the current Negro demonstrations will end in bitter defeat and
disappointment. These men, including Elijah Muhammad, are unalterably
convinced that white America will not honor the promise of integration.
Then, at least so the thinking goes, the Negro people will set off
trouble; they will denounce and abandon Martin Luther King, Roy
Wilkins, and James Farmer; they will turn for leadership to someone
who foresaw the defeat clearly. In the meantime, however, good but
misguided Negroes will take to the streets and demonstrate because they
still have faith in integration, they still believe in the ability of
white people to do the right thing.
I predict the Black Muslims will erect a policy of _active
wait-and-see_; they will not join picket lines and participate
in demonstrations, but they will take a more active part in
general community life. This, I think, is the meaning behind the
recent announcement that the Black Muslims are considering active
participation in politics. The suggestion was made during the
movement’s annual convention in Chicago early in the spring of 1963.
It is still not clear just what the Muslims have in mind, but I see
them first moving to register their people and then supporting Negro
candidates who share some of the Muslims’ concerns.
[Illustration: Malcolm X addressing a Harlem rally protesting crime.
Many civic and elected officials share the platform with him, look on
as Malcolm X says, “Dope, prostitution, and numbers could not flourish
here in Harlem without the knowledge of the police!”
(_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]
[Illustration: Malcolm X raising money during a Washington, D.C., rally
at which Elijah Muhammad spoke. Black Muslims give a portion of their
wages to the temple each week, and these donations are the movement’s
major source of income. However, Muslims do raise additional funds at
rallies and bazaars. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: A Muslim meeting at Urlene Arena, Washington, D.C.
Malcolm X confers with Wallace Muhammad. (_Richard Saunders from
Pictorial_)]
[Illustration: Muslim women at Urlene Arena meeting.
(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]
[Illustration: Malcolm X speaking at Harvard Law School. All over the
nation he has told such audiences of the Black Muslims’ teaching.
(_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]
[Illustration: Black Muslims demonstrating in front of courthouse
during trial of one of their brothers. (_Photo by Robert L. Haggins_)]
[Illustration: Members of The Fruit of Islam stand inspection.
(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]
[Illustration: Malcolm X “makes it plain” at Temple Number Seven in
Harlem.
(_Richard Saunders from Pictorial_)]
[Illustration: Elijah Muhammad, who makes all major decisions, confers
with his chief aids: (_top left_) Raymond Sharrieff, chief of The Fruit
of Islam; (_top right_) Malcolm X; (_bottom left_) National Secretary
John X; (_bottom right_) Elijah Muhammad, Jr., gives orders to The
Fruit of Islam by walkie-talkie, while Malcolm X listens.
(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: Malcolm X makes phone call from Muslim store in Chicago.
(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: Minister Henry X takes Muslim youths on tour of the
Museum of Natural History. “This was our culture before the white man
kidnaped us,” he tells them. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: Four Muslim sisters have dinner at a temple restaurant.
(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: Muslim women making their own costumes--long flowing
dresses and headpieces. (_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
[Illustration: Muslim youngsters being taught Arabic at the University
of Islam in Chicago, the largest Arabic school in the nation. The
University is accredited and trains youth from kindergarten through
high school. Picture above blackboard is of Elijah Muhammad. The star
and crescent is the symbol of the Nation of Islam.
(_Photo by Eve Arnold, Magnum_)]
These candidates will not be Black Muslims; they will be “race” men who
are willing to “speak out,” an act that is so dear to the hearts of
Muslims. These Negro candidates will not back such Muslim programs as
the quest for an all-black state, but neither will they denounce the
Black Muslims. Some Black Muslims may run for office, however. Malcolm
X has often flirted with the idea of seeking a Congressional seat, and
there are those, including me, who feel he would win if he selected the
right area.
