all sorts of signs throughout the earth that\nindicate that THE TIME OF GOD\u2019S COMING is upon us ... why don\u2019t you\nrepent while there is yet time?\n\nDo justice by your faithful ex-slaves. Give us some land of our own\nright here, some SEPARATE STATES, so we can separate ourselves from you\n... then everyone will be satisfied, and perhaps we will all be able\nto then live happily ever after, as your own Christian bible says ...\n\u201cevery one under his own vine and fig tree.\u201d\n\nOtherwise: all of you who are sitting here, your government, and your\nentire race will be destroyed and removed from this earth by Almighty\nGod, ALLAH. I thank you.\n\n\n\n\n3. MALCOLM X\n\nON \u201cUNITY\u201d\n\n\n_Malcolm X delivered this speech at a so-called \u201cunity\u201d rally on the\nstreets of Harlem early in the spring of 1960. As the text indicates,\npolitics was in the air, and the Black Muslims were calling for \u201cunity\u201d\namong Negro leaders._\n\n_The stage was set for the rally when the Black Muslims telegraphed\nsome fifteen outstanding Negro leaders, asking them to participate in\nthe affair. None of them came, but this did not stop Malcolm X from\nunburdening himself. Here again we see Malcolm X on the defensive, but\nin a somewhat different way. In the first half of the speech Malcolm is\npulling in his horns; he is saying \u201cunity,\u201d \u201cfreedom,\u201d \u201cpeace.\u201d He is\nsuggesting a summit meeting of Negro leaders. \u201cLet\u2019s have our arguments\nbehind closed doors,\u201d Malcolm shouts, \u201cbut let\u2019s come out unified.\u201d_\n\n_At that juncture, however, nobody was willing to practice summitry\nwith the Black Muslims._\n\n_Malcolm used this speech to point up the Black Muslim concern for\nmorality; he attacks the dope, crime, and prostitution of Harlem as\nwell as those--black and white--who thrive upon these evils._\n\n_As expected, Malcolm concludes with the call for a separate state;\nhe restates his Harvard offer: the white race can be spared from\ndestruction if they give the Negro a separate state._\n\n_The rally lasted five hours; thirteen black nationalist groups were\nrepresented, and some four thousand people blocked off 125th Street and\nSeventh Avenue at the peak of the rally._\n\n\nAS-SALAAM-ALAIKUM, BELOVED BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WELCOME TO OUR HARLEM\nFREEDOM RALLY.\n\nWhen we say \u201cour\u201d we do not mean Muslim nor Christian, Catholic nor\nProtestant, Baptist nor Methodist, Democrat nor Republican, Mason nor\nElk. By \u201cour\u201d Harlem Freedom, we mean the black people of Harlem, the\nblack people of America, and the black people all over this earth.\n\nThe largest concentration of black people on earth is right here in\nHarlem, so we are gathered here today in Harlem Square to a Freedom\nRally, of black people, by black people, and for the benefit of black\npeople.\n\nWe are not here at this Rally because we have already gained freedom.\nNo! We are gathered here rallying for the freedom which we have long\nbeen promised, but have as yet not received. This Rally is for that\nperfect freedom which up until now this government has not granted us.\nThere would be no need to protest to the government if we were already\nfree.\n\nFreedom is essential to life itself. Freedom is essential to the\ndevelopment of the human being. If we don\u2019t have freedom we can never\nexpect justice and equality. Only after we have freedom do justice and\nequality become a reality.\n\nToday we are gathered at this Rally to hear from our leaders who have\nbeen acting as our spokesmen, and representing us to the white man\ndowntown. We want to know how our leaders really think, how they talk,\nhow they feel ... and most important of all, we want them to know how\nwe feel.\n\nMany of these leaders have suddenly become \u201cexperts on Harlem\u201d and as\nsuch are often regarded by the white man as the \u201cvoice of Harlem.\u201d If\nthis must be the case, then we want the voice of these leaders to ring\nsometimes in Harlem too.\n\nLeaders have differences, and these differences ofttimes cause serious\ndivision among the masses. But the HOUR is too short today for black\npeople to afford the luxury of \u201cdifferences.\u201d\n\nAgain I repeat, we are not gathered here today because we are Muslims\nor Christians, Protestants or Catholics, Baptists or Methodists,\nDemocrats or Republicans, Masons or Elks ... but because as a\ncollective mass of black people we have been colonized, enslaved,\nlynched, exploited, deceived, abused, etc.\n\nAs a collective mass of black people we have been deprived, not only of\ncivil rights, but even our human rights, the right to human dignity ...\nthe right to be a human being!\n\nThis Freedom Rally is to be a united effort by all our leaders. We have\nset aside all petty differences, and in the Spirit of Bandung we have\ncome together on this same platform, wherein each one can voice his\npersonal feelings and his personal solution to this grave crisis we\nface.\n\nThe Western World today faces a great catastrophe. It stands on the\nbrink of disaster. Mr. Muhammad says the only way our people can avoid\nthe fiery destruction that God Himself will soon unleash upon this\nwicked world is for our people to come together among themselves in\nunity and practice true brotherhood. Mr. Muhammad says God is with us\nto unite our people into one brotherhood, and to aid those that are\noppressed, and to uplift those who are downtrodden.\n\nThe Western World, filled with evil and wickedness, is groping and\nstumbling blindly through spiritual darkness toward its inevitable\ndoom. Mr. Muhammad says we must qualify ourselves so that God\u2019s\nspiritual light will guide us past the pitfalls of destruction.\n\nThe Western World is filled with drunkenness, dope addiction, lying,\nstealing, gambling, adultery, fornication, prostitution and hosts of\nother evils. These evils must be removed if the world is to have peace.\nThese evils are the primary cause of troubles all over the earth. These\nevils promote greed and lust, increase wickedness and unrest, and\ndestroy all hopes for peace.\n\nYou want peace. I want peace. Everyone craves for a world of peace.\nMr. Muhammad says anyone who will submit to the God of Peace will have\npeace. Even the white man himself can prolong his time today if he will\nsubmit to the God of Peace, and give freedom, justice, and equality to\nthe \u201cpeople of God\u201d ... the so-called Negroes here in America.\n\nThe city of Nineveh in the bible to whom Jonah was sent to warn is a\ngood prophetic example of today. They were actually spared because they\nrepented when the warning came to them from God. God will spare our\nslave master today too if he will repent.\n\nThe whole dark world wants peace. When I was in Africa last year I\nwas deeply impressed by the desire of our African Brothers for peace,\nbut even they agree that there can be no peace without freedom from\ncolonialism, foreign domination, oppression and exploitation.\n\nThe God of Peace and Righteousness is about to set up His kingdom of\npeace and righteousness here on this earth. Knowing that God is about\nto establish His righteous government, Mr. Muhammad is trying to clean\nup our morals and qualify us to enter into this new righteous nation of\nGod.\n\nThe American so-called Negroes must recognize each other as brothers\nand sisters ... stop carrying guns and knives to harm each other, stop\ndrinking whiskey, taking dope, reefers, and even cigarettes. No more\ngambling! Save your money. Stop fornication, adultery and prostitution.\nElevate the black woman; respect her and protect her. Let us rid\nourselves of immoral habits and God will be with us to protect and\nguide us.\n\nThen, we must form a platform that will be good for all of our own\npeople, as well as for others. As black people we must unite. We must\nrecognize and give intelligent active support to our political leaders\nwho fight for us unselfishly, sincerely, and fearlessly.\n\nBut, to prove their sincerity and their right for the support of\nthe black masses, these leaders must first display fearlessness,\nintelligence, and unity among themselves. They must stop their public\nbickering with each other. They must stop attacking each other in front\nof the white man, and for the benefit of the white man.\n\nIf the black leaders must have differences of opinion, learn to go into\nthe closet with each other, but when you come from behind closed doors,\nshow a united front in the face of the one who is a common enemy to all\nof us.\n\nMr. Muhammad has invited all of the leaders here today for that\npurpose. He wants our people united, but unity will never exist among\nthe black masses as long as our leaders are not united.\n\nWe want to get behind leaders who will fight for us ... leaders who are\nnot afraid to demand freedom, justice, and equality. We do not want\nleaders who are hand picked for us by the white man. We don\u2019t want any\nmore Uncle Toms. We don\u2019t want any more leaders who are puppets or\nparrots for the white man.\n\nWe want brave leaders as our spokesmen, who are not afraid to state our\ncase, who can intelligently demand what we need, what we want, and what\nis rightfully ours. We don\u2019t want leaders who are beggars, who feel\nthey must compromise with the enemy. And we don\u2019t want leaders who are\nselfish or greedy ... who will sell us out for a few pieces of silver.\n\nA big election is coming up this year. What kind of leaders do we want\nin office? Which ones will the black masses get behind? Mr. Muhammad\nhas thousands of followers, and millions of sympathizers. He will place\nhis weight behind any fearless black leaders who will stand up and help\nthe so-called American Negroes get complete and immediate freedom.\n\nIf these black leaders are afraid that to be identified with us they\nwill irk the white man, or lose the white man\u2019s favor or his support,\nthen they can no longer expect the support of the black masses.\n\nThey call us racial extremists. They call Jomo Kenyatta also a racial\nextremist and Tom Mboya a moderate. It is only the white man\u2019s fear of\nmen like Kenyatta that makes him listen to men like Mboya. If it were\nnot for the extremists, the white man would ignore the moderates. To be\ncalled a \u201cmoderate\u201d in this awakening dark world today, that is crying\nfor freedom, is to receive the \u201ckiss of death\u201d as spokesmen or leaders\nof the masses ... for the masses are ready to burst the shackles of\nslavery whether the \u201cmoderates\u201d will stand up or not.\n\nWe have many black leaders who are unafraid, especially when they\nknow the black masses stand behind them. Many of them are qualified\nto represent us not only in this United States government, but could\nalso represent us in this government if we are given 100 per cent\ncitizenship and the opportunity for FIRST-CLASS participation ... or\nelse we can get behind these same leaders in setting up an independent\ngovernment of our own.\n\nWe, the black masses, don\u2019t want these leaders who seek our support\ncoming to us representing a certain political party. They must come to\nus today as black leaders representing the welfare of black people.\n\nWe won\u2019t follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political\nparty. Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the\nsame people who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with\nfalse promises every time an election rolls around.\n\nMr. Muhammad grieves over the disunity that exists even among the\nintellectuals and professional so-called Negroes. It is these\n\u201ceducated\u201d so-called Negroes who should be leading us out of this maze\nof misery and want. They possess the academic know-how, great amounts\nof technical skills ... but they can\u2019t use it for the benefit of their\nown kind simply because they themselves are also disunited. If these\nintellectuals and professional so-called Negroes would unite, not only\nHarlem would benefit, but it will benefit our people all over the world.\n\nMr. Muhammad says disunity is our number one stumbling block, and\nthis disunity exists only because we lack knowledge of SELF (our own\nkind). So-called Negro \u201cintellectuals\u201d seem to think integration is the\nanswer. But, is it? \u201cIntegrate\u201d means to become as one unit. How can\nthese \u201cintellectuals\u201d expect the white man to accept us into his social\nunit, political unit, or economic unit when we are not yet in unity (as\na unit) among our own kind?\n\nWe, the Muslims, are for \u201cBrotherhood,\u201d but not for integration! What\nis the difference? Brotherhood is based on love, which automatically\nproduces voluntary acts of \u201csincere benevolence.\u201d But integration\nproduces hypocrisy. It forces the white man to pose as a \u201cliberal,\u201d to\nbe pretensive and false. Thus, \u201cbenevolent\u201d acts which are \u201cforced by\nintegration laws\u201d are producing white hypocrites, and reducing chances\nof creating a \u201cmutual-working-agreement\u201d between the two races.\n\nYour thirst for integration makes the white man think you want only to\nmarry his daughter. We (Muslims) who follow Mr. Muhammad don\u2019t think\nGod ever intended for black men to marry white women. Mr. Muhammad and\nhis followers are violently opposed to intermarriage.\n\nThis is conveniently and purposely misinterpreted by our enemies to\nmean that we are anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-American (simply\nbecause we refuse to chase after the white man\u2019s women!). Let the white\nman keep his women, and let us keep ours.\n\nSome Negroes who love race-mixing, and want white women, are angry at\nMr. Muhammad because he teaches against race-mixing ... so they slip\naround and make the white man think we are anti-white. (I\u2019m surprised\nthat the white man is dumb enough to believe these Uncle Toms, who\nstoop so low, like JUDAS, to be stool pigeons against their own kind.)\n\nWe have oceans of dark people on this earth: in Africa, Asia, and even\nhere in America. Our women are the most beautiful, like a bouquet of\nflowers. Why should we chase white women?\n\nIn this \u201cchanging\u201d world today, what would we do married to a white\nwoman? Her people don\u2019t want you in their neighborhood around them,\nand our fast awakening people don\u2019t want you to bring her back into\nour neighborhood any more to live around us. Thus, you both become a\n\u201cmisfit\u201d ... unwelcomed and unwanted in either society ... where can\nyou go?\n\nBecause we Muslims look at this as it is and face reality does not mean\nwe are anti-white. We don\u2019t want his white mother, his white sister,\nnor his white daughter. We want only an equal chance on this earth,\nbut to have an equal chance we must have the same thing the white man\nhimself needed before he could get this nation started ... WE MUST HAVE\nSOME LAND OF OUR OWN!\n\nWhy do we want some land of our own? Because land is essential to\nfreedom. How else can 20 million black people who now constitute a\nnation in our own right, a NATION WITHIN A NATION, expect to survive\nforever in a land where we are the last ones hired and the first ones\nfired ... simply because we have no land of our own?\n\nFor over 400 years we have been very faithful to our American slave\nmasters. Now God is warning them through Mr. Muhammad that they should\nbe nice enough to give us some land so we can separate ourselves from\nthem and get started for ourselves.\n\nThis is no more than what the white man should do. It is in complete\naccord with the Christian religion. Their bible says that when a slave\nis set free, his slave master should give him something to help him get\nstarted on his own ... never send him away empty-handed.\n\nIf the Hebrews in the bible numbered only 600,000 in the land of their\nbondage, and God was concerned with giving them freedom in a land of\ntheir own, a land \u201cflowing with milk and honey\u201d ... then what about 20\nmillion so-called Negroes here in America, who have the \u201cfreedom\u201d only\nto look for a job?\n\nCan you not see that our former \u201cleaders\u201d have been fighting for the\nwrong thing ... the wrong kind of freedom? Mr. Muhammad says we must\nhave some land where we can work hard for ourselves, make ourselves\nequal, and live in dignity. Then and only then we won\u2019t have to beg the\nwhite man for the crumbs that fall occasionally from his table. No one\nrespects or appreciates a beggar.\n\nSince we say Lincoln freed us, let us avail ourselves of that freedom\nby uniting together and doing something for our own kind. But, we must\nhave some of this earth. We have been in America over 400 years. We\nhave been so-called \u201cfree\u201d 100 years, and yet he still calls us \u201cthe\nwhite man\u2019s burden.\u201d\n\nWe Muslims don\u2019t want to be a burden on America any longer. God has\ngiven Mr. Muhammad a divine message, program, and solution. WE MUST\nHAVE SOME LAND! The white man should be glad to give his loyal \u201cslaves\u201d\nsome land so we can get out of his way and go for ourselves.