I'M TALKING TO YOU WHITE MAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2004
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: September 12, 1964
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

SATURDAY EVENING PoS
Approved For Releq2pjPj#@04j%6, : lyR
An autobiography
By MALCOLM X
"I dream that one day history will look
upon me as one of the voices that helped
to save my country from a catastrophe."
WH IT[ MAN
The explosive Black Muslim rebel who defies both white and
'Negro leadership tells a story that swings from violence and degradation to religion and racism.
TALKNG. to you,
hen my mother was pregnant with me, she told me born-which would be soon-and then the family would
move. I am not sire why he made this decision as he was
later, a
party of Ku Klux Klan riders came sud-
4 not a frightened Negro, as most then were, and still are
denly one night, galloping on their horses around today. My father was a big, six-foot-four, very black man.
our home in Omaha, Nebr. They stopped with their up- He had only one eye. How he had lost the other- one, I
raised torches lighting all around the house to prevent any never have known. He was from Reynolds, Ga., where he
escape by my father. My mother came out of the front had finished the third or maybe the fourth grade. Among
door. She defied them that she was alone with her three himself and his six brothers he had seen four of them die
small children, and that my father was away, preaching, of violence, three of them in the South, killed by white
in Milwaukee. The Klansmen shouted threats and warn- people, including one of them hung. What my father
ings at her that we had better get out of Omaha because could not know was that of the three remaining, including
the good Christian white people were not going to stand 'himself, only one, my Uncle Jim, would die in bed, of
for my father's "spreading trouble" among the local Illness. Northern white police were later going to shoot
"good" Negroes with the "Back To Africa" teachings of my Uncle Oscar, and my father was finally, too, going to
Marcus Garvey-at that time, 1925, the most controver- die at white hands.
sial black man on earth. It has always stayed on my mind that I would die by
The Klansmen spurred their horses and galloped about (violence. I have done all that I can to be prepared.
the house, close enough to use their gun butts to shatter I was my father's seventh child. He had by a previous
all of the glass panes in the windows. Then 'they rode marriage three, Ella, Earl and Mary, who lived in Boston.
away. My father, t ,i-b l IReWigbg 4'1~64PO?Th~ if C h 1' "y mother.
he returned. He decioerd that they would wait until I was _eir s i , !9910,64 ed, was born
STtA
 there. They hov ere~-born a hckQI~'4A'tfpi , o$f ' a 4a Jp 1 017
Hilda and then t er were born, , an en waste routine got going again. And for as long
next oane in line. -7
as the first insurance money lasted, we
The family waited, as my father had decided, and my did all right. When the state welfare
mother was 28 when I was born on May 19, 1925, in an people began coming to our house, we
Omaha hospital. Louise Little, my mother, who was born would come home from school sometimes
in Grenada, in the British West Indies, looked like a white and find them there talking with our
woman. Her father was white. She had black hair, and mother, asking a thousand questions.
her accent did not sound like a Negro's. Of this white They were acting and looking at her and
devil father of hers, I know nothing except her shame us and around in our house in a way that
had about it the feeling that we were not
about it; I remember hearing her say that she was glad people. We were just things, that was all.
that she never had seen him. It was of course as a result . We swiftly began to go downhill. The
of him that I got my reddish-brown "mariny" color of physical downhill wasn't as quick as the .
skin, and my hair of the same. color. I grew up as the psychic. My mother was, above every-
lightest child in our house. (Out in the world later on, in thing else, a proud woman, and it took
Boston and New York, I was for years insane enough to its toll on her that she was accepting
h
i
ar
ty. And her feelings communicated
feel that it was some kind of status symbol to be light c
to us, and among us children. It didn't
complexioned. Now, I hate every drop of that white help any when I began to get caught
rapist's blood that is in me.) stealing snacks from stores, and the wet-
We next went to Lansing, Mich. A house was bought, fare people began to focus on me,
and soon my father was doing free-lance Christian Bap- It was about this time that the large,
tist preaching in local Negro churches, and during the dark man from Lansing began visiting.
week he was moving about, spreading the Garvey teach- He looked something like my father. He
ings. He had begun laying the foundation for the store was single, and my mother was a woman
that he had always wanted to own when, as always, some without a man, and the state people were
stupid local "Uncle Tom" Negroes began funneling every- bugging her. The man was independent;
she would have admired that. She was
thing they heard to the local white people. having a hard time with disciplining us,
On the nightmare 1929 night which is the earliest vivid and a big man's presence alone would
memory that I have, I remember being suddenly snatched help. And if she had a man to provide, it
awake into a nearly petrifying confusion of pistol shots would erase the state people in general.
and shouting and smoke and flames. My father had seen It went on for about a year, I guess.
and shouted and shot at the two white men who had set,And then the man from Lansing jilted my
fire to our house and were running away. My mother with mother suddenly. It was a terrible shock
to her. It was the beginning of the end of
the baby in her arms just made it into the yard before the, reality for my mother. She began to sit
house crashed in, showering up sparks. The police and'. around, or walk around, and talk to her-
firemen came and stood around watching the house burn self, almost as if she was unaware that
the rest of the way. . we were right around there in the house,
I remember waking up in 1931, again to the sound of watching her. It was gradually terrifying.
my mother's screaming. When I scrambled out, I saw the The state people saw her weakening.
police in the living room. All of us children who were star- That was when they began the definite
ing knew that something bad had happened to our father. steps to take me away from the house.
