Politics is the way persons and groups relate to each other intentionally to affect government. Voters voting is political behavior; citizens not voting is political non-action; a mayor talking to a fire-chief over the phone is politics. Political activism by individuals not officially part of government has been going on since cities, states and nations arose in ancient times. It isn’t unusual for politics to mix with religion in the history of political activism and this was the case for Malcolm X, a Muslim family man (wife and six children), who made more speeches than can be counted for his cause of “complete freedom, complete justice, complete equality”¹ for black people in America. These three aspects of Malcolm X’s objective were to be accomplished “by any means necessary,”² a phrase and moral principle found here and there in his speeches and interviews. Malcolm X was willing to plan and direct extreme measures in organizing the black community, if necessary. This radicalism was part of his understanding of the situation of black folk in America in the 50s and 60s and also part of his grasp of Islam.

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association, stressing unity between Africa and blacks across the world, an end to foreign rule in Africa and one government for the entire African continent. Garvey advocated return to Africa for black people living outside that land.

Both of Malcolm X’s parents, Earl Little (a Baptist preacher) and Louise (from West Indies) were members of Garvey’s Association and avid volunteers spreading Garvey’s message through Nebraska (where Malcolm X was born, 1925), Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, as the family moved from place to place. Earl Little and his family were harassed by whites (KuKluxKlan or similar groups) and Earl died under suspicious circumstance, run over by a streetcar in 1931.³ Louise Little, widow, had difficulty caring for her children, suffered a mental breakdown in 1938 and spent over twenty years in a state mental facility. The children were sent to foster homes.

Charlestown State Prison/Norfolk Prison

In 1941, Malcolm X moved to his older sister Ella’s home in Boston and in 1946 was convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to ten years of jail. In prison, Malcolm X discovered the Nation of Islam and reformed his ways, following the strict moral code promulgated by Elijah Muhammad. In Charlestown and then Norfolk prison (transferred in 1948), Malcolm X became a consummate reader, even before his religious conversion, delving into dictionaries and language, history, religion, philosophy. He corresponded with Elijah Muhammad, absorbing the principles of Nation of Islam. Malcolm X joined the Norfolk debate team. Malcolm X is an exemplar of a self-educated and reformed man, with the help of Allah, who became one of the finest orators of United States of America.

Separation from the White Devil

Malcolm X was paroled in 1952 and quickly went to Detroit, living with his brother Wilfred while both attended Nation of Islam (NOI) Temple No. 1 there. Malcolm X became a Temple leader, its membership increasing under his influence. Soon he was given more authority and responsibility by Elijah Muhammad and sent to Boston and big cities along the east coast to draw new members to NOI temples, eventually being appointed chief minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem (in 1954). NOI rolls increased by thousands upon thousands with Malcolm X’s rhetorical skill and impetus (e.g., he helped start NOI newspaper Muhammad Speaks). His speeches were full of NOI doctrine.

Says Elijah Muhammad, “Read and study the above chapter of John 8:42, all of you, who are Christians, believers in the Bible and Jesus, as you say. If you understand it right, you will agree with me that the whole Caucasian race is a race of devils. They have proved to be devils in the garden of Paradise and were condemned 4,000 years later by Jesus. Likewise, they are condemned today, by the Great Mahdi Muhammad, as being nothing but devils in the plainest language. The so-called American Negroes have been deceived and blinded by their unlikeness, soft-smooth buttered words, eye-winking, back-patting, a false show of friendship and handshaking.”⁴

Elijah Muhammad spoke to some ten-thousand black Muslims at Uline Arena, Washington D.C., in 1959 and was introduced by Malcolm X. Said Malcolm X, “everyone who is here today realizes that we are now living in the fulfillment of prophecy. We have come to hear and to see the greatest and the wisest and most fearless black man in America today. In the church we used to sing the song ‘good news, the chariot is coming’ – is that right or wrong – but what we must bear in mind that what’s good news to one person is bad news to another. While you sit here today knowing that you have come to hear good news, you must realize in advance that what’s good news for you might be bad news for somebody else. What’s good news for the sheep might be bad news for the wolf.”⁵

A 1959 interview with Malcolm X by reporter, Louis Lomax, begins with Lomax asking Malcolm X to clarify Elijah Muhammad’s teaching about the snake in the garden of Eden. Malcolm X said, “well, number one, he teaches us that that never was a real serpent that went into the garden. As you know, the Bible was written in symbols and parables and this serpent or snake is a symbol that’s used to hide the real identity of the one whom that actually was – the white man.”⁶

