On January 17, Malcolm showed up at a Harlem public vigil of one thousand people, standing in heavy snow, demanding school desegregation. Though he was constantly on the watch for NOI attacks, he seems to have decided that significantly large crowds presented a stronger deterrent to violence. In this case, he may have also been persuaded by the fact that most of the protesters were white, which made an attack even more unlikely. Organized by EQUAL, a parents group, the protest began at four p.m. on Sat.u.r.day afternoon and ended twenty-four hours later. Among those partic.i.p.ating were the Reverend Milton Galamison and Dr. Arthur Logan of the advocacy group HARYOU (Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited), two black liberals whose favor Malcolm sought.
Yet although he had braved the cold and potential threats to be there, Malcolm"s comments about the effort reported by the Times Times were neither supportive nor encouraging. "Whites should spend more time influencing whites," he advised. "These people have good intentions, but they are misdirected." His complaint-that "Harlem doesn"t need to be told about integration"-largely missed the point. were neither supportive nor encouraging. "Whites should spend more time influencing whites," he advised. "These people have good intentions, but they are misdirected." His complaint-that "Harlem doesn"t need to be told about integration"-largely missed the point.
Malcolm frequently ran into trouble like this in his speeches and remarks in early 1965, partly because he was trying to appeal to so many different const.i.tuencies. He took different tones and att.i.tudes depending on which group he was speaking to, and often presented contradictory opinions only days apart. That he was not caught up in these contradictions more often owed to the fact that news traveled slowly across the country, that black politics were underreported, and that speeches were not regularly recorded. In his later speeches outside the United States, he was at his most revolutionary. There the Malcolm who sometimes advocated armed violence would appear, generating significant controversy, as would soon be the case in England. At home, he was more subdued, more conciliatory, yet on many occasions he would alternately praise King and other civil rights leaders one day and ridicule them and liberal Democrats the next. He also counted on the support of the Trotskyists, making overt appeals to them in speeches that seemed to be in support of a socialist system, often at the expense of building alliances to his ideological right. But Malcolm could not restrain himself, because he sincerely believed that blacks and other oppressed Americans had to break from the existing two-party system.
This balancing act partly explains his contradictions, but when it came to his ambivalence about King and movement liberals, Malcolm"s political beliefs may have led him to misunderstand the fundamental importance of the mainstream civil rights struggle to the large majority of black Americans. Whereas he, along with an increasingly large faction of the black left, criticized the flaws in the nonviolent approach, they did not acknowledge how rewarding even incremental progress was. In several speeches, Malcolm explained away Lyndon Johnson"s ma.s.sive electoral mandate from millions of black voters by claiming that African Americans had been duped and "controlled by Uncle Tom leaders." It apparently did not occur to him that great social change usually occurs through small transformations in individual behavior; that for blacks who had been denied voting rights for three generations, casting their ballots for reformist candidates wasn"t betraying the cause or being "held on the plantation by overseers." To them, King was an emanc.i.p.ating figure, not an Uncle Tom.
He similarly misread the sentiment behind the EQUAL school desegregation rally. By 1965, the ma.s.ses of black parents and children were fed up with substandard schools and the racial tracking of black and Latino children into remedial education. The vigil was part of a citywide struggle for educational reform. Social change that matters to most people occurs around practical issues they see every day, yet Malcolm still failed to appreciate the necessary connection between gradual reforms and revolutionary change.
That same weekend, Jack Barnes and Barry Sheppard of the Trotskyist Young Socialist Alliance interviewed Malcolm for the group"s publication, Young Socialist Young Socialist. In the resulting article, Malcolm explained why in recent months he had dropped the phrase "black nationalism" to describe his politics. During his first visit to Ghana the previous May, he had been impressed by the Algerian amba.s.sador, "a revolutionary in the true sense of the word." When told that Malcolm"s philosophy was "black nationalism," the Algerian asked, "Where does that leave him? Where does that leave the revolutionaries of Morocco, Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania?" The phrase "black nationalism" was highly problematic in a global context, because it excluded too many "true revolutionaries." This was the main reason that Malcolm increasingly sought refuge under the political rubric of Pan-Africanism. But he may also have recognized that there were enormous difficulties with this theoretical category as well, which ranged from the anticommunism of George Padmore to the angry Marxism-Leninism of Nkrumah in exile after 1966.
Despite his newfound reluctance at being described as a black nationalist, Malcolm still perceived political action in distinctly racial categories, which may further explain why he made no moves to integrate his groups. For example, when Barnes and Sheppard asked what contributions antiracist young whites and especially students could make, he urged them not to join Negro organizations. "Whites who are sincere should organize among themselves and figure out some strategy to break down the prejudice that exists in white communities." In the year ahead, Malcolm predicted more blood in the streets, as white liberals and Negro moderates would fail to divert the social unrest brewing. "Negro leaders have lost their control over the people. So that when the people begin to explode-and their explosion is fully justified, not unjustified-the Negro leaders can"t contain it."
The next day Malcolm flew to Toronto, to be the guest on the Pierre Berton Show Pierre Berton Show on CFTO television. He resisted discussing Muhammad"s out-of-wedlock children, but still managed to castigate him as a false prophet. "When I ceased to respect him as a man," he told Berton, "I could see that he was also not divine. There was no G.o.d with him at all." Malcolm now claimed that G.o.d embraced Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike-"We all believe in the same G.o.d"-and denied that whites were "devils," insisting "this is what Elijah Muhammad teaches. . . . A man should not be judged by the color of his skin but rather by his conscious behavior, by his actions." Malcolm explicitly rejected the separatist political demand for a black state or nation, stating, "I believe in a society in which people can live like human beings on the basis of equality." When Berton asked whether his guest still believed in the Nation of Islam"s eschatology of "an Armageddon," Malcolm artfully turned this NOI theory into the language of revolution and Marxist cla.s.s struggle: on CFTO television. He resisted discussing Muhammad"s out-of-wedlock children, but still managed to castigate him as a false prophet. "When I ceased to respect him as a man," he told Berton, "I could see that he was also not divine. There was no G.o.d with him at all." Malcolm now claimed that G.o.d embraced Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike-"We all believe in the same G.o.d"-and denied that whites were "devils," insisting "this is what Elijah Muhammad teaches. . . . A man should not be judged by the color of his skin but rather by his conscious behavior, by his actions." Malcolm explicitly rejected the separatist political demand for a black state or nation, stating, "I believe in a society in which people can live like human beings on the basis of equality." When Berton asked whether his guest still believed in the Nation of Islam"s eschatology of "an Armageddon," Malcolm artfully turned this NOI theory into the language of revolution and Marxist cla.s.s struggle: I do believe that there will be a clash between East and West. I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice, and equality for everyone, and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don"t think that it will be based upon the color of the skin, as Elijah Muhammad has taught it.