They began to tell me how nice it was
My mother said later that she was going to be at the nearby Gohannes's
taken by the police to the hospital, and home, where the Gohannes's and their.
to a room where a sheet was over my nephew, "Big Boy," and old Mrs. Adcock
father in a bed, and she wouldn't look, all had said how much they would like to
she was afraid to. Probably it_.was wise have me live with them.
that she didn't. My father's skull, on one- . When finally I did go to the Gohannes's
side, was crushed in: He had been bludg- home, at least in a surface way I was glad.
eoned with something. And his body was would return home to visit fairly
cut almost in half where he had been run often, and saw how the state people were
over by the wheels of a streetcar. He had making plans to take over all the chil-
been bludgeoned by someone, and then dren. My mother talked to herself nearly
laid across the tracks for the streetcar to all the time now. The court orders were
run over. He lived two-and-a-half hours signed, finally. They took her to the
in that condition. (Negroes born in state mental hospital at Kalamazoo. My
Georgia had to be strong just to survive.) mother is still in the same hospital.
It was morning when we children at home 1 I guess I must have had some vague
got the word tn$t he was dead. I was six. ! idea that if I weren't in school, I'd be
SEP 12 1964
allowed to just live at the Gohannes's .
and wander around town, stealing and
loafing, or maybe get a job if I wanted
one. But I got rocked on my heels when
:a state man that I hadn't seen before
came and got me at the Gohannes's and
took me down to court. They said I was
going to the detention home. It was about
12 miles from Lansing, in Mason, Mich.
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149k660500140017-7
 I'was 13 years old. The detention home
was where all boys and f t tq man at the
p~t Adtl tr F eFe @il~l?Q4, /p e >Ce i R~7a c0f root a l
ron r e g n members of
to reform school were , he d, waiting. around town by myself, and 1 just knocked Benny Goodman's band. I told him I
The lady in charge of the detention myself out, gawking. Boston's downtown
home, Mrs. -Swerlin, and her husband , had the biggest stores that I ever saw, wanted to see the shoeshine boy, Freddie.
were very good people. Her first name and white people's restaurants and hotels. A wiry, brown-skinned, "conked" cat
was Lois, and Mr. Swerlin's was Jim, On Massachusetts Avenue next door to upstairs in the men's room gr rns.
I remember. She was bigger than he, a the Loew's State Theater, was the big, You Shorty's homeboy?" I said aid I was,
exciting Roseland State Ballroom. Big he said he was a friend of Shorty's.
big, buxom woman. She showed me to and
my room in my life, my first own room. posters advertised the nationally famous called Godd me, old 'd juF said. " g
be the big
It was in one of the dormitorylike build- bands, white and Negro, that had been num"r, and he ust h figured heard ard I right I'd hit
quit-
ings where the kids in detention were there. I saw that COMING NEXT WEEK number, kept. I discovered next, with surprise, ling. Then he gave ave a demonstration n in n
was Glenn Miller. how to make the shine rag pop like a
that I ate right at the tables with them.- I wanted to find myself a job to sur-
shoes dance
Different ones of the detention home prise Ella, to show her I could, mostly. Freddie k had Bletth me shine of
youngsters, when their dates came up, One afternoon something told me to go three or four stray drunks he talked into
went on off to the reform school. But inside a poolroom whose window I was it, and I had practiced picking up my
mine came up two or three times; it was looking through. Something made me
always ignored. I saw new youngsters decide to talk to a stubby, dark tellow speed on his shoes until they looked like
arrive and leave. I was glad, and grateful. who racked up the balls for the pool mirrors: After we had helped the janitors
-I knew it was Mrs. Swerlin's doing. She .,players, and whom I'd heard different to clean up the ballroom after the dance,
finally told me one day that I was going ones -call "Shorty." And one day he came throwing out empty liquor bottles we
to enter the Mason High School. ' outside and saw me standing there with found, stuff like that, Freddie was nice
.The white kids there were friendly. my kinky, enough to drive me all the way home to
Somebody, including the teachers, was , reddish hair and he had said, Ella's on the "hill" in his maroon, second-
Hi, Red," so that made me figure that
calling me "nigger" everywhere I turned, he was friendly. Inconspicuously as I hand He looked across at m
o
but it was easy to see that the didn't 1 Some hustles, now, you just got to
they could, I went on to the back, where this
mean any harm. "The nigger," in fact,' Shorty looked up at me over an aluminum realize you're too new for. Some cats will
was extremely popular. I was unique, the ask you for liquor, some more for a
can that he was filling with the powder stick'
only one around-you know what I mean? that pool players sprinkle over their -reefers. Whatever else they ask
Every Sunday I went to Sunday school fingers. His hair had been "conked" to you for, you just act dumb, until you get.
and church. There was no black church make it slick and straight. I told him I'd able to dig who's a cop. You can make
to go to, so I went to the white one. ten, twelve dollars a dance for yourself
In Mason High n I was elected the class appreciate it if he'd tell me how could if you work everything right. The main .
somebody go about getting a job. He. thing you got to remember is that every-
asked what It shocked me. More than it asked what had I ever done, and where.