Understanding that whites are bad, members of NOI separated themselves from the larger society as much as possible and separation and segregation were taught by Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Says Elijah Muhammad, “What we must understand today is the importance of acquiring land of our own. We are no longer a mere handful of people. We are a little better than 22 million in population and still increasing.”⁷ “We cannot be successful in the house of our enemies; we should be in our own house.”⁸ “Integration means self-destruction..”⁹ “In order to build a nation you must first have some land. From our first generation of slaves to the present generation of our people, we have been unable to unite and acquire some land of our own due to the mental poisoning of our former slave-masters, who destroyed in us the desire to think and do for self and kind.”¹⁰

Here are a few quotations from Malcolm X.¹¹

Speech at Harlem Freedom Rally, 1960

Again I repeat, we are not gathered here today because we are Muslims or
Christians, Protestants or Catholics, Baptists or Methodists, Democrats
or Republicans, Masons or Elks…but because as a collective mass of black
people we have been colonized, enslaved, lynched, exploited, deceived and
abused.
As a collective mass of black people we have been deprived, not only of
civil rights, but even our human rights, the right to human dignity…the
right to be a human being!

Speech at Queens College, 1960

The Creator of the Universe, whom many of you call God or Jehovah, is
known to the Muslims by the name Allah. Since the Muslims believe all
prophets came from that one God and therefore all taught one and the
same religion, rightly called Islam, which means the complete submission
and obedience to Allah.
One who practices this Divine Obedience is called a Muslim..

Mr. Elijah Muhammad is our Divine Leader and Teacher here in America.
He believes in and obeys God 100 per cent and is teaching and working
among us to fulfill God’s Divine Purpose.
What is this purpose? God’s purpose today, just as it was in biblical days, is
the complete separation of the so-called Negroes from their slave master…
as the bible says concerning today: “Let every man be under his own vine
and fig tree.”

Debate with Bayard Rustin, 1960

Any religion that does not take into consideration the freedom
and the rights of the black man is the wrong religion. But politics as
such is not the solution. But the divine solution would have to have that
ingredient in it. You can call it politics if you want, but the overall problem
of the so-called Negro in America is not a political problem as such, it is
an economic problem, a social problem, a mental problem, and a spiritual
problem. Only God can solve the whole problem.

Speech at Yale Law School, 1962

Let us take the advice Paul gave in the Bible; let us toss our emotions aside
and reason together. Let us look closely at this chaotic world picture before
us, and in the light of the facts let us then determine if Mr. Muhammad’s
divine solution fits the picture before us.

Never before has America made so many crucial blunders, one after
another, and suffered such great loss of prestige in the eyes of the world,
despite the advice of her expert advisors.

The U-2 spy plane incident caused the President of the strongest country
on earth to be tricked, trapped and exposed before the whole world as a
liar…despite the advice of expert advisors.

At the Paris Summit Conference, the same President was cursed, ridiculed,
and humiliated again before the eyes of the entire world…despite the advice
of his expert advisors.

In Korea, students, mere children, toppled the government of Syngman
Rhee, the best friend America had in the Far East, despite the advice of her
expert advisors.

In Turkey, children toppled the government of Menderes, America’s best
friend in the Middle East…despite the advice of expert advisors.

In Tokyo, students, mere children again, defied the President to come to
Japan, and blocked him from entering after he had traveled thousands of
miles from home and had arrived at their back door…a most humiliating
insult…despite the advice of his expert advisors.

And Cuba, a little midget island government in the Caribbean, is
challenging Giant America, accusing her of economic aggression,
confiscating all of her investments, and getting unexpected support from Mexico and other strategically located Latin American countries…and all
of this, despite the advice of her expert advisors.

My friends, if the expert politicians, the expert theologians, the expert
diplomats and other scientists, professors and scholars have failed to devise
a solution to these grave world problems, surely you will agree that it is
now time for God to send us someone with a solution from Himself.

Is Mr. Muhammad from God? Is he on time? Does his divine solution fit
the events of today?

