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you what I noticed neve my best customers always . e officials, the top police people, businessme “politicians and clergymen. wer forgot that. I met all levele of these white people, supplied them with everything they wanted, and I saw that they were just e filthy race of devils. But despite the fect that my own father was murdered by whites, and I had seen my people all my life brutalized by whites, I was still biind_enough to mix with them and socialize with them. I thought they were gods and goddesses - until Mr. Muhammad's powerful spiritual message opened my eyes and en- abled me to see them.as a race of devils, Nothing had made me see the white man as he is until one word from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad opened my eyes overnight. we PLAYBOY: When did this happen? _ he MALCOLM X: In prison. I was finally caught and spent 77 months in three different: ' prisons. But it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, because it was in prison that I first heard the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, His teach- ings were what turned me around. The first time I heard the Honorable Elijah Muhaw- wmad's statement, "The white man is the devil," it just clicked. I am a good example of why Islam is spreading so rapidly across the land. I was nothing but another con- _ vict, a semi-illiterate criminal. Mr. Muhammad's teachings were able to reach into prison, which is the level where peopie are considered to have fallen as low as they can go. His teachings brought me from behind prison walls and placed me on the podi- ums of some of the leading colleges and universities in the country. I often think, sir, that in 1946, I was sentenced to 8 to 10 years in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a common thief who had never passed the eighth grade. And the next time I went back to Cambridge was in March 1961, as a guest speaker at the Harvard Law School Forums. This is the best example of Mr, Muhammad's ability to take nothing and make something, to take nobody and make somebody. PLATEO{: Your rise to prominence in the Muslim organization has been so swift that a number of your own membership have hailed you as their articulate exemplar, and many anti-Muslims regard you as the real brains and Power of the BOVEDERE » What is your reaction to this sudden eminence? MALCOLM X: Sir, it's heresy to imply that I em “tn any way whatever even equal to Mr. Fuhaemad, No man on earth today is his equal, Whatever I am that is good, it is through what I have been taught by Mr. Muhammad, PLAYBOY: Be that as it may, the time is near when your leader, who is 65, will have to retire from leadership of the Muslim movement. Many observers predict that when this dey coms, the new Messenger of Allah in America - a role which you have called the most po'erful of any black man in the world - will be Malcolm X. How do you feel about this prospect? - MAI.COLM X: Sir, I can only say that God chose Mr. Muhammad as his Messenger, aad Mr. Muhammad chose me and many others to help him. Only God has the say-so. But I will tell you one thing. I frankly don't believe that I or anyone else am worthy to succeed Mr. Muhammad. No one preceded him. I don't think I could make the sacrifice he has made or set his good example. He has done more than lay down his life. But his work is already done with the seed he has planted among black people. If Mr. Muhammad and every identifiable follower he has, certainly including myself, were tomorrow removed from the scene by more of the white man's brutality, there is one thing to be sure of: Mr. Muhammad's teachings of the naked truth have fallen upon fertile soil among 20,000,000 black men here in this wilderness of North America. PLAYBOY: Has the soil, in your opinion, been as fertile for Mr. Muhammad's teachings elsewhere in the world - eszong the emerging nations of black Africa, for instance? MALCOLM X: I think not only that his teachings have had considerable impact even in Africa but that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has had a greater impact on the world than the rise of the African nations. I say this as objectively as I can, being a Mus- — lim, Even the Christian missionaries are conceding that in black Africa, for every Christian conversion, there are two Muslim conversions. ‘LAYROY: Might conversions be even more numerous if it weren't for the somewhat strained lations which are said by several Negro writers to exiat between the black people of ~~ and America? ‘MX: Perhaps. You see, the American black man sees the African come here and r the American black wan can't. The Negro sees the African come here . g. Harlem. I didn't care W ‘ey wanted. I knew’ where Ww them to it. And I fell * “¢ \ BOTT OE Beg on Ope A a ee ERENT aR REET FS ae a A tee — a Moe ons NER , TN ge etenttels ta, Pe MEG ee ae, MO ee ee ee ee ™ ah