t
did other people. I see it now. My grades And that was how he learned that I'd in inthe ld is a I ha.ad found d out
were among the, highest in the school. I been at Mason High. He nearly dropped In about ut two two weeks
that Freddie had done had
less shoeshining
was unique in my class, like a pink poodle. the powder can. He hollered "My home- and towel hustling than selling liquor and
1 am not going to say that I wasn't proud. boy! Man, gimme some skin! Man, I'm "
Along toward the end of that year, our ' from Lansing!" Pretty soon we sounded reefers, and contacting white Johns
father's grown daughter, Ella, by his first though for some Negro girls. Most of the Rose-
marriage, we had been raised in the same land's dances were those for whites only,
marriage, came from Boston to Lansing. block, and we were reacting like long-lost and they had' white bands only. The,
After visiting each home where my dif- brothers. "You're my homeboy-I'm Negro dances with Negro bands were
ferent brothers and sisters were staying, going to school you to the happenings." only now and then. They jam-packed
Ella left. But she had told me to write to I just had to. stand up there and grin like
her, and she had suggested that I might a fool, I was so glad to hear those words. wet -ouutt slsilk the black es ie
s
like to spend the summer holiday visiting I hung around in the back of the pool- wadhk and n satin a rek sns and s shooes,,
and their hair done in all kinds of styles,
her in Boston. I jumped at that chance. I room, and Shorty, keeping an eye on the and the cats sharp in their "zoot" suits
That summer of 1940 1 caught the 'pool games up at the tables, would run and crazy "conks, and everybody grin-
Greyhound bus, with my cardboard suit- and rack balls, then come back and talk. ' ping and greased and gassed.
case and wearing my green suit. If some- He asked my circumstances, and 1 told The first liquor I drank, my first ciga-
one had hung the sign HICK on me, I him about Ella and all. Shorty's job-or rettes, even the first marijuana-reefers=-
couldn't have looked much more obvious. "slave"-in the poolroom there, he.said, I can't specifically remember. But I know
Ella met me. She took me home. The was just to keep ends together while he they all mixed together with my first
house was on Waumbeck,Street, in Rox- learned his horn. A couple of years before shooting craps, playing cards, and betting
bury, the Harlem of Boston. I saw, or he'd hit the numbers, and bought a saxo- my dollar a day on the numbers as I
met, I suppose a hundred people whose phone. "Like all the cats," he told me, started some light hanging out at night'
big-city talk and ways left my mouth "I play at least a dollar a day on the full with Shorty and different ones of his
hanging open. The cars they drove! I number with my main man. Soon as I friends, and, sometimes, chicks they'
tried to describe it, when I got back to hit that, 1 plan to organize my band, get: knew. Mixed in with this time, too, was
Lansing, but I couldn't. I thought con- the studs some uniforms and stuff." Before my first zoot suit and my first processing
stantly about all that I had seen. wewent out, he opened his saxophone case ' of my kinky hair to straighten it, the
One day Mrs. Swerlin called me into and showed the horn to me. It was gleam- conk. Shorty had promised to school me
the living room. She said she felt there ing brass against the green velvet, an alto in how most young cats beat the barber-
was no need for me to be at the detention sax. He said, "Keep cool, homeboy. Some shops' three- and four-dollar price by,
home any longer. I wrote.to Ella in Bos- 'of the cats will turn you up a slave." making their own "congolene," and conk-
ton. I don't know how Ella did it, but ' When I got home, Ella said there had ing themselves, once they learned how.
official custody of me was transferred , been a telephone. call from somebody The evening that Shorty said that we
from Michigan to Massachusetts. The named Shorty. He had left a message that would do it at his pad, after he got off
same week that I finished the eighth over at the Roseland State Ballroom, the from the poolroom, I took the little list
grade, I again caught the Greyhound bus. shoeshine boy, named Freddie, was quit- he had printed out for me, and went to a
All praise is due it, Allah! If I hadn't ?ting that night, and Shorty had told him grocery store. I got there a can of Red
gone on to' Boston, probably I'd still be to hold the job for me. Devil lye, two eggs, and two medium-
a brainwashed black Christian. The front of the ballroom was all
SEP 1 2 1964 Approved' For Release 2004/04/08: CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
 sized white potatoes. Then, at a drug-i 13 eac ~H{ ll1 hI 'k was n t hi%kway railroad men so fast
store near the pooAp mpAcEoi-oRe~ease42004J04I08 : CIA-RDP75-0Ottf~4P ~ltd0p190721T he could get
Vaseline, a large jar; a large jar of soap;'l I had to quit the shoeshine hustle be-, me on. I knew that several New Haven
a big comb and a fine comb; one of those cause I liked to be on the Roseland dance trains ran between Boston and New York,
rubber hoses with a metal spray head, floor when the bands were playing, but Secretly, for years, I had wanted to'visit
and a rubber apron and a pair of gloves.' Ella helped me get a job as a soda jerk New York City. Right there since I had
Shorty paid six dollars a week for a in the Townsend Drug Store, two blocks been in Roxbury, I had heard so much
room in his cousin's beat-up apartment. from her house. That was when I met my raving about "The Big Apple," as it was
He peeled the potatoes and thin-sliced first white woman. I'm going to call her called, by various kinds of people who
them down into a quart Mason fruit jar. Sophia, for which I have my own private traveled a lot, by musicians, merchant-
He started stirring with a wooden spoon reasons. I met her at the Roseland Ball- marine sailors, chauffeurs for white fami-
down among the potato slices as he grad- room. When I caught this fine blonde's
lies, salesmen and different hustlers.