\n\nWe will then set up our own farms, factories, business, and schools ...\nand show him how much we appreciate the education he has given us, by\nusing it to become self-sustaining ... economically and otherwise.\n\nWe want some land where we can create unity, harmony and brotherhood\n... and live together in peace. Since America now sees that this false\nshow of integration and intermarriage will not work, she should make\nimmediate steps to set aside a few of these states for us, and put us\nthere to ourselves.\n\nIf America will repent and do this, God will overlook some of our\nwicked deeds (as in the days of Nineveh) ... but if America refuses to\ngive Mr. Muhammad what God instructed him to ask for ... then, like the\nbiblical houses of Egypt and Babylon (slave empires of the bible), God\nwill erase the American government and the entire race that it favors\nand represents, from this planet ... and God will then give the whole\nearth back to the original owners, the black man!\n\n\n\n\n4. MALCOLM X\u2019s\n\n\u201cUNIVERSITY SPEECH\u201d\n\n\n_The following is Malcolm X\u2019s \u201cuniversity speech,\u201d a long lecture he\nused in the hope of converting students--particularly Negroes--on\nvarious university campuses during 1961-1962. It is of some interest\nthat this speech was given at Atlanta University, the great citadel of\nNegro learning in the Deep South, and Dr. Lonnie Cross, chairman of\nthe department of mathematics, not only joined the movement but became\nassistant to Jeremiah X, minister of the Atlanta Temple._\n\n_This lecture contains a unique passage. It will be recalled that in\nhis Harvard speech Malcolm chastised Moslems from the East who had\nmigrated to America but failed to gather converts. In this speech he\ngoes further; in a stinging passage Malcolm flatly accuses Moslems from\nthe East of attempting to turn \u201cour slave masters\u201d (the American white\nman) into good Moslems. He accuses orthodox Moslems of \u201cpassing us by\u201d\nand attempting to proselytize the foes of the Negro rather than the\nNegro himself._\n\n_This is without doubt the strongest position any Muslim has ever\ntaken against the orthodox Moslem movement and further underscores\nmy contention that the Black Muslims are not really concerned about\northodox Islam. They need the fa\u00e7ade of world-wide Islam, of course,\nbut the Black Muslim movement is a home-grown operation with home-grown\naims and ideas. Nowhere is that more clearly stated than in this\n\u201cuniversity speech.\u201d_\n\n\nIslam, the natural religion of black mankind, is sweeping through and\nresurrecting black America like a \u201cflaming fire,\u201d under the Divine\nGuidance of Messenger Elijah Muhammad.\n\nFools try to ignore facts, but wise men must face facts to remain wise.\nFools refuse to change from their silly ways and beliefs, but the\nmental powers of the wise man encourage mental flexibility and enable\nhim to keep an OPEN MIND. This gives him the ability to re-adjust\nhimself whenever it becomes necessary for a CHANGE.\n\nAs fast as added \u201clight\u201d increases the wise man\u2019s ability to\nunderstand, he changes his \u201ccourse\u201d or his \u201cpace\u201d according to the\nnewly revealed facts before him.\n\nFools, however, just blunder on, blindly, heedless of the ever-changing\nconditions on the road over which they must travel ... thus, the BLIND\nDRIVERS and their \u201ccars\u201d usually end up in the DITCH.\n\nIn the past, the \u201creligious roads\u201d leading through black America\npresented smooth sailing for the \u201cOld Touring Cars\u201d (Churches) of\nChristianity. They met few obstacles and had little opposition or\ncompetition. The \u201cdrivers\u201d (preachers) had it easy. Their \u201ccourse\u201d was\nnever challenged. They ruled supreme on the religious roads of black\nAmerica.\n\nHowever, today time is making a great CHANGE. The religious roads of\nblack America have suddenly become blocked by a ROCKY BARRIER, and all\nthe black and white preachers combined are incapable of removing it.\nThe firm, down-to-earth, thought-provoking teachings of the religion of\nIslam are now obstructing this path over which it was once easy sailing\nfor these preachers of white man\u2019s Christianity.\n\nIslam poses both a challenge and a threat because Islam is the\n\u201cresurrecting power.\u201d Thousands of so-called Negroes are beginning for\nthe first time to think for themselves, since turning away from the\nsegregated Christian church, and are rejoining the ranks of their black\nbrothers and sisters of the East. Their age-old faith is the religion\nof Islam, the religion of our foreparents, the true religion of black\nmankind.\n\nThe Spiritual Leader and Teacher of the many thousands of \u201cNew\nBelievers\u201d here in black America is Messenger Elijah Muhammad.\n\nBefore we heard the teachings of Messenger Muhammad, we (American\nso-called Negroes) were in the grave of ignorance. We had been taught\nby our Christian slave master, as well as by our own ignorant religious\nleaders, that God had cursed us black and sentenced us to a lifetime of\nservitude to the Christian white race.\n\nThe same slave master\u2019s Christian religion promised us that we\n(Negroes) would sprout wings after death and fly up into the sky where\nGod would have a place especially prepared for us.\n\nSince we poor \u201ccursed\u201d slaves were not to get anything on earth while\nwe were alive, we soon learned to expect it only after death, \u201cup in\nthe sky.\u201d Thus, this earth, and all its vast riches which we ourselves\noriginally owned, was left to the deceitful maneuverings of the white\nrace, for them to build a heaven for themselves and their own kind \u201cin\nTHIS life.\u201d\n\nSuch religious teachings were purposely designed to make us (so-called\nNegroes) feel inferior to the white Christian slave master. Soon he was\nsuccessful in making us fear him, obey him, and worship him ... instead\nof the true Supreme Being, the God of our own foreparents, Almighty\nGod, ALLAH.\n\nMessenger Muhammad has taught us how we eventually became like the\nbeggar Lazarus of the bible (Luke 16:20): Our condition became very\nsore. We sat here amid the rubbish of the Western World, at the feet of\nthe rich, white Christians ... begging for the crumbs (civil rights and\ntoken integration) to fall from their table. But from this very same\nslave master whom our foreparents had made rich, by giving freely of\ntheir slave labor for nearly 400 years (Gen. 15:13), we received only\nthe hardest and dirtiest jobs at the lowest wages; the poorest houses\nin the ghettos at the highest rent; the poorest food and clothing at\nthe highest prices. Our schools were like shacks, and were staffed by\nteachers who knew and could teach only that which the slave master\ndictated to them.\n\nMessenger Muhammad has taught us how we (so-called Negroes) were\nkidnaped from the East by the white Christian slave master, brought\nto America in chains, and robbed of our own God, His religion, our\nlanguage, culture, names, flag, and even our own nationality. After\nrobbing us of all that we originally could proudly call our own, then\nthe slave master taught us to call ourselves \u201cNegroes.\u201d He told us that\nwe were to be called \u201cNegroes\u201d because he found us along the banks of\nthe Niger River.\n\nMessenger Muhammad asks us today: \u201cSince when does one\u2019s nationality\noriginate from a river?\u201d This same slave master taught us that \u201cnegro\u201d\nmeans \u201cblack\u201d in Spanish. Messenger Muhammad again asks us why, then,\ndo not the dark, Spanish-speaking people in Spain, South and Central\nAmerica accept it (Negro) as their nationality too? Messenger Muhammad\nsays that we too should get our NATIONality from the NATION that our\nforeparents originated (as do all other recognized peoples).\n\nThe bible speaks of how we were purposely cut off from our own kind\nafter being robbed of our identity by the cruel Christian slave master\n(Ezekiel 37:11; Psalms 137:1-9, 83:4). The slave master then took our\nnames, language, and religion from us so we would have to accept his,\nobey him, and worship him (Dan. 1:6-7).\n\nMessenger Muhammad has given us many scriptures to prove his teachings\nto us are true and in accord with the prophecies of the bible. He says\nit is we (so-called Negroes) in America who were robbed and made deaf,\ndumb, and blind to the knowledge of our own God and of our own selves;\nso that today we are like DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY (spiritually dead,\nand in a mental grave of ignorance).\n\nWe are now able to speak only the slave master\u2019s tongue, and are still\nbeing called the same \u201cslave names\u201d given to our fathers during slavery\nby the slave master ... names such as Jones, Smith, Powell, King,\nBunche, Diggs, Dawson, etc. These are all SLAVE NAMES, names of the\nvery same slave master who has shown characteristics of his beast-like\nnature in his treatment of us. The original names of our foreparents\nwere cut off from them, kept secret from us by the \u201cbeast\u201d (Rev. 15:2),\nand therefore today we do not know what our real names should be. We\nhave really been robbed!\n\nAll other people have their own religion, which teaches them of a God\nwith whom they themselves can associate. A God who at least looks like\none of their own kind. But, we (so-called Negroes), after 400 years of\nmasterful brainwashing by the slave master, picture our \u201cgod\u201d with the\nsame blond hair, pale skin, and cold blue eyes of our murderous slave\nmaster.\n\nHis Christian religion teaches us that black is a curse; thus, we\nwho accepted the slave master\u2019s religion found ourselves loving and\nrespecting everything and everyone except black, and could picture God\nas being anything else but BLACK. In fact, many so-called Negroes would\nrather believe that God is INVISIBLE, a \u201ccolorless spirit,\u201d than to\nadmit even the possibility of his being black. Yet Daniel saw Him with\nkinky hair (like lamb\u2019s wool) in the seventh chapter of Daniel, ninth\nverse. How grossly deceived we have been!\n\nMessenger Muhammad says that the teachers and religious leaders of\nour own kind here in America were as blind to the REAL TRUTH as we;\ntherefore, they themselves were not even qualified to lead us beyond\nthat which the slave master had falsely taught them. HOW CAN THE BLIND\nLEAD THE BLIND? Thus, we remained in the DITCH (the GRAVE of spiritual\nignorance, mental bondage) which was dug for us to fall into by our\nwhite Christian slave master.\n\nNot only did our own preachers and educators here fail to give us the\ntruth, our darker brothers who were born in the East came here from the\nEast and neglected to convert us back to the original religion (ISLAM)\nof our foreparents. Many of our brothers from the East even failed to\nrecognize us as their long-lost brothers (\u201clost sheep\u201d) who had been\nkidnaped from the Nation of Islam 400 years ago, and made to dwell here\nin this strange land, among these wicked people who are not of our own\nkind (Gen. 15:13), nor of our own choice.\n\nOur brothers from the East passed us by, and instead, tried to lecture\non Islam to our slave master, thinking, so foolishly, that they would\nbe able to turn the slave master into a righteous Muslim ... knowing\nall the time that the same slave master was the very one who had\nkidnaped, robbed, enslaved, and lynched (murdered) their long-lost\nbrothers. Yes, our brothers from the East came here and seemed to be\napologists for Islam, instead of rightly spreading it, or defending it\nfrom the sly insults of the unbelieving slave master.\n\nMessenger Muhammad teaches us that Almighty God, ALLAH, is all-powerful\nand independent. ALLAH needs no one to apologize for Him. Islam, His\nTrue Religion, is not a religion of compromise. Islam is truth itself,\nand this truth has long been kept a secret from us.\n\nFor 400 years, we (so-called Negroes) were deprived of Islam (life)\nby our white slave master, who in turn indoctrinated (brainwashed)\nus with his false religion of Christianity ... and like the biblical\nLazarus, we soon became so dead mentally and spiritually, that our\nattitude (disposition) became offensive (stank) in the nostrils of\nthe intelligent and civilized world. Our kind in the East failed\nto recognize us as their long-lost brothers (the lost sheep). Our\npeople in the East forgot us completely, and we, too, soon forgot our\nblood-ties with them.\n\nBut Almighty God ALLAH forgets not. As He promised in the Old Testament\n(Mal. 4:5) that He would send ELIJAH to the \u201clost sheep\u201d (the so-called\nNegroes of America) in the \u201clast days\u201d (of the white man\u2019s world), to\nteach us the truth that would free us from our white slave master, and\nturn our hearts and minds back toward our own kind (our fathers in the\nEast). And, in the last days of this wicked world, the hearts of our\npeople in the East would be turned once again toward us (Isaiah 43:5).\n\nWe who have been raised by ELIJAH from the \u201cgrave\u201d that was dug for\nus by the slave master, bear witness that this same ELIJAH, who was\npredicted to come, has been raised from our midst today and is even now\nwith us here in America in the person of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\nHe is the \u201cfirst begotten\u201d from this grave of ignorance, from the midst\nof we (so-called Negroes) who have long been a mentally dead people. He\nis the \u201cFirst Fruit\u201d raised from us who slept, and he has been raised\nfrom this grave by Almighty God, ALLAH Himself.\n\nExamine his works among us, for his works are sufficient testimony to\nhis identity. Only a fool, or an envious person, would fail to see the\ngreatness of this man after examining his work. We who have been raised\nfrom the grave by him bear witness of his work.\n\nIn a short time, Messenger Muhammad is accomplishing what our educators\nand religious leaders here failed to do for 100 years, and what our\nbrothers from the East neglected to do. Messenger Muhammad has brought\nour minds out of the sky (where the ignorant preachers had sent it),\nand has made us better able to face the reality of living. He has\nrestored life (truth) to our long-lost dead people. Who else other than\nAlmighty God, ALLAH, could have given Messenger Muhammad the power to\ndo what all others have failed to do?\n\n\u201cAnd Allah sent down WATER from above, and therewith gives life to the\ndead earth after its death. Surely there is a SIGN in this for a people\nwho listen.\u201d (Quran 16:65.)\n\nPraise be to ALLAH! Who would have believed it? An ex-slave, a man\nlike Moses (Deut. 18:18), to whom ALLAH has given sufficient power to\nstand up and speak the truth so boldly here in the land of our bondage,\nfacing not only the wrath of the wicked slave master (modern Pharaoh),\nbut also the wrath of his own kind, who are ignorant of the truth. They\nare too blind to see what is good for them. There are those also who\nare jealous and envious of his Wisdom and his Divine Mission.\n\nMessenger Muhammad\u2019s teachings have really inspired us with a thirst\ntoday for truth. We who follow him are filled with an enthusiastic\ndesire to wear the Crown of Life, the jewels of which are: Wisdom,\nKnowledge, Understanding ... Freedom, Justice, Equality ... Food,\nClothing, Shelter ... and Love, Peace, and Happiness. He teaches us\nthat these must be enjoyed while we are living.\n\nThese are the very essentials of life, and they adorn the Crown of Life\nwhich we shall all wear in ALLAH\u2019s Paradise, the Kingdom of God, which\nshall soon be set up on this earth, for us to enjoy while we are living.\n\nAlmighty God, ALLAH, has a religion of life, not of death, that teaches\nus to live, the importance of living, and how to live. ALLAH is the God\nof the living, and not the God of the dead.\n\nAll praise is due to ALLAH! We who once followed foolishly and blindly\nafter the slave master\u2019s plurality of gods (TRINITY) and sought to have\nour heaven (the necessities of life) up in the sky after we die, are no\nlonger fooled today by the slave master\u2019s lies. Today, we know there is\nbut ONE GOD. There is no God but ALLAH! And, we bear witness that The\nHonorable Elijah Muhammad is His last and greatest Messenger to us here\nin North America.\n\nYes, we who were once dead (mentally, morally, socially, politically,\nand economically), lying at the rich white man\u2019s feet here in the grave\nof ignorance, are being raised today from this \u201cdeath.\u201d We are being\nmade upright ... PERPENDICULAR ... by the WORD of this Noble Messenger\nof Almighty God, ALLAH. He has the Message of Life for 20,000,000\nso-called Negroes here in America.\n\n\u201cThe people (Negroes) that walked in darkness (ignorance) have seen a\ngreat light (Islam): they that dwell in the land (of bondage) in the\nshadow of death (the Cross) upon them has the light shined\u201d (Isaiah\n9:2).\n\nExamine our previous condition, then judge Messenger Muhammad according\nto his work among us. We who are striving to carry his teachings into\npractice today are well on the road to mental, moral and financial\nindependence.