METEORIC RISE OF MALCOLM X
By Evelyn Sell
Il.
Many: people are drawing lessons from the life and.death of Malcolm X. "Responsible" public leaders draw lessons which bolster their viewpoint. For example, Edwin Berry, head of the Chicago Urban League, said, "Malcolm had a great mind. His being driven into nationalist movements was a great mistake. It is too bad that his great mind and commitment could not have been used to help the movement. Such is the tragedy of a sick society."
On the contrary. Malcolm's life was not the “tragedy of a sick society" but a triumph over the worst diseases of this society and.a source of great revolutionary optimism for people around the world who are struggling to create a new, healthy society. If -Malcolm had accepted the living death which is the lot of most Negroes in the United States or if he had allowed himself to act as a liber-. al front for the capitalist power structure, then his career would have been another "tragedy of a sick society." a brief review of Malcolm's short life proves that all the racist repressions and brain-washing techniques cannot stifle the development of revolution~ ary consciousness within. the Negro ‘people.
An article in the March 20, 1964, World Outlook. outlined Malcolm's early years and his entrance into the Black Muslim organization led by Hii jah Muhammad :
"He was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, around 1927. His father, a Baptist minister and an ex-Garveyite, was under con-= stant fire from whites who resented his outspoken militancy against Jim Crow.- Malcolm remembers: what happened when the Ku Klux Klan burned the family home: 'The firemen came and just sat there without making any effort to put one drop of water on the Tires ‘The same fire that burned my father' s home still burns my soul.
added fuel to that soul-scorching fire was provided when his father was mysteriously killed. ‘Malcolm was sure racists murdered him. -
"The family moved east and during his late teens Malcolm became a successful petty criminal in the Harlem underworld. After several trips to jail he landed in a maximum security prison in Massachusetts. While there he read 'thousands of books because I wanted to know what made people the way they are.' He didn't find the answer to his needs in the prison library. His brother, a member of the Detroit temple (of the Nation of Islam), visited him in prison and converted him to the Muslims."
This marked the close of the first ‘stage of his life and his
triumph over the pressures that were forcing him into the stereotyped image of Negro criminality. As Malcolm has~ pointed out, "The worst crime the white man has committed has been to teach us to hate ourselves."' Malcolm was able to break out of the strait jacket of selfhatred, an abbreviated and inadequate formal education, criminal activities and dope addiction. He was never ashamed of his career as a dope peddler, pimp, numbers man and burglar;."I am not ashamed of this because it was all done when I was a part of the white man's Christian world. . . When I was in the world of the Christians, I behaved as they did..." . . .
Malcolm joined the Muslims in 1952 and he shot with meteoric speed to the very top ranks of the group's hierarchy. He became minister of the Harlem Temple number seven and built it into a very large and powerful force. He was chief trouble-shooter and public voice for Elijah Muhammad both within the United States and in other areas of the world such as Africa. When the Nation of Islam attracted nation-wide attention at the end of the 1950's it was Malcolm who _ received the most publicity. His charismatic personality and fiery speaking talents made him the focal point of public knowledge of the movement he represented.
The power structure in New York recognized him as a tremendous force within Harlem, the largest Negro ghetto in the. country. When a Black Muslim brother was struck and taken to jail by police on the night of April 14, 1958, hundreds of fellow Muslims surrounded the police station. Fearing a riot the police called on Negro leaders to-handle the situation. “Malcolm X came to the station, negotiated hospital care and release for the beaten Muslim and then stepped outside and made a slight gesture to the waiting crowd. Within minutes they vanished. .The awed police Captain McGowan remarked, "No man should have that much power over that many people. We cannot control this town if one man can wield that kind of power." Malcolm was soon to reach even greater national and international prominence,
Radio and television appearances, magazine interviews and articles, speeches at universities and rallies introduced Malcolm and the Muslim point of view to increasing numbers of Americans. His relations with top African delegates ta.the United Nations and his trip to Africa to pave the way for Muhammad's 1959 trip to Mecca estab» lished Malcolm abroad. He became known as "the St. Paul of the Black Muslim movement." ,
Mass. media immediately seized upon and publicized all of Male colm's comments pertaining to violence and hatred of white people, When a chartered plane bound from Paris to Atlanta crashed on June 3, 1962, Malcolm interrupted a sermon he was delivering to a Muslim meeting in Los Angeles and announced, ". . . a very beautiful thing has happened, . . Somebody came and told me that [Goa] had answered our prayers in France. He dropped an airplane out of the sky with over 120 white people in it. . . we will continue to pray and we hope that every day another plane falls out of the sky. . . We call on our
37
God -~ He gets rid of 120 of them at one whop."