Chickens Come Home to Roost

In November 1963, U.S. President John Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas (r.i.p. JFK). This was a shock to the country and caused much grief and sorrow as Kennedy was well-liked. Elijah Muhammad ordered his ministers not to comment on Kennedy’s assassination, but Malcolm X did so at a public meeting he addressed at Manhattan Center, NYC on Dec. 1, 1963. After his speech, entitled ‘God’s Judgment of White America,’ Malcolm X took questions from reporters and replied to a query about the President’s assassination that it was a case of “chickens coming home to roost,” meaning something like ‘he got what he deserved.’ This disobedience was relayed to Elijah Muhammad who suspended Malcolm X from public speaking for three months.

During the next three months, through back and forth between himself and Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X learned that his suspension might be prolonged and he might be removed from leadership in NOI altogether.¹² On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X announced he was exiting NOI. March 12, he held a press conference, giving a short talk on his split from NOI and that he was starting his own mosque, ‘Muslim Mosque, Inc.’ This move by Malcolm X involved significant changes in his approach to black liberation. His mosque would make room for “all Negroes in our political, economic, and social programs, despite their religious or non-religious beliefs;” his mosque will enter electoral politics, “we will organize, and sweep out of office all Negro politicians who are puppets of the outside forces;” his mosque will allow help from whites, “whites can help us, but they can’t join us;” he is willing to work with “other Negro leaders or organizations . . . we must find a common approach, a common solution, to a common problem.” These ideas are quite different from teachings and practices of NOI.

Malcolm X Becomes an International Muslim

In April 1964, Malcolm X delivered a speech, ‘The Ballot or the Bullet,’ twice, each slightly different from the other, at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland (April 3) and King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit (April 12). On April 13, Malcolm X left U.S. for a trip abroad to Saudi Arabia and African nations, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar), Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria. This journey was a life-changing experience for Malcolm X in that he joined Sunni¹³ Muslim world community and discovered firsthand in talks with African leaders how an African revolution was taking place discarding the shackles of western colonialism.

Lessons Learned

Two lessons learned by Malcolm X were that white people were not devils per se and that the civil rights struggle of Afro-Americans should be connected to the worldwide movement of oppressed peoples for freedom. He founded Organization of Afro-American Unity in June, 1964 and embarked on a five-month trip to Arabia and Africa in July, participating in the second conference of the OAU, Organization of African Unity, in Cairo. Malcolm X’s trips abroad had a profound effect on his heart and mind, confirming and pushing him further along the path he had already begun in the split from NOI. Here are some words from Malcolm X, all coming after his sacred pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca.

Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this Ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.

I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca. I have made my seven circuits around the Ka’ba, led by a young Mutawaf named Muhammad. I drank water from the well of the Zam Zam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of Mt. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on Mt. Arafat.

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered ‘white’–but the ‘white’ attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug)–while praying to the same God–with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions in the deeds of the ‘white’ Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana.

We were truly all the same (brothers)–because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.

I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man–and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.

(‘Letter from Mecca‘ Apr/’64)

So we have formed an organization known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity which has the same aim and objective to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.

That’s our motto. We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary. We don’t feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don’t think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D.C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don’t think anybody should have it.

(Founding Rally OAAU Jun/’64)

Many of you probably read last week I made an effort to go to Paris and was turned away. And Paris doesn’t turn anybody away. You know anybody is supposed to be able to go to France, it’s supposed to be a very liberal place. But France is having problems today that haven’t been highly publicized. And England is also having problems that haven’t been highly publicized, because America’s problems have been so highly publicized. But all of these three partners, or allies, have troubles in common today that the Black American, or Afro-American, isn’t well enough up on.

And in order for you and me to know the nature of the struggle that you and I are involved in, we have to know not only the various ingredients involved at the local level and national level, but also the ingredients that are involved at the international level. And the problems of the Black man here in this country today have ceased to be a problem of just the American Negro or an American problem. It has become a problem that is so complex, and has so many implications in it, that you have to study it in its entire world, in the world context or in its international context, to really see it as it actually is. Otherwise you can’t even follow the local issue, unless you know what part it plays in the entire international context. And when you look at it in that context, you see it in a different light, but you see it with more clarity.

And you should ask yourself why should a country like France be so concerned with a little insignificant American Negro that they would prohibit him from going there, when almost anybody else can go to that country whenever they desire. And it’s primarily because the three countries have the same problems. And the problem is this: That in the Western Hemisphere, you and I haven’t realized it, but we aren’t exactly a minority on this earth. In the Western Hemisphere there are — there’s the people in Brazil, two thirds of the people in Brazil are dark-skinned people, the same as you and I. They are people of African origin, African ancestry — African background. And not only in Brazil, but throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States, and Canada, you have people here who are of African origin.