\n\nThanks to His Message we are well aware today of the importance of\nFreedom, Justice, Equality ... Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding ...\nFood, Clothing, Shelter ... Love, Peace and Happiness, in sufficient\nquantity and quality, while we are living. This great teacher has\nfilled us with a desire to rest not, until we have our own righteous\nnation, united together under ALLAH, the One God, wherein brotherhood\nis a practiced reality instead of a future dream or a \u201cfar-away\npromise\u201d as it is in the Christian religion of our slave master.\n\nEven you must bear witness that Messenger Muhammad is without question\nthe most fearless and uncompromising representative of Almighty God,\nALLAH, and His Religion of Islam. Messenger Muhammad doesn\u2019t offer any\napology to this wicked race, nor to the fearful and unbelieving \u201cUncle\nToms\u201d among our own kind. He has a Message from God. It is a warning of\ncondemnation of the wicked, and despite all opposition he goes right\nahead, boldly delivering his message.\n\nHe says (as Noah, Lot, and Moses did before him) that you can take it\nor leave it. So many of you will say that you believe in Almighty God,\nALLAH; but, yet you hesitate to teach the naked truth, for fear of\nhurting the tender feelings of this wicked white race. Since you are\nfilled with fear of the beast (Rev. 21:8), instead of standing in the\nway, holding up progress, hardening your hearts with envy, jealousy,\nand unbelief ... step out of his way so he can prove to the world that\nthere is no God but ALLAH, and that this Great God ALLAH has come to\nredeem His long-lost people ... the so-called Negroes of America (Rev.\n7:2).\n\nAccording to the bible, destruction of the slave master by Almighty God\ncan no longer be avoided nor delayed. And, oh how well the slave master\n(modern Pharaoh) knows this. Yes, this government, which was founded\nupon the slavery and suffering of God\u2019s \u201cchosen people,\u201d is quite upset\ntoday because of the teachings of Messenger Muhammad (the modern\nMoses), the same as the biblical Pharaoh was.\n\nGovernment agents have visited and questioned me so persistently and\nthoroughly that I spent many a sleepless night wondering what it is\nabout the presence of this little meek and humble man that has them so\nterribly concerned and upset.\n\nYes, they visited and questioned many of his followers, but the more\nthey visit and question us the more clearly we are able to see and know\nthat this is indeed a Divine Man, God-sent to us poor slaves (Exodus\n3:6-10), with truth that forever frees us from fear of this wicked,\nmodern Pharaoh.\n\nThis little black man has not been to college; his formal education\nin the slave master\u2019s school system is very limited, and he is not\neloquent in his speech (Ex. 4:10), whereas these government agents who\nquestion us are highly trained and well schooled in all the modern\nsciences of life. They are well learned, yet the teachings of this\nlittle \u201cunlearned\u201d man has them hurt, confused, and upset. The average\nunlearned man cannot upset a learned person ... unless he has been\ngiven something by the MOST LEARNED ONE, the All-Knowing One, Almighty\nGod, ALLAH Himself.\n\nAll praise is due to ALLAH! How well He has enabled us to see that this\nlittle meek and humble man is he of whom the bible says: \u201cHow knoweth\nthis man letters (such great wisdom) having never learned (being\nunlearned) ...\u201d (John 7:15). No man in history has ever fit such a\nprophetic picture more perfectly than this little \u201cunlearned\u201d man who\nis teaching us today with such great authority.\n\nYes, he may be \u201cunlearned\u201d according to the educational standards of\nthe slave master, but he has been well schooled by Almighty God, ALLAH\nHimself ... for he tells us constantly that his doctrine (message) is\nnot his own but was authored by the One God, ALLAH, who sent him (John\n7:15).\n\nAll praise is due ALLAH! A man born in Georgia, mentally blind, deaf,\nand dumb, as ignorant as all the rest of us. Yet we see him today\nupsetting the slave master\u2019s health, just as biblical Moses did in\nancient times to the slave master of that day (Ex. 5:2), simply by\ndeclaring God\u2019s plan to give these poor slaves (America\u2019s so-called\nNegroes) a land of our own, wherein we won\u2019t have to beg any slave\nmaster any more for \u201ccivil rights,\u201d for we shall then have in our own\nland a righteous government, wherein FREEDOM, JUSTICE, and EQUALITY and\nall the other essentials of life will be natural products, flowing for\nus and to us ... like \u201cmilk and honey.\u201d\n\nIn the Holy Quran it says: \u201cHe it is who raised from among the\nILLITERATES a Messenger from among themselves, who recites to them the\nbook and the wisdom ... although they were before in manifest error.\u201d\n(62:2.)\n\nAlso, \u201cThose who follow the Messenger-Prophet, the ILLITERATE ONE,\nwhom they find in the Torah and the Gospel. He enjoins them good, and\nforbids them evil, and makes lawful to them good things and prohibits\nfor them impure things, and removes from them their burden and the\nshackles which were on them. So those who believe in Him and help Him,\nthese are the successful.\u201d (7:157.)\n\nI, myself, being one who was lost and dead, buried here in the rubbish\nof the West, in the thickest darkness of sin and ignorance, hoodwinked\ncompletely by the false teaching of the slave master, am able to stand\nupright today, PERPENDICULAR, on the square with my God, ALLAH, and my\nown kind (in the East) ... able for the first time in 400 years to SEE\nand HEAR.\n\nI bear witness that Almighty God, ALLAH, is the Finder of the lost\nsheep (American Negroes) and the Life-Giver to the dead. He, ALLAH,\nis the only Saviour for the 20,000,000 so-called Negroes, who were\nkidnaped by the white race and enslaved here in America.\n\nAlso, I bear witness that Messenger Elijah Muhammad has been taught\n(raised) by this Great God of the Universe, the Architect of the\nUniverse, the Supreme Being Himself, ALLAH. And I bear witness that\nMessenger Elijah Muhammad is in turn raising us from the dead today,\nteaching us TRUTH, and raising us from the dead level of ignorance.\n\n\n\n\n5. MALCOLM X AT QUEENS COLLEGE\n\nMr. Muhammad Speaks _is the official newspaper of the Black Muslim\nmovement. It is a highly charged, well-edited propaganda sheet of some\nthirty-six pages. One recent edition carried the full text of a speech\nMalcolm X delivered at Queens College in New York. More interesting\nthan the speech--at least I feel so--is the way the editors of the\npaper led into the text. Here is a clear example of how Black Muslims\nare informed about what their leaders are doing. The paper had a\ncirculation of over fifty thousand a year ago, and I suspect it has\nall but doubled that now. The picture painted here is that of their\nsecond-in-command, Malcolm X, issuing words of wisdom in the places of\nhigher learning. Of particular interest is the description of students\nskipping class to question Malcolm._\n\n_I was not at Queens College, but I have been with Malcolm--most of\nthe time to debate with him--at other universities. And I know this\nscene to be valid. Whether people believe Malcolm X is one thing, but\nthere can be no doubt that they come in droves--particularly white\npeople--to hear him. And they always linger to ask questions._\n\n  New York Minister Malcolm X continued his series of successful\n  presentations of the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in\n  Boston, St. Louis and New York, during the past few weeks.\n\n  On Tuesday, May 24th, Malcolm X spoke at the Boston Theological\n  Seminary in Boston, Mass. The prior week Malcolm X was heard by\n  several hundred St. Louis Negroes who jammed Carpenter\u2019s Hall, where\n  Malcolm X said, \u201cAmerica must give Negroes full freedom or face\n  disaster.\u201d Malcolm went on to say that complete and total separation\n  resulting in the Negro having a few states of his own is the only\n  solution to the so-called Negro problem.\n\n  Upwards of two hundred students [gathered] in room one hundred of\n  the Remsen Building at New York\u2019s Queens College last month to hear\n  Minister Malcolm X, head of Muhammad Temple of Islam Number Seven,\n  defend the doctrine of Islam as taught by the Honorable Elijah\n  Muhammad.\n\n  The students gathered at the invitation of the Queens College Chapter\n  of the NAACP and heard Minister Malcolm say, \u201cthe American black man\n  faces a unique situation because of his unique position in America.\n  This is why so many American black men are turning to Islam and\n  also why Islam must be presented to them in a form peculiar to the\n  circumstances they face. This causes many people to say we are not\n  teaching the orthodox form of Islam.\u201d Minister Malcolm continued,\n  \u201cThis is not true. We are teaching the true Islamic faith but we are\n  making it applicable to the peculiar conditions faced by the American\n  black man.\u201d\n\n  Asked to comment on Mr. Muhammad\u2019s twelve point program for the\n  salvation of the American Negro, Minister Malcolm said, \u201cour central\n  teaching as far as the social action of the American black man is\n  concerned is that he should be separated from his slave masters. As\n  the Bible says, \u2018let every man be under his own vine and fig tree.\u2019\n  Mr. Muhammad teaches that the American black man, like the children\n  of Israel, are strangers, not in a land of their own.\u201d\n\n  \u201cMuch of the unrest now current would be eliminated,\u201d Minister\n  Malcolm said, \u201cif the request of Mr. Muhammad were granted. Once\n  the slave is educated he wants to be equal with his master, to\n  share his master\u2019s property. If the slave is as well educated as\n  the master then the slave will no longer be content to serve. That\n  is the core of the racial unrest in America today. That is why we\n  must be separated and allowed to become a people self-sufficient and\n  self-supporting.\u201d\n\n  The appearance of Minister Malcolm was scheduled to last for\n  fifty-five minutes but the interest was such that scores of students\n  remained out of classes to continue discussions with Minister Malcolm\n  for an hour past the stated deadline.\n\n  The following is a complete transcript of Minister Malcolm\u2019s Queens\n  College speech:\n\nWe thank you for inviting us here today to present our views on this\ntopic: \u201cThe Negro\u2019s Position in the Recent American Society.\u201d But, to\nunderstand our views you must first know something about our religion,\nIslam.\n\nThe Creator of the Universe, whom many of you call God or Jehovah,\nis known to the Muslims by the name ALLAH. Since the Muslims believe\nall prophets came from that ONE GOD and therefore all taught one and\nthe same religion, rightly called ISLAM, which means the complete\nsubmission and obedience to ALLAH.\n\nOne who practices this Divine Obedience is called a Muslim (commonly\nknown, spelled, and referred to here in the West as Moslem).\n\nThere are over 600 million Muslims on this earth, predominantly in\nAfrica and Asia, and we here in America under the Divine Guidance of\nMr. Elijah Muhammad are an integral part of the vast World of Islam\nthat stretches from the China Seas to the sunny shores of West Africa.\n\nA unique situation faces the black man here in America because of his\nunique condition, thus his acceptance of Islam and into Islam affects\nhim uniquely ... differently than all other converts to Islam.\n\nMr. Elijah Muhammad is our Divine Leader and Teacher here in America.\nHe believes in and obeys God 100 per cent and is teaching and working\namong us to fulfill God\u2019s Divine Purpose.\n\nWhat is this purpose? God\u2019s purpose today (just as it was in biblical\ndays) is the complete SEPARATION of the so-called Negroes from their\nslave master ... as the bible says concerning today: \u201cLet every man be\nunder his own vine and fig tree.\u201d\n\nThe best biblical example of this is the enslavement of the Hebrews in\nthe land of Egypt under Pharaoh ... a free man and some slaves who were\n\u201cstrangers in a land not their own,\u201d and how Jehovah chose Moses to\nSEPARATE them from their slave master.\n\nSince the slave master today declares his \u201cformer\u201d slaves are free, Mr.\nMuhammad says that for the betterment of our future and that of our\nformer slave master God has declared we also must be SEPARATED.\n\nTo many of you here in this college auditorium, this sounds ridiculous;\nto some it even sounds insane. But 20 million black people here in\nAmerica now number a nation in their own right. Do you believe a nation\nWITHIN another nation can be successful? Especially when they both have\nequal education?\n\nOnce the slave has his master\u2019s education, the slave wants to be like\nhis master, wants to share his master\u2019s property, and wants to exercise\nthe same privileges as his master.\n\nThis is the CORE of America\u2019s troubles today; and there will be no\npeace for America as long as 20 million so-called Negroes are here\nBEGGING for the equal rights which America knows she will never grant\nus.\n\nEven the limited education America has granted her ex-slaves has\nalready produced great unrest ... and Almighty God says the only way\nfor America to ever have peace is for us to be SEPARATED from her ...\nand therefore Mr. Muhammad teaches us that we must have some land of\nour own.\n\nIf we receive equal education, how long do you expect us to remain your\npassive servants, or second-class citizens? There is no such thing as\nsecond-class citizens. We are FULL CITIZENS or we are not citizens at\nall!\n\nWhen you teach a man the science of government he wants an equal part\n(or position) in that government ... or else he wants to be a master in\nthat government himself. He demands equality with his master.\n\nNo man with equal education will serve you. The only way you can\ncontinue to rule us is with a superior knowledge, or by continuing to\nhold equal education from our people.\n\nAmerica has not given us equal education, but she has given us enough\nto make us want more ... and to make us demand equality of opportunity\n... which is causing great unrest.\n\nThus, the only SOLUTION is complete SEPARATION!\n\nYou believe in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, that a great DAY\nOF SEPARATION is coming, and that the knowledge of truth will cause\nthis SEPARATION. We are living at that time today!\n\nYou are not common people here in this college audience. You are\nstudents, scholars, professors; you have education enough to weigh\ncurrent events as well as history against the truth of what Mr.\nMuhammad is teaching.\n\nFor over 300 years our parents served yours. During slavery our parents\ndidn\u2019t ask your parents for civil rights. Our parents did not have\nenough education to do so.\n\nThey were taught by their educated white masters that they were\nborn inferiors ... born to serve the whites ... \u201csuperior\u201d whites\nwho restricted them without citizenship even after the so-called\nemancipation proclamation.\n\nToday Mr. Muhammad sees nothing but the DESTRUCTION of both races if\nthey stay together. INTEGRATION will cause DISINTEGRATION of both.\n\nA child stays within the mother until the time of birth. When the time\nof birth arrives, the child must be SEPARATED, or it will DESTROY its\nmother and itself. The mother can\u2019t carry that child after its time.\n\nThe child wants to be free; it cries for a world of its own. If the\nmother will not give it up NATURALLY, the doctors must forcibly take it\nfrom her ... which sometimes causes her death.\n\nIf she can set it free naturally and easily, so much the better ... if\nnot, it must be TAKEN.\n\nTwenty million so-called Negroes in America today number a nation\nWITHIN a nation and are crying for FREEDOM. We must be freed. We must\nbe born. We must be SEPARATED ... or cause the DESTRUCTION of both!\n\nSEPARATION is the only solution today. Is this insane? Is this so\nridiculous?\n\nDuring slavery our parents would have been put to death for advocating\nintegration with the white man ... and now that God has declared this\nis the DAY OF SEPARATION, the white man wants (or at least is TALKING\nabout) integration with his ex-slave.\n\nAmerica can solve her present problems and avoid a worse crisis by\nsetting up some SEPARATE STATES for us right here in America.\n\nRemember the Hebrews in biblical Egypt ... after their 400 years of\nbondage to Pharaoh were up, God had to fulfill his promise to them that\nhe had made through Abraham ... but their biblical slave master would\nnot let them go.\n\nThus it cost the slave master his own freedom, his country, and his\nlife for opposing God\u2019s Plan to SEPARATE His people from their slave\nmaster and set them in a land of their own.\n\nGod would not have DESTROYED the slave master if he would have listened\n... but just as America is today, the biblical slave master (Pharaoh)\nwas also too rich, too strong, and too proud to listen to Moses ...\nwhom they contemptuously looked upon only as an inarticulate ex-slave.