Malcolm X (20 page)

TO

:

DIRECTOR, FBI (25-330971)
DATE: 7/21/59

FROM

:

SAC, NEW YORK (105-7809)

SUBJECT

:

NATION OF ISLAM
IS-NOI
Remyairtel 7/16/59

WALLACE:

Tonight we take a look at the impact of the black supremacist movements upon the power structure of the New York Negro community. Not infrequently, when the Harlem leaders gather, JAMES R. LAWSON and Minister MALCOLM X are there. JAMES LAWSON is President of the United African Nationalist Movement. He is a man who said that ROY WILKINS is an “Uncle Tom.” He calls ARTHUR SPINGARN, President of the NAACP, a Zionist Jew. He calls United Nations Under Secretary RALPH BUNCH the “George Washington of Israel.” Minister MALCOLM X is the leader of the New York Muslims. They are the purveyors of the doctrine that the white man is evil by nature,
that he is incapable of doing good, that he must be destroyed; and when these black supremacists hold their major meetings such politicians as ADAM CLAYTON POWELL and HULAN JACK and City Councilman EARL BROWN are not infrequently there. Here you see City Councilman EARL BROWN addressing a Muslim rally. He is at the podium. Note Minister MALCOLM X and Muslim leader ELIJAH MUHAMMAD in the background. Manhattan Borough President HULAN JACK was at that meeting and here you see him, his back, shaking hands with ELIJAH MUHAMMAD. It should be made very clear that none of these men, EARL BROWN, HULAN JACK, ADAM POWELL, is a black nationalist or Muslim; but they are politicians, leaders of mass movements, and they need votes and so sometimes they find it necessary to rub shoulders with the black supremacists.

 

On May 18 of last year, New York woke up to this news story:

 

HULAN JACK, the Negro who had been elected to the highest municipal office ever occupied by a man of his race in this nation's history had been booed off a Harlem street corner by members of his own race. Clearly something was afoot in Harlem. No one seemed to know quite what.

 

“News Beat” reporter LOUIS LOMAX covered that story. LOU, what were the facts behind that story?

LOMAX:

To capsule it, MIKE, the Muslims were miffed with HULAN JACK because he had not attended some rallies that were held in Harlem; they organized the booing session. Minister
MALCOLM X gave the signal by walking through a tavern door, and the booing began.

WALLACE:

The booing session took place at a NAACP meeting, didn't it?

LOMAX:

That is correct. They were celebrating the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision desegregating schools.

WALLACE:

And the Muslims organized the booing?

LOMAX:

Yes, they did. The booing signal was when MALCOLM X walked through the tavern door, and once the booing began, many non-Muslims joined in the well-organized spontaneous demonstration.

WALLACE:

Well then, what did HULAN JACK do to bolster his popularity in Harlem as a result of this booing incident?

LOMAX:

Well, I do not want to make any unwarranted conclusions, but the records show that within a week or two HULAN JACK hired a Negro public relations man. A month and a half later he welcomed Mr. ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, the leader of the Muslims, to New York.

WALLACE:

Well, what do you say?

LOMAX:

Just this. That there was unrest in the Negro community, that HULAN JACK was very unpopular, and that the Muslims were those who expressed this sentiment.

WALLACE:

And he wooed the Muslims?

LOMAX:

Yes.

WALLACE:

That was the story, that is the story that the headlines failed to tell. . . .

WALLACE:

Let us take a closer look at this man—a closer look at this man called brilliant by Congressman ADAM POWELL. This man, MALCOLM X, who preached a vesper service in ADAM POWELL church. There he is with the glasses.

 

MALCOLM X, by his own admission to “News Beat,” is a former dope peddler and procurer, an ex-convict who served time for theft in Michigan and Massachusetts prisons. He is a changed man now, he says, because ELIJAH MUHAMMAD's personal brand of Islam taught him no longer to be ashamed of being a black man. So it becomes evident that the responsible leaders of the Negro community are fully aware of the activities and teachings of the black supremacists.

 

But what about the NAACP? This organization is dedicated to the elimination of all racism, black and white. What does it know about the drive for black supremacy? Reporter LOMAX asked NAACP Executive Secretary ROY WIL-KINS what is the attitude of his organization toward the black supremacists and this is what ROY WILKINS said:

LOMAX:

Mr. WILKINS, you said that you are not aware of any of these street corner meetings and what they have been saying.

WILKINS:

Oh, I'm aware of the meetings, but all I said was that I haven't stood around on street corners and listened to any speeches.

LOMAX:

Has the NAACP ever taken any kind of action against these people or have you ever raised the question of whether they should be on the street corner or whether they should be allowed to say these kinds of things?

WILKINS:

Oh no. We believe in free speech. If they want to speak on street corners that is up to them.

LOMAX:

Let me move on to something else. Several Negro newspapers, specifically the
Pittsburgh Courier
and the
Los Angeles Herald Dispatch
, carry a column written by one Mr. ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
in which he advances the thesis that white men are devils and snakes.

WILKINS:

Certainly.

LOMAX:

And that they are the evil doers that are synonymous with evil and should be destroyed. Are you aware of this column and the Muslim movement in general which Mr. MUHAMMAD heads?

WILKINS:

I do not read the
Los Angeles Herald Dispatch
at all and I must say that in reading the
Pittsburgh Courier
I have never read a column by Mr. who?

LOMAX:

ELIJAH MUHAMMAD.

WILKINS:

ELIJAH MUHAMMAD? No, no.

LOMAX:

You have never seen his column?

WILKINS:

I have seen the name, but I have never been induced to read it.

WALLACE:

We found it incredible that ROY WILKINS was unaware of the existence of ELIJAH MUHAMMAD. Every other responsible Negro leader in the city knows about the Muslims, about ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, and about Minister MALCOLM X, who is the New York leader of the Muslims, the heir apparent to ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, the man who ADAM CLAYTON POWELL called “brilliant.”

 

Then our research staff unearthed these picture.

 

Here you see ROY WILKINS conversing with MALCOLM X. That is ROY WILKINS in profile and MALCOLM X just behind him to his right. And here you see the two men shaking hands. Now maybe Mr. WILKINS does not know ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, maybe he does not know that the Muslims have parochial schools where they teach the youngsters that the white man is evil by nature and must be destroyed; maybe Mr. WILKINS does not know that there are about two hundred fifty thousand
of these people in the United States; maybe he does not know that the members of the black nationalist movement have taken to street corners in New York to preach hatred of the white man; to call ELEANOR ROOSEVELT, for instance, the “African white goddess.” Maybe he does not know all these things, but I think he should. As leader of the NAACP, he not only should know these things, but he and his colleagues should begin to do something about it. The truth is that Negro leaders do know about these hate merchants. They have been aware of the Muslims and of the black nationalists for some years now; they have tried in effect to ignore them, to sweep them under the rug.

 

We call this series “The Hate That Hate Produced” because it is our conviction that the hate that we have been learning about is the hatred that a minority of Negroes are returning for the hate the majority of Negroes have received.

 

Senator HUBERT HUMPHREY told the NAACP fiftieth-anniversary convention today that the Negro people are to be congratulated for returning love for hate, but here we are seeing tragic evidence, frightening evidence, that some Negroes are returning hate for hate. The white community must accept a good deal of the blame for the indignities the Negroes have suffered. The white community must admit its share of the blame and take corrective action. But the Negro community is not blameless. They and all of their responsible leaders must move quickly to root out the hatemongers in their midst.

REPORTS:

1. November 17, 1959. New York

2. March 3, 1960. Text of “Pro and Con” (report not available)

3. May 17, 1960. New York