ually poured in a little over a half can of eyes, I just stopped. Froze! This one X'd Anyway, at the railroad-personnel hir-
the lye. A jellylike, starchy-looking stuff never seen among the white girls that ing office down on Dover Street, a tired-
resulted from the lye and potatoes, and came to the Roseland black dances. She acting, -grayheaded, old white clerk got
Shorty broke in the two eggs, stirring was giving me that "I-go-for-you" look. down to the crucial point. "Age?" When
real fast. The congolene turned :pale She didn't dance well, at least not by I told him "Twenty-one," he never lifted
yellowish. "Feel the jar," Shorty said. Negro standards. But who cared? I could his eyes up from his pencil. And I knew
1 cupped my hand against the outside, feel the staring eyes of other couples 1 had it made.
and snatched it away. "Damn right, it's around us. We talked. I told her she was The dining-car crew told me before we
hot, that's that lye," Shorty said: "So a good dancer, and asked her where she'd left Boston that their favorite spot in
you.know it's going to burn when I comb learned. I was trying to find out why she New York was a place called Small's
it in-it burns bad. But the longer you was there. Mostwhitewomen who cameto Paradise. The cooks took me up to Har-
can stand it, the straighter the hair." the black dances, I knew their reasons, but lem with them, in a cab. White New York
He made me sit down, and he tightly you didn't see her kind. She had vague passed by like a scenario, then almost
tied the string of the new rubber apron answers for everything. And then I know abruptly, when we left Central Park at
around my neck, and combed up my bush . she asked in that cool Lauren Bacall sound the upper end, at 110th Street, the peo-
of hair. From the big Vaseline jar he took of hers would I like to go for a drive. ple's complexion changed to Negroes.
fingersful and massaged, hard, all through I just couldn't believe my luck. Would It was about five-thirty in the afternoon.
my hair and onto the scalp. He thickly I? It was just too much! Busy Seventh Avenue ran along in
Vaselined my neck, ears and forehead. front of Small's Paradise. No Negro place
"When I get to washing out your head, For the next five years-into 1946, of business had ever impressed me so
you got to remember that any congolene when I went to prison-Sophia was my much. Around the big, luxurious-looking
left in burns a sore." main white woman. For two of the years circular bar probably were 30 or 40 men,
The congolene just felt warm when she stayed single; for the other three she or mostly men, and several women,
Shorty started combing it in. Then, my was married to a white man, for con- drinking and talking.
head set afire! I gritted my teeth and ' venience. I soon found out from her, From then on, every layover night in
tried to pull the kitchen table's sides to- different parts of it at different times, that ' Harlem, I explored new places. I first got
gether. The comb felt like it was raking she was the oldest of a well-off divorced ' a room at the Harlem YMCA because
skin off! I couldn't stand it any longer; Boston woman's three daughters. Sophia it was less than a block from Small's
I bolted to the wash basin. I was cursing would pick me up. I took her to the Paradise. Then I got a room, cheaper,
Shorty for everything I could think of dances, but mostly to the bars around at a rooming house where most of the
when he got the spray going and started, Roxbury. We drove all over. Sometimes railroad men stayed. I hung in Small's
soap-lathering my head. "The first time's it would be nearly daylight when she let and the Braddock bar so much that'the
always worst. You get used to it better. me out in front of Ella's. ' bartenders began to pour bourbon, my
You took it real good, homeboy. You got She was entranced with me. Auto- favorite brand of it, when they saw me,
a good conk." matically, I began to see less of Shorty. And the steady customers in both places,
When Shorty let me stand up and see When I did see him and the gang, he the hustlers in Small's and the musicians
in the mirror, my scalp still flamed, but would gibe, "Man, I had to comb the and entertainers in the Braddock, began
this time not as bad; I could bear it. The burrs out of homeboy's head; now, looka to call me "Red," the nickname that my
mirror reflected Shorty behind me. We here, he's got a Beacon Hill chick." red conk made natural, I know.
both were grinning and sweating.' After' . Meanwhile I left the drugstore and My musical friends were of the caliper
that Vaseline, I had this thick, smooth soon found me a new job. I was a busboy " of Duke Ellington's great drunnner,,
sheen of shining red hair-real, red-and at the Parker House. After only a few Sonny Greer, and that great personality
straight as any white man's! weeks, one Sunday morning I ran in to with the violin, Ray Nance. Ray's the one
Shorty would take me to groovy, fran- work expecting to get fired, I was so who sang that wild "scat" style, that
tic scenes (parties) in different chicks' and late. But the whole kitchen crew was too . "bloo-blop-ble-blop-bla-bloo-b lam-
cats' pads. With the lights and the juke-excited and upset to notice. I picked up Warn- Xtemember that? And people
box down -mellow, we "blew gage" their talk-Japanese planes had just like Cootie Williams; a little later on
(smoked marijuana) or "juiced back" bombed somewhere called Pearl Harbor. Pearl Bailey sang with Cootie. And Eddie
(drank liquor). The chicks I met were (Mr. Cleanhead) Vinson; in the Braddock
fine as May wine, the cats were hip to all -You wouldn't have believed it was me, he'd kid me about his conk-he had
happenings. (That's just to give a taste of "Getcha goooood haaaaaman' cheeeeeese ' nothing up there but skin. He was hitting
the slang that was talked by everyone . . . sandwiches! Coffee! Candy! Cake! 'the heights then with his Hey, Pretty
whom I respected in those ' days.) I'd Ice cream!" Rocking along the tracks : Mamma, Chunk Me In Your Big Brass Bed.
acquired the fashionable ghetto adorn- every:other day for four hours between' I knew Cy Oliver; he was married to a
ments, my zoot suits and a conk; I had i Boston and New York, in the coach-car kind of red girl, and they lived up on
begun drinking liquor, smoking cigarettes , aisles of the New Haven line's Yankee' and reefers, and I was absorbing a lot of Clipper. An old Pullman porter, a friend
the "hip" dialogue. of Ella s, had recommended the railroad
job for me. He had told her that the war
'S EP 1 2 '954 Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
 00`;~jbltyt o go into the Army.