\n\nMr. Muhammad is opposed today, both by his own people and by whites,\nsimply because he advocates complete FREEDOM, JUSTICE, and EQUALITY for\nAmerica\u2019s 20 million so-called Negroes.\n\nAmerica is a free nation. Why should America oppose Mr. Muhammad for\nteaching FREEDOM for her 20 million so-called Negroes?\n\nHe is not asking for an \u201cintegrated society\u201d which would only lead\nto the dreaded INTERMARRIAGE with America\u2019s white sons and daughters\n... he is demanding complete SEPARATION where we will have complete\nFREEDOM, JUSTICE, and EQUALITY in a land of our own.\n\nAnd, if God is with Mr. Muhammad today to SEPARATE us and put us in\na land wherein we can form our own nation equal with other civilized\nnations ... would you want God to DESTROY your country like he did\nbiblical Egypt ... for opposing HIS DIVINE PLAN?\n\n\n\n\n6. MALCOLM X AT YALE\n\n\n_Speaking, as always, in behalf of \u201cThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad,\u201d\nMalcolm X journeyed to Yale University in 1962 to debate with Herbert\nWright, then National Youth Secretary of the NAACP._\n\n_The first third of this Yale Speech is Malcolm\u2019s attempt to put the\nBlack Muslims\u2019 doctrine in world perspective. One may dispute, as\nHerbert Wright did, the lessons Malcolm draws from current history,\nbut this lecture shows once again how the Black Muslims are struggling\nto give their doctrine the advantages of learning and information.\nMalcolm\u2019s point is that the world situation demands that the American\nNegro have a separate state and that even such threats as the Communist\ntake-over in Cuba will not subside until that all-Negro state is\nbrought into being._\n\n_This talk has a particularly scorching indictment of middle-class\nNegroes. Several people who were present at the debate have told me\nthat Herbert Wright became difficult at times, for Malcolm, and that\nMalcolm responded with an unusual amount of bile. This was one of a\nseries of debates between Wright and Malcolm X, and the NAACP finally\nordered a halt to the encounters._\n\n_Remembering that the Black Muslims have a prohibition against voting,\nthe reader will be particularly interested in Malcolm\u2019s arguments as\nto why the majority of American Negroes do not vote. He sees this\napathy at the polls as a rebellion against \u201cintegration-minded\u201d Negro\nleadership. And this may be a commentary on why the Muslims have\nthemselves decided to enter politics._\n\n\nIn behalf of my beloved leader and teacher, The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad, and the many young Muslims who follow him, we wish to thank\nyou for this opportunity to explain our position today in what we\nfeel to be the only solution to the serious race problems confronting\nAmerica and the entire troubled Western World.\n\nIn this crucial hour in which we live today, it is essential that our\nminds constantly be kept open to reality. We have both races here in\nthis Yale Law School Auditorium tonight. Let us not be emotional. Let\nus be governed and guided only by facts.\n\nI represent Mr. Elijah Muhammad, the spiritual head of the\nfastest-growing group of Black Muslims in the Western Hemisphere. We\nwho follow him know that he has been divinely taught and sent to us by\nGod Himself. We believe that the miserable plight of the 20 million\nblack people in America is the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We\nbelieve that the serious race problem that our presence here poses for\nAmerica is also the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We also believe\nthe presence today in America of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, his\nteachings among the so-called Negroes, and his naked warning to\nAmerica concerning her treatment of these so-called Negroes is all the\nfulfillment of divine prophecy.\n\nThus, when Mr. Muhammad declares that the only solution to America\u2019s\nrace problem is complete separation of the two races, he is fulfilling\nthat which was predicted by all of the biblical prophets to take place\nin this day. But, because Mr. Muhammad takes this uncompromising stand,\nthose who don\u2019t understand biblical prophecy wrongly label him as a\nracist and as a hate teacher, or as being anti-white, or as teaching\nBlack Supremacy. So tonight, while we are all here together, face to\nface, we can question and examine for ourselves the wisdom or the folly\nof what Mr. Muhammad is teaching.\n\nStudying world conditions in the light of facts, facing reality as\ngrown men and women ... seeing things not as we would like them to be,\nbut as they really are ... only then can we determine the rightness,\nthe validity, the divine origin of Mr. Muhammad and the solution which\nhe offers as the only hope for America\u2019s 20 million so-called Negroes,\nand also as the only hope for this troubled Western World.\n\nIf Mr. Muhammad\u2019s solution is from God, is it in time to save 20\nmillion so-called Negroes? Is it in time to save America? Is it in time\nto save the Western World? Let us look closely and see.\n\nThe Western World finds itself today constantly engulfed in crisis\nafter crisis. The ingredients for disaster lurk constantly on all sides\n... both at home and abroad. The Western World\u2019s leading diplomats are\nwhispering in the halls of the UN that catastrophe can come any moment,\nany hour, any second.\n\nWhether this grave crisis be studied at the international level, the\nnational level, or the local level, we will discover the primary\ningredient always encountered, in one form or another, is the race\nissue ... the race question ... the race problem. Whether it is the\nCongo, Algeria, South Africa, China, Cuba, or Panama.\n\nLet us take the advice Paul gave in the bible; let us toss our emotions\naside and reason together. Let us look closely at this chaotic\nworld-picture before us, and in the light of the facts let us then\ndetermine if Mr. Muhammad\u2019s divine solution fits the picture before us.\n\nBut many of you may be asking yourselves: \u201cWhy should we listen to this\nlittle so-called Negro ... this little Georgia-born ex-slave? What can\nhe do? What can he tell us?\u201d\n\nWell, my friends, the Western World\u2019s most learned diplomats have\nfailed to solve this grave race problem. Her learned politicians have\nfailed. Her learned theologians have failed. Her learned legal experts\nhave failed. Her sociologists have failed. Her civil leaders have\nfailed. Her fraternal leaders have even failed.\n\nSince the Western World\u2019s most skillful scientists and scholars have\nfailed to solve this race problem, it is time for us to sit down\ntonight and reason together, and I\u2019m certain we will be forced to agree\nthat it takes God Himself to solve this grave racial dilemma. When we\nface these facts, we see the necessity for DIVINE intervention ... we\nsee the necessity for a DIVINE SOLUTION.\n\nIf God is going to intervene, will He come Himself, or will He send\nsomeone with His solution? Will we be able to accept this divine\nsolution when it comes? How will we know if the Messenger who brings us\nthe solution is really a man from God? What yardstick will we use to\nmeasure him?\n\nWill this man of God be someone from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Howard,\nor Tuskegee? Will this man of God be a black man or a white man?\n\nWill he be a theologian or preacher from one of the prevailing\nreligions of the Western World? Will he be a politician from one of the\nmajor political parties? What type of man do you think God would choose\nto deliver His solution to this troubled Western World? How are we to\ndetermine whether or not Mr. Muhammad is a man from God? And, how are\nwe to determine if it is time for God Himself to intervene?\n\nLet us not be emotional; let us reason together. Look around us at the\ncondition of the world. Never before has man had in his hands the power\nto destroy human life on such a vast scale. Never before has there\nbeen such propaganda, mass lies, mass suspicion, mass confusion, mass\ndissatisfaction, mass unrest, mass hatreds ... and the ingredients for\nsuch mass bloodshed.\n\nNever before has America made so many crucial blunders, one after\nanother, and suffered such great loss of prestige in the eyes of the\nworld, despite the advice of her expert advisors.\n\nThe U-2 spy plane incident caused the President of the strongest\ncountry on earth to be tricked, trapped and exposed before the whole\nworld as a liar ... despite the advice of expert advisors.\n\nAt the Paris Summit Conference, the same President was cursed,\nridiculed, and humiliated again before the eyes of the entire world ...\ndespite the advice of his expert advisors.\n\nIn Korea, students, mere children, toppled the government of Syngman\nRhee, the best friend America had in the Far East, despite the advice\nof her expert advisors.\n\nIn Turkey, children toppled the government of Menderes, America\u2019s best\nfriend in the Middle East ... despite the advice of expert advisors.\n\nIn Tokyo, students, mere children again, defied the President to come\nto Japan, and blocked him from entering after he had traveled thousands\nof miles from home and had arrived at their back door ... a most\nhumiliating insult ... despite the advice of his expert advisors.\n\nAnd Cuba, a little midget island-government in the Caribbean, is\nchallenging Giant America, accusing her of economic aggression,\nconfiscating all of her investments, and getting unexpected support\nfrom Mexico and other strategically located Latin American countries\n... and all of this, despite the advice of her expert advisors.\n\nMy friends, if the expert politicians, the expert theologians, the\nexpert diplomats and other scientists, professors and scholars have\nfailed to devise a solution to these grave world problems, surely\nyou will agree that it is now time for God to send us someone with a\nsolution from Himself.\n\nIs Mr. Muhammad from God? Is he on time? Does his divine solution fit\nthe events of today?\n\nLook at the racial volcano that has erupted in the Congo, with the\ningredients present for an even greater racial explosion building up\ninto what could easily touch off the dreaded 3rd World War ... and once\nagain the diplomats in the UN are whispering that Western Civilization\nis tottering on the brink of disaster.\n\nWhy are the Africans in the Congo rising against the white Belgian\noppressors? Why are the Africans in Kenya rising against their white\nBritish oppressors? Why are the Africans in Angola rising against their\nwhite Portuguese oppressors? Why are the Africans in Algeria rising\nagainst their white French oppressors? In short: Why is the black man\ntoday all over Africa rising up against his white European overlords?\n\nIn the Congo, Central Africa, the black man is saying, \u201cWe must have\nour own land.\u201d In Kenya, East Africa, the black man is saying, \u201cWe must\nhave our own land.\u201d In Angola, West Africa, the black man is saying,\n\u201cWe must have our own land.\u201d In Algeria, North Africa, the black man is\nsaying, \u201cWe must have our own land.\u201d Even deep into South Africa, all\nover the entire African continent, the only solution in the minds of\nthe awakening black man is: \u201cWe must have our own land.\u201d\n\nThe cry of the black man in Africa for the return of his own land is so\nwidespread, so unrelenting, so uncompromising ... it stands to reason\nthat only God Himself is inspiring him and driving him onward in this\nspirit of freedom. If God has made the black man in Africa realize he\ncannot rest until he has some land of his own ... surely that same God\nwill look westward toward America and see 20 million black people here,\nSECOND-CLASS CITIZENS, who are also in dire need of some land that we\ncan call our own.\n\nIf Mr. Muhammad says \u201csome land of our own\u201d is God\u2019s solution to this\ngrave race problem, why land? Why is land so important to everyone\ntoday?\n\nThe white man in Great Britain could once boast that his control\nextended over so much of the black man\u2019s land that the sun never set on\nthe British Empire. Today, when the sun rises, we can hardly find the\nBritish Empire.\n\nHow important is land? Well, look what happened to the British Empire\nwhen she lost the lands she had colonized in Asia: lands like India,\nChina, Burma, Malaya, etc. ... her inability to continue robbing Asia\nof the natural resources produced by the land almost wrecked the\nBritish economy, decreased her military strength and her political\nprestige so low she could no longer use \u201cforce\u201d to hold her African\ncolonies.\n\nAs her grip on the black man\u2019s land loosened, Britain dwindled. Loss of\nland meant loss of Empire ... loss of wealth, power, and of prestige.\n\nAs the black men in Africa and Asia regain control over their lands,\nthe French, Belgians, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and all other\nEuropean Empires also begin to crumble and topple downward....\n\nAs we face these facts, we are forced to agree that the economy of\nwhite Europe, the military power of white Europe, and the political\nprestige of white Europe was based upon the lands in Africa and Asia\nwhich they had taken from the BLACK MAN.\n\nThe combined powers of white Europe have not been able to stem this\nblack tide in Africa that is sweeping aside the shackles of colonial\nslavery. The Africans have become militant and are marching toward\nfreedom. Africa is the only continent where a new nation is being born\nevery day ... and these new nations are taking their seats in the\nfamily of other independent nations symbolized by the United Nations.\n\nAnd, this fast-growing black block formed by these newly born African\nnations, united with our Darker Brothers in Asia, can already easily\nout-vote the white colonial powers in the UN who had formerly enslaved\nthem. These newly born independent black nations can also take a firm\nstand in behalf of other black people all over the world who are still\nenslaved, persecuted, exploited ... or deprived of their basic rights.\n\nAs the rise of these newly independent black nations collapses the\neconomic, military, and political strength of America\u2019s allies in white\nEurope, what effect does this have upon white America?\n\nDoes white America face the same black web in which the colonial powers\nof white Europe find themselves entangled? And, if so, how will this\naffect America\u2019s attitude toward the black people of Africa? How will\nthis affect America\u2019s attitude toward the 20 million black people who\nare yet suffering the bondage of so-called second-class citizenship\nright here in America ... 20 million so-called Negroes who have\nalso been deprived of freedom, justice, and equality ... 20 million\nso-called Negroes who not only have been deprived of their civil\nrights, but who have even been deprived of their HUMAN RIGHTS ... the\nright to hold their heads up, and to live in dignity like other human\nbeings.\n\nLet us not be emotional, but let us face these facts. Let us reason\ntogether. This has become a serious problem for America, and for the\nentire world.\n\nWill the Divine Solution that God has given Mr. Elijah Muhammad help\nwhite America avert the racial dilemma in which the awakening dark\nnations of Africa and Asia have already placed America\u2019s allies in\nwhite Europe?\n\nBefore we can intelligently decide to accept or reject Mr. Muhammad\u2019s\nsolution, let us take a closer look at America itself:\n\nAmerica is the richest and most powerful nation on this earth. Her\nPresident is almost like a \u201cgod,\u201d for he has in his hands almost every\nother country on this earth. Therefore, every four years, when a new\nPresident, or \u201cgod,\u201d is about to be selected, the eyes of even the\nforeign nations are turned toward the American elections ... for they\ntoo are wondering who, what type of man, will be the next \u201cgod.\u201d\n\nYet, at the two great political conventions in which the two candidates\nare selected, despite America\u2019s need to impress, and favorably\ninfluence the foreign nations, foreign policy is never the great\ncontroversial issue ... the controversial issue is always over domestic\npolicy ... the CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE ... in which the so-called American\nNegro is the primary figure ... the STAR on the world stage ... for it\nis he who holds the balance of power in all elections ... it is he who\ncan easily determine \u201cwho\u201d will be the next \u201cgod.\u201d\n\nTherefore, this great political drama not only stars the Negro, but all\nthe political schemes are designed primarily to woo him, to please him,\nto tempt him, ensnare him, to get his allegiance and capitalize upon\nhis political support.\n\nThe Negro\u2019s position is most strategic, but his mental condition is too\npathetic for him to take intelligent advantage of this vital position\n\u201cfate\u201d has placed him in. The American Negro is suffering from a\nmental sickness. His mind has been \u201ctampered\u201d with by his slave master.