Malcolm X (43 page)
Authors: Clayborne Carson
The FBI had to deal with the most prominent suspects, which at the time were Hayer and the NOI. Talmadge Hayer had been apprehended, and an OAAU member had turned in the .45 caliber pistol he had used in the shooting. This member would apparently figure heavily in the trial of Hayer in 1966. The FBI questioned this witness extensively along with witnesses who stated that MMI members would attempt to retaliate against the NOI and Elijah Muhammad.
TO | : | DIRECTOR, FBI (100-399321) |
FROM | : | SAC, CHICAGO (100-33593) (P) |
SUBJECT | : | Â |
MALCOLM | K. LITTLE, aka |
Re Chicago teletype to Director dated 1/29/65.
Referenced teletype stated that MALCOLM X was to appear on “Kup's Show,” a TV panel-type discussion, on 1/30/65 in Chicago.
“Kup's Show” is a local TV show televised over WBKB-TV, Chicago, from approximately 12:15
A.M
. to 3:00
A.M
. on Sunday mornings. This show was televised on 1/31/65 but was taped on
1/30/65
P.M
. at studios of WBKB-TV, Chicago. IRVING KUPCINET, Chicago newspaper columnist and TV moderator, conducts the show.
The following is the transcript:
| KUPCINET: | MALCOLM, you know you've changed a lot since your first appearance on this show some years ago. At that time you were sort of a stormy individual and you hated all whites you said. |
| MALCOLM: | I've gotten older. |
| KUPCINET: | Now you have a different attitude completely and you told me that your religious experience in Cairo has changed your attitude and your outlook. |
| MALCOLM: | Well, as a Muslim, since I left ELIJAH MUHAMMAD's Black Muslim movement, I should say since they put me out 'cause that is what they did, I have had a chance to do some traveling and travel does broaden your scope, and as a Muslim whose religion is Islam, as it is practiced and taught in the Muslim world, I realize that it is impossible to call oneself a Muslim, to call one's religion Islam and at the same time judge a man by the color of his skin. . . . |
| KUPCINET: | This poses two very interesting things. In other words, you no longer believe as ELIJAH MUHAMMAD has been quoted as saying that all white men are devils. You have changed everything. |
| MALCOLM: | If ELIJAH MUHAMMAD says that all white men are devils, then you have the King of Arabia, King Faisal, who is white. He is the keeper of the Holy City of Mecca and many other Arabs, in Egypt, in Algeria, and in other places. They are from all appearances white. |
| KUPCINET: | Now this poses a second problem I would like to get your opinion on. Of course, you may be biased because you no longer are a member of the so-called Black Muslims, but is the Black Muslim a religion or not, because this is coming up in a case in Chicago where a prisoner in Stateville converted from Roman Catholicism to Black Muslim and demanded to be allowed to practice his religion in jail. The warden denied this because he said the Black Muslims were not a bona fide religion. How do you feel? |
| MALCOLM: | I want to answer that with this explanation first. Number one: no one can use me against ELIJAH MUHAMMAD or against the Black Muslim movement. On the other hand, anything that ELIJAH MUHAMMAD says or does, or the Black Muslim movement says or does, which I feel is against the best interest of the Black community, then I will attack it myself, but I won't attack it because someone sics me on it, . . . Islam teaches that belief in all of the prophets, especially MUHAMMAD ibn ABD ALLAH, who was born and died in Arabia fourteen hundred years ago and the Muslim believes that MUHAMMAD of Arabia was the last prophet, the last messenger, whereas ELIJAH MUHAMMAD teaches that MUHAMMAD of Arabia was not a prophet, but an enthusiast, and that he, himself, ELIJAH, is the prophet, so that . . . what ELIJAH MUHAMMAD is teaching is diametrically opposed to the principles of Islam and the Mushm world itself, the religious officials at Mecca and other religious officials and those at the top authority on Islam theology, totally reject what ELIJAH MUHAMMAD teaches as being any phase, even of Islam. On the other hand, what he is teaching can be easily defined as a religion, but it cannot be labeled Islam . . . and I think that if the penal authorities were farsighted enough to permit the religion of Islam, real Islam, true Islam, to be taught in prison by qualified Islamic religious leaders as they let Judaism, Catholicism and the Protestant religions be taught there, then many of the people that are in prison would not be misled like I, myself, was because there is a vacuum in this country where Islam is concerned . . . and in that vacuum, it is easy for any phony or faker to come along with a concocted, distorted product of his own making, and say that this is Islam. |
| KUPCINET: | Are you by inference saying that ELIJAH MUHAMMAD is a faker and a phony? |
| MALCOLM: | If ELIJAH MUHAMMAD really believed in the same God that I believed inâI believe in ELIJAH MUHAMMAD stronger than he believed in himself. I believed in his God more than he did and I was not aware of this until I found he was confronted with a crisis in his own personal moral life and he did not stand up as a man. Anybody could make a moral mistake, but when they have to lie about it and will be willing to see that murder is committed to cover up their mistake not only are they not divine, they are not even a man. . . . |
| KUPCINET: | Are you trying to tell us that there has been an attack on your life because of your withdrawal from the Muslim religion? |
| MALCOLM: | I have had several. |
| KUPCINET: | You have? |
| MALCOLM: | And just thanks to ALLAH, so far I have been successful. I believe that when you are a black man born in this particular society, you are faced with certain dangers already. You get used to it and plus the stand that I took when I was in the Black Muslim movement was uncompromising. I defended an indefensible position. Anyone that defends an indefensible position as I didâthey must have believed in it. |
New York, New York
February 8, 1965
Malcolm K. Little
Internal SecurityâMuslim Mosque, Incorporated
On February 5, 1965 [BUREAU DELETION] advised that they recently received the following information concerning the source of finances of MMI and OAAU leader Malcolm K. Little, better known as Malcolm X. This information [BUREAU DELETION] Malcolm X has recently received the sum of $20,000 which represents an advance on his forthcoming book, to be published by Doubleday and Company, Incorporated; and, as payment for the autobiography on him which appeared in the September 12, 1964, edition of the magazine, “The Saturday Evening Post.”
[BUREAU DELETION] also advised that Malcolm X has also undoubtedly received some compensation for appearances and speeches he has recently made on radio and television and at several colleges.
This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is the property of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.
New York, New York
February 9, 1965
Malcolm K. Little
Internal SecurityâMuslim Mosque, Incorporated
On February 5, 1965, Malcolm K. Little was observed by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation boarding Trans World Airlines, (TWA), Flight 700, at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport for London, England. TWA Flight 700 departed JFK International Airport at 8:11
P.M.,
and was scheduled to arrive at London, England at 11:15
P.M
., London time.
[BUREAU DELETION] TWA, JFK International Airport, advised, on February 5, 1965, that Malcolm Little purchased an economy class ticket under the name M. Shabazz for London, Paris, Geneva, and return to New York. [BUREAU DELETION] stated that Little departed for London, England on TWA Flight 700, on February 5, 1965, with “open dates” to continue his trip to Paris, Geneva, and return trip to New York.
[BUREAU DELETION] that Little paid $478.80 cash for his plane tickets.
This document contains neither recommendations nor conclusions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; it is the property of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is loaned to your agency; it and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.