"11~a~~ his brother, Charlie, had
seen me in the place so. much that it made
it pretty easy. They also knew I was a
railroad man, which, for a waiter, was
the best kind of recommendation. It
was in 1942, just past my 17th birthday.
With Small's practically in the center
of everything happening, waiting tables
there was Seventh Heaven seven times
over! Charlie Small had told me not to
be late! Why, what was he talking about?
I was so anxious to be there, I'd arrive
an hour early! Inside of a week I don't
know who liked me most, the cooks or
the bartenders. And the customers, who
had, seen me among them around the
bar,, recognizing me now in the waiter's
jacket, were surprised, pleased, and they
couldn't have been more friendly. Recog-
nizing that by New York terms I still was
just a hick, they began to school me.
Fidel Castro met Malcolm when he came to the United Nations, failed to convert him. Every day I listened raptly to one or
"Sugar Hill," and he did a lot of arrang- ignorant Negroes like me would pay the
Solidarity: tactical talk with the Rev. Galamison (left) and Rep. Adam Clayton Powell.
ing for Tommy Dorsey. big-name -price.) And then, between
By that time, on the Yankee Clipper, Small's Paradise, the Braddock Hotel,
they had a laughing bet going among the and other places, as much as my $20 or
waiters that I wasn't going to last. Be- $25 would let me, with my increasing
cause I had so rapidly become such a number of friends 1 drank liquor, smoked
wild young Negro. I'd come to work, marijuana, and got a few hours' sleep
loud and wild and half high off either before the Yankee Clipper rolled again.
liquor or reefers, and I'd stay that way,. What did me in was that when some
jamming sandwiches at people until we passenger wrote the New Haven line a
got to New York. Off the train I'd go. mad letter, the conductors backed it up,
through that Grand Central Station telling how many verbal complaints
afternoon rush-hour crowd, and many they'd had, and how many warnings I'd
people simply stopped in their tracks to ' been given. I didn't care. Me quitting
watch me pass. The drape and the cut of the railroad was in my mind only a
a zoot suit showed .to the best advantage matter of time anyway. And I knew that
if 'you were tall, remember-and I was the way the Army was snatching up any-
over six feet. My conk was fire-red. My body who was warm and able to walk, all
knob-toed, orange-colored "kickup" the jobs I could want were going begging.
shoes were the Cadillacs of shoes in those , Back in New York, stony broke, I went
days. (They made these ridiculous styles over to Small's Paradise. One of the bar-
for sale only in the black ghettos where tenders called me aside and said that if
Approved For Release' 2b0 /04/08 CIA-RDP75-00149
several of the customers who felt like
talking-these seasoned, mature hus-
tlers-and it all added to my "education."
Particularly, my ears absorbed like
sponges when some of them in a rare
burst of confidence, or a little beyond his
usual number of drinks, would tell me
"inside" things about the particular form
of hustling that he pursued.
Plain-clothes detectives were quietly
identified to me, by a nod, a wink. Know-
ing the law people in the area was ele-
mentary for the hustlers, and, like them,
in time, I would learn to sense almost the
presence of any police and agent .types.
And added to the civilian ones then in
1942, each of the military services had
civilian-dressed "eyes" and "cars."
Every day, all of my tips-as high as
$10 a day-I would gamble on the num-
bers, and dream of what I would do and
buy as soon as 1 "hit." The straight num-
ber chances of hitting were a thousand-
to-one, but your chances could be in-
creased by what was called. "combinat-
ing." For example, six cents would, put
one penny on each of the six possible
combinations of three digits. Take the
number 840; say. "Combinated,",it would
cover 840, 804, 048, 408, 480 and 084.
"Detroit Red"
The daily small army of "runners"
each got 10 percent of the money they.
turned in, along with the bet slips, to their
"controllers." (And if you hit, you gave
the runner a 10 percent tip.) A controller
might have as many as 50 runners work-
ing for him, and the controller got 5 per-
cent of what he turned over to the
"bankers," who paid off the hits, paid off
the police, and, off the balance, got rich.