\n\nThe Western World is sick. America is sick ... but the Negro in America\nis the sickest of them all. The sickening condition of the Negro in\nAmerica is infecting Uncle Sam\u2019s entire body and endangering the\nsecurity and future of the whole Western World.\n\nMr. Muhammad says that only after the American Negro\u2019s condition is\n\u201ccorrected\u201d will Uncle Sam\u2019s health improve ... for only then will\nUncle Sam look \u201chealthy\u201d in the inquiring eyes of the fast-awakening\ndark world.\n\nSince we see the vital necessity of correcting the miserable condition\nof the American Negro, and we must also agree that all other efforts to\nsolve this problem have failed, will Mr. Muhammad\u2019s \u201cprescription\u201d cure\nthe ailments of these 20 million second-class citizens?\n\nMany of you will say: \u201cNo! Muhammad is a Black Supremist. He is an\nextremist. He stresses race too much. He is a racist.\u201d\n\nMy friends: If you were to see a man attired in white, with a sharp\ninstrument in his hands, bending over someone who is prostrate on a\ntable, your lack of understanding might compel you to shout, \u201cmurderer!\u201d\n\nBut when you know the place is a hospital, the sleeping man is\na patient, the man attired in white is a surgeon, and the sharp\ninstrument must be used to perform some surgery that is necessary to\nsave the patient\u2019s life ... you can then accept the fact that although\nthe operation is very painful, it must be performed.\n\nUncle Sam is sick, because he has a black \u201clump\u201d growing in his white\nbody that doesn\u2019t belong there, and this black \u201cgrowth\u201d is getting\nlarger every day, and increasing Uncle Sam\u2019s internal pains. God\nHimself has ordained that this surgery must be performed, for if the\n20 million rapidly increasing so-called Negroes are not separated\nfrom the white parts of the body, it will soon cause the death and\ndestruction of Uncle Sam.\n\nGod has given Mr. Muhammad some sharp truth. It is like a two-edged\nsword. It cuts into you. It causes you great pain, but if you can take\nit, it will cure you and save you from what otherwise would be CERTAIN\nDEATH.\n\nIn your mental anguish many of you will emotionally insist that Mr.\nMuhammad is not teaching the real religion of Islam. You will still\ninsist that he is teaching a racial, economic, and political philosophy.\n\nMy friends, Islam is the religion taught by all of the prophets: Noah,\nLot, Abraham, Moses, and even Jesus. Islam is the true name of the\nreligion God gave to the prophets in the past to cure their people of\nwhatever moral or spiritual ailments that were afflicting them in that\nday.\n\nSince we have examined the ailments of the crumbling Western World, and\nthe ills that are infecting America ... let us look more closely at the\nmiserable condition of the American Negro:\n\nHere are 20 million people who have lost their original identity; they\ncannot even speak their own mother tongue. How can 20 million people\nlose their language? What happened to it? What was it? Why don\u2019t they\nat least know what it was?\n\nWhy don\u2019t the educated Negroes know something about their own history,\ntheir own culture, the last names of their forefathers, their own\nnationality, their own country, their own flag, their own religion, and\ntheir own God?\n\nMy friends, surely you will agree that no other people in history,\nbiblical or otherwise, have been so completely stripped and robbed by\ntheir slave master of all knowledge concerning their own kind ... and\nbecause of this, no other people in history, biblical or otherwise,\nhave ever presented such a problem to their former slave masters or to\nthe world ... as the problem created by the presence of the 20 million\nso-called Negroes here in America today.\n\nThe New York _Tribune_, in an editorial (Feb. 5, 1960), pointed out\nthat out of 11 million qualified Negro voters, only 2,700,000 actually\ntook time to vote. This means that, roughly speaking, only 3 million of\nthe 11 million Negroes who are qualified to vote take an active part\n... and the remaining 8 million remain voluntarily inactive, and yet it\nit is this small minority of Negro voters who help determine who will\nbe the next President.\n\nIf who will be the next President can be influenced by 3 million\nNegro voters, it is easy to see why the presidential candidates of\nboth political parties put on such a false show with the civil rights\nbill, and with promises of integration. They must woo or impress the 3\nmillion voting Negroes who are the actual \u201cintegration seekers.\u201d\n\nIf so much fuss is made over these 3 million \u201cintegration seekers,\u201d\nwhat would the presidential candidates have to do to appease the 8\nmillion non-voting Negroes if they ever decided to become politically\nactive in this election year?\n\nWho are the 8 million non-voting Negroes, what do they want, and why\ndon\u2019t they vote?\n\nThe 3 million voters are the so-called middle- (or high-) class\nNegroes, referred to by Howard University Sociology Professor E.\nFranklin Frazier, as the \u201cBLACK BOURGEOISIE,\u201d who have been educated\nto think as patriotic individualists, with no racial pride ... who\nbelieve in, and look forward to, the future \u201cintegrated-intermarried\u201d\nsociety promised them by the Negro politicians ... and therefore,\nthis \u201cintegration-minded\u201d 3 million remain an active part of the\nwhite-controlled political parties. But it must never be overlooked,\nthat these 3 million integration seekers are only a small minority of\nthe 11 million qualified voters.\n\nThe 8 million non-voting Negroes are the majority, the downtrodden\nblack masses. They have refused to vote, or to take part in politics,\nbecause they reject the Uncle Tom approach of the \u201cclergy-politician\u201d\nleadership that has been hand-picked for the American Negroes by the\nwhite man himself.\n\nThe clergy-politician leadership does not speak for the Negro majority;\nthey don\u2019t speak for the black masses. They speak for the \u201cBLACK\nBOURGEOISIE,\u201d the \u201cbrainwashed\u201d (white-minded) middle-class minority\n... who, because they are ashamed of black, and don\u2019t want to be\nidentified with black or as being black, are seeking to lose this\n\u201cidentity\u201d by mingling, mixing, intermarrying, and integration with the\nwhite man.\n\nThe race problem cannot be solved by listening to this white-minded\n(brainwashed) minority. The white man must try to learn what does\nthe majority want. The next President would be wise to try and learn\nwhat the black masses want. And, the only way to find this out is by\nlistening to the man who speaks for the black masses of America.\n\nI declare to you and to the entire world, that the man here in America\nwho speaks for the majority, the downtrodden, dissatisfied black masses\n... is this same man whom so many thousands of our people are flocking\ntoward to see and hear ... this same Mr. Muhammad who is labeled by you\nas a Black Supremist, and as a Racist!\n\nIf the 3 million middle-class Negroes are casting their ballots for\nintegration and intermarriage ... what do the non-voting black masses\nwho are in the minority want? Find out what the black masses want, and\nthen perhaps America\u2019s grave race problem can be solved.\n\nThe black masses are tired of following these hand-picked Negro\n\u201cleaders\u201d who sound like professional beggars, as they cry year after\nyear for white America to accept us as first-class citizens.\n\nSince this clergy-politician \u201cleadership,\u201d which was carefully\nhand-picked for us by the white man, has failed to solve the problem\nfor the downtrodden black masses ... God Himself has stepped into the\npicture, and has made Messenger Elijah Muhammad a wise, fearless,\nand uncompromising spokesman for the 20 million black people here in\nAmerica, who, behind the Divine Leadership of this man of God, will now\nnever be satisfied until we have a home in a land that we can proudly\ncall our own.\n\nWe have accepted your invitation to come here to Yale University\nLaw School this evening to let you know first hand why 20 million\nso-called Negroes cannot integrate with white America ... why white\nAmerica, after 100 years of religious hypocrisy and political trickery\nwill never accept us as first-class citizens here ... and why we must\ntherefore seek some separate territory of our own.\n\nIn your blind emotion, again many of you will cry out that this is\nwrong, that this is not religion, that this is not Islam ... that this\nis just another economic-political philosophy.\n\nI must remind you to keep an open mind. Let your own Christian bible be\nthe judge:\n\nYou credit Moses with being a religious man, a man of God, doing God\u2019s\nwork. Yet, what did Moses actually do? What did Moses teach? Moses\nfreed his people from their slave master. Moses told the oppressor of\nhis people: \u201cLet my people go.\u201d Moses separated his people from their\nmasters, and then led them into a separate territory of their own.\n\nYou admit Moses was a man of God, yet you will have to agree Moses did\nnot teach integration. Moses taught separation. Moses didn\u2019t take time\nto dwell on religious practices. He just let his people know that he\nrepresented the God of their forefathers, whose desire it was for them\nto be separated from their slave master and placed in a land that they\ncould call their own. Mr. Muhammad\u2019s message and mission today is the\nsame as that of the biblical Moses. Mr. Muhammad is a modern Moses in\nthis modern-day house of bondage.\n\nMany of you will cry out that you don\u2019t go by what Moses said or did,\nbut rather by what Jesus said. You claim that Jesus taught love and\nthat Mr. Muhammad teaches hate.\n\nBut, my friends, have you really read the bible? Are you familiar with\nLuke 14:26 where Jesus taught: \u201cIf any man come to me, and hate not his\nfather, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters,\nyes, and even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.\u201d\n\nIn other words, Jesus taught that you must hate everyone in your\nfamily, even your own self ... and Muhammad teaches us to love our\nbrothers and sisters ... yet you say Muhammad teaches hate and that\nJesus taught love.\n\nMany of you will say that Jesus was no respecter of persons, that he\ncame to all the world. You say Muhammad bars white people, therefore he\ncan\u2019t be from God.\n\nMy friends, Jesus told his followers to go not the way of the Gentiles,\ngo only to the \u201clost sheep.\u201d He definitely advised his followers to\ndiscriminate and make a distinction between the Gentiles and the \u201clost\nsheep.\u201d\n\nBut you still cry out that Jesus is coming back at the end of the world\nto make us all the same, make us one people ... integrate us.\n\nNo, my friends, Jesus himself did not even advocate integration. He\nreferred to the end of this world as that great \u201cHARVEST TIME.\u201d He\nlikened the people of today as \u201cwheat and tares,\u201d who would be allowed\nto \u201cgrow together,\u201d or integrated, until God comes at the end of this\nworld and separates the people Himself ... then He would cause one to\nbe burned in a Lake of Fire, and those whom He chooses for Himself He\nwould save.\n\nJesus also spoke of the people of today as being like \u201csheep and\ngoats,\u201d whom God would separate at the end of the world ... some for\nsalvation and some for destruction.\n\nJesus did not advocate integration; he advocated SEPARATION!\n\nNoah\u2019s solution was not integration; in his day it was also a message\nof separation. Lot\u2019s solution was separation. And, remember, my\nfriends, Jesus warned that \u201cas it was in the days of Noah and Lot,\nso shall it be these last days\u201d ... not integration, but complete\nseparation of the two races ... or DESTRUCTION!\n\nSurely you can now see that Mr. Muhammad\u2019s message, or solution, is the\nsame as that of Noah, Lot, Moses, and Jesus. How can you still doubt if\nMr. Muhammad is from God? What you really should be concerned about is\nhas Mr. Muhammad come in time to save you; and what must you do now to\nsave yourselves.\n\nWhen Mr. Muhammad says that we must have some of these states, before\nyou flinch and hold up your hands in \u201cmock shock,\u201d let us look and see\nif 20 million so-called Negroes deserve such a solution.\n\nIf I were to collect the combined wages of everyone in this Yale\nUniversity Law School auditorium tonight for just one week, I would\nhave plenty of money. If I could work all of you for nothing for just\none year I would be extremely rich. Well, what about the millions of\nblack people who worked here in America as your slaves for over 300\nyears without one payday? What happened to their wages? Who collected\nthe profits, or amassed the fortunes received from their free labor?\nFacing these unpleasant facts, surely you can easily see now how\nAmerica became so rich so fast.\n\nHow will 20 million so-called Negroes today receive a \u201cjust\ncompensation\u201d? We have hundreds of years\u2019 \u201cback pay\u201d that is long\noverdue, and must be paid sooner or later ... or is there to be no such\nthings as JUSTICE for your faithful ex-slaves?\n\nThe American government has appropriated billions of dollars to pay the\nIndians for lands taken from their foreparents by your foreparents.\n\nAgain I say, my friends, let us reason together: surely you will agree\nthat God is more just than your government ... yet your government has\nfelt morally and legally obligated to pay billions of dollars to the\nIndians for the crime committed against them.\n\nWhat about the 20 million so-called Negroes! If the Indians must be\npaid for land taken from them, what about the free labor and lives of\nour foreparents that were taken from us for over 300 years?\n\nIf the white politicians have agreed that the Indians should be paid\nfor their lands ... what price or payment will the GOD OF JUSTICE\ndemand for 20 million black people who were robbed of our labor, lives,\nidentity, culture, history ... and even our human dignity?\n\nWhat will God\u2019s price be? What will God\u2019s solution be? Can America pay\nGod\u2019s price? And, if not, what will be the alternative?\n\nThe handwriting is on the wall for America. As America faces crisis\nafter crisis ... as America sees dangerous troubles mounting on all\nsides ... and as America stares with stubborn blindness, refusing\nto read the handwriting on the wall ... since her \u201cexperts\u201d have\nshown they are unable to read its meaning, will America now accept\nan ambassador from God, a Divine Messenger, a Warner, to read the\nhandwriting for her and tell her what solution she must accept...?\n\nOr, will America blindly reject God\u2019s Messenger, and in so doing bring\non her own Divine Destruction? I trust you will weigh well these\nwords.\n\n\n\n\nA SUMMING-UP: LOUIS LOMAX INTERVIEWS MALCOLM X\n\n\nLOMAX: Minister Malcolm, we are all by now familiar with your basic\nphilosophy; we have heard you speak, seen you on television, and read\nyour remarks in magazines and newspapers. By now, I think, everybody\nknows your position that the white man is a devil, a man incapable of\ndoing right; you hold that the black man is of God\u2019s divine nature,\nthat he fell from power because of weakness; you hold further that the\nwhite man\u2019s rule over the earth was scheduled to end in 1914, but that\nhis end has been delayed because of the need to get the American Negro\ninto the fold of black brotherhood.\n\nMALCOLM X: Yes, sir, that is what The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches\nus. The white devil\u2019s time is up; it has been up for almost fifty years\nnow. It has taken us that long to get the deaf, dumb, and blind black\nmen in the wilderness of North America to wake up and understand who\nthey are. You see, sir, when a man understands who he is, who God is,\nwho the devil is ... then he can pick himself up out of the gutter;\nhe can clean himself up and stand up like a man should before his\nGod. This is why we teach that in order for a man to really understand\nhimself he must be part of a nation; he must have some land of his own,\na God of his own, a language of his own. Most of all he must have love\nand devotion for his own kind.\n\nLOMAX: Wouldn\u2019t you say the Negro has a nation--America?\n\nMALCOLM X: Sir, how can a Negro say America is _his_ nation? He was\nbrought here in chains; he was put in slavery and worked like a mule\nfor three hundred years; he was separated from his land, his culture,\nhis God, his language!\n\nThe Negro was taught to speak the white man\u2019s tongue, worship the white\nGod, and accept the white man as his superior.\n\nThis is a white man\u2019s country, and the Negro is nothing but an ex-slave\nwho is now trying to get himself integrated into the slave master\u2019s\nhouse.\n\nAnd the slave master doesn\u2019t want you! You fought and bled and died in\nevery war the white man waged, and he still won\u2019t give you justice.