This would mean that the Black Muslims would work with political
candidates who must also work with other groups, some of whom would
support direct action. This would indirectly ally the Muslims with
direct action and would improve their image, provided they accompanied
such action with the cessation of attacks on men like Martin Luther
King and Roy Wilkins. As I see it, this is the best possible position
for the Black Muslims: it would ally them with the Negro push for
better housing, jobs, and schools while at the same time allowing them
to abstain from direct action; it would also free them to say that a
separate state is still _the best_ answer. Most of all, such a move
would lift the Black Muslims to the level of respectability they have
so long wanted. Other Negro spokesmen would have to practice summitry
with the Muslims, and they would become an accepted rather than feared
force in the Negro community.
A second factor involved in the Black Muslim search for a new policy
turns on Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah, who has just
returned to America after two years of study at Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar
University. Al-Azhar is the cultural center of orthodox Islam, and its
professors are the brains of that faith. It is beyond question that
Elijah’s position has been enhanced by Akbar’s period of study there;
it is just as certain that the Black Muslim movement will be affected
by Akbar’s return.
At this writing Akbar has been home less than a month. He is in the
company of Malcolm X and will make a nation-wide tour of Muhammad’s
temples, where he will lecture on traditional Islam and the influence
of Africa in current world affairs.
Already his influence is being felt.
“Akbar Comes to Harlem” was the billing for a major Black Muslim rally
held shortly after his return. The New York press, Negro and white, was
filled with ads and special announcements inviting people to come out
and hear Akbar Muhammad, the youngest son of Elijah Muhammad, report
on his sojourn and studies in Africa and Egypt. Much was made of the
fact that Akbar had been a student at Al-Azhar University. Even more
was made of the fact that he had attended the recent summit meeting of
African heads of state as a correspondent for the Muslim newspaper,
_Mr. Muhammad Speaks_.
Observers of the movement were certain that his speech would be heavily
pro-African, that he would argue for a closer relationship between the
Black Muslim movement and traditional Islam, and that he once again
would remind American Negroes of their African heritage. But Akbar
Muhammad’s two-hour talk before some four thousand Negroes on that
Saturday afternoon in Harlem proved to be a complete surprise; further,
it laid bare the only real schism there is within the Black Muslim
movement.
After a highly charged introduction by Malcolm X the distinguished
speaker rose. Twenty-five-year-old Akbar Muhammad is much like his
father, medium brown, diminutive, slightly built. He stood at the
lectern stroking his goatee during the three-minute ovation from the
crowd. Then he spoke: “_As-Salaam-Alaikum_.” His Arabic was exquisite.
His inflection alone was enough to let the black masses know they were
hearing something different from the southern-accented “Peace be with
you” they hear from the ordinary Black Muslims. All up and down the
block Muslims leaped into the air with ecstasy, praising Allah for the
“back home” diction one of their leaders had acquired.
Akbar had been speaking a scant five minutes when the crowd became
strangely silent. Elijah’s son was clearly giving a new teaching, a
gospel that contradicted much of what Malcolm X and others had been
saying for the past few years.
“We must have unity among Negroes,” Akbar said.
It is time for all of us--CORE, the NAACP, Dr. Martin Luther King,
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and the Black
Muslims--to sit down together behind closed doors and unite. Negro
leaders must now stop calling each other names. We must stop calling
Dr. King names, and he must stop talking about us before the enemy.
We may not be able to walk all the way to freedom together, but we
can walk half the way together, so let’s unite and walk together as
far as we can.
The audience began to warm to his strange message. The notion of unity
among Negro leaders--including the Muslims--was not new. Malcolm X
had launched the same theme three years ago but found no takers among
established Negro leaders. Recently, however, the breach had widened;
Malcolm called Martin Luther King “a chump, not a champ”; King took to
a New York pulpit and denounced “those among us who would have us live
in a separate state.” The night of that sermon King was pelted with
eggs as he entered the church. Malcolm X denied that the Black Muslims
were responsible for the incident but he also refused to say he was
sorry that it had happened. All this was less than two weeks before the
speech by Akbar.