I should stress that Small's wasn't any
haven for criminals. I dwell upon hustlers:
because it was their world that fascinated
me. Actually, for the night-life crowd,
most of which the hustlers regarded as
.`square," Small's was one of the two
vva...k .., .tt~.,ttt-V, or three most decorous night spots that
Sip 1 2 194 Approved For Release @1b901e.9ke-fp~%0`y2000500140017-7~
 Harlem had. It was formall r~con - c used by t ~ts q Ia~s~,~s, ~e I man. Every
mended by the Nev1WP101t T81~c~e11~1~#4Ls YiIU`-6~CH"3f0019 vo1
day c ease ..a east thirty or forty
Department to white people who would 'off limits by the military, and some even
f dollars. I felt, for the first time in my life,
ask where was safe to go.in Harlem. had lost their state or city h eases' i that great feeling of free! Suddenly, now,
From time to time I'd have Sophia And I had suckered myself right into, I was the peer of other smooth young
cone over from Boston to see me. She the hands of one of those military "spies." hustlers around.
would cone in on a late-afternoon train, Why, this black tool of the white man The narcotics-squad detectives didn't
and cone to, Small's and I'd introduce said he sure would like a woman, so take long to pick up that I was selling,
her around until I got off. We would gratefully; he even had a dumb Georgia and different ones of them would tail me
make it to the Braddock Hotel bar, where accent! And I gave him the phone nun- once in a while. One morning, though,
she would nearly have a fit with meeting ber of one of my best friends among the I came in and found my room ransacked.
some of the "name" musicians who now prostitutes at the rooming house where
would greet me like an old friend. "Bey, I lived. I gave the fellow a half hour to
Red-who have we got here?" And they have gotten there., and then I telephoned.
would make .on over her. They wouldn't I expected what the woman said to ale,
It was then that I began carrying a little
.25 automatic. I carried it stuck right
down the center of my back, pressed
under my belt. Someone had told me
let me even think about paying for the that no one like that had been there. that the cops never hit there when they
drinks I ordered. I didn't even go back out to the bar. gave you any routine patting-down. I
Once, when,I called Sophia in Boston, I just went straight to Charlie Small's sold less than I had before because,
she sounded funny. She said she couldn't
get away until the following weekend.
She told me that she had just married
some well-to-do Boston white fellow. He
was in the service. She went on to say
she didn't mean for it to change a thing
between us. I told her it made me no
difference.
f
When I had been around Harlem long
enough to show signs of permanence, it
was inevitable that I was going to get a
nickname that would identify me beyond
any confusion with two other red conked
and well-known "Reds" who were around.
I had Met them both. One was "St. Louis
Red," a professional armed robber. When
1 was sent to prison, he was doing some
time for trying to stick up a dining-car
steward on a train between New York and
Philadelphia. The other one was "Chicago
Red." In a speakeasy where I was a
waiter later on, he was the funniest dish-
washer on this earth, and we became
good buddies. Now he's making his living
being funny as a nationally known stage,
ni
h
l
b
om
di
n
n
I
"l l.,
g
1,
u
e
a
.,,,., a
c
. (
y protect their business. I wasn't a qualified
g
reason why old "Chicago Red" would hustler as yet, but I surely had become black The Army "intelligence" h,th
n
mind nee telling that he is "Redd Foxx.") schooled in their code. I was .broke and . spies in civilian cllo ncn thes dts thhaat hung
nd in different places with their ears
Anyway, before long, it happened. Dif- on my own again, 18 years old.
ferent people, knowing I was from Michi-
gan, would ask me what city. Since most Sammy, "Pretty Boy," one of the
New Yorkers never had heard of hick- pimps, proved to be my friend in need.
town Lansing, I would say "Detroit." He put word on the "wire" for me to
Gradually, I began being called "Detroit come over to his place. I went; I never
Red"-and its red and st ck
u
a
arou
open' for the white man downtown, oh,
yes, I knew right where to start dropping
the word! I started dropping it around
that I was frantic to join-the Japanese
Army. When I sensed, knew, that I had
the direct ears of some of the "spies"
,
P
had been there. His place seemed to me
One afternoon in early 1943, before a small palace; his women reap kept him would talk, and act, high and crazy.
the regular six-o'clock Small's hustling y I'd snatch out, and read loudly, my
in style. While we talked, about what Greetings-to make certain they got who
crowd had gathered, this real Georgia- kind of a hustle should I best get into, I was, and when 1'd report downtown.
looking black soldier satlooke dumb Sammy had the best marijuana I'd ever And the day I went down there-well,
of by himself. He of that used. Peddling reefers, Sammy and I, I costumed like a model. With my wild
pitiful, and it
and d
the was dumbest because of that looked
pretty soon agreed, was the best thing..
why I did one of things I zoot suit and the yellow knob-toe shoes,
ever did in those years. The next drink Both Sammy and I knew some merchant and I frizzled my hair up into a crazy
that I served this soldier, I bent over close seamen, and others, who could supply me j reddish bush of conk.
wiping the table, and asked him if he with loose marijuana. And musicians,. Let me tell you-when I went in skip-
among whom 1 had so many good con- ; ping and tipping, and thrust my tattered
wanted a woman.
I knew better. It wasn't only Small's. tacts, were the heaviest consistent cate-
Paradise law, it was every tavern's law, ! gory market for reefers-and then they
at least if it wanted to stay in business, also were for the heavier narcotics if I
not to get involved with anything that later wanted to graduate to peddling
could be interpreted as impairing the them. I had the advantage that I had
morals of servicemen, or any kind of been around long enough to either know,
hustling off them. Big trouble had been or spot on sight, most regular detectives
and cops, though not the narcotics people.
Sammy staked me, about $20.