\nYou nursed his baby and cleaned behind his wife, and he still won\u2019t\ngive you freedom; you turned the other cheek while he lynched you\nand raped your women, but he still won\u2019t give you equality. Now, you\nintegration-minded Negroes are trying to force yourselves on your\nformer slave master, trying to make him accept you in his drawing room;\nyou want to hang out with his women rather than with women of your own\nkind.\n\nLOMAX: Are you suggesting that all of us who fight for integration are\nafter a white woman?\n\nMALCOLM X: I wouldn\u2019t say _all_ of you, but let the evidence speak\nfor itself. Check up on these integration leaders, and you will find\nthat most of them are either married to or hooked up with some white\nwoman. Take that meeting between James Baldwin and Robert Kennedy;\npractically everybody there was interracially married. Harry Belafonte\nis married to a white woman; Lorraine Hansberry is married to a white\nman; Lena Horne is married to a white man.\n\nNow how can any Negro, man or woman, who sleeps with a white person\nspeak for me? No black person married to a white person can speak for\nme!\n\nLOMAX: Why?\n\nMALCOLM X: Why? Because only a man who is ashamed of what he is will\nmarry out of his race. There has to be something wrong when a man or a\nwoman leaves his own people and marries somebody of another kind. Men\nwho are proud of being black marry black women; women who are proud of\nbeing black marry black men.\n\nThis is particularly true when you realize that these Negroes who go\nfor integration and intermarriage are linking up with the very people\nwho lynched their fathers, raped their mothers, and put their kid\nsisters in the kitchen to scrub floors. Why would any black man in\nhis right mind want to marry a lyncher, a murderer, a rapist, a dope\npeddler, a gambler, a hog eater.... Why would any black man want to\nmarry a _devil_ ... for that\u2019s just what the white man is.\n\nLOMAX: I have heard you say that a thousand times, but it always jolts\nme. Why do you call the white man a devil?\n\nMALCOLM X: Because that\u2019s what he is. What do you want me to call him,\na saint? Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and\ndrops hell bombs on people ... anybody who does these things is nothing\nbut a devil.\n\nLook, Lomax, history rewards all research. And history fails to record\none single instance in which the white man--as a people--did good. They\nhave always been devils; they always will be devils, and they are about\nto be destroyed. The final proof that they are devils lies in the fact\nthat they are about to destroy themselves. Only a devil--and a stupid\ndevil at that--would destroy himself!\n\nNow why would I want to integrate with somebody marked for destruction?\n\nThe Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us to get away from the devil as\nsoon and as fast as we can. This is why we are demanding a separate\nstate. Tell the slave master we will no longer beg for crumbs from his\ntable; let him give us some land of our own so we can go for ourselves.\nIf he doesn\u2019t give us some land, there is going to be hell to pay. As\nI said at Howard University and Queens College, once the white man let\nthe Negro get an education, the Negro began to want what the white\nman has. But he let Negroes get education and now they are demanding\nintegration; they want to have exactly what he has. And the white man\nis not going to give it to them!\n\nLOMAX: But we have made some gains....\n\nMALCOLM X: What gains? All you have gotten is tokenism--one or two\nNegroes in a job or at a lunch counter so the rest of you will\nbe quiet. It took the United States Army to get one Negro in the\nUniversity of Mississippi; it took troops to get a few Negroes in white\nschools at Little Rock and another dozen places in the South. It has\nbeen nine years since the Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated\nschools, yet less than ten per cent of the Negro students in the South\nare in integrated schools. That isn\u2019t integration, that\u2019s tokenism! In\nspite of all the dogs, and fire hoses, and club-swinging policemen,\nI have yet to read of anybody eating an integrated hamburger in\nBirmingham.\n\nYou Negroes are not willing to admit it yet, but integration will not\nwork. Why, it is against the white man\u2019s nature to integrate you into\nhis house. Even if he wanted to, he could no more do it than a Model T\ncan sprout wings and fly. It isn\u2019t in him.\n\nNow The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says it would be the easiest thing in\nthe world for the white man to destroy the Black Muslims. We contend\nthat the white man is a devil. If he is not a devil, let him prove it!\n\nHe can\u2019t do it, Lomax; it isn\u2019t in him; it is against his nature.\n\nHe\u2019ll keep on granting tokenism; a few big Negroes will get big jobs,\nbut the black masses will catch hell as long as they stay in the white\nman\u2019s house.\n\nThe only possible way out for the white man is to give us some land\nof our own; let us get out, get away from his wicked reign and go for\nourselves.\n\nBut the white man will not do that, either. He is going to keep you\nintegration-minded Negroes cooped up here in this country, and when you\ndiscover that the white man is a trickster, a devil, that he has no\nintentions of integrating, then you Negroes will run wild. That will be\nthe time....\n\nLOMAX: The time for what?\n\nMALCOLM X: Only The Honorable Elijah Muhammad can answer that!\n\nLOMAX: This is strong gospel, Minister Malcolm; many people, Negro\nand white, say what you preach amounts to hate, that your theology is\nactually anti-Semitic. What is your comment to that?\n\nMALCOLM X: The white people who are guilty of white supremacy are\ntrying to hide their own guilt by accusing The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad of teaching black supremacy when he tries to uplift the\nmentality, the social, mental, and economic condition of the black\npeople in this country. Jews who have been guilty of exploiting the\nblack people in this country, economically, civically, and otherwise,\nhide behind--hide their guilt by accusing The Honorable Elijah Muhammad\nof being anti-Semitic, simply because he teaches our people to go into\nbusiness for ourselves and try and take over the economic leadership\nin our own community.\n\nAnd since the white people collectively have practiced the worst form\nof hatred against Negroes in this country and they know that they are\nguilty of it, now when The Honorable Elijah Muhammad comes along and\nbegins to list the historic deed--the historic attitude, the historic\nbehavior of the white man in this country toward the black people in\nthis country, again, the white people are so guilty, and they can\u2019t\nstop doing these things to make Mr. Muhammad appear wrong, so they\nhide their wrong by saying \u201che is teaching hatred.\u201d History is not\nhatred. Actually we are Muslims because we believe in the religion of\nIslam. We believe in one God. We believe in Muhammad as the Apostle\nof God. We practice the principles of the religion of Islam, which\nmean prayer, charity, fasting, brotherhood, and The Honorable Elijah\nMuhammad teaches us that since the Western society is deteriorating, it\nhas become overrun with immorality, that God is going to judge it and\ndestroy it, and the only way the black people who are in this society\ncan be saved is not to integrate into this corrupt society but separate\nourselves from it, reform ourselves, lift up our moral standards and\ntry and be godly--try to integrate with God--instead of trying to\nintegrate with the white man, or try and imitate God instead of trying\nto imitate the white man.\n\nLOMAX: It is suggested also that your movement preaches violence.\n\nMALCOLM X: No, sir. The black people of this country have been victims\nof violence at the hands of the white men for four hundred years, and\nfollowing the ignorant Negro preachers, we have thought that it was\ngodlike to turn the other cheek to the brute that was brutalizing us.\nToday The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is showing black people in this\ncountry that, just as the white man and every other person on this\nearth has God-given rights, natural rights, civil rights, any kind\nof rights that you can think of, when it comes to defending himself,\nblack people--we should have the right to defend ourselves also. And,\nbecause The Honorable Elijah Muhammad makes black people brave enough,\nmen enough to defend ourselves no matter what the odds are, the white\nman runs around here with a doctrine that Mr. Muhammad is advocating\nviolence when he is actually telling Negroes to defend themselves\nagainst violent people.\n\nLOMAX: Reverend Martin Luther King teaches a doctrine of nonviolence.\nWhat is your attitude toward this philosophy?\n\nMALCOLM X: The white man supports Reverend Martin Luther King,\nsubsidizes Reverend Martin Luther King, so that Reverend Martin Luther\nKing can continue to teach the Negroes to be defenseless--that\u2019s what\nyou mean by nonviolent--be defenseless in the face of one of the most\ncruel beasts that has ever taken people into captivity--that\u2019s this\nAmerican white man, and they have proved it throughout the country by\nthe police dogs and the police clubs. A hundred years ago they used to\nput on a white sheet and use a bloodhound against Negroes. Today they\nhave taken off the white sheet and put on police uniforms and traded\nin the bloodhounds for police dogs, and they\u2019re still doing the same\nthing. Just as Uncle Tom, back during slavery, used to keep the Negroes\nfrom resisting the bloodhound or resisting the Ku Klux Klan by teaching\nthem to love their enemies or pray for those who use them despitefully,\ntoday Martin Luther King is just a twentieth-century or modern Uncle\nTom or religious Uncle Tom, who is doing the same thing today to keep\nNegroes defenseless in the face of attack that Uncle Tom did on the\nplantation to keep _those_ Negroes defenseless in the face of the\nattack of the Klan in that day.\n\nNow, the goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to give Negroes a chance\nto sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white man who has\nbrutalized them for four hundred years. The goal of Martin Luther King\nis to get Negroes to forgive the people, the people who have brutalized\nthem for four hundred years, by lulling them to sleep and making them\nforget what those whites have done to them, but the masses of black\npeople today don\u2019t go for what Martin Luther King is putting down.\n\nLOMAX: Minister Malcolm, you often speak of unity among our people.\nUnity for what?\n\nMALCOLM X: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that God now is\nabout to establish a kingdom on this earth based upon brotherhood and\npeace, and the white man is against brotherhood and the white man is\nagainst peace. His history on this earth has proved that. Nowhere\nin history has he been brotherly toward anyone. The only time he is\nbrotherly toward you is when he can use you, when he can exploit you,\nwhen he will oppress you, when you will submit to him, and since his\nown history makes him unqualified to be an inhabitant or a citizen in\nthe kingdom of brotherhood, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us\nthat God is about to eliminate that particular race from this earth.\nSince they are due for elimination, we don\u2019t want to be with them. We\nare not trying to integrate with that which we know has come to the end\nof its rope. We are trying to separate from it and get with something\nthat is more lasting, and we think that God is more lasting than the\nwhite man.\n\nLOMAX: Then your movement does not share the integration goals of the\nNAACP, CORE, Martin Luther King\u2019s movement, and the Student Nonviolent\nmovement.\n\nMALCOLM X: You don\u2019t integrate with a sinking ship. You don\u2019t do\nanything to further your stay aboard a ship that you see is going\nto go down to the bottom of the ocean. Moses tried to separate his\npeople from Pharaoh, and when he tried, the magicians tried to fool\nthe people into staying with Pharaoh, and we look upon these other\norganizations that are trying to get Negroes to integrate with this\ndoomed white man as nothing but modern-day magicians, and The Honorable\nElijah Muhammad is a modern-day Moses trying to separate us from the\nmodern-day Pharaoh. Until the white man in America sits down and talks\nwith The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he won\u2019t even know what the race\nproblem--what makes the race problem what it is. Just like Pharaoh\ncouldn\u2019t get a solution to his problem until he talked to Moses, or\nNebuchadnezzar or Belshazzar couldn\u2019t get a solution to his problem\nuntil he talked to Daniel, the white man in America today will never\nunderstand the race problem or come anywhere near getting a solution\nto the race problem until he talks to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\nMr. Muhammad will give him God\u2019s analysis, not some kind of political\nanalysis or psychologist\u2019s analysis, or some kind of clergyman\u2019s\nanalysis, but God\u2019s analysis. That\u2019s the analysis that Moses gave\nPharaoh; that\u2019s the analysis that Daniel gave Belshazzar. Today we have\na modern Belshazzar and a modern Pharaoh sitting in Washington, D. C.\n\nLOMAX: I am struck by the fact that each of the biblical figures you\nmentioned--Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar--came to a rather\nsorry end. Are you willing to complete the analogy and say the American\nwhite establishment will come to a bitter end, perhaps be destroyed?\n\nMALCOLM X: I have spoken on this many times, and I am sure you know\nwhat The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches on this. But since we are on\nrecord I will--as they sometimes say in Harlem--make it plain.\n\nNow, sir, God is going to punish this wicked devil for his misdeeds\ntoward black people. Just as plagues were visited on Pharaoh so will\npestilences and disasters be visited on the white man. Why, it has\nalready started: God has begun to send them heat when they expect cold;\nhe sends them cold when they expect heat. Their crops are dying, their\nchildren are being born with all kinds of deformities, the rivers and\nthe lakes are coming out of the belly of the earth to wash them away.\n\nNot only that, but God has started slapping their planes down from the\nsky. Last year [1962] God brought down one of their planes loaded with\ncrackers whose fathers had lynched your and my brothers and sisters.\nThey were from your state, Lomax, down there in Georgia where both\nyou and Mr. Muhammad come from. Now, long before that plane crash I\npredicted [in Los Angeles] that God was going to strike back at the\ndevil for the way white cops brutalized our brothers in Los Angeles.\nWhen the plane fell, I said this was God\u2019s way of letting his wrath be\nknown. Now for that I was called names--some of these Uncle Tom Negroes\nrushed into print to condemn me for what I said. But what was wrong\nwith what I said? Everybody has a God and believes that his God will\ndeliver him and protect him from his enemies! Why can\u2019t the black man\nhave a God? What\u2019s so wrong when a black man says his God will protect\nhim from his white foe? If Jehovah can slay Philistines for the Jews,\nwhy can\u2019t Allah slay crackers for the so-called Negro.\n\nI said much the same thing when that submarine--the _Thresher_--went\ndown to the bottom of the sea. I realize that there were some originals\n[Negroes] on board, but that simply underlines my point that the\nso-called Negro should not integrate with white people. He should stay\nas far as possible from them at all times.\n\nLOMAX: Just a moment, if I may, Minister Malcolm. Now, you talk about\nseparation from the white man.\n\nMALCOLM X: Yes, sir.\n\nLOMAX: You even take it so far as to suggest that we shouldn\u2019t even\nget on airplanes and ships with white people. Am I correct in that?\n\nMALCOLM X: Yes, sir, on the whole. Yes.\n\nLOMAX: But Minister Malcolm, few people, Negro or white, travel as\nmuch as you and I do. You spend much of your life getting on and off\naircraft. Don\u2019t you fear that you just might be aboard when God sees\nfit to slap down a jet and kill a few score white people?\n\nMALCOLM X: Sir, my faith in God is such that I am not afraid. I know\nthat I will not die until my time comes. But if I am aboard one of\nthese vessels, I will be happy to give my life to see some of these\nwhite devils die. Like Samson, I am ready to pull down the white man\u2019s\ntemple, knowing full well that I will be destroyed by the falling\nrubble.\n\nLOMAX: But Minister Malcolm, you make no accommodation for the changes\nthat have come about as a result of the Negro Revolt. What do you think\nwill be the results of the current demonstrations against segregation?\n\nMALCOLM X: Lomax, as you know, these Negro leaders have been telling\nthe white man everything is all right, everything is under control,\nand they have been telling the white man that Mr. Muhammad is wrong,\ndon\u2019t listen to him. But everything that Mr. Muhammad has been saying\nis going to come to pass, is now coming to pass. Now the Negro leaders\nare standing up saying that we are about to have a racial explosion.