Malcolm X (42 page)

Few men would play such an outsized role in Malcolm’s life as this enigmatic, irrepressible figure, who would become legendary as Muhammad Ali. The two men shared important childhood connections: though Clay’s father, Cassius, Sr., remained very much alive well into his son’s life, like Earl Little he had been deeply influenced by Marcus Garvey and had imparted the lessons of black pride and self-sufficiency to his son. Born on January 17, 1942, Cassius, Jr., had taken up boxing at the age of twelve under the guidance of a local police officer, at once excelling. However, at first he won more plaudits for his charm than for his pugilistic skills, making a name for himself by spouting comedic rhymes celebrating his prowess. He broke through in 1960 by winning a gold medal in the 175-pound light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics. Promptly turning professional, Clay was backed by a syndicate of wealthy white men calling themselves the Louisville Sponsoring Group.

Clay’s fierce individualism and Garvey-inspired sense of pride made him a natural fit for the Nation of Islam, and when he first encountered the group in 1959, it caught his attention. He had traveled to Chicago to fight in a Golden Gloves tournament and returned to Louisville clutching a long-playing record of Elijah Muhammad’s speeches. Still in high school, he pestered one of his teachers, unsuccessfully, to be allowed to write a paper about the sect. In March 1961, by this time a professional training in Miami, Clay encountered Captain Sam X Saxon (later Abdul Rahman) selling copies of
Muhammad Speaks
on the street. He struck up a conversation and Saxon invited him to attend the city’s small mosque. From his very first visit, the young boxer was fascinated. “This minister started teaching, and the things he said really shook me up,” he told Alex Haley.

Things like that we twenty million black people in America didn’t know our true identities, or even our true family names. And we were the direct descendants of black men and women stolen from the rich black continent and brought here and stripped of all knowledge of themselves and taught to hate themselves and their kind. And that’s how us so-called ʺNegroesʺ had come to be the only race among mankind that loves its enemies. Now, I’m the kind that catches on quick. I said to myself, listen, this man’s
saying
something!

He later claimed that it was “the first time I ever felt spiritual in my life.” Soon he started reading
Muhammad Speaks
regularly and developed friendships with NOI members, eventually coming to the attention of Jeremiah X, Atlanta’s minister and the NOI's regional boss, who traveled to Miami on several occasions to see him. Through Saxon, Clay obtained the services of a Muslim cook, who helped him observe Muslim dietary requirements.

To Malcolm, Clay was a jovial, “clean-cut, down-to-earth youngster.” He saw through Clay’s clown routine, which perhaps reminded him of his own comedic antics as Sandwich Red while serving whites on trains during the war. After their introduction at the luncheonette in early 1962, the two men stayed in contact throughout the year, and soon Malcolm asked his friend Archie Richardson (later Osman Karriem) to watch over Clay in Miami. Malcolm sensed that Clay had potential as a fighter; his conversion to the NOI could allow the sect to reach an entirely different audience. Ferdie Pacheco, Clay’s trainer, later observed, “Malcolm X and Ali were like very close brothers. It was almost like they were in love with each other.” To Clay, Malcolm was “the smartest black man on the face of the earth.” Even Pacheco was impressed. “Malcolm X was bright as hell, convincing, charismatic in the way that great leaders and martyrs are. It certainly rubbed off on Ali.”

Four days after Clay’s fight with Moore, Malcolm touched down in Los Angeles, where, according to the
Los Angeles Herald-Dispatch,
he would be helping out with a fund-raising drive and teaching classes for two weeks. But this was only part of Malcolm’s new plan. He had decided to quietly countermand Elijah’s ban on cooperation with civil rights and non-Muslim groups. To that end, between November 19 and 24, he participated in forums on “Integration or Separation” and “Militants in Negro Leadership,” the latter largely organized by the Afro-American Association. Founded earlier in 1962 by activist Donald Warden, the association was a progressive network of largely militant black students. Some of the activists who emerged from this group would soon have a major impact on the Black Freedom Movement. The association chapter in the Bay Area claimed future Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton as a member, and in Los Angeles the local leader was Ron Everett, who subsequently became the high priest of black cultural nationalism, known as Maulana Karenga.

Although the conference and rally managed to bring out only four hundred people—much smaller than the thousands of Harlemites that Mosque No. 7 regularly massed—it attracted the attention of the
New York Times
as well as the national black press. The daylong program featured a series of workshops under the theme “The Mind of the Ghetto.” In the plenary session, Wilfred Ussery of the Afro-American Association vigorously propounded CORE's nonviolent approach, but the crowd was overwhelmingly for Malcolm. The
Times
observed, “There appeared to be a considerable number of Black Muslim supporters, judging from shouts of approval that punctuated the statements made by Malcolm X.ʺ

The cheers reflected the increasing complexity of Malcolm’s relationship with the leftmost wing of the civil rights movement. Unlike the NAACP, whose discrete units largely moved in lockstep thanks to its rigid, multitiered hierarchy, CORE had a freer organizing structure with less oversight from national headquarters. Local branches often took on a different, more militant character that found greater common ground with the NOI's black nationalism. Whereas Malcolm and James Farmer had long disagreed on philosophy and tactics, in the CORE outposts more and more activists were aligning themselves with Malcolm.

