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Malcolm X — Part 33

120 pages · May 10, 2026 · Document date: Feb 1, 1964 · Broad topic: General · Topic: Malcolm X · 120 pages OCR'd
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call -_—-—— in the political arena are being pro- jected by a rival movement, “Black Nationalism.” The two principal an- {agonists are: Minister Malcolm X, New York leader of the Muslims; and the “Messenger of Allah,” Muhammad, MALCOLM X ERTAINLY the sect’s most adept CS strategist, uncompromising in his contention that Negroes will never get justice from white peopie, has been__38-vear-old Malcolm |X. Born —Ntaleotlm Little in“Gmaha, Nebr, he is an ex-convict who absorbed the Mus- lim religion while serving a seven-year sentence for larceny in Massachusetts. Once out of prison, he shed his past life (along with his original sur- namé, 4s wel] as an alias, “Big Red") and adopted the new last name X. This is conimon practice among Muslims, who adopt the symbolic X to connote the niystery of their origins. Tall, dynamic, with rugged good looks, Malcolm rose in the sect to be- fae “come the Big X—and the Messenger’ 3 ambassador to the Islamic countries of the Middle East and Africa. His flam- boyant style, his biting humor and the brutal clarity of his logic—the white man ig responsible for the degradation of the Negro—creates in white audi- ences a sense of collective guilt. At the same time, he wins admiration from Negroes, whose bitterness he can exploit. The turnouts for Malcolm X“atweer> jioug Negro i | and white colleges, _ including “Harvard, make civil rights leaders unhappy. And in the past few months as he began to overshadow Muhammad and the Chicago-based officiais, Muslim leaders also became unhappy. Muhammad moved to silence him. His opportunity was not long in coming. When Malcolm X told & Black Muslim rally at Man- hattan Center that the assas- sination of President Kennedy was an instance of “the chick- ens coming home to roost,” Muhammad rebuked him, say- ing. “He will not be permit- ted to speak | in public.” That, under the code. seemed to end Malcolm's career. But after 90 days of si- lence, he broke the code with a public announcement on March § that he was leav- ing the Muslims to organize his own party. He told « tele- vision audiemer “lt -hard to make a rooster stop crowing once the sun has risen.” He claims that he has only cre- ated a new mosque in New York, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. But he calls his philosophy— political, economic, social and cultural -- “Black National- ism." Ovnr a glass of ginger ale the other day {he eats only one meal a day. and, like all Moslems, eschews smoking. drinking, gambling and the eating of pork}, Malcolm talked of his ambitions, The three elements that distinguish his new party from the old group are: (1) personal inde- pendence that will allow him to act, speak and be scen as master of his own house; (2) “self defense units — rifle clubs — ready to “execute on the spot” those who threaten Negroes; (3) nationalist ap- peal to all Negroes, not just Muslims, allowing cooperation with the interracial civil rights movement. -_Thig new program_is anath-- _ ema to Muhammad. i.5- ims. ¥ Yet Malcoim X insists ‘that he is “and always Will be” a Muslim and that, so far as he is concerned, Muham- mad cannot reject him hbe- cause no Muslim can be re- jected by the spiritual head, “But it is time for the Ne- groes to defend themselves,” Malcolm said, “If no one will "say that, T will. If a person threatens you, by coming in the churches, bombing the churches, killing little giris, shooting little boys, then the Negroes should defcnd them- selves, even if it means tak- ing rifles and shotguns, and driving from our door the peo- ple who are brutalizing Negroes. The Negroes should not wait for white investi- . gators, They should find the guilty ones themselves and ex- ecute them on the spot. tee VERY American citizen is guaranteed under the Con- stitution the right to bear arma in self-defense. Since he has the legal right to own a Shot- gun or rifle, I would advise the Negro to have one.” Later, Malcolm told a press confer- ence that Negroes “should form rifle clibs" to defend their lives and property. “All the past actions of the demonstrations and the sit-ins and boycotts have been imma- ture, boyish; that's why," he added contemptuously, “they call the Negroes ‘boys.’ “ The time has come for Negroes to fight back, he said. He in- tends to tell the Negroes “that what has been called the Negro revolution in the United States is a deception practiced upon them, because they have only to examine the failure of this so-called revolution to pro- duce any positive results in the past year. I shall tell them Aane what a real revolution means. In my conversation, IT asked him: “Do you expert thén to initiate a Cuban or an Algerian-style revolution?” “I say that if you follow the whole thing to its legies!con-
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