\nYou\u2019re going to have a racial explosion, and a racial explosion is more\ndangerous than an atomic explosion. It\u2019s going to explode because black\npeople are dissatisfied; they\u2019re dissatisfied not only with the white\nman, but they\u2019re dissatisfied with these Negroes who have been sitting\naround here posing as leaders and spokesmen for black people and\nactually making the problem worse instead of making the problem better.\n\nLOMAX: Do you deny that Negroes are now getting the protection of the\nFederal Government; after all, both the President and the Attorney\nGeneral have come to our aid.\n\nMALCOLM X: You never will get protection from the Federal Government.\nJust like King is asking Kennedy to go to Alabama to stand in a\ndoorway--to put his body in a doorway. That\u2019s like asking the fox to\nprotect you from the wolf! The masses of black people can see this, and\nit is only the Negro leadership, the bourgeois, hand-picked, handful\nof Negroes who think that they\u2019re going to get some kind of respect,\nrecognition, or protection from the Government. The Government is\nresponsible for what is happening to black people in this country.\nThe President has power. You notice he didn\u2019t send any troops into\nBirmingham to protect the Negroes when the dogs were biting the\nNegroes. The only time he sent troops into Birmingham was when the\nNegroes erupted, and then the President sent the troops in there, not\nto protect the Negroes, but to protect them white people down there\nfrom those erupting Negroes.\n\nLOMAX: Are not Negroes American citizens?\n\nMALCOLM X: If they were citizens, you wouldn\u2019t have a race problem. If\nthe Emancipation Proclamation was authentic, you wouldn\u2019t have a race\nproblem. If the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution\nwere authentic, you wouldn\u2019t have a race problem. If the Supreme Court\ndesegregation decision was authentic, you wouldn\u2019t have a race problem.\nAll of this is hypocrisy that has been practiced by the so-called white\nso-called liberal for the past four hundred years that compounds the\nproblem, makes it more complicated, instead of eliminating the problem.\n\nLOMAX: What, then, do you see as the final result of all these\ndemonstrations?\n\nMALCOLM X: Any time you put too many sparks around a powder keg, the\nthing is going to explode, and if the thing that explodes is still\ninside the house, then the house will be destroyed. So The Honorable\nElijah Muhammad is telling the white man, \u201cGet this powder keg out of\nyour house--let the black people in this country separate from you,\nwhile there\u2019s still time.\u201d If the black man is allowed to separate and\ngo into some land of his own where he can solve his own problems, there\nwon\u2019t be any explosion, and the Negroes who want to stay with the white\nman, let them stay with the white man--but those who want to leave, let\nthem go with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.\n\nLOMAX: Now that you have mentioned the Messenger, I would like to ask\nyou about this article in the [New York] _Amsterdam News_....\n\nMALCOLM X: It\u2019s a lie. Any article that says there is a \u201cminor\u201d\ndifference between Mr. Muhammad and me is a lie. There is no such thing\nas a \u201cminor\u201d difference with the Messenger. Any difference with him is\n_major_. It is a lie, a lie, a lie somebody paid [the author] to write.\nI was up there in his office yesterday and I was ready to waste [harm,\nor kill] him for that. He planted a false seed, and it could start\ntrouble. He [the author] knows my telephone number. If he ran on talk\nof a difference between me and the Messenger, he could have called me.\nNo, he went ahead and printed this lie.\n\nHe was not there, but I told the editor of the paper that I was out to\nfind him; I told them to call the police then, because as soon as I\nfound the man who wrote this I was going to do him in.\n\nHow could there be any difference between the Messenger and me? I am\nhis slave, his servant, his son. He is the leader, the only spokesman\nfor the Black Muslims.\n\nBut I will tell you this: The Messenger has seen God. He was with Allah\nand was given divine patience with the devil. He is willing to wait for\nAllah to deal with this devil. Well, sir, the rest of us Black Muslims\nhave not seen God, we don\u2019t have this gift of divine patience with the\ndevil. The younger Black Muslims want to see some action.\n\nLOMAX: What kind of action?\n\nMALCOLM X: Some things are better done than said.\n\nLOMAX: According to your own newspaper, one of the things you Muslims\nmay _do_ in the near future is vote.\n\nMALCOLM X: Yes. After long and prayerful consideration, The Honorable\nElijah Muhammad allowed us to announce the possibility of Muslims\nvoting. The announcement came at our annual Saviour\u2019s Day convention in\nChicago.\n\nLOMAX: What does it mean?\n\nMALCOLM X: Mr. Muhammad is the only one who can explain that fully.\nHowever, I can say that we may register and be ready to vote. Then we\nwill seek out candidates who represent our interests and support them.\nThey need not be Muslims; what we want are race men who will speak out\nfor our people.\n\nLOMAX: There are rumors that you may run against Adam Clayton Powell.\n\nMALCOLM X: Why must I run against a Negro? We have had enough of\nNegroes running against and fighting each other. The better bet is that\nwe would put a Muslim candidate in the field against a devil, somebody\nwho is against all we stand for.\n\nLOMAX: What are the chances of the Black Muslims joining us in picket\nlines for better jobs?...\n\nMALCOLM X: As I told you, only Mr. Muhammad can answer that. But let\nme tell you something: Better jobs and housing are only temporary\nsolutions. They are aspects of tokenism and don\u2019t go to the heart of\nthe problem.\n\nThis is why integration will not work. It assumes that the two races,\nblack and white, are equal and can be made to live as one. This is not\ntrue.\n\nThe white man is by nature a devil and must be destroyed. The black\nman will inherit the earth; he will resume control, taking back the\nposition he held centimes ago when the white devil was crawling around\nthe caves of Europe on his all fours. Before the white devil came into\nour lives we had a civilization, we had a culture, we were living in\nsilks and satins. Then he put us in chains and placed us aboard the\n\u201cGood Ship Jesus,\u201d and we have lived in hell ever since.\n\nNow the white man\u2019s time is over. Tokenism will not help him, and it\nwill doom us. Complete separation will save us--and who knows, it might\nmake God decide to give the white devil a few more years.\n\n\n\n\nSUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READING\n\n\n  Baldwin, James. _The Fire Next Time._ New York: Dial Press, 1963.\n\n  Bennett, Lerone, Jr. _Before the Mayflower._ Chicago: Johnson\n  Publishing Co., 1962.\n\n  Beynon, Erdmann D. \u201cThe Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit,\u201d\n  _The American Journal of Sociology_, XLIII, No. 6 (May 1938).\n\n  Franklin, John Hope. _From Slavery to Freedom._ New York: Alfred A.\n  Knopf, 1956.\n\n  Frazier, E. Franklin. _Black Bourgeoisie._ Chicago: The Free Press of\n  Glencoe, 1957.\n\n  Handlin, Oscar. _Race and Nationality in American Life._ Boston:\n  Little, Brown, 1957.\n\n  Herskovits, Melville J. _Myth of the Negro Past._ New York: Harper &\n  Brothers, 1941.\n\n  Lincoln, C. Eric. _The Black Muslims in America._ Boston: Beacon\n  Press, 1962.\n\n  Leibrecht, Walter and others. _Religion and Culture: Essays in Honor\n  of Paul Tillich._ New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959.\n\n  Lomax, Louis E. _The Reluctant African._ New York: Harper & Brothers,\n  1960.\n\n  ----, _The Negro Revolt_. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1962.\n\n  Myrdal, Gunnar. _An American Dilemma._ New York: Harper & Brothers,\n  1944.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  Abyssinian Baptist Church (New York), 44\n\n  Africa\n    Akbar brings promise of help from, 100, 101\n    culture of\n      matrilineal society, 37\n      political institutions, 36-37\n      religion, 37-39\n    knowledge of history of, 67-68\n    languages of, 36, 37\n    Malcolm X in, 71-72, 152\n    nationalism in, 184-86\n\n  African Methodist Episcopal Church, 44\n\n  African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 44\n\n  Airplane crash (1962), 206\n\n  Al-Azhar University\n    Akbar Muhammad at, 97, 98\n    Elijah Muhammad at, 142\n\n  Alcohol, Malcolm X and, 58\n\n  Ali, John X, 84, 100, 104\n    administrative ability of, 93, 95\n\n  Allah\n    as black, 25-26, 62-63, 163-64\n    divine plagues of, 145\n    Elijah Muhammad as Messenger of, 54, 70, 132, 133, 135, 166, 169-71\n      as last Messenger, 111, 129\n      promised in Old Testament, 165\n      _See also_ Muhammad, Elijah\n    Fard as Prophet of, 54\n      _See also_ Fard, W. D.\n    has no \u201cson,\u201d 123-24\n    Islam as religion of, 113\n    a live God, 25, 125-28\n    Paradise of, 167\n    rebellion of Yakub against, 63-65, 71\n\n  Allen, Richard, 43-44\n\n  _And Then We Heard the Thunder_ (novel), 46\n\n  Anti-Semitism\n    Black Muslims and, 72-73, 201\n    Christianity and, 73-75\n\n  Arabic language\n    in Black Muslim services, 21\n    taught in University of Islam, 83\n    used by Akbar Muhammad, 98-99\n\n  Armageddon, Battle of, 22, 31, 79, 201\n    Muhammad\u2019s teachings about, 55\n\n  \u201c_As-Salaam-Alaikum_,\u201d 21\n\n  Atlanta, Ga., 86\n\n  \u201cAtlanta Speech\u201d of Elijah Muhammad, 71, 109-29\n\n  Atlanta University, Malcolm X\u2019s speech at, 70, 159-71\n\n  Attucks, Crispus, 68\n\n\n  Baldwin, James, 77, 79, 199\n\n  Bannaker, Benjamin, 68\n\n  Baptist Church\n    attacks slavery, 42\n    Negro churches founded, 43, 44\n\n  Bean pie, 20\n\n  Belafonte, Harry, 199\n\n  Bennett, Lerone, Jr., 36, 37\n\n  Bergson, Henri, 37\n\n  Bible\n    Fard\u2019s use of, 48, 50\n    quoted by Elijah Muhammad, 119\n    quoted by Malcolm X, 143, 163-70, 193\n    as theological basis of Negro\u2019s \u201cinferiority,\u201d 44-45, 59, 121\n    _See also_ Christianity\n\n  \u201cBig Red,\u201d _see_ Malcolm X\n\n  Birmingham, Ala., 29, 208\n    Black Muslim policy toward 1963 demonstrations, 85-87, 90\n    temple in, 21\n\n  Black, God as, 25-26, 62-63, 163-64\n\n  Black Bourgeoisie, 190-91\n\n  Black men\n    must become fearless, 111, 120, 122\n    by nature good, 22\n    as original men, 62-65, 113-15\n    as so-called Negroes, 115-16, 162-63\n    _See also_ Negroes\n\n  Black Muslim movement\n    \u201cAmericanized,\u201d 131\n    business activities of, 79-80\n      restaurants, 19-20, 79, 80\n    converts to, 30-31\n    \u201ccrisis system\u201d of, 34\n    dietary laws of, 80\n      filthiness of pork, 27, 117\n      restaurants, 19-20\n      in teachings of Fard, 48\n    do not preach violence, 203-4\n    dress of, 19, 78\n      Akbar\u2019s sheet, 66\n    education by, _see_ Muslim Girls Training Class; Universities\n        of Islam\n    finances of, 79\n      fund-raising, 82\n    Fruit of Islam, _see_ Fruit of Islam, The\n    future of, 95-106\n      successor to Muhammad, 104-6\n    history of, 35, 47-58\n      Chicago headquarters set up, 58\n      Fard disappears, 53-54\n      founded by Fard, 48-51\n      Japanese proselytization, 54\n      Malcolm X joins movement, 55-58\n      Muhammad and Fard, 52-54\n    Jews and, 72-73, 201\n    lawsuits of, 82\n    ministers of\n      Chief Minister of Islam, 52\n      Fruit of Islam and, 81-82\n      supervise restaurants, 79\n    morality of, 58, 80-81, 153\n    Negro unity and\n      Akbar Muhammad\u2019s speech, 99-103\n      belief that Negro Revolt will fail, 92, 96, 207-9\n      Birmingham policy, 85-87, 90\n      Malcolm X\u2019s \u201cunity speech,\u201d 149-58\n      value of Black Muslims to Negro Revolt, 87\n    number of members, 18\n    opposing factions in\n      Akbar and Malcolm X, 102-3\n      Muhammad vs. Detroit faction, 53, 54\n      \u201cNew York-Chicago\u201d cleavage, 94-95\n    orthodox Moslems and, _see_ Moslems\n    politics and\n      in Malcolm X\u2019s \u201cunity speech,\u201d 154-55\n      possible future policy, 96-97\n      voting by Black Muslims, 91, 180, 210\n    punishments in, 80\n    racial teachings of, 201-2\n      opposition to race-mixing, 156, 178, 191, 198-99\n      orthodox Muslim objections, 70-71\n      separation does not mean being anti-white, 132, 181, 188-89\n    radio programs of, 84\n    as a religion, 17, 59-78\n      _The Sacred Ritual of the Nation of Islam_, 51\n      theology, 62-65, 71\n      why it is a religion, 76-78\n      _See also_ Allah; Black men; Muhammad, Elijah--teaching of;\n          White men\n    sacrificial killing in, 52-53\n    services of, _see_ \u201cTeachings\u201d in temples\n    temples of, _see_ Temples of Islam\n    women in, 81\n      separated in temples, 20-21\n      _See also_ Girls in Black Muslim movement\n\n  _Black Muslims in America, The_, 12\n\n  Black supremacy not taught by Black Muslims, 132, 181\n\n  Blackboard in temples, 22\n\n  Blood, Drew discovers how to preserve, 68\n\n  Boston, Mass.\n    Malcolm X\u2019s speeches in, 130-48, 173\n    Negro Baptist church in, 44\n\n  Boston Massacre, 68\n\n  Breasted\u2019s _The Conquest of Civilization_, 50\n\n  Business activities of Black Muslim movement, 79-80\n    temple restaurants, 19-20, 79, 80\n\n\n  Cairo, Egypt\n    Malcolm X in, 71-72\n    _See also_ Al-Azhar University\n\n  Catholic Church, 43\n    anti-Semitism and, 73-74\n\n  Caucasian race, 136\n    _See also_ White men\n\n  Chicago, Ill.\n    as headquarters of Black Muslims, 54, 94-95\n    Japanese activities in, 54\n    temple in, 52\n    University of Islam in, 54, 82-84\n\n  Christianity\n    anti-Semitism and, 73-75\n    denunciations of, 27-29, 121-24, 139, 160-64\n    Catholic Church, 43, 73-74\n    \u201cmost segregated institution in America,\u201d 28\n    Negro churches, 40-47\n      founded, 43-44\n      on plantations, 41-42\n      theology of Negro church, 45-46\n      theology of desegregation, 87-90\n    slavery and\n      in West Africa, 38-39\n      _See also_ Slavery\n    theological justification of Negro \u201cinferiority,\u201d 44-45, 59, 121\n\n  Christine X, Sister, 83\n\n  Columbia University Jewish Graduate Club, 75\n\n  Communists, Black Muslims and, 55\n\n  Compassion in religion, 77-78\n\n  Concord, Mass., 58\n\n  Converts to Black Muslims, 30-31\n\n  CORE, 99\n\n  Crime, Black Muslims and, 18-19\n\n  \u201cCrisis system\u201d of Black Muslims, 34\n\n  Cross, Dr. Lonnie, 159\n\n  Cuba, 183-84\n\n\n  Davis, Sammy, Jr., 74\n\n  Dawud, Imam Talib Ahmad, 69\n\n  \u201cDeaf, dumb, and blind,\u201d 31, 117\n    Malcolm X\u2019s speech, 26-28\n\n  Desegregation\n    Black Muslim opposition to, 90-92\n      \u201cBrotherhood\u201d vs. \u201cintegration,\u201d 155-56\n      \u201cintegration with God,\u201d 202\n      \u201ctoken integration,\u201d 144-46, 200-1, 210-11\n      _See also_ Separation of black man\n    of schools, 144-46, 200, 208\n    theology of, 87-90\n\n  Detroit, Mich.