At the next OAAU public rally, held on January 24, he spoke on African and African-American history, from ancient black civilizations and slavery up to the present era. The OAAU leadership planned for Malcolm to follow this lecture with two others: a second a.n.a.lyzing current conditions, and a third about the future, presenting the organization"s program to the public.
Malcolm extensively read history, but he was not a historian. His interpretation of enslavement in the United States cast black culture as utterly decimated by the inst.i.tution of slavery and framed slavery"s consequences in America as the very worst forms of racial oppression. As historical a.n.a.lysis, this approach did not adequately measure the myriad forms of resistance mounted by enslaved blacks. But in political terms, his emphasis on American exceptionalism and its unrelenting oppression of blacks was a brilliant motivating tool for African Americans. Peter Goldman explained that Malcolm "differentiated between America and the rest of the world. . . . I don"t think he romanticized Western Europe, but I think he probably thought they were doing a little better than we were." Placing the United States on the last level of racial oppression, even below South Africa, in a curious way recognized the importance of the African-American struggle.
Two days after his history lecture at the OAAU rally, Malcolm gave an address at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire. The talk was arranged by a Muslim undergraduate student, Omar Osman, who was affiliated with the Islamic Center in Geneva. Demand for admission was so great that while fifteen hundred attended, five hundred more were unable to get in. Malcolm"s lecture built upon his new image as a human rights advocate. Barriers like religion, race, and color could no longer be used as excuses for inaction against injustice. "We must approach the problem as humans first," he stated, "and whatever else we are second."
Bold lectures like this before large crowds stood in stark contrast to the scrambling he often took to avoid altercations with the Nation, though he continued even at this late date, and despite all warnings from those who cared about him, to provoke his former brothers. He had not let go of his involvement in the paternity lawsuit pending against Elijah Muhammad in Los Angeles, which was now on the verge of proceeding. The case had been delayed until a hearing was finally set on January 11, 1965. However, on the day of the hearing neither Evelyn Williams nor Lucille Rosary showed up. The judge consequently removed the case from the calendar until an explanation was given, and when it came it was hardly surprising: the women had been so intimidated by the NOI that they had become frightened for their own safety. They were living together in Los Angeles, but had moved twice out of fear. When contacted by Los Angeles attorney Gladys Towles Root, Malcolm encouraged her to speed up her efforts, saying, "If the case doesn"t get to trial soon, I won"t be alive to testify."
His prophecy gained credence almost immediately. At approximately eleven fifteen p.m. on January 22, Malcolm opened the front door of his home and took several steps outside when suddenly several Muslims who had been hiding rushed toward him. "They came at me three seconds too soon," Malcolm later recounted. He ran back inside, secured the door, and called the police. But the Nation had made its point: once he left his home, Malcolm would be safe nowhere. The police arrived, searched the surrounding blocks, but unsurprisingly failed to find the attackers. Malcolm denied allegations in the press that he traveled only with a bodyguard. He retorted, "My alertness is my bodyguard." In truth, he routinely traveled with James 67X or Reuben Francis or both, and had recently taken to carrying a tear gas pen for self-defense.
Undeterred by the attack, Malcolm flew out to the West Coast, where on January 28 he met with Evelyn, Lucille, and Gladys Root to secure their continued commitment to the lawsuit. Malcolm promised personally to testify at the hearing. Then, by coincidence, a group of NOI loyalists ran into Malcolm in the lobby of his hotel. Over the next two days they closely tracked his movements, always staying close enough to let Malcolm know he was being watched and that they might strike at any moment. Root attested later that Malcolm seemed truly frightened throughout this trip. On the day he was to leave town, two carloads of Fruit tailed Malcolm"s automobile on the highway to the airport. Without any weapon to defend himself, Malcolm found a cane in the car, poked it out a side window, and aimed it like a rifle. It was convincing enough; the would-be attackers quickly pulled back. At the airport, though, there were several more Muslims waiting. The LAPD responded by taking Malcolm through an underground tunnel to reach his plane. Prior to embarking, the captain of the flight ordered all the pa.s.sengers off and had the plane thoroughly searched for bombs. As soon as he arrived in Chicago, Malcolm was placed under close police guard.
The stop in Chicago was itself a bold provocation. Malcolm had come to the Nation"s base for the very purpose of further undermining its reach. He was there to be interviewed by the Illinois attorney general"s office, which was considering him as a witness in a legal case, Thomas Cooper v. State of Illinois Thomas Cooper v. State of Illinois. Cooper, a prisoner and follower of Elijah Muhammad at the Illinois state penitentiary, was suing the state on const.i.tutional grounds, claiming that while incarcerated he had been restricted from obtaining a copy of the Quran and other reading materials related to the Nation of Islam. As a witness, Malcolm was prepared to argue that the Nation was not a legitimately Islamic religious organization, and that therefore it did not merit access to penal inst.i.tutions. His newfound hostility to the Nation"s religious activities inside prisons directly contradicted his extensive efforts to convert prisoners, going back to his own incarceration in the 1940s. But his opposition to the Nation was now so intense that he was willing to support the efforts of the Illinois attorney general to ban the Nation from access to those in the penal system. This purpose alone would have raised the Nation"s hackles, but Malcolm did not pa.s.s quietly through town. Instead, he devoted nearly ten full hours to television, radio, and newspaper interviews, including a taped appearance on the popular Kup"s Show Kup"s Show on WBKB. on WBKB.
Though Malcolm returned safely to New York City on January 31, the incident in Los Angeles had left him shaken. That night he seemed subdued addressing an OAAU rally at the Audubon before a crowd of 550, an unusually large draw for the group. The next day, he gave a revealing interview to the Amsterdam News Amsterdam News. "My death has been ordered by higher-ups in the movement," he said of the NOI. He had become convinced that the greater the negative publicity concerning the Nation"s attempts to kill him, the safer he would be; if any harm came to him, he figured, law enforcement would immediately place members of the Nation under arrest. The statement, however, had no immediate effect. Two days later, after he appeared as a panelist on the TV show Hotline Hotline, on WPIX in New York City, with Ossie Davis, Jimmy Breslin, and others, Nation thugs swarmed Malcolm"s men outside the television studio, precipitating a violent brawl. Malcolm again escaped unharmed.