At the conference, Malcolm did not obscure his political differences with CORE, criticizing the Freedom Rides as a waste of resources and repeatedly underscoring the fundamental difference that separated integrationist liberals from black nationalists: the former believed that the predominantly white political system possessed the capacity to reform itself on matters of race, whereas the latter viewed that as impossible. “Our problem will never be solved by the white man,” said Malcolm. “We must solve it for ourselves.” When eventually he returned from the Los Angeles visit, he had reached certain conclusions about his future. Despite Muhammad’s warnings, he would return to the lecture circuit. He also favored direct involvement in civil rights, engaging in frequently critical dialogues with militants in SNCC, CORE, and local groups such as the Afro-American Association. CORE may have moved toward Malcolm, but he was not himself unmoved.

This strategy would soon be tested. On Christmas Day 1962, two Muslims were arrested while selling
Muhammad Speaks
in Times Square. Three days later, at a Mosque No. 7 meeting, Malcolm told his followers that it grieved him every time that the NOI had to go to court, but he could not condone cowardice. On January 2 he sent a telegram to New York City mayor Robert Wagner, with copies to the district attorney, Frank Hogan, and police commissioner Michael Murphy, challenging the arrests. Malcolm denounced the arrests as a suppression of press freedom, and “the freedom of religious expression.”

But the Nation’s legal troubles continued to mount. In Rochester, on January 6, police invaded the city’s mosque during a service, after receiving a call claiming that a man with a gun was inside the building where the mosque was located. Two policemen said they were beaten during the raid, and more than a dozen Muslims were arrested. Malcolm at once flew to Rochester. “We allow no intrusions at ou[r] religious services and will give our lives if necessary to protect their sanctity,” he told the press, before filing formal complaints. Returning to New York City, he led a nonviolent demonstration in front of Manhattan’s Criminal Court. The flyers circulated at the protest could have been written by SNCC radicals. “America has become a Police-state for 20 Million Negroes,” one declared. “We must let [Rochester’s NOI members] know they are not alone. We must let them know that the
whole Dark World is with them
.ʺ Later that evening, Malcolm told a crowd at a Mosque No. 7 meeting that he was “tired of hearing about Muslims being pistol-whipped.” On January 25 the two Muslim newspaper salesmen were sentenced to sixty days in jail.

That same week Malcolm’s new militancy was on full display at Michigan State University. Before an audience of more than a thousand, he sounded out many familiar themes, but with a new twist:

The address also showcased his evolving ideas about race. For decades, the NOI had preached that the ethnic identity of black Americans was Asiatic, descendants of the lost tribe of Shabazz that had its origins in the Middle East. But now Malcolm affirmed the common cultural heritage that united Africans with African Americans. “The man that you call Negro is nothing but an African himself,” he explained. “The unity of Africans abroad and the unity of Africans here in this country can bring about practically any kind of achievement or accomplishment that black people want.” During the question and answer period, Malcolm also denounced South African apartheid, making a sharp distinction between that system and the separatism advocated by Muhammad. Once more, he criticized CORE's James Farmer for his marriage to a white woman, quipping that it “almost makes him a white man.” He turned finally to the Jewish people as an appropriate role model for black empowerment. “Whenever the Jews have been segregated and Jim Crowed, they haven’t sat-in,” he insisted. “They usually go and use the economic weapon.”

The mosque assault in Rochester animated Malcolm, as it provided a counterpoint and companion piece to the legal proceedings unfolding against the Muslims in Los Angeles. Preliminary hearings had begun there at the end of 1962, and the trial itself was scheduled for the upcoming spring. But the high profile of the Los Angeles case meant that Malcolm had little room to maneuver or make way on his protest plans; Muhammad and his Chicago lieutenants would be watching. In Rochester, however, deep in upstate New York, he could be more vocal. On January 28 he addressed an audience of four hundred at the city’s university, where his speech moved him even closer to openly promoting equality over racial separation. “Americans have come to realize that the black man is capable of doing things equal to him,” he told his largely student audience. “But they are not fully prepared to accept that the black man can take a role in political and economic society.” Without acknowledging his shift, Malcolm had drawn closer to both Rustin and Farmer. If African Americans received the full measure of their constitutional rights and equal opportunities across the board, could racism be abolished? In the Rochester talk, Malcolm answered: no race problem would exist in the United States “if the Negro could ‘speak as an American.’ ”

He seemed more than ever of two minds, pulled both by his loyalty to Muhammad and by a need to engage in the struggle. Having just ventured to discuss the role of the black man in society, he quickly shifted gears. On February 3, during an interview broadcast on radio and television, he again pressed Elijah Muhammad’s plan for a separate black state inside the United States. Then, turning back to protest ten days later, he led a Manhattan street demonstration of about 230 Fruit of Islam members to denounce police harassment. The police had cautioned him that protest rallies were illegal in Times Square and that he and his men would be subject to arrest. Malcolm replied that he was going to walk through Times Square as an individual, which was his constitutional right. If others voluntarily walked in file behind him, that was not his responsibility. No one was arrested.

Word soon reached him that twelve of the Muslims jailed after the police raid on Rochester's mosque were planning a hunger strike, and he quickly came to their support. He informed the press that the protesting Muslims were prepared to fast “until they die.” Alluding to the Black Freedom Movement, he boasted that soon “Rochester will be better known than Oxford, Mississippi,” the Southern town where thousands of angry whites erupted in street violence attempting to halt the desegregation of Ole Miss. The very next day, February 16, the
Rochester Times
reported that twelve of the thirteen prisoners had been released, pending charges. The funds for their bail had been forwarded by Elijah Muhammad. The same day, Malcolm addressed another Harlem rally, organized around the theme that “America has become a police state for 20 million Negroes.” Following the demonstration, he once again led hundreds of protesters down affluent midtown Manhattan streets.