I watched the setting as Akbar continued to speak. The stage obviously
had been readied for him. This was no ordinary rally: Elijah Muhammad,
Jr., had flown in from Chicago to be present, along with John X Ali,
National Secretary for the movement. Ministers Jeremiah (Baltimore),
Louis X (Boston), and Thomas J. (Hartford) were there. Minister Woodrow
(Atlantic City) was on hand with his camera crew, and Joseph X, captain
of the New York Fruit, turned his men out in full dress. This was
clearly a major move, and the Muslims had worked hard to underscore its
importance.
But what did it all mean?
“Now if we can unify,” Akbar continued, “we can get help. I have just
come from Africa,” he said with a sly smile, “and I bring you a message
from our African brothers. Now you newsmen get this correct. I am only
bringing a message to the people, a message sent by their brothers
in Africa. This is the message: Spokesmen from African states--I’ll
even go so far as to tell you that they are on the west coast of
Africa--told me to tell you that if you unite, they are ready to help
us win our freedom. They are ready to help us with arms, men, and
know-how!”
The crowds at such street rallies in Harlem are always infiltrated with
black nationalists, and the mere thought of Africans sending arms, men,
and know-how to aid the American Negro was enough to set off rejoicing.
To the dismay of newsmen, who hoped he would go into the who, what,
when, where, and how of all this, Akbar let the matter drop. Instead he
turned to a discussion of the white man.
“I don’t hate any man because of the color of his skin,” Akbar said. “I
look at a man’s heart, I watch his actions, and I make my conclusions
on the basis of what he does rather than how he looks.”
There are two ways of interpreting what Akbar said: He could have been
saying that action, not skin color, was the determining factor in any
moral judgment; or he could have been spouting the Muslim line that
the white man can prove he is not evil by nature by acting correctly.
Either way, what Akbar was saying is a long way from the strong line
preached by both Malcolm X and Elijah. And when this is coupled with
Akbar’s public denunciation of those Negro leaders who call other Negro
leaders names, his speech takes on an even stranger character.
Akbar closed his talk with a call for unity among black men all over
the world. “What we must have,” he said, “is unity among American
Negroes; once we get that, Africans are willing to help us with men,
guns, and know-how. Then we can proceed to unity of black men all over
the world.”
As Akbar finished, the crowd applauded with vigor; they were all
aware that they had witnessed a peculiar thing. First, Akbar had not
mentioned the separate state a single time during his speech. This is
indeed strange coming from the son of the Messenger, the man whose
basic tenet is a call for “several states” where Negroes can form
their own government. Second, Akbar did not once use the phrase, “The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad.” He made only one reference to his father,
and that came when he said, “The Teacher tells us that we should
prepare ourselves for black unity.” Most of all, Akbar’s talk had none
of the strident denunciations of white men that one expects to hear at
a Black Muslim rally.
It was Malcolm X who pointed up the strangeness of the doctrine we had
heard.
“I am guilty!” Malcolm told the crowd after Akbar finished. “I am
guilty of calling other Negro leaders names. As you know, no one has
done more of that recently than I have. But today we have heard a new
teaching, and we are all going to abide by it.... Now brothers with
the white buckets will pass among you. And you integrate those white
buckets with some green dollar bills. Meanwhile I am going to talk
to you.... If you help Mr. Muhammad, you are helping the man who has
helped you. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who has told you
the truth about yourself; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who
has told you the truth about the white man.... The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad is the man who has made it possible for Brother Akbar to go
to school back home in Egypt; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man
who tells you to stand up; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man
who tells you to look up; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the man who
tells you to clean yourself up, provide for your wife and children,
protect your family. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you stop
drinking; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you stop stealing;
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will make you be true to your family; The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad will get that monkey [dope addiction] off
your back; The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will get this white, blue-eyed
gorilla off your back!”
“Make it plain, Brother Minister, make it plain.”
Black men and their women all up and down the streets shouted and
jumped for joy. This was what they had come to hear in the first place.
Big Red had made their cups run over. Now they were ready to go home.