During these final days, many of Malcolm"s closest a.s.sociates detected disturbing changes in his behavior and physical appearance. For years, Malcolm had come to public meetings and lectures impeccably dressed, always wearing a clean white shirt and tie. But now, he always seemed to be tired, even exhausted and depressed. His shoes weren"t shined; his clothing was frequently wrinkled. There was even "a kind of fatalism" in his conversations, observes Malcolm X researcher Abdur-Rahman Muhammad. In his personal exchanges with Anas Luqman during this time, Malcolm ruminated that "the males in his family didn"t die a natural death." To Luqman, just before the a.s.sa.s.sination, the leader seemed to resign himself to his fate: "Whatever"s going to happen, is going to happen." The disenchantment of Malcolm loyalists in their leader was also directly related to the confusion and alienation they felt about the new political directions they had been given. In practical terms, as Abdur-Rahman Muhammad explains, the ex-Black Muslims who had followed Malcolm into the MMI "didn"t sign up for orthodox Islam. They didn"t sign up for this OAAU thing. And they positively resented the fact that the OAAU seemed to be where Malcolm was putting all of his energy."
Despite his growing uncertainty and bouts with depression, Malcolm steeled himself to press forward. On February 3 he took an early-morning flight from New York City, arriving in Montgomery, Alabama, around noon. An hour and a half later he was addressing three thousand students at Tuskegee Inst.i.tute"s Logan Hall. The auditorium was so crowded that even before the formal program began hundreds had to be turned away. Malcolm"s t.i.tle for the lecture, "Spectrum on Political Ideologies," did not reflect its content, which covered much of the same ground as his other recent addresses. He condemned the Ts...o...b.. regime, the Johnson administration"s links to it, and the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, suggesting the United States was "trapped" there. When asked about his disputes with Elijah Muhammad, he responded with a soft, theological argument: "Elijah believes that G.o.d is going to come and straighten things out. . . . I"m not willing to sit and wait on G.o.d to come. . . . I believe in religion, but a religion that includes political, economic, and social action designed to eliminate some of these things, and make a paradise here on earth while we"re waiting for the other."
The students affiliated with SNCC who attended his lecture invited him to visit Selma, then the headquarters of the national campaign for black voting rights, and only one hundred miles west in the heart of the Black Belt. Malcolm could not refuse. The beauty of the Selma struggle was its brutal simplicity: hundreds of local blacks lined up at Selma"s Dallas County building daily, demanding the right to register to vote; white county and city police beat and arrested them. By the first week in February thirty-four hundred people had been jailed, including Dr. King. Under cover of darkness, terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan hara.s.sed civil rights workers, black families, and households. On February 4, Malcolm addressed an audience of three hundred at the Brown"s Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Significantly, while the event had been arranged through SNCC, after some negotiations it was formally cosponsored by King"s SCLC. Malcolm"s sermon praised King"s dedication to nonviolence, but he advised that should white America refuse to accept the nonviolent model of social change, his own example of armed "self-defense" was an alternative. After the talk he met with Coretta Scott King, stating that in the future he would work in concert with her husband. Before leaving, he informed SNCC workers that he planned to start an OAAU recruitment drive in the South within a few weeks. In this one visit, he had significantly expanded the OAAUs purpose and mission, from lobbying the UN to playing an activist role in the gra.s.sroots trenches of voting rights and community organizing.
Back in New York, he purchased air tickets for London, with stops in Paris and Geneva, for what would be his final trip out of the country. He planned to attend the first Congress of the Council of African Organizations, held in London on February 6-8, and then to move on to Paris to work with Carlos Moore in consolidating the OAAUs presence there. Arriving in London, he gave interviews to the New China news agency and the Ghanaian Times Ghanaian Times. As had happened so many times before, the good rapport he had developed with movement activists in Selma and Tuskegee quickly disappeared in favor of more radical sentiments. He told the Chinese media that "the greatest event in 1964 was China"s explosion of an atom bomb, because this is a great contribution to the struggle of the oppressed people in the world." He deplored the 1964 Civil Rights Act as "nothing but a device to deceive the African people," and characterized U.S. racism as being "an inseparable part of the entire political and social system." And his opposition to the Vietnam War was escalating: the basic choice America had was "to die there or pull out. . . . Time is against the U.S., and the American people do not support the U.S. war."
In his interview with the Ghanaian Times Ghanaian Times, he promoted the call by Nkrumah for the establishment of an African union government. Those leaders who reject the creation of a union, he declared, "will be doing a greater service to the imperialists than Moise Ts...o...b..." Once again Malcolm the visionary antic.i.p.ated the future contours of history, with the creation of the African Union a half century later. Addressing the conference on February 8, he encouraged the African press to challenge the racist stereotypes and distortions of Africans in the Western media. In the Western press, he noted, the African freedom fighter was made to look "like a criminal."
On February 9 he flew on to Paris, yet at customs the authorities detained him and refused to allow him to enter the country. During a subsequent two-hour delay, he learned that the government of Charles de Gaulle had determined that his presence was "undesirable," and that a talk he had scheduled with the Federation of African Students might "provoke demonstrations." Returning to London, he quickly organized a press conference, challenging the French decision. "I did not even get as far as immigration control," he complained. "I might as well have been locked up."
A telephone interview was arranged in London that was audiotaped and later played on speakers for a crowd of three hundred in Paris. The incident seemed to have pulled him back for the moment, and he once again returned to the language of unity and racial harmony. "I do not advocate violence," he explained. "In fact, the violence that exists in the United States is the violence that the Negro in America has been a victim of." On the issues of black nationalism and the Southern civil rights movement, he once again channeled King. "I believe in taking an uncompromising stand against any forms of segregation and discrimination that are based on race. I myself do not judge a man by the color of his skin."
