Malcolm X (14 page)
Authors: Clayborne Carson
When asked if he considered the MCI a government as well as a religion the subject would not answer. When asked if he considered himself and the Negro race in slavery in the United States by the white man, the subject remarked that you would have to only read the history books in the library to know that they are in slavery.
When he was questioned concerning the War of Armageddon, he remarked that the Bible states this will be when God destroys the devil. When asked how the MCI was going to participate in this war, he would not answer. When asked what the FOI and military training was for, he stated this was to teach the members to be upright and righteous. Subject claimed that Muslims are peaceful and they do not have guns and ammunition and they do not even carry knives.
The subject did, however, admit that during World War II he had admired the Japanese people and soldiers and that he would have liked to join the Japanese Army at that time. The subject claims to have never been a member of the Communist Party or the American Youth for Democracy or to have known anyone who was associated with it.
The American Youth for Democracy and the Communist Party have been designated by the Attorney General of the United States pursuant to Executive Order 10450.
SECTION 2
January 31, 1956âApril 23, 1957
REPORTS: | 1. January 31, 1956. New York 2. April 23, 1957. New York. |
The two reports in this section reflect Malcolm's speaking activities in Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia during 1955 and 1956. At this point, the FBI believed that Malcolm was the No. 2 or No. 3 man in NOI, and that he represented Elijah Muhammad in Atlanta on August 26, 1956.
His speeches are militant and metaphorical, containing numerous prophetic warnings and references to the white man as “the devil.” In Philadelphia, Malcolm delivered a scathing indictment in his customary angry manner:
Who hung this man on this tree? Your white Christian brother. Who raped your mother and stood her up in the market while they felt her body to see if she was a good breeder and then sold her away from her family. The white man brags about these things in the library. He has made you so blind that you sit and read this and say, “Oh, that's about people years ago.” They are still hanging black men on trees.
Malcolm expresses awareness of government infiltration of the NOI and gives members explicit instructions on how to deal with FBI agents. In the first report, he is quoted as telling a group of followers “that they would be visited by the . . . FBI, but that was only an effort to intimidate them. . . .” Malcolm spoke extensively
about government infiltration during this period and warned that Allah would soon put “the devil's watchdogs in here . . . into our hands.” The section concludes with an intercepted letter that Malcolm wrote to someone in the NOI.
This case originated at: New York
Report made at: New York
Date when made: 1/31/56
Period for which made: 12/1,6,14,15,21/55; 1/3â6,10,13,16/56
Report made by. SA [BUREAU DELETION] b7C
Title: MALCOLM LITTLE, was
Character of case: Security Matter-MCI
[BUREAU DELETION] subject stated he is minister of MCI Temples in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Springfield. [BUREAU DELETION] subject as minister makes rules, selects officers and plans temple activities. Subject, [BUREAU DELETION] advised he is teaching in Hartford, Conn. Subject held MCI meeting in Lansing, Michigan, about 5/1/55.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting held by the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI. [BUREAU DELETION] the subject was the principal speaker.
Editor's note.
A long extract from Malcolm's speech, perhaps verbatim, follows at this point in the file. His topic is subversion
.
“
Black men all over the planet are subversive, “ Malcolm announces, and whom they are subverting is the “devil”âthe devil being the man who has raped a black woman or lynched a black man, the man who would deprive blacks of their culture and history and religion, the man who would deceive black people in all things. This man, this devil, is white, and his government wicked. The white man and his evil government, however, will be destroyed in the last daysâand so will the black men who choose to follow him, according to Malcolm. The time of Armageddon is now
.
Advocating separatism from all the “white devils,” Malcolm allows for no exceptions. He asserts that in the Bible God makes it clear that none of them, neither Jews nor Gentiles, are in any way good and that all of them. Gentiles and Jews alike, “are looked upon the same by the all-wise Allah.” And all of them will be destroyed by Allah
.
Malcolm also mentions the FBI in the course of his remarks. The Bureau's black informants and agents who follow him “all over the country” and report back to the “great white father what we say here” can be viewed only as traitors, for they stand against their own people. Soon, though, they will be delivered into the hands of the Muslims and, says Malcolm, “we are going to chop your head right off.”
Among other of Malcolm's concerns regarding the Philadelphia temple are the disunity among the sisters, who seems to prefer bickering to their mission, and the MGT (Muslim Girls Training), both its leadership and its ranks (“I want you to buy scales and weigh the members on Monday and Thursday. Those who are overweight will be given two weeks to lose ten pounds or will be given time out”). He also objects to unemployment, as a brother who can't help himself can't help the temple either. Nor does he take kindly to any criticism voiced by brothers or sisters against Malcolm X
.
[BUREAU DELETION] At the meeting, the subject spoke and stated that the things that are happening in the world today are the result of colored peoples all over the world telling the white man to get out. He related how this has happened in China, Japan, Iran, Egypt and all over the planet earth, where the white man has no business. He stated, “There are only two kinds of people, the white and the black, so if you are not white you must be black.”