A year later he explained to noted Negro author Louis Lomax, ", . . some of these Uncle Tom Negroes rushed into print to condemn’ me for what I had said. But what was wrong with what I said? Everybody has a God and believes that his God will deliver him and protect him from his enemies! Why can't the black man have a God? What's so wrong when a black man says his God will protect him from his white foe? If Jehovah can slay Philistines for the Jews, why can't Allah slay crackers for the so-called Negro?"
Most white Americans didn't appreciate Malcolm's logic; but increasing numbers of blacks responded to his frank words. AS a former president of the New York NAACP chapter said, "Malcolm says things you or I would not say. When he says those things, when he talks about the white man, even those of us who are repelled by his philosophy secretly cheer a little outside ourselves." Malcolm dared express 400 years of pent-up hate.
An anonymous Negro cab driver in Harlem told Life photographer Gordon Parks, ", . . that_Malcolm ain't afraid to tell Mr. Charlie [the white man], the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation -- U.S. secret police] or the cops or nobody where to get off." Malcolm, in searing words, flayed the United States government, Uncle Tom Negro leaders and their nonviolence philosophy, police groups, white liberals -- everyone who stood in the way of black freedom, He ridiculed the integration movement which aimed to bring Negroes the right "to sit down on a toilet next to a white man." He ridiculed "the Negro revolution" led by Uncle Toms directed by the white power structure. What was needed was "the black revolution," led by black men and aimed at the acquisition of land. Malcolm analyzed great revolutions of the past (the English, French, American) and explained that they all resulted in a transfer of power through gaining control of the land. Many of his examples were drawn from history and he spent much time in his talks discussing past history. Particular attention was paid to Afro-American history.
Malcolm and the Black Muslims were having increasing impact on American life. At the same time, the progress of the Freedom Now struggle affected the Black Muslims and their second-in-command,. Earlier this year Malcolm explained the significance of the Black Muslims and described the pressure that led to the split within the organization.
"Tt's contribution to the black struggle for freedom in this - country was militancy. It made many of our people dare to get loud for the first time in 400 years. It made many of the black leaders of the civil-rights movement dare to get loud for the first time -- I mean really loud -- for the first time in nearly 400 years in our country. « .« they gave respectability to the civil-rights groups and gave acceptability to the civil-rights groups. Ten years ago or more, the NAACP was looked upon as a radical leftist, almost subver-
sive, movement, and then when the Black Muslim movement came along, the power structure said thank the Lord for Roy Wilkins and the NAACP e « « The Black Muslim movement attracted the most militant young black people in this country. The most restless, the most impatient. and the most uncompromising black men and women were attracted to the Black Muslim movement. . . It actually developed, it grew, it became powerful -- but it was in a vacuum. And it was Filled with extremely militant young people who weren't willing to compromise with anything and wanted action. More action, actually, than the organization : iself could produce,"
There was a growing pressure within the ranks of the Black Muslims to join in the daily civil-rights struggles of the Negro masses and as the 1964 national election campaign loomed on the horizon there was strong sentiment to engage in independent political action, Toward the'end of 1963 there were persistent rumors that a struggle was taking place within the Black Muslims and a split was imminent between Malcolm, leading the young militants, and the business-asusual group around Muhammad,
[To be continued. ]
Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK, l'éditeur),
vy