Already he suspected that the restriction on his travel went deeper than mere concern on the part of the French government, and the next day he forwarded a letter of protest to U.S. secretary of state Dean Rusk. "While in possession of an American pa.s.sport, I was denied entry to France with no explanation." He called for "an investigation being made to determine why this incident took place." The enforced change of schedule allowed Malcolm to explore the racial politics of Great Britain for several additional days, and during this time he was interviewed by Flamingo Flamingo magazine, a London-based publication read primarily by blacks in Great Britain. What is surprising is the harshness Malcolm displayed to distinguish himself from civil rights moderates in the States. "King and his kind believe in turning the other cheek," he stated, almost in contempt. "Their freedom fighters follow the rules of the game laid down by the big bosses in Washington, D.C., the citadel of imperialism." He once more disavowed any identification as a "racialist": "I adopt a judgment of deeds, not of color." He appeared to call not for voting rights and electoral change, but Guevara-inspired insurrection. "Mau Mau I love," he stated, applauding the Kenyan guerrilla struggle of the 1950s. "When you put a fire under a pot, you learn what"s in it." He added, "Anger produces action." When asked about his reasons for leaving the Nation, he focused on politics, not personalities or religion. "The original brotherhood [of the NOI] became too lax and conservative." He accused some NOI leaders of greed, in response to which "I formed the Muslim Mosque, which is not limited by civil rights in America, but rather worldwide human rights for the black man." magazine, a London-based publication read primarily by blacks in Great Britain. What is surprising is the harshness Malcolm displayed to distinguish himself from civil rights moderates in the States. "King and his kind believe in turning the other cheek," he stated, almost in contempt. "Their freedom fighters follow the rules of the game laid down by the big bosses in Washington, D.C., the citadel of imperialism." He once more disavowed any identification as a "racialist": "I adopt a judgment of deeds, not of color." He appeared to call not for voting rights and electoral change, but Guevara-inspired insurrection. "Mau Mau I love," he stated, applauding the Kenyan guerrilla struggle of the 1950s. "When you put a fire under a pot, you learn what"s in it." He added, "Anger produces action." When asked about his reasons for leaving the Nation, he focused on politics, not personalities or religion. "The original brotherhood [of the NOI] became too lax and conservative." He accused some NOI leaders of greed, in response to which "I formed the Muslim Mosque, which is not limited by civil rights in America, but rather worldwide human rights for the black man."
On February 11 he delivered a lecture at the London School of Economics, a frank and lively a.s.sessment of the politics of race in the United States. Racial stigmatization, he explained, projects negative images of nonwhites as criminals; as a consequence, "it makes it possible for the power structure to set up a police state." He then drew parallels between the U.S. treatment of African Americans with the conditions of the West Indian and Asian populations in Great Britain, where racist stereotypes promoted political apathy among minorities, making them believe that change was impossible. "Police state methods are used . . . to suppress the people"s honest and just struggle against discrimination and other forms of segregation," he insisted.
Malcolm described a generational change that separated the older African leaders from the rising generation of young revolutionaries. The older "generation of Africans . . . have believed that they could negotiate . . . and eventually get some kind of independence." The new generation rejected gradualism: "If something is yours by right, then you fight for it or shut up." Next he addressed the problem of black cultural ident.i.ty. "We in the West were made to hate Africa and to hate Africans." West Indians in Britain, he said, "don"t want to accept their origin; they have no origin, they have no ident.i.ty . . . they want to be Englishmen." The same process of ident.i.ty confusion occurred among African Americans. "By skillfully making us hate Africa . . . our color became a chain. It became a prison." An appreciation of black culture would liberate blacks to advocate their own interests.
Finally, he returned to the concept of a two-stage African revolution-first gradual reform, then revolution. The same social process, he implied, might be at work in the United States. "The Black Muslim movement was one of the main ingredients in the civil rights struggle," he claimed, remarkably, without referencing the ma.s.sive evidence to the contrary. "[Whites] should say thank you for Martin Luther King, because Martin Luther King has held Negroes in check up to recently. But he"s losing his grip; he"s losing his control."
For Malcolm, the strategic pursuit of Pan-African and Third World empowerment meant addressing new const.i.tuencies who looked to him for inspiration and leadership. South Asians and West Indians who experienced ethnic and religious discrimination in the English working-cla.s.s town of Smethwick, for example, contacted him to solicit his support. The BBC, which at that time was filming a doc.u.mentary on Smethwick, followed Malcolm around with a camera crew-although it was unsuccessful in its attempts to arrange a meeting between Malcolm and the right-wing Conservative Party member Peter Griffiths, who represented Smethwick"s parliamentary seat. After meeting with local minority leaders, Malcolm determined that town authorities were buying up vacant houses and selling them only to whites, thus restricting what houses were available for Asians and blacks. At a press conference in nearby Birmingham, he denounced the schemes to limit home sales and rentals in the town to non-Europeans. "I have heard that the blacks of Smethwick are being treated in the same way as the Negroes were treated in Birmingham, Alabama-like Hitler treated the Jews," he charged. This was inflammatory enough, but as so often he took the argument even further, toward a call for violent revolution. "If colored people here continue to be oppressed," he warned, "it will start off a b.l.o.o.d.y battle."
A major national debate erupted, with the BBC roundly condemned for a.s.sisting Malcolm"s investigations. Even the Sun Sun, at that time a liberal newspaper, editorialized that Malcolm"s visit had been a "deplorable mistake." Cedric Taylor, the chairman of the Standing Conference of West Indian Organizations for the Birmingham district, condemned his visit. "Conditions here are entirely different from Alabama," he told a Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times reporter. The West Indians in his town, he judged, were "not the sort of people who would want to follow Malcolm X. reporter. The West Indians in his town, he judged, were "not the sort of people who would want to follow Malcolm X.
Before leaving the UK, Malcolm was interviewed by a correspondent for the liberal South African newspaper Sunday Express Sunday Express. His rhetoric grew even more heated, as he urged blacks in Angola and South Africa to employ violence "all the way. . . . I don"t give the [South African] blacks credit in any way . . . for restraining themselves or confining themselves to ground rules that limit the scope of their activity." He dismissed the n.o.bel Peace Prize recipient Chief Albert Luthuli as "just another Martin Luther King, used to keep the oppressed people in check." To Malcolm, South Africa"s "real leaders" were Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress and Robert Sobukwe, founder of the Pan-African Congress. He then entertained the possibility of the OAAU taking up the cause of Australian aborigines. "Just as racism has become an international thing, the fight against it is also becoming international. . . . [Racism"s] victims were kept apart from each other." The larger point for him was to make the case for Pan-Africanism-that blacks regardless of nationality and language had a common destiny. "We believe," he explained, "that it is one struggle in South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, and Alabama. They are all the same."
Malcolm arrived back at John F. Kennedy airport on February 13 to grim news. Several weeks before, he had submitted to the Queens court a request for a "show cause" order aimed at staying his family"s scheduled eviction. It was now obvious, however, that his family would lose their home and would have to begin looking for temporary housing. Malcolm had also just learned that Betty was again pregnant, this time with twins. What had been an extremely difficult financial situation-supporting four children-would soon be even more challenging with six.
But his thoughts soon returned to politics. He had not been able to shake off the larger implication of his incident at French customs. As he entered his Hotel Theresa office, he admitted to his a.s.sociates that he had been making a "serious mistake" by focusing attention on the NOI Chicago headquarters, "thinking all of my problems were coming from Chicago, and they"re not." Colleagues asked where the "trouble" was coming from. "From Washington," Malcolm replied.