The Harlem rally was Akbar’s hour. Malcolm X had given the Messenger’s
son, the bright kid away at school in Egypt, a major New York hearing
with the press in full attendance. And Akbar had acted like an Arab;
he had talked traditional Islam and preached black unity. It was
abundantly clear that Akbar is much more committed to Africa than he
is to a separate black state here in America. He reflects the Arabs’
involvement with black unity throughout the world. And here lies the
schism, for it is clear that Malcolm X is closer to Elijah Muhammad,
in terms of just what the American Negro should do, than is Elijah’s
own son. This schism, however, is not as wide or as serious as the
Muslims’ detractors would have it. Elijah’s big point is that the Negro
should have a separate state; the Arabs simply shrug this off. But the
imminent fall of white civilization is something upon which they all
agree and for which they are all preparing.
One can expect, then, that the Black Muslims will become more “Islamic”
and more “political” in the days just ahead. The new emphasis on
traditional Islam will be primarily a matter of ritual and temple
organization; the new “political” attitude will be an attempt at a
social ethic that would place the Muslims in favor with the black
masses without committing them to “integration” causes.
But this is a holding operation, something the Black Muslims, like
God, suffer to be so. They are going to effect an accommodation with
the Negro Revolt, but they are certain that the American white power
structure will defraud us all. Then the Nation of Islam can say, “We
told you so,” and sound the bugle for Armageddon.
How sound would such a new policy be?
From an organizational point of view I think it would make sense. Not
only is it the most liberal position they can possibly accommodate, but
it shows that some--perhaps quite a few people--inside the movement are
thinking creatively. As a non-Muslim, I have much the same reservations
about the new policy as I had about the old. I don’t share their total
pessimism on how the Negro Revolt will end. I can foresee a situation
in which the white power structure fails to yield and Negroes start
trouble; that not only can happen, but it probably will happen in
isolated pockets before the race issue is settled. I doubt that the
trouble will be nation-wide, but even widespread rioting would not
necessarily mean the triumph of the Black Muslims.
To state it bluntly, Negroes, as we have done in the past, can have a
race riot without becoming Black Muslims!
Let there be no denying that such a tragedy will play into the hands
of the Black Muslims; there are, indeed, grave risks involved, and the
best way to avoid them is to see to it that the tragedy doesn’t occur.
_Peace Be Unto You_
The Black Muslim movement is undeniably a sect, if for no other reason
than that it is dominated and run by charismatic leadership. The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the mystical and powerful presence of the
movement, the meaning around which everything else occurs and orbits.
Elijah Muhammad has never claimed immortality; thus even the Black
Muslims know he will eventually die. Critics of the movement predict
that there will be a frenetic, perhaps bloody, scramble for leadership
at Muhammad’s death. My prediction is that the Black Muslim hierarchy
will gather in conclave and that they will come out with a new leader.
That leader will not be Malcolm X. Rather, I suggest that Malcolm,
John, and Sharrieff will be retained in the posts they now occupy and a
younger man--almost certainly one of Muhammad’s sons--will be the new
Messenger.
There are three reasons why I feel this will prove true:
1. The mystique of the movement is that Muhammad met and knew
Allah--Fard. Thus it follows that the flesh and blood of Muhammad has
inherited the magic of that encounter. Muhammad will be raised to
sainthood, and the Muslim gospel will continue to be prefaced with the
phrase, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us....” Thus the new
Messenger should be a physical reminder of Elijah.
2. John and Sharrieff are sensible, practical men. They know the
impact Malcolm has made on the American scene, and they will keep him
precisely where he is, for this is the only way they can stay where
they are.
3. Finally, I am persuaded of the morality of these Black Muslim
leaders. Think of their doctrine what one may, I am convinced that they
would no more fight publicly over the question of leadership than would
the cardinals of the Roman Church. Indeed, I feel the conclave will
move just as the Catholic Church has often moved, that the question
of a new leader will be overshadowed by a debate over policy. I see
Malcolm, then, not as the maximum leader, but as prime minister and
behind-the-scenes policy maker.