He told the group that in Masonry every step of wisdom they give is paid for dearly, but in the Temple of Islam it is all a free gift, and in Masonry you are forbidden to relate anything you learn even to your own son or daughter or wife, whatever the case may be, while in Islam you are required to tell all of your brothers and sisters and give them what Allah has given you.
He stated that they “had been taught to go around the world and fight for their name, but not to cross the street to defend a brother or sister.”
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE related how even in the South, as bad as things were, they respected the black man, he dared to face them unafraid. He told how his father had been lynched in the persecution suffered by his people at the hands of a common enemy.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting of the MCI Temple No. 12, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, [BUREAU DELETION] the subject was the principal speaker.
Editor's note.
In the extract, perhaps verbatim, from the remarks on this occasion Malcolm exhorts the assembly to follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and thus “to hear the truth.” To heed what Muhammad teaches, according to Malcolm, is to know that “the white man is the only devil in existence”âa devil that neither can nor would better the conditions of black people in America, for he is the very devil responsible for the unjust and iniquitous conditions under which blacks now live their daily lives. (“If you were citizens of this country,” Malcolm points out later, “they would not have to sign bills for your rights.”)
Slavery is not history, nor do its injustices belong to the
past, Malcolm posits. Black women are still being raped and black men hanged on trees. For too long black people have had their minds numbed by white devils preaching a white Christian religion in white Christian churches. The time has come to leave that church and enter the temple of Islam, there to be awakened out of “mental death.” Elijah Muhammad, the one true prophet of Islam, will deliver his followers from the destruction soon to be visited upon the planet, when, as Malcolm describes it, “the God Almighty rains the fire down on North America.” Then all the white devilsâand all those blacks who worship with them in their churchesâwill be destroyed. And the black man shall rule as “the god of the universe.”
Malcolm concludes with a statement regarding “some of the devil's watchdogs,” i.e. FBI informants, present at this meeting of the MCI Temple No. 12: “A black man who can come in here and sit under these teachings will only suffer death for spying against his own people.”
[BUREAU DELETION] a chicken dinner was held by the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI. [BUREAU DELETION] the subject attended this function.
[BUREAU DELETION] a meeting of the MCI was held by the Philadelphia Temple. [BUREAU DELETION] that at this meeting the subject made the principal address in which he related to them how Temple No. 12 is growing faster than any other temple in the United States.
He stated that Brother GEORGE is doing a good job and that the Messenger is pleased with the way things are going and for them to keep up the good work. He told them that he was not inclined to do much teaching that night as both of the brothers who had gone before him had taught them enough Islam to see them through the hereafter.
He put the subject on the board as “Why?” and “Feel?” He then proceeded to explain that there were no other people who had undergone the treatment that we had suffered at the hands of an enemy as cruel and vicious as this devil, and yet was always
ready to defend him and show love for him. The question is “Why Feel?”
As he explained, “there was no one who could love someone who had treated them as the white man has treated you and I, but a fool.”
He told the group that there was an informer in the group, and that it was the worst in the nation because they knew what he had said in the temple almost before he got back to New York, but that he did not fear for he knew that if they heard his teaching long enough they must turn against the devil for the biggest fool must eventually learn who is his enemy.
He talked on Masonic symbolism, explaining the degrees between the points of the stars, and that in Islam they have the knowledge of the entire 360 degrees in lieu of the 33 degrees of Masonry. He told that they taught immediately who the God is and that you could not learn this until you reached the top of the Masonic order. He told them, too, that it was all free, but that the Mason paid for each step.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a MCI meeting [BUREAU DELETION] the subject told the group that the Negro in the United States “loved” the white man in spite of all he had done to them only because they feared him.
He asked them why they did not go to Girard College, which is in the northern part of the country. He stated that when they are told of lynching and persecutions experienced by their people, they state that it is done down South, but he explained that Girard College is in the northern part of the United States yet they are excluded because they are “too black.”
He then told the audience that there is no difference between the North and the South, only their methods are different.
He stated that stool pigeons, who have the nerve to come to the temple, listen to the teachings and tell the white man, will not be harmed by them (the Muslims), but that Allah will kill them; they are not playing with just a man, but with the work of God.
He stated that police who come in the temples have their guns and blackjacks checked at the door. Once they have heard the teachings they could never be the same. He advised them “not to tell their âchiefs' for they already know what we teach here.”
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE went on to state that Muslims respect their women and demand that everyone else respect them. He related how eleven Muslims went to jail because the train conductor touched one of their women and when the officers came into their car with guns, the brothers took them from them. He stated that the Muslims are peaceful people, but they will die for their women and demand that their women keep “straight.”
He claimed that the black man has been controlled by fear and that he went around the world to fight for the white man, but refused to go across the street to defend his rights or protect even his mother.
He stated that he was not speaking against the government, but stated that the white man “lynched us, raped our women, segregated us and discriminated against us.” He claimed that this was done by the white man and he cannot deny it, and that this is not against the government.
MALCOLM told the group to obey the law and keep out of controversy with the “devils,” as they would try to provoke them into trouble.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting held by the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI on July 8, 1955, MALCOLM LITTLE told the group that the Temple of Islam is the only place in the “wilderness of North America” that the “black man and black woman” hear the truth about themselves.