After a few hours of conversation with staff at his office, he drove to his East Elmhurst home. This time, it was without incident. Malcolm was scheduled to wake up early to fly to Detroit to deliver an important public address that day. As on so many other nights, he fell asleep upstairs while working late into the night in his study.
At two forty-five a.m., the Shabazz family"s sleep was shattered by the crack of a window downstairs, and seconds later a Molotov c.o.c.ktail exploded, quickly filling the entire house with black smoke. As Malcolm raced downstairs to the children"s room, a second bomb landed. A third struck a rear window but glanced off, without combusting. Malcolm helped Betty escape through the rear door, then gathered the children together and led them into the backyard. A few seconds later he dashed back into the now blazing house to retrieve important property and clothing. "I was almost frightened by his courage and efficiency in a time of terror," Betty would later reflect. "I always knew he was strong. But at that hour I learned how great his strength was." By the time firefighters arrived to put out the blaze, the house was engulfed in flames.
For decades there has been intense speculation regarding the firebombing of Malcolm"s home on February 14, 1965. The actions of three parties have been questioned: Malcolm himself, the Nation of Islam, and law enforcement. Since the Shabazz family faced imminent eviction, some thought that Malcolm firebombed the house out of malice. The argument placing the blame on the Nation was evident, based on the escalating violence aimed against Malcolm. Firebombing his home, endangering his wife and four small children, was a logical next step. There was also speculation that either BOSS or the FBI, or perhaps their informants, committed the bombing, which was the view held by OAAU stalwarts like Herman Ferguson and Peter Bailey. The most persuasive evidence pointed to the Nation of Islam. Almost forty years after the firebombing, NOI member Thomas 15X Johnson acknowledged that the Nation "definitely did it." One partic.i.p.ant, he recalled, was Edward X-"a close friend of mine, and I didn"t know until after it happened that he was a part of that." Edward was "just a dedicated follower. Him and two other brothers did that firebombing [of the] house."
Malcolm"s supporters had quickly gathered outside the burning house, where it was decided that Betty and the four girls would be taken to the home of Tom Wallace, who also lived in Queens. Standing outside in the freezing cold, Betty learned that Malcolm still intended to travel to Detroit that day, and she erupted into an almost uncontrollable rage. But his mind was made up. The firebombing would not frighten him into canceling his speaking commitments. Death had missed him and his family that night; he would not run from it tomorrow.
CHAPTER 15.
Death Comes on Time February 14-February 21, 1965
When a bleary-eyed Malcolm disembarked at Detroit airport at nine thirty a.m. and checked in at the Statler Hilton hotel, his friends were worried for his safety and his sanity. His home had just been firebombed, and his wife and children were in hiding. His coat jacket stank of smoke; he had grabbed the clothing from the half-burned residence. Since being shaken from sleep by the firebombs, he had not slept. One Detroit friend gave him a sedative; Malcolm napped briefly, yet he had a schedule to keep, and soon he was awakened to be interviewed by WXYZ-TV at four p.m. He was then taken to the Ford Auditorium, where he delivered the keynote address at the first annual Dignity Projection and Scholarship Award, where Sidney Poitier and the opera star Marian Anderson also received honors. The program was sponsored by the Afro-American Broadcasting Company, and chaired by a good friend of Malcolm"s, attorney Milton Henry, who was also a leader of the Freedom Now Party in Michigan.
The Reverend Albert Cleage remembered Malcolm"s troubled condition backstage before the event, tired and irritable from the effects of smoke inhalation, and when he took the podium his usual sharpness had abandoned him. At first he rambled through stories of his African and Middle Eastern travels, but eventually found surer footing on the theme of cultural ident.i.ty that had recently traced its way through his speeches. He characterized the decade 1955-65 as "the era in which we witnessed the emerging of Africa. The spirit of Bandung created a working unity that made it possible for the Asians, who were oppressed, and the Africans, who were oppressed . . . to work together toward gaining independence." In the United States, the civil rights movement and the Black Muslims emerged. The Nation of Islam "frightened the white man so much he began to say, "Thank G.o.d for old Uncle Roy [Wilkins] and Uncle Whitney and Uncle A. Philip."" The audience laughed; Malcolm not only ridiculed the moderates, he tried to paint the Nation of Islam"s role in the most favorable light. Black Muslims, he said, "made the whole civil rights movement become more militant, and more acceptable to the white power structure. . . . We forced many of the civil rights leaders to be even more militant than they intended." But in 1965, the situation calls for "new methods. . . . It takes power to talk to power. It takes madness almost to deal with a power structure that"s so corrupt."
Back in New York, a media circus had gathered outside the charred wreckage of his home. The Molotov c.o.c.ktails had totally destroyed two of the rooms and left three others severely damaged. In a bold move, Captain Joseph drove to the house and met with reporters standing outside. "We own this place, man," he protested. "We have money tied up here. . . . He didn"t even give us the courtesy of a phone call." Allegations swirled suggesting the Nation"s involvement, but Newark minister James Shabazz told reporters that the Nation "was unlikely to bomb a house which it was about to repossess. Of course, we would rather have had our property than a burned-out building. . . . We sure didn"t bomb it." Speculation was also rife that Malcolm had been responsible after detectives found a small bottle containing gasoline on a child"s dresser, and the Nation amplified these rumors in the press. For his part, Malcolm threw the blame back at them. "I have no compa.s.sion or mercy or forgiveness for anyone who attacks sleeping babies," he told the press. "The only thing I regret is that two black groups have to fight and kill each other off." Yet to confidants, he broached more conspiratorial possibilities. "The Nation of Islam does not attack women and children," Herman Ferguson recalled him saying. "The Nation would not have burned my house with my wife and children in that house. That was the government." He could not have known what Thomas 15X later confirmed, that the NOI had in fact been responsible.
He arrived back in New York on February 15, and spent part of the day checking on damage to the house and conducting interviews. The OAAU had planned to unveil its program that evening, but the firebombing had changed the agenda, bringing out a large crowd of seven hundred to hear what Malcolm had to say about it. Benjamin 2X opened up the evening meeting with a short talk. Malcolm"s speech, "There"s a Worldwide Revolution Going On," was not his final public lecture, but it was certainly the most significant of those he gave in the last two weeks of his life. He began by mentioning the firebombing, and how stunned he was to see the Nation "using the same tactic that"s used by the Ku Klux Klan." After bouncing through a few other topics, he circled back to offer his interpretation about how the Nation of Islam had lost its way. Before 1960, he explained, "there was not a better organization among black people in this country than the Muslim movement. It was militant. It made the whole strength of the black man in this country pick up momentum." But after Muhammad"s return from Mecca in early 1960, things changed. Muhammad began to be "more interested in wealth. And, yes, more interested in girls." The audience erupted with laughter. According to Malcolm, a conspiracy existed to "suppress news that would open the eyes" of NOI members about their leader. As long as Elijah Muhammad ran the Nation of Islam, "it will not do anything in the struggle that the black man is confronted with in this country." One proof of this was the Nation"s failure to challenge the terrorist activities of the Ku Klux Klan. "They know how to do it. Only to another brother." As the audience applauded, Malcolm added soberly, "I am well aware of what I"m setting into motion. . . . But I have never said or done anything in my life that I wasn"t prepared to suffer the consequences for."