Approved For Release' 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
office. "I just did something, Charlie," ! mainly, being careful consumed so much
I said, "I don't know why I did it -" time. It was on the wire, finally, that the
And I told him what I'd done. narcotics squad of Harlem had me on its
Charlie looked at me. "I wish you -special list." Now was when, every other
hadn't done that, Red." We both knew day or so, and usually in some public
what he meant. place, some of them would come up, and
When the West Indian plain-clothes flash the badge to search me. But I would
detective, Charlie Barts, came in, I was tell them right off, loud enough for others
waiting. When we got to the 135th Street i to hear nee, people standing about, that I
precinct, it was busy with police in uni- didn't have anything on me, and I didn't
form. I reflected that two things were in want to get anything "planted" on me,
my favor: I'd never given the police any and then they wouldn't, because Harlem
trouble, and when that black spy soldier already thought little enough of the law,
had tried to tip me, I had waved it away and they did have to be careful that some
and told him I was just doing him a crowd of Negroes, figuring they had
favor. I saw some other detectives side- witnessed a "frame," could set off even
mouthing with Charlie Barts, and I think a race riot.
that when these factors were discussed,. A Boston draft board, after I didn't
they sort of agreed that Charlie Barts respond at Ella's, had contacted her, and
should just scare me. ' then had contacted their New York
Even more bitter to take than the just counterpart, and, in care of Sammy, I
getting fired, they barred me out of received Uncle San's "Greetings." I had
Small's. I could understand. Even if I ' about 10 days to go before 1 was to show
wasn't actually what was called "hot," up at the induction center. And I went
I automatically was going to be under' right to work. I knew I wasn't even about
surveillance now; the brothers had to to get hooked into any Armv!
6
SEA 12 1964
 7
Greetings) at the reception desk's white . "D 0 ow ou nd me we're The wire would be awaiting the report of
soldier-':Crary-O, DAVpfflvjW' Fr-SZrl1~(99 ~1~/doQa~Pt~Zo`t-00t1Q1`t4ldrnild see people
moving, I can't wait to get in that body ... I want to get sent down South. who knew me finding business elsewhere.
brown"-why I.will bet you that soldier I Organize. . them nigger soldiers, you dig?: I knew nobody wanted to be maybe
' hasn't recovered from me yet. They had Steal us some guns, and kill up crackers !''i caught in a crossfire.
r^. their wire from uptown on me, all right-
I could tell from his expression when his
glance at,my Greetings confirmed the'
name to him.
"Kill up crackers"
But they still put me in the line. And
I had meanwhile sized up the situation.
In that big starting room were maybe 40
or 50 other planned inductees. The room
had fallen vacuum-quiet, with me running
my mouth a mile a minute, talking noth-
catch the next bus back to Harlem. I
ing but slang. I was going to fight on all never knew who that fellow was. I never
fronts; I was going to be a general, man, knew who picked up the betting money
before I got done, and such talk as that. for the slips that I picked up. In the
Most of them in there were white, of rackets you don't ask questions. My boss,
course. The tender-looking ones appeared his wife and their daughter would be wait-
on that vinegary "here's the worst kind
of nigger" look. And a few were amused
at the "Harlem jigaboo" archtype.
Also amused were some of the room's
maybe 10 or 12 Negroes. But the stony-
faced rest of them looked as though if
`they were about to sign up to go oft' kill-
ing somebody, they would have liked to
A 4-F card came in the mail, and I
never heard from the Army anymore.
Because of my reputation around it
was easy for me to get into the numbers
racket-about the only hustle left in
Harlem that hadn't fallen off in business.
My job now was to ride a bus across the
George Washington Bridge, where a fel-
low who was always waiting would hand
me a bag of numbers-betting slips. We
didn't speak. I'd cross the street and
shortly before the day's first number was
announced from downtown.
Our numbers-world ethics code was
that I should play with a runner of my
own outfit. That was how I began placing
bets with "West Indian Archie." This
was one of Harlem's really bad Negroes,
strong-
one of those former Dutch Schultz strong-
start killing me right there.arm men who were around. It was status
You see, why I made these Negroes and class just to be known as a client of
really so mad was they were these rote- West Indian Archie.
gration-type Negroes. And what I was One afternoon West Indian Archie paid
doing was confirming white people's me $300 out of his pocket fora 50-cent
image of Negroes right there among some combination bet. I was planning to go out
of the white people that they were so on a date. Later, when I got to the apart-
anxious to get integrated with. And they ment of my friend Sammy, he told me
-knew those crackers probably would go that West Indian Archie had been there,
to their graves fighting integration, after looking for me. I couldn't figure out why.
the show I was, putting on. Anyway
Sammy and I sniffed some co-
,
The line moved along. Pretty soon, caine to. kill the time before I would go
stripped to my shorts, I was making my out and pick up my date. Then there was
eager-to-join comments in the medical the knocking at the door. Sammy, lying
examination rooms-and everybody in on his bed in pajamas and a bathrobe,
the white coats that I saw had 4-F in his called "Who?"
ready to run from me. Some others had . ing in a room when I would arrive, just
eyes. I went all the way, though, which When West Indian Archie answered, coming. It just happened that Shorty was
was longer than I had expected, before, Sammy slid under the bed that round, "between" women when one night So-
they siphoned me off. One of the whitei two-sided shaving mirror with what little phia brought to the house and intro-
coats accompanied me around a turning; of the cocaine powder-or crystals, actu- duced her 17-year-old sister. I never saw
hallway; I knew we were on the way to a ally-was left, and I opened the door. anything like the way that she and
"headshrinker." "Red-I want my money!" Shorty nearly jumped for each other. For
I must say this for that psychiatrist. "Man-what's the beef?" , him, she wasn't only a white girl, but a
He tried to be objective and professional in . West Indian Archie said he'd thought young white girl. For her, he wasn't only
his manner. He sat there and doodled.with I was trying something when I'd told him a Negro, but a Negro musician.