\n    faction vs. Muhammad in, 53, 54\n    Fard in, 47-53\n    segregation in 1930s in, 47, 50\n    University of Islam in, 51, 82\n\n  Dietary laws of Black Muslims, 80\n    filthiness of pork, 27, 117\n    restaurants and, 19-20\n    in teachings of Fard, 48\n\n  \u201cDivide and rule,\u201d 141\n\n  Door-to-door salesmen, 80\n\n  Drew, Dr. Charles, 68\n\n\n  Education by Black Muslims, _see_ Muslim Girls Training Class;\n      Universities of Islam\n\n  Elijah Muhammad, _see_ Muhammad, Elijah\n\n  Emancipation Proclamation, 208\n\n  Evans, Clara (Mrs. Elijah Poole), 52\n\n  Evil scientist\n    experiments of Yakub, 63-65\n      not supported by orthodox literature, 71\n    moon blown up by, 71, 114\n\n\n  Fard, W. D., 47-54\n    arrested, 53\n    birthday of, 54\n    disappears, 53\n    founds Black Muslims, 48-51\n    legends about, 49\n    literature of, 50-51\n    Muhammad and, 52-54\n    as Prophet of Allah, 54\n\n  Farmer, James, 96\n\n  Fear shown by so-called Negroes, 111, 120, 122\n\n  Federation of Islamic Associations, 70\n\n  Finances of Black Muslims, 79\n    fund-raising, 82\n\n  Franklin, John Hope, 38, 39, 43\n\n  Frazier, E. Franklin, 40\n    \u201cBlack Bourgeoisie\u201d of, 190-91\n\n  \u201cFreedom, Justice, and Equality\u201d (slogan), 22, 117, 166\n\n  Freedom movement, _see_ Negro Revolt\n\n  Freemasonry, 50, 124\n\n  Fruit of Islam, The, 81-82\n    at \u201cAtlanta Speech,\u201d 110\n    authority over, 80-81, 105\n    as honor guard, 24, 81\n    investigates converts, 30\n    organized by Fard, 51, 52\n    separate temple services of, 81\n    in temple services, 21, 29\n    watches members, 80\n\n\n  Garvey, Marcus, 56\n\n  Ghana, kingdom of, 38\n\n  Girls in Black Muslim movement\n    The Muslim Girls Training Class, 51, 81-82\n    in University of Islam, 83\n\n  God\n    Mays\u2019 doctoral thesis on, 46\n    in primitive religion, 60-61\n    West African concept of, 37\n    _See also_ Allah\n\n  \u201cGood Ship Jesus, The,\u201d 39, 120\n\n\n  Haley, Alex, 12, 57, 66\n\n  Ham, Negroes as descendants of, 44-45, 59\n\n  Hansberry, Lorraine, 199\n\n  Harlem, _see_ New York City\n\n  Harvard University, Malcolm X\u2019s speech at, 130-48\n\n  Hausa people, 38\n\n  Hawkins, John, 120\n\n  Henry X, Minister, 23\n\n  Herskovits, Melville J., 36\n\n  Hicks, James, at Hinton incident, 33, 34\n\n  Hinton, Johnson, 32-34\n\n  History of Negroes\n    knowledge of, 67-68\n    taught at University of Islam, 83-84\n    _See also_ Negroes\n\n  \u201cHonorable Elijah Muhammad,\u201d not used in Akbar\u2019s speech, 101\n\n  Horne, Lena, 199\n\n\n  Integration, _see_ Desegregation\n\n  Intermarriage, 156, 178, 191, 198-99\n\n  \u201cInvisible Institution,\u201d 41\n\n  Islam\n    Nation of, _see_ Black Muslim movement\n    in teaching of Muhammad, 113\n\n\n  James X, Minister, 29\n    in Birmingham crisis, 86\n\n  Jamestown, Va., landing of slaves at, 39\n\n  Japanese attempts to proselytize Black Muslims, 54\n\n  Jazz in temples, 22\n\n  Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, 50\n\n  Jeremiah X, Minister, 100, 111, 112, 159\n    and Birmingham crisis, 86, 90\n\n  Jesus, 134-35\n    advocated separation, 193-94\n    Allah has no \u201cson,\u201d 123-24\n\n  Jews\n    Black Muslims and, 72-73, 201\n    ethnic exclusiveness of, 74-75\n    John XXIII and, 73-74\n\n  John X Ali, 84, 100, 104\n    administrative ability of, 93, 95\n\n  John 17X, 31\n\n  John XXIII, Pope, and Jews, 73-74\n\n  Johnson X, 32-34\n\n  Jones, Absalom, 43\n\n  Joseph X, Captain, 81, 100\n\n\n  Kennedy, Robert, 199\n\n  Kenyatta, Jomo, 154\n\n  Killens, John Oliver, _And Then We Heard the Thunder_, 46\n\n  King, Martin Luther, 88, 96, 97\n    Akbar calls for peace with, 99\n    Malcolm X on, 85-86, 99, 203-4, 208\n\n  Koran, _see_ Quran\n\n  Ku Klux Klan, 66, 86\n    \u201cAtlanta Speech\u201d and, 109\n    burn down Malcolm X\u2019s home, 56\n\n\n  Languages\n    of African Negroes, 36, 37\n    _See also_ Arabic language\n\n  Lansing, Mich., Malcolm X, in, 56\n\n  Lawson, James, Jr., 88-89\n\n  Lawsuits of Black Muslims, 82\n\n  Liele, George, 43\n\n  Lincoln, C. Eric, 30, 63\n    _The Black Muslims in America,_ 12\n    on Fard, 47-50\n\n  \u201cLinnaean Web,\u201d 45\n\n  Little, Malcolm, _see_ Malcolm X\n\n  Los Angeles, Calif., temple in, 67\n\n  Lottie X, Sister, 81\n\n  Louis X, Minister, 100\n    \u201cThe White Man\u2019s Heaven Is the Black Man\u2019s Hell,\u201d 21\n\n\n  McGowan, Police Capt., 33, 34\n\n  \u201cMake it plain,\u201d 23-24, 27\n\n  Make-up among Muslim women, 81\n\n  Malcolm X, Minister\n    at Akbar\u2019s New York speech, 98, 101-2\n    brother of, 80\n    converted to Black Muslims, 58\n    described, 24\n    early life of\n      childhood, 56-57\n      in underworld, 57-58\n    Elijah Muhammad and, 31, 55-56, 58, 79, 92-95, 109\n      Malcolm describes Muhammad, 169-70\n      Malcolm in Middle East, 71-72\n      Malcolm warms up crowd, 23, 110\n      Malcolm\u2019s only deviation from Muhammad, 105-6, 209-10\n    in Hinton incident, 33-34\n    historical knowledge of, 67-69\n    Lomax\u2019 interview of, 197-211\n    Negro unity and\n      Birmingham policy, 85-87\n      calls for Negro unity, 149-58\n      Negro Revolt will fail, 91-92, 207-9\n      vilifies Negro leaders, 85-86, 99, 101, 203-4\n    as New York minister, 20, 94\n    orthodox Moslems and, 70, 135-36, 141-43, 159-60, 164-65\n      Black Muslims as part of world community, 131-32\n      Persian Moslems, 66-67\n    as possible Congressional candidate, 97, 210\n    probably not Muhammad\u2019s successor, 104-6\n    on radio and TV, 84\n    \u201crestored\u201d name of, 79\n    as St. Paul of Black Muslims, 17\n    speeches of, 173\n      Atlanta University, 70, 159-71\n      Harvard University, 130-48\n      Queens College, 172-78\n      at \u201cunity rally,\u201d 149-58\n      Yale University, 179-95\n    in temple services, 24-28, 62-63\n    as Washington minister, 94\n    on white man as devil, 19, 24-25, 62-63, 68-69, 76-77, 199-200\n\n  Marshall, Thurgood, 144\n\n  Masons, 50, 124\n\n  Mays, Dr. Benjamin E., 46\n\n  Mboya, Tom, 154\n\n  Mecca\n    Masons and, 124\n    Muhammad\u2019s pilgrimage to, 69-73\n\n  Melle, kingdom of, 38\n\n  Messenger of the Prophet of Allah, 54, 70, 132, 133, 135, 166, 169-71\n    as last Messenger, 111, 129\n    promised in Old Testament, 165\n    _See also_ Muhammad, Elijah\n\n  Methodist Church\n    attacks slavery (1784), 42\n    Negro Methodism founded, 43-44\n\n  Milan, Mich., Muhammad in prison in, 54-55\n\n  Mohammedanism, _see_ Moslems\n\n  Moon blown up by evil scientist, 71, 114\n\n  Mormon Church, Negroes in, 59\n\n  Moses, 134-35\n    Muhammad as modern-day, 205\n\n  Moslems\n    in Africa, 38\n    Black Muslims and, 66\n      Akbar Muhammad\u2019s speech, 100-3\n      doctrinal differences, 70-71\n      Malcolm X\u2019s attacks on, 70, 135-36, 141-43, 159-60, 164-65\n      Muhammad\u2019s pilgrimage, 69-73, 142-43\n      orthodox Muslims in U.S., 69-70\n      as part of world community, 111, 112, 131-32, 140\n      Persians refused entry into temple, 66-67\n      recognized by _hajj_ committee, 69-73\n\n  Mosques, _see_ Temples of Islam\n\n  Mother Bethel, 44\n\n  _Mr. Muhammad Speaks_, 80, 84\n    circulation of, 172\n    reports speeches of Malcolm X, 172-74\n    responsibility for, 95\n\n  Muhammad (the Prophet), 135\n\n  Muhammad, Akbar, 94\n    in Arabic dress, 66\n    increased influence of, 97-98\n    New York speech of, 98-103\n    as possible successor to Elijah Muhammad, 104-6\n\n  Muhammad, Elijah\n    arrests of\n      draft registration, 54-55\n      University children, 54\n    \u201cAtlanta Speech\u201d of, 71, 109-29\n    becomes Chief Minister, 52\n    Birmingham crisis and, 86\n    Fard and, 52-54\n    goes to Chicago, 52-54\n    Malcolm X and, _see_ Malcolm X\n    manner of preaching of, 55\n    as Messenger of Allah, 54, 70, 132, 133, 135, 166, 169-71\n      as last Messenger, 111, 129\n      promised in Old Testament, 165\n    in Phoenix, 94-95\n    pilgrimage to Mecca of, 69-73, 142-43\n    probable successor to, 104-6\n    teaching of, 110-29\n      Allah, 113, 123-25\n      black men should become fearless, 111, 120, 122\n      Christianity, 121-24\n      former criminals, 18\n      history of black man, 113-18\n      Japanese in World War II, 54, 55\n      knowledge of self, 18, 50, 116-17\n      separate state, 91\n      white man, 55, 125-28\n      why Islam has not made progress, 113\n      Yakub, 63-65\n\n  Muhammad, Elijah, Jr., 94, 99\n    as businessman, 79\n\n  Muhammad, Wallace, 106\n\n  Music in temples, 21-22\n\n  Muslim Brotherhood USA, 69\n\n  Muslim Girls Training Class, The, 81-82\n    established by Fard, 51\n\n  Muslims, _see_ Black Muslim movement; Moslems\n\n\n  NAACP, 44, 99, 144, 173\n    sponsors debates with Malcolm X, 179-80\n\n  Nashville, Tenn., sit-ins in, 88-89\n\n  Nation of Islam, _see_ Black Muslim movement\n\n  \u201cNegro\u201d\n    Malcolm X\u2019s discussion of, 162-63\n    Muhammad\u2019s discussion of, 115-16\n\n  Negro Revolt\n    Akbar Muhammad\u2019s speech and, 99-103\n    belief that it will fail, 92, 96, 207-9\n    1963 Birmingham crisis, 85-87, 90\n    Malcolm X\u2019s speech for, 149-58\n    value of Black Muslims to, 87\n\n  Negroes\n    in Africa\n      languages, 36, 37\n      matrilineal society, 37\n      political institutions, 36-37\n      religion, 37-39\n    Americanization of, 39-40\n    \u201cdo not desire integration,\u201d 190-91\n    history of, 67-68\n      taught in University of Islam, 83-84\n    \u201cinferiority\u201d of, 44-45, 59\n    intermarriage of, 156, 178, 191, 198-99\n    Japanese proselytization of, 55\n    political apathy of, 180, 187-88, 190-91\n    religion of, 40-47\n      \u201cclergy-politician leadership,\u201d 191\n      Negro churches founded, 43-44\n      on plantations, 41-42\n      theology of desegregation, 87-90\n      theology of Negro church, 45-46\n    slavery of\n      Christianity and, 38-42\n      Malcolm X\u2019s discussion of, 137-39, 161-63, 208\n      Muhammad\u2019s discussion of, 115-22\n\n  New York City\n    Akbar Muhammad\u2019s speech in, 98-103\n    Black Muslim rallies in, 62-63, 98-103\n    Malcolm X at Queens College, 172-78\n    Malcolm X in underworld of, 57-58\n    Negro churches organized in, 44\n    Temple Number Seven\n      Hinton incident, 32-34\n      restaurant, 20\n\n  Nonviolence\n    Malcolm X on, 203-4\n    _See also_ King, Martin Luther\n\n  Norris, Frank, 50\n\n  Number of Black Muslims, 18\n\n\n  Omaha, Nebr., 56\n\n\n  Paradise of Allah, 167\n\n  Paul, Rev. Thomas, 44\n\n  Pendulum of clock invented by Negro, 68\n\n  Petersburg, Va., Negro Baptist church organized in, 43\n\n  Philadelphia, Pa., Negro churches organized in, 43-44\n\n  Phoenix, Ariz., Elijah Muhammad in, 94-95\n\n  Pike, Bishop James, 74\n\n  _Pittsburgh Courier_, 63\n\n  Police\n    arrest Fard, 53\n    in Hinton incident, 32-34\n    lawsuits against, 82\n    mentioned in \u201cAtlanta Speech,\u201d 109, 112-13, 115\n    _See also_ Muhammad, Elijah--arrests of\n\n  Politics\n    Black Muslims and\n      in Malcolm X\u2019s \u201cunity speech,\u201d 154-55\n      possible future policy, 96-97\n      voting by Black Muslims, 91, 180, 210\n    \u201cclergy-politician leadership,\u201d 191-92\n    political apathy of Negro, 180, 187-88, 190-91\n\n  Poole, Elijah, _see_ Muhammad, Elijah\n\n  Pork, _see_ Dietary laws of Black Muslims\n\n  Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr., 28, 44, 210\n\n  Prison\n    Black Muslim proselytizing in, 18\n    Black Muslim services in, 17, 140\n    Elijah Muhammad in, 54-55\n    Malcolm X in, 58\n\n  Prophet of Allah, 54\n    _See also_ Fard, W. D.\n\n  Protestants, _see_ Christianity\n\n  Punishment of Black Muslims, 80\n\n\n  Queens College, Malcolm X at, 172-78\n\n  Quran, 125, 166, 170\n    does not support Black Muslim teachings, 71\n    Fard\u2019s use of, 50\n\n\n  Racism\n    of Black Muslims, 201-2\n      opposition to race-mixing, 156, 178, 191, 198-99\n      orthodox Muslim objections, 70-71\n      separation does not mean being anti-white, 132, 181, 188-89\n      _See also_ Black men; White men\n    Christianity and\n      anti-Semitism, 73-75\n      in early American church, 42-44\n      theological justification for Negro \u201cinferiority,\u201d 44-45, 59\n\n  Radio programs of Black Muslims, 84\n\n  Rallies on street corners, 62-63\n\n  Religion\n    of African Negroes, 37-49\n    of American Negroes, 40-47\n      \u201cclergy-politician leadership,\u201d 191\n      Negro churches founded, 43-44\n      on plantations, 41-42\n      theology of desegregation, 87-90\n      theology of Negro church, 45-46\n    Black Muslim movement as, 17, 59-78\n      _The Sacred Ritual of the Nation of Islam_, 51\n      theology, 62-65, 71\n      why it is a religion, 76-78\n      _See also_ Allah; Black men; Muhammad, Elijah--teaching of;\n          White men\n    as closed network of believers, 73-76\n    compassion in, 77-78\n    as group experience, 60-61\n    _See also_ Christianity\n\n  Restaurants, temple, 19-20, 79, 80\n\n  Revolutionary War, 68\n\n  Richmond, Va., Negro Baptist church organized in, 43\n\n  Rutherford, Joseph F. \u201cJudge,\u201d 50\n\n\n  _Sacred Ritual of the Nation of Islam, The_, 51\n\n  Sacrificial killing, 52-53\n\n  St. Louis, Mo., Malcolm X in, 173\n\n  Sampson, Judge Edyth, 83\n\n  Savannah, Ga., Negro Baptist church organized in, 43\n\n  Saviour, 54\n    _See also_ Fard, W. D.\n\n  Scientists\n    experiments of Yakub, 63-65\n      not supported by orthodox literature, 71\n    moon blown up by, 71, 114\n    as \u201cPharaoh\u2019s Magicians,\u201d 134\n\n  Searching of visitors to temples, 20\n\n  Segregation\n    in Detroit of 1930s, 47, 50\n    of Negro church, 43-46\n    _See also_ Desegregation\n\n  \u201cSelf,\u201d knowledge of, 18-19, 50, 116-17, 120, 155\n\n  Separation of black man, 22-23\n    advocated by Jesus, 193-94\n    does not mean being anti-white, 132, 181, 188-89\n    not mentioned in Akbar\u2019s speech, 101\n    Old House will collapse, 137\n    a separate state, 90-92, 97, 137-48, 157-58, 175-78\n    usually objected to by orthodox, 71\n\n  Shabazz, Malcolm, _see_ Malcolm X\n\n  Shabazz, Tribe of, 115\n\n  Sharrieff, Raymond, 79, 95\n    after Muhammad\u2019s death, 104-6\n    as head of The Fruit, 81\n\n  \u201cSheep,\u201d 23\n\n  Shriners, 124\n\n  Silks and satins, 24, 211\n    sold by Fard, 47\n\n  \u201cSlave\u201d names, 30-31, 120-21, 163\n\n  Slavery\n    Christianity and, 38-42\n    Malcolm X\u2019s discussion of, 137-39, 161-63, 208\n    Muhammad\u2019s discussion of, 115-22\n\n  Smith, Pastor Kelly Miller, 88-89\n\n  Smoking, Malcolm X and, 58\n\n  Songhay, kingdom of, 38\n\n  Spottswood, Dr. Stephen Gill, 44\n\n  Supreme Court outlawing of segregation, 144-46, 200, 208\n\n  Susu people, 38\n\n\n  Takahashi, Major, 54\n\n  _Teachings of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in a Mathematical\n      Way_, 51\n\n  \u201cTeachings\u201d in temples, 22-28\n    converts at, 30\n    \u201cdeaf, dumb, and blind\u201d speech, 26-28\n    emotional effect of, 31\n    Fruit of Islam during, 21, 29\n    separate services for The Fruit, 81\n    warm-up for, 23-24, 110\n\n  Temple Number Two (Chicago), organized, 52\n\n  Temple Number Seven (New York)\n    Hinton incident at, 32-34\n    Malcolm X as minister of, 20, 94\n    restaurant of, 20\n\n  Temples of Islam, 19-33\n    first (Fard\u2019s), 48, 50-51\n    generally rented halls, 20\n    music in, 21-22\n    Persian Moslems refused entry to, 66-67\n    restaurants of, 19-20, 79\n    searching of visitors to, 20\n    seating arrangements in, 20-21\n    services in, _see_ \u201cTeachings\u201d in temples\n\n  \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d 21\n\n  Theology, _see_ Christianity; Religion\n\n  Thomas J., Minister, 100\n\n  Tillich, Paul, 17\n\n  _Thresher_ (submarine), 206\n\n  Toynbee, Arnold, 90\n\n\n  Universities of Islam, 82-84\n    founded by Fard, 51\n    local authorities and, 54, 82\n\n  \u201cUniversity Speech\u201d of Malcolm X, 70, 159-71\n\n\n  Van Loon\u2019s _Story of Mankind_, 50\n\n  Violence not preached by Black Muslims, 203-4\n\n\n  Wallace, Mike, 70\n\n  Washington, D.C.\n    Malcolm X as minister in, 94\n    Muhammad\u2019s speech in, 23\n\n  White, William, 43\n\n  \u201cWhite Man\u2019s Heaven Is the Black Man\u2019s Hell, The,\u201d 21\n\n  White men\n    Akbar Muhammad on, 100-1\n    created by Yakub, 63-64, 71\n    as devils\n      Elijah Muhammad on, 55, 125-26\n      Malcolm X on, 19, 24-25, 62-63, 68-69, 76-77, 199-200\n      teaching condemned by orthodox, 71\n    Fard\u2019s teachings on, 49, 50-51\n    by nature evil, 22, 63, 64\n    responsible for crime, 27, 152\n    to be destroyed, 55, 65-66, 126, 148, 204-6\n    _See also_ Separation of black man\n\n  Wilkins, Roy, 96, 97\n\n  Williamsburg, Va., Negro Baptist church in, 43\n\n  \u201cWolves,\u201d 23\n\n  Women in Black Muslim movement, 81\n    separated from men in temple, 20-21\n    _See also_ Girls in Black Muslim movement\n\n  Woodrow, Minister, 100\n\n  \u201cWord,\u201d the, 31, 79, 201\n    _See also_ Armageddon, Battle of\n\n  Wright, Herbert, debates with Malcolm X, 179-80\n\n\n  \u201cX,\u201d as name, 30-31\n\n\n  Yakub, experiments of, 63-65\n    not supported by orthodox literature, 71\n\n  Yale University, Malcolm X at, 179-95\n\n  Yoruba people, 38\n\n  \u201cYou tell it like it is,\u201d 21\n\n\n\n\nABOUT THE AUTHOR\n\n\nLouis E. Lomax, one of the nation\u2019s best-known social critics and\nlecturers, was born in Valdosta, Georgia, on August 16, 1922.\nEducated at Paine College, Augusta, Ga., American University, and\nYale University, Mr. Lomax has served on the faculty of Georgia\nState College, in Savannah, as assistant professor of philosophy.\nHis career as a professional writer began with the _Afro-American_\nand subsequently he became a staff feature writer for the Chicago\n_American_. His magazine articles have appeared frequently in\n_Harper\u2019s, Life_, _Pageant_, _The Nation_, and _The New Leader_. In\n1959, when Mr. Lomax joined Mike Wallace\u2019s news staff in New York, he\nbecame the first Negro newsman to appear on television. His first book,\n_The Reluctant African_, was given the _Saturday Review_ Anisfield-Wolf\naward of 1960 for the book dealing \u201cmost creditably with social and\ngroup relations.\u201d His second book, _The Negro Revolt_, was both\ndefinitive and prophetic: Lomax predicted that Negroes would take their\ncause from the courtroom into the streets and market place, and his\nreportorial analysis of the forces now at work in the race struggle has\nplaced him among America\u2019s foremost authorities on social issues. One\nof the most sought-after lecturers in the nation today, Mr. Lomax lives\nwith his wife in St. Albans, New York.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES:\n\n\n  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.\n\n  Emboldened text is surrounded by equals signs: =bold=.\n\n  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.\n\n  Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.","title":"When the Word is Given...: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim World","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":63592}