After a one-night trip to Rochester to deliver a speech, he returned to New York City to face the ugly business of emptying his ruined home. The court order to evict the Shabazz household was to be enforced on the morning of February 18, so just after one a.m. he and about fifteen MMI and OAAU members drove out to the house in advance of the city marshal"s arrival. In four hours they cleared the building of all items-furniture, clothing, files, desks, photographs, correspondence-and placed everything in a small moving van and three station wagons. When the marshal pulled up a few hours later along with several a.s.sistants, they discovered the house completely vacant.
For a second day, Malcolm was working without sleep, compelled forward through a whirlwind of activity by nerves and sheer will. Several weeks earlier, he had planned to travel to Jackson on February 19, to address a rally of Hamers Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The firebombing forced him to reschedule, and instead of traveling, he gave more interviews. That morning he spoke with the New York Times New York Times, telling the paper that he lived "like a man who"s already dead." The remarks he had been making for months about his own demise took on new gravity in light of the firebombing. "This thing with me," he said plainly, "will be resolved by death and violence."
Later that morning he was interviewed by an ABC camera crew. In the afternoon, Malcolm delivered his final public address, before fifteen hundred students at the Barnard College gymnasium, explaining that the black revolt in the United States "is part of the rebellion against the oppression and colonialism which has characterized this era." His speech cast a wide net and suggested a breadth of reading in its echoes of Du Bois and even Lenin. "We are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor," he declared, "the exploited against the exploiter." Malcolm condemned Western industrialized nations for "deliberately subjugating the Negro for economic reasons. These international criminals raped the African continent to feed their factories, and are themselves responsible for the low standards of living prevalent throughout Africa."
The day then took him to the home of his friend Gordon Parks, the great photographer and writer whom he had first met and come to trust in 1963 when Life Life magazine a.s.signed Parks to cover the Nation of Islam. For the last year, Malcolm had been sending Parks postcards from abroad, and Parks, intrigued by his friend"s evolving beliefs, had asked Malcolm to sit for an interview. Their tone was friendly, the discussion serious. "Brother, n.o.body can protect you from a Muslim but a Muslim-or someone trained in Muslim tactics," Malcolm explained when Parks asked how he was keeping safe. "I know. I invented many of those tactics." As the interview progressed, Malcolm seemed almost wistful, and his words brimmed with regret for what he perceived as the damage done by the racial intolerance in his past. "Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant-the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together-and I told her there wasn"t a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?" Parks nodded. Malcolm continued, "I"ve lived to regret that incident." He had seen many white students working to a.s.sist people throughout Africa. "I did many things as a Muslim that I"m sorry for now." magazine a.s.signed Parks to cover the Nation of Islam. For the last year, Malcolm had been sending Parks postcards from abroad, and Parks, intrigued by his friend"s evolving beliefs, had asked Malcolm to sit for an interview. Their tone was friendly, the discussion serious. "Brother, n.o.body can protect you from a Muslim but a Muslim-or someone trained in Muslim tactics," Malcolm explained when Parks asked how he was keeping safe. "I know. I invented many of those tactics." As the interview progressed, Malcolm seemed almost wistful, and his words brimmed with regret for what he perceived as the damage done by the racial intolerance in his past. "Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant-the one who wanted to help the Muslims and the whites get together-and I told her there wasn"t a ghost of a chance and she went away crying?" Parks nodded. Malcolm continued, "I"ve lived to regret that incident." He had seen many white students working to a.s.sist people throughout Africa. "I did many things as a Muslim that I"m sorry for now."
During this same week, about sixty MMI and OAAU members met to discuss the firebombing and its security implications. "We said that from that day forward every person that came to one of our rallies was going to be searched," recalled Peter Bailey, "and this [is] where we made a crucial error-[Malcolm] overruled this because he wanted to break away from this image of searching people before they came to rallies." Malcolm insisted not only that no one should be searched, but that all MMI security personnel should be unarmed at the event coming up that Sunday, February 21. The sole exception to this rule would be Malcolm"s bodyguard and security chief, Reuben X Francis. Nearly everyone argued against Malcolm"s position, but there was no tradition or practice of democratic decision making inside the MMI and OAAU. When Malcolm demanded something, he received it.
The fact that his guards would be unarmed was surely communicated to the NYPD through its MMI and OAAU informants and undercover police officers. The most important police operative inside the MMI and OAAU was Gene Roberts. A four-year veteran of the U.S. Navy, Roberts was admitted to the NYPD academy, and after induction as an officer was transferred to BOSS as a detective. His first a.s.signment was to infiltrate the newly formed MMI; his NYPD code name was "Adam." BOSS supervisors took steps to ensure Roberts"s safety and anonymity, even from fellow officers. Along with other undercover cops, his ID photo was kept separately in BOSS headquarters. Roberts was given a cover job as a clothing salesman in the Bronx. By late 1964 Roberts had become an integral member of the MMI security team, standing guard at public events as one of Malcolm"s bodyguards. Throughout his a.s.signment Roberts feared he would be revealed as a cop. Roberts and his wife, Joan, even sent their daughter away to Joan"s parents" home in Virginia for her safety. Through Roberts, all of MMIs and OAAUs major decisions and plans would be promptly revealed to the NYPD.
On Sat.u.r.day, February 20, Malcolm and Betty went looking for a new place to live. A real estate agent escorted them to look at a property in a predominantly Jewish but racially integrated community on Long Island. The house was attractive and to their liking, but the three-thousand-dollar down payment was well beyond their reach. The estimated moving cost for their furniture, clothing, and other personal items was one thousand dollars. Once again, Malcolm looked to Ella to solve his financial problems. Either before or just after the firebombing, when it became clear that Malcolm would have to find a new place to live, he had spoken to her and she agreed to purchase a new home for him under her name; after a short period of time, the t.i.tle would be transferred to either Betty or Attallah (then age six). All agreed that Malcolm"s name was so controversial that it would have been impossible for him to purchase a home in an integrated neighborhood.