This is no cause for rejoicing. Akbar Muhammad, who I suspect will be
the new Messenger, is steeped in traditional Islam. He will bring to
the maximum-leadership post the zeal and determination one associates
with the early Mohammedans. Followers of Allah have always been strong
on internal brotherhood and notoriously short of patience and mercy
toward outsiders. Those of us who have studied the movement have had
to stand muster before Raymond Sharrieff, and to a man we are agreed
that we would not enjoy tangling with him and The Fruit. Once Elijah
is dead, I suspect the prospect of tangling with him will be even less
inviting.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Malcolm X said to me. “Everybody is talking
about differences between the Messenger and me. It is absolutely
impossible for us to differ. What he says is law; that is what is done.
But I’ll tell you this,” he added. “Mr. Muhammad was with Allah, and
he has been granted divine patience; he is willing to wait on God to
deal with the devil. Well, the rest of us have not seen Allah; we don’t
have this divine patience, and we are not so willing to wait on God.
The younger Black Muslims want to see some action!”
For the first and, to my knowledge, only time Malcolm deviated from
the Messenger’s position when he said that. Malcolm X means it, he is
not alone: Akbar means it, John X means it, Sharrieff means it, and
Wallace, another son of Elijah’s, means it. These men are waiting for
integration to fail. This republic would do well to take them seriously.
The Black Muslims will endure but they will not prevail. Rather, they
will linger for years to come and be a constant reminder of what this
republic did to thousands who sought its promise. They will integrate
this nation’s body politic and make us continually aware of what can
happen if white men don’t learn to love before black men learn to hate.
And maybe one day before I die we can all join together--black and
white and Malcolm X--and say, “_As-Salaam-Alaikum_.” That is to say,
peace be unto you.
PART TWO
_The Prophet’s Voice_
1. MUHAMMAD
AT ATLANTA
“_Come and see and hear the most fearless black man in America today;
the man who is going to defy the Ku Klux Klan!_”
_This is the way the Black Muslims billboarded Elijah Muhammad’s
now-famous “Atlanta Speech” of 1961. For when it was announced that
Muhammad was to speak in Atlanta, the Klan issued a statement that
they, too, would hold a rally and a march on the same day, at the same
time. The Black Muslims’ propaganda machinery went into action, and the
Atlanta Speech was advertised as a major confrontation between Elijah
and the Klan. Something a little different from that is what actually
occurred._
_Malcolm X flew into Atlanta several days before the scheduled meeting
and began talks with police and other city officials. Malcolm was
assured that the police would enforce law and order, that the Black
Muslims could proceed with their meeting without fear of trouble from
the Klan or anyone else._
_Even so, the Black Muslims took advantage of every opportunity to
dramatize their presence and activities. Long before the meeting began
members of The Fruit of Islam took up posts on rooftops overlooking
the route Muhammad would travel to Magnolia Hall. Even more Fruit
cordoned the hall itself. With a seating capacity of only five hundred,
the auditorium was jammed hours before the meeting began; another two
thousand people lined up along the dirt road leading to the auditorium
and heard the speech over loud-speakers. They would have fared just
as well had they stayed home since the entire five-hour speech was
broadcast over a local Negro-oriented radio station._
_The expectation mounted as word came that Muhammad had landed at
the airport; several minutes later it was announced that Muhammad
was taking a few moments of ease at the home of the local minister;
then word came that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was en route to the
temple._
_The Fruit of Islam formed themselves into a double column that
stretched from the platform inside the auditorium, out the front door,
down the steps, and across the sidewalk to the curb where Elijah would
disembark._
_As the crowd cheered, a long black limousine pulled up to the
auditorium and Elijah Muhammad--a five-foot-five, unimpressive little
man--along with a retinue of some six members of his family swept into
the building down the corridor formed by The Fruit. The applause inside
the temple was loud and sustained; nervously adjusting his bow tie,
Elijah Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, took several bows before the
people resumed their seats._