Many of us fool ourselves into thinking of Afro-Americans as those only who are here in the United States. America is North America, Central America, and South America. Anybody of African ancestry in South America is an Afro-American. Anybody in Central America of African blood is an Afro-American. Anybody here in North America, including Canada, is an Afro-American if he has African ancestry — even down in the Caribbean, he’s an Afro-American. So when I speak of the Afro-American, I’m not speaking of just the 22 million of us who are here in the United States. But the Afro-American is that large number of people in the Western Hemisphere, from the southernmost tip of South America to the northernmost tip of North America, all of whom have a common heritage and have a common origin when you go back to the roots of these people.

(‘Not just an American problem, but a World Problem‘ Feb/’65)

Death of Malcolm X

February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot down at the podium and lectern at Audubon Ballroom (NYC) as he was beginning his address for an OAAU meeting. His wife and children were present in the audience. A bodyguard tried to resuscitate him, his wife Betty Shabazz, knelt to resuscitate him, but it was too late.

Malcolm X was pronounced dead at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, 3:30pm.

Then and Now

A white person seeking understanding of Malcolm X in 2023 might have a different approach and perspective than that same person in 1965. In 1965, a white man or woman likely would have been afraid of Malcolm X and his milieu. Fear would lead one to avoid whatever is its cause, but if “fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prv 9:10), then danger ought be recognized as a thing worth knowing. Then, on the basis of wisdom or understanding, one can decide whether the danger is to be pushed away or kept near. Malcolm X was a dangerous man and a man of courage.

Notes

1. [Malcolm X, ‘The Power of Africa‘] in Joanne Grant (ed.), Black Protest (NY: Fawcett, 1989), “Malcolm X at the Audubon” [speech 12/20/64] p. 449
2. Ibid.
3. This happened in Lansing, where the Little family was then living. Earl Little’s death was officially ruled accidental, but Malcolm X mentions rumors in town that his father was attacked by white racists. See, The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley (NY: Ballantine, 1973/1999), pp. 19, 22
4. Elijah Muhammad, Message to the BlackMan in America (USA, 1973), chap. 13, 1-2
5. https://youtu.be/BsYWD2EqavQ (Malcolm X’s introduction of Elijah Muhammad occurs at 6:42-7:43)
6. https://youtu.be/BsYWD2EqavQ (interview begins at 11:46)
7. Elijah Muhammad, op. cit., chap 95.1
8. Ibid., 96.1
9. Ibid., 95.5
10. Ibid., 95.7
11. Each of these four excerpts from Malcolm X words come from Sandeep Atwal (ed.), Malcolm X: Collected Speeches, Debates and Interviews (1960-1965) [2015]
12. Cf. Lawrence Mamiya, ‘Malcolm X: Final Years and Legacy‘ (May, 2023) and ‘Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam‘
13. In 632 A.D., when prophet Muhammad died, there was a division over who was to succeed him as leader (caliph). Some said the successor should be Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s friend and advisor, others that the leader should be someone from the prophet’s family, his cousin Ali. Thus was produced the two major parties or groups, Sunni and Shia, that still make up Islam today. See the article, ‘Key Differences Between Shia and Sunni Muslims‘ or ‘What is the Difference between Sunni and Shia Islam?‘ Sunnis make up a far greater percentage of world Islam population, including Arabia, where most sacred sites are located.

Resources

There is much material on Malcolm X on the internet, some unreliable. A valid research method is to find independent sources to confirm facts such as dates and events or what was actually said. A lot of his speeches, etc., were filmed or recorded and may be accessed on YouTube. Columbia University Malcolm X Project may be helpful, though it seems the site has languished since the death of its leader, Prof. Manning Marable in 2011. Another website, no longer active, but which contains a wealth of primary sources on Malcolm X, letters, interviews, etc., is malcolm-x.org.

Three Books

George Breitman, The Last Year of Malcolm X (NY: Pathfinder, 1992)

Michael Dyson, Making Malcolm (NY: Oxford, 1995)

Bruce Perry, Malcolm (Barrytown: Station Hill, 1991)

The End