his blue pencil on a tablet, listening to m', I'd hit a 50-cent-combination number. Now 1 knew that I'd have to have a
spiel to him probably threeorfour minutes',, But he'd gone on and paid me the1300- hustle. Just satisfying my cocaine habit
before he got a word in. His 'tack was until he could double-check his actual alone cost me about $20 a day. .1 guess
quiet questions, to get at why was I so written betting slips; now he thought 'another $5 a day could have been added
anxious. I kept jerking around, backward. I hadn't combinated the number I'd for reefers and just plain tobacco.
as though somebody could be listening. I claimed, but another number. When I opened the subject of house
knew I was going to send him back to the "I'll give you until twelve o'clock to- burglary with Shorty, he really shocked
books to figure what kind of a case I was. morrow to get that money back." And me by how quickly he agreed. Shorty
Suddenly, I sprang up and peeped that mad, mean West Indian put his:hand wanted to bring in with us this friend of
under both doors, the one I'd entered ? behind him and pulled open the door' his, whom I had met, and liked, called
and another that probably was a closet.; He backed out, and slammed it. It was a "Sonny." He worked regularly for an
And then I bent and whispered fast in his classic hustler-code impasse. The $300 employment agency that sent him to wait
SEP 12 1964
wasn't the problem. I had maybe about ' on tables at exclusive parties at exclusive
$200 of it. But once the wire had it, any people's homes. I felt that Shorty was ab-
retreat by either of us was unthinkable. solutely right in wanting Sonny to join us
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75=00149R000500140017-7
I just stayed high for a few days, but
I was scared.
Some raw kid hustler in a bar,.I had to
bust in his mouth. He came back, pulling,
a blade; I would have shot him, but some-
body grabbed him. As I was known, and
they feared me, they put him out, cursing
that he was going to kill me. '
Things were building up, closing in on
me. I was trapped in cross turns. West
Indian Archie gunning for me. The scared
kid hustler I'd hit. The cops.
When I heard the, par's horn, I was
walking on St. Nicholas Avenue. But my.
ears were hearing a gun. I didn't dream
the horn could possibly be for me.
"Homeboy!"
I jerked around; I came that close to
shooting....
Shorty-from Boston!
I'd scared him nearly to death.
"Daddy-O I"
I couldn't have been happier to see my
mother! I knew Shorty had hit his num-
ber and that he was playing dates around
Boston with his own band. - -
Inside the car he told me Sammy had
telephoned how I was jammed up tight
and he'd better come and get me. I didn't
put up any objections to leaving town. I
brought out and stuffed into the car's
trunk what little stuff I cared to hang
onto. Then we hit the highway and drove
back to Boston. He afterward told me
that through just about the whole ride
back, I talked all out of my head.
My sister Ella couldn't believe how
atheist, how uncouth I had become. Even.
Shorty, whose Boston apartment I now
again shared, wasn't prepared for how I
lived and thought like a predatory animal.
Sophia's being back around was one of
Shorty's biggest kicks about my home-
 8
in burglarizing homes. A good burglary o met e e of a~1,,1~~m- pP&JU
people
brown
team included a "finpp ldedfiol6-2e Arige eh a-! 'l~~r~iep0 W ~ 14"Y7
cates lucrative places to rob. Then an- was the "demonology" that every relig- remained.
other principal need is someone able to ion has. Called "Yacub's History," once The next 200 years were needed
"case" these laces' physical layouts-to create from the brown race the red race-
.,case" it is accepted by any black man, he will with no more browns left on the island.
determine means of entry, the best get- never again see the white man with the
away routes, and so forth.. Sonny quali- same eyes. In another 200 years from the red race
fled as a two-in-one find. By being sent to was created the yellow race.
Y g First, the moon separated from the Two hundred years later-about 6,000
work in the finest homes, he wouldn't be, earth. Then, the first humans, Original i years ago-at last, the white race had
suspected when he sized up their loot and Man, were a black people. They founded
cased the joint, just running around look- the Holy City Mecca. been created.
ing busy with a white coat on. Amon this black race were 24 wise On the island of Patmos was nothing
Our "fence" didn't work with us di-' g but these blond, pale-skinned, cold-blue-
scientists. One of the scientists, at odds eyed devils-savages, nude and shame-
rcctly. He had a representative, an ex- with the rest, created the especially strong less; hairy, like animals, they walked on
in con, my who gang. with me and no one else black tribe of Shabazz, from which
Six rhundred they more lived in trans.
. You would be surprised how America's Negroes, so-called, descend. all fours
efficient we became. In no time we'd be About 6,800 years ago' when 70 per- this race of pmrreturned e to the before
th
main-
running with the stolen loot to the parked cent of the people were satisfied, and 30 land among rapeople e the natural al black people.
car that took off for the "drop" pre- percent were dissatisfied, was born a months ntime through arranged between me and the "Mr. Yacub." He was born to create Within t set t the the black men to rough tell-
viously
g
representative for the fence. We were go- trouble, to break the peace, and to kill. .tng lies that fighting
ing along fine. We'd make a good pile and His head was unusually large. When he j among each other, this devil race had
then lie low a while, living it up. We'd was four years old, he began school, on , turned what had been a peaceful Heaven
on earth into
time the burