Malcolm X (26 page)

2/4/63

AIRTEL

TO: DIRECTOR, FBI (25-330971)

FROM: SAC, WFO (100-22829)

NATION OF ISLAM

IS-NOI

(OO:CG)

During a simultaneous release of a filmed interview on radio and television stations WMAL, Washington, D. C, on 2/3/63, at 7:00
P.M
., MALCOLM X, New York City, described as the official spokesman for the black Muslims and Minister of Muhammad's Mosque, No. 7, New York City's Harlem District, made some comments as follows:

The honorable ELIJAH MUHAMMAD teaches that the black man is closer to God and is actually superior physiologically, psychologically, socially and numerically.

The religion of Islam eliminates drunkenness, dope addiction, vice, immorality, smoking, drinking, stealing, lying, cheating, gambling, and disrespect for womanhood.

Regarding violence, Muslims are taught to obey the law, respect the law and to do unto others as “We would like them to do unto us,” but that after having religiously obeyed the law, the Muslims are within their rights to defend themselves when attacked.

Muslims are never involved in riots and are never involved in violence unless attacked.

ELIJAH MUHAMMAD has never advocated the overthrow of the government. If the black man cannot go back to his own people and his own land, ELIJAH MUHAMMAD is asking that a part of the United States be separated and given to the Muslims so they can live separately. ELIJAH MUHAMMAD is the only man the white people can deal with in the solving of problems of the so-called Negro, as ELIJAH MUHAMMAD knows his problems.

Communism does not support the Muslim ideology.

The FBI spends twenty-four hours daily in attempting to infiltrate the Muslims and after Muslim meetings are held, the FBI goes from door to door asking about the meetings. The FBI goes far beyond its duty in the “religious suppression” of the Muslims.

The NAACP has existed for fifty-four years, during which period it has always had a white man as president. MALCOLM believes that the organization is not developing leadership among the black people or it is practicing discrimination.

There is a group of Muslims in every Negro community.

Financial support from the white people is not desired, but would be accepted because it would represent what the white “forefathers” robbed from the black “forefathers” during the 310 years that the Negro spent in bondage while working without pay for the white people.

The above interview was conducted by MATTHEW WARREN and MALCOLM LA PLACE, reporters for WMAL News.

A more complete account of the interview will be furnished to the Bureau, CG and NY when it has been assembled.

My memorandum 2/1/63 advised a scheduled program called “Black Muslim” would be presented at 7
P.M
., Sunday, 2/3/63 on Channel 7, WMAL Television, Washington, D. C. “Black Muslims” is the term used by the news media in referring to the Nation of Islam (NOI). WMAL, the
Evening Star
(a Washington, D. C, daily newspaper) station, advised that one of the reasons they were presenting the program was because they felt it presented MALCOLM X and the “Black Muslims” in a “bad light.”

During the program MALCOLM X did refer to the FBI on one occasion. He said:

OBSERVATIONS:

In carrying out our responsibilities in the security field [BUREAU DELETION], However, the statements concerning harassment and threats are absolutely false and are additional examples of wild untrue statements made to influence the Negro.

The program did not put MALCOLM X or the “Black Muslims” in a “bad light.” The “answers” given by MALCOLM X were not questioned. He was allowed to expound the NOI program in such a way that he created interest in the NOI. This is another example of the effect of publicity concerning the NOI. While it was intended to have an adverse effect, it created interest in the organization which was out of proportion to its importance.

RECOMMENDATION:

It is recommended that we continue to follow the approved policy of taking no steps which would give them additional publicity.

[BUREAU DELETION] made available to SA [BUREAU DELETION] a recording of the speech made by MALCOLM X LITTLE at the Hi-Fi Country Club in Charlotte, N. C, on 1/30/63.

[BUREAU DELETION]

Hearing the actual speech of MALCOLM X enables the listener to discover the type of argument and logic employed by a hate peddler. The resulting effect is clearly heard in the background of this particular tape.

[BUREAU DELETION] The listener can hear audience reaction in the background as MALCOLM X stimulates his listeners to the release of their prejudices, grievances and wishes. Some of the content of the tape underlines the inhibitions and repressed attitudes of a segment of Negroes in general and of Charlotte Negroes in particular. These bitternesses are easily identified on the tape through crowd outbursts as MALCOLM X underlines some of the causes of Negro unrest.

This taped speech [BUREAU DELETION] shows clearly how MALCOLM X unites the individuals into an emotional entity, how he achieves rapport, reaches common understanding and responsiveness as he fuses individuals into a unit.

It is interesting to listen to the method of using statements of fact to set a favorable state of mind as he interweaves easy catch phrases of hate into the content of his speech. He continually throws irritants into an atmosphere of growing disapproval of the white race.

MALCOLM X uses his skill as a speaker to direct emotions and hatreds of his audience toward white people whom he sets up as a scapegoat for Negroes, described by him as a people severed from their racial heritage.

WASHINGTON 25, D. C.

May 13, 1963

The
Washington Post
, a Washington, D. C. daily newspaper, in its issue of May 13, 1963, on page B-3, carried an article entitled “400 Hear MALCOLM X Speak Here.” This article reflected that MALCOLM X, the Number Two leader of the Black Muslims, spoke on May 12, 1963, to an audience of about four hundred persons in a studio of a Washington, D. C. radio station, WUST. This article stated that the subject had been transferred recently as Minister of the sect's Washington Mosque. MALCOLM X announced that whites had been barred from the meeting “so that we can talk about them like we want to.” A squad of young Muslims frisked everyone at the door for weapons. No whites were seen attempting to enter.

The subject warned at this meeting, according to the newspaper article, that Negroes can expect little better treatment from President Kennedy than they get from Alabama Governor George C. Wallace. He characterized the two men as a wolf and a fox. “Neither one loves you,” he said. “The only difference is that the fox will eat you with a smile instead of a scowl.”

MALCOLM X cited the weekend bombings and fighting in Birmingham, Alabama, as proof of the failure of the turn-the-other-cheek policy advocated by Martin Luther King. He said that Negroes ought to stay away from the white man, “but if he turns his dogs on your babies, your women and your children, then you ought to kill the dogs, whether they've got four legs or two.”

SECTION 9

May 23, 1963–January 23, 1964

Rather than policy prescriptions, the Bureau reports in this section limit themselves to reporting Malcolm's public appearances. This section outlines his activities from the time of his May appointment as Minister of Mosque No. 4 in Washington through the end of 1963, including Malcolm's reactions to the August 28 March on Washington, his comments regarding President Kennedy's assassination, and his subsequent suspension from the NOI.

The Bureau reported that any NOI members who participated in the “Farce on Washington,” as Malcolm called it, would receive ninety-day suspensions. Yet Malcolm himself attended, as he relates in his autobiography:

Malcolm clearly disapproved of the march, but instead of acting in the traditional NOI manner by avoiding the event, he actually attended in order to have his militant stance be heard. Thus, he satisfied both Elijah Muhammad and his own increasing desire to become a visible part of mass black nationalism.

The FBI had received information that the schism between Malcolm and Elijah seemed to be healing, but apparently this information was incorrect. After Malcolm's “chickens coming home to roost” comment, Elijah suspended him at first for ninety days, and then indefinitely. Malcolm's submission to the suspension is well-documented in his autobiography, but the FBI also received a report of a conversation in which Malcolm and Elijah try to understand each other's positions. The January 2 conversation is confusing, and many FBI deletions increase the difficulty of understanding the informant's description. However, a close reading reveals that Malcolm appears to be attempting to submit to Elijah in full, but Elijah is intent on perpetuating the widening rift between them.

An interesting letter to Director Hoover and a personal response from him hint at FBI activity against Malcolm X. The September 19, 1963 letter, written by a “concerned citizen,” questions “Are we doing anything to curb the activities of Black Muslim leader ‘Malcolm X'?” Comparing Malcolm to Hitler, the letter asks why he is not “stopped now before it is too late?” J. Edgar Hoover's personal response to the inquiry states that the FBI is “unable to answer your specific inquiry due to the confidential nature of our files.” However, Hoover assures the writer that “the FBI is carrying out its responsibilities in the internal security field with the same dispatch and thoroughness which have characterized our investigations in the past.”