That afternoon, Malcolm called Alex Haley to check in on the state of the ma.n.u.script. In a strange and timely coincidence, Haley told him that the completed autobiography would be mailed off to Doubleday by the end of the following week. As night fell, Malcolm dropped Betty off at the home of Tom Wallace, where he stayed and talked for several hours before leaving to check in to the midtown New York Hilton, paying eighteen dollars for a single room on the twelfth floor. He ate dinner at the hotel"s restaurant, the Old Bourbon Steak House, and returned to his room, remaining there until the next day. That evening, Sharon 6X may have joined him in his hotel room.
Later that night, several African-American men entered the Hilton lobby asking for Malcolm"s room number. Someone contacted the hotel"s head of security, who confronted the men. They promptly left.
The plans to murder Malcolm X had been discussed within the Nation of Islam for nearly a year before the morning of February 21, 1965. The delay in carrying out the crime had occurred for several reasons. First, up to the final days prior to the a.s.sa.s.sination Elijah Muhammad had not given an explicit order that his former national spokesman be killed, and for as much anger as had been stirred up against Malcolm in the preceding months, no one would actually take action without clear orders from on high. Second, although Malcolm was being pilloried as a heretic, he retained the respect and even love of a significant minority of NOI members. Some still recognized the contributions he had made to the sect, despite his errors. The best proof of his lasting legacy was the fierce jihad his enemies waged against him in every NOI mosque, month after month. Third, Malcolm made himself an elusive and difficult target by being out of the United States for twenty-four weeks from April to November 1964. An a.s.sa.s.sination attempt in an Islamic or African nation would have been unthinkable, even for the Nation of Islam. As long as he was abroad, he was safe.
From where the Nation stood in late 1964, the benefits of killing Malcolm outweighed the potentially significant costs. His involvement in publicizing the individual paternity cases of Evelyn Williams and Lucille Rosary, and his success in establishing MMIs connections with international Islamic organizations, had created a new and threatening situation. Some NOI officials fretted that the very legitimacy of the sect might be called into question; the defections of Wallace and Akbar Muhammad only reinforced these fears. They were now convinced that only Malcolm"s death would void the inroads he had made and allow them to once again grow membership and continue business unmolested.
Still, Elijah Muhammad knew that if Malcolm were to suffer a violent death, the Nation of Islam would immediately become the primary suspect. Killing him would almost certainly bring a local and perhaps even federal investigation down on the group, so the a.s.sa.s.sination"s architects within the Nation would need to devise a plan that could deflect attention from national headquarters such that it might plausibly deny any involvement. From this perspective, the year spent ginning up anger with the membership carried an added benefit: it would be easier to cast the killing as rogue members taking matters into their own hands.
They were helped in creating distance by the punishment structure that had developed within the organization, which had grown into a well-oiled machine as the Nation of Islam came to be dominated by fear and violence in the months after Malcolm"s departure. Most NOI members knew that disciplinary units and hit crews almost never carried out extreme actions in the cities where their mosques were located. In other words, Captain Joseph might authorize Harlem crews to attack Malcolm"s people, or to hara.s.s him, but not to commit homicide. Such extreme measures would first have to be authorized by Chicago officials, then carried out by a crew from Newark, Boston, or Philadelphia. The Newark group would have been deployed against Malcolm in New York City, but only on the direct orders of Captain Joseph, Raymond Sharrieff, and John Ali. Other a.s.sa.s.sination crews may have been organized on both the West and East Coasts.
Finally, the convergence of interests between law enforcement, national security inst.i.tutions, and the Nation of Islam undoubtedly made Malcolm"s murder easier to carry out. Both the FBI and BOSS placed informants inside the OAAU, MMI, and NOI, making all three organizations virtual rats" nests of conflicting loyalties. John Ali was named by several parties as an FBI informant, and there is good reason to believe that both James Shabazz of Newark and Captain Joseph fed information to their local police departments as well as the FBI; BOSS carried out extensive wiretapping and/or surveillance against all three organizations, while the CIA had kept up surveillance of Malcolm throughout his Middle Eastern and African travels. Yet while the channels of information remained open among various organizations interested in Malcolm"s silencing, it remains difficult to determine what the FBI and the police authorized-whether, for instance, either subtly suggested certain crimes could be committed by their nonpolice operatives. Circ.u.mstantial evidence that they may have done so is both BOSSs and the FBIs refusal nearly a half century after Malcolm"s murder to make available thousands of pages of evidence connected with the crime.
What has been established is that around the time Malcolm returned from Africa in May 1964, two members of the Newark mosque began planning how to carry out his murder, almost certainly at the direct order of minister James Shabazz, whose control of the mosque necessitated his involvement. The older of the two members was mosque a.s.sistant secretary Benjamin X Thomas, a twenty-nine-year-old father of four employed at a Hackensack envelope manufacturing company. His younger partner was electronics plant employee Leon X Davis, of Paterson, New Jersey, about twenty years of age. Both men were active in the Fruit of Islam. Probably while driving Ben"s black Chrysler, the two men spotted young Talmadge Hayer, another Newark mosque member in his early twenties, on a street in downtown Paterson. They invited Hayer into the car, and drove around for a while. Ben and Leon fished for Hayers att.i.tudes about Malcolm and his split from the NOI. Within weeks Hayer became the third member committed to partic.i.p.ating in the murder. "I had a bit of love and admiration for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad," he later wrote, "and I just felt that like this is something that I have to stand up for."
In short order, two more NOI members joined the Newark conspiracy. Willie X Bradley was twenty-six years old, tall, dark in complexion, and heavyset, with a history of violence. Wilbur X McKinley, by contrast, was over thirty-five years old, thin, and like three other men in the conspiracy, only about five feet, nine inches tall. The proprietor of a small construction business, Wilbur X had worked at the Newark mosque.
While beatings like the one carried out against Leon Ameer in Boston had become disturbingly common for the Nation, executions of members or dissidents remained extremely rare. Yet as the Nation seemed to flounder in the wake of Malcolm"s defection, brutal disciplinary measures were taken with greater frequency. In the Bronx in late 1964, for example, NOI member Benjamin Brown started his own "Universal Peace" mosque, which featured a large photograph of Muhammad in its storefront window. Since Brown had not requested the prior approval of Mosque No. 7 or the Chicago headquarters, his actions were judged insurrectionary. In the early evening of January 6, 1965, three Muslims dropped by Brown"s mosque, complained about the display of Muhammad"s portrait, and departed. Several hours later, as Brown left the mosque, he was killed by a shot in the back by a .22 caliber rifle. The NYPD investigated the death and arrested three men, all NOI members, two of them Mosque No. 7 lieutenants: Thomas 15X Johnson and Norman 3X Butler. The police found a .22 caliber Winchester repeating rifle in Johnson"s home. It had been fired once, then jammed. Butler and Johnson were subsequently bailed out of jail, but police were convinced that both men were involved in Brown"s shooting, because they were well-known "enforcers."
Thomas 15X presented a curious case in the Nation"s crusade to poison its members" opinions. Malcolm"s driver for years, Johnson had abandoned his boss during the schism with the Nation. However, at first, he had not shared the obsession to destroy Malcolm that had infected other FOI members. When in December 1963 Malcolm had been silenced, Johnson stated that like all mosque members he was surprised, but had a.s.sumed that the minister soon would be reinstated. Yet after Malcolm established the MMI and OAAU, Johnson firmly sided with the Nation against him. Thomas 15Xs hardening of purpose began with the Queens court hearing over the disputed ownership of the Shabazz home. "Malcolm wasn"t just a minister; he was top minister," Johnson stated, going on to explain that, because of his status, NOI members had agreed to purchase a house for him and his family. "But if you leave, you can"t have that house. We bought you a brand-new car and everything. . . . As long as you are correct, you"ve got that."
Johnson claimed that the order to a.s.sa.s.sinate Malcolm came directly from national secretary John Ali, who while visiting New York City gathered Mosque No. 7"s lieutenants separately from Captain Joseph and gave a series of reasons why Malcolm had to die. In the more than four decades that have pa.s.sed, however, nothing has emerged that could definitively prove or disprove Johnson"s claim of Ali"s involvement. Johnson had great difficulty accepting some of the national secretary"s reasoning, and noted that "the other lieutenants didn"t [buy Ali"s arguments] either." Several weeks later new instructions came down from Chicago: "Elijah Muhammad sent specific orders. He said, "Don"t touch [Malcolm]."" Consequently Johnson and his crew beat up and hara.s.sed Malcolm"s people, but no active plan was set in motion to murder him. Johnson claimed, "I used to see Malcolm every day in the Theresa Hotel." Malcolm would walk over and say, "How you doing?" That his intended victim maintained a degree of civility impressed Johnson.
By the fall of 1964, though, as the rage against Malcolm infected every part of the Nation, Johnson was finally persuaded that Malcolm had to be killed. He received instructions with four other lieutenants "that we had to go to Philly. He was speaking over there . . . and we were supposed to hit him then." The crew drove to Malcolm"s lecture site (probably on December 26), but Malcolm had antic.i.p.ated such an a.s.sault. "He sent a brother out that sort of favored him." The would-be a.s.sa.s.sins chased after the decoy, and Malcolm escaped. Johnson may have also partic.i.p.ated in at least one other failed attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate Malcolm in Philadelphia. Had he been present at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965, Thomas would have eagerly partic.i.p.ated in the a.s.sa.s.sination. The fact that he was absent that afternoon, but was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime, raises profound questions about both U.S. law enforcement and the courts.
During the final weeks of Malcolm"s life, there were two topics that preoccupied his followers. First, the obvious political, ideological, and religious changes Malcolm was experiencing disoriented both his critics and supporters. His evolution seemed to keep unfolding toward tolerance and pluralism along racial and religious lines. In Rochester on February 19, Malcolm had told his audience, "I believe in one G.o.d, and I believe that G.o.d had one religion. . . . G.o.d taught all of the prophets the same religion. . . . Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, or some of the others. . . . They all had one doctrine and that doctrine was designed to give clarification of humanity." This, along with his increasing statements about not judging men by the color of their skin, produced deep concern among followers who clung to the belief that Malcolm"s new p.r.o.nouncements were merely cosmetic changes designed to increase his public appeal. Some die-hards like James 67X simply refused to believe that their boss had changed. Betty, for her own reasons, took the same position. But in the Harlem audience that had loyally turned out for Audubon rallies, there was tremendous uneasiness.
After Betty publicly accused Lynne Shifflett of sleeping with Malcolm, Shifflett resigned from her position as general secretary of the OAAU in late 1964. Weeks later, after Malcolm returned home from Africa, he replaced Shifflett with another articulate, intelligent black woman, Sara Mitch.e.l.l, the young woman from the New Yorker New Yorker who had written him in June. Although Mitch.e.l.l shared some of Shifflett"s middle-cla.s.s views about politics, at heart she was a progressive black nationalist who viewed Malcolm from that vantage point. Describing Malcolm"s 1965 activities years later, for instance, Mitch.e.l.l argued that "underlying [his] efforts was his still unfulfilled and paramount ambition: the redemption of the "disgraced" manhood of the American Blackman. That was the spur piercing him; it would not let him stop or even rest." To Mitch.e.l.l, the two new organizations Malcolm had established performed distinctly different functions. Muslim Mosque, Inc. "was set up to encourage study and consideration of a religious alternative" while the Organization of Afro-American Unity had been designed "for eventual correlation and unification of varied aspects of the black struggle." She recognized the limitations of both groups, lacking resources and permanent, full-time staff. "Consequently," she recalled, "deadlines were not met and postponements were inevitable. During the lagging interim, dissatisfied fingers shook in his face from all directions." who had written him in June. Although Mitch.e.l.l shared some of Shifflett"s middle-cla.s.s views about politics, at heart she was a progressive black nationalist who viewed Malcolm from that vantage point. Describing Malcolm"s 1965 activities years later, for instance, Mitch.e.l.l argued that "underlying [his] efforts was his still unfulfilled and paramount ambition: the redemption of the "disgraced" manhood of the American Blackman. That was the spur piercing him; it would not let him stop or even rest." To Mitch.e.l.l, the two new organizations Malcolm had established performed distinctly different functions. Muslim Mosque, Inc. "was set up to encourage study and consideration of a religious alternative" while the Organization of Afro-American Unity had been designed "for eventual correlation and unification of varied aspects of the black struggle." She recognized the limitations of both groups, lacking resources and permanent, full-time staff. "Consequently," she recalled, "deadlines were not met and postponements were inevitable. During the lagging interim, dissatisfied fingers shook in his face from all directions."
Mitch.e.l.l could sense that broad elements of the black nationalist community outside the Nation were displeased with Malcolm"s new orientation. Many African Americans had "experienced discreet self-pride" when Malcolm had promoted "black supremacy," but as his change progressed "they were disappointed and annoyed; for he was no longer providing the bold, caustic, chastising voice." She also thought that Malcolm"s preoccupation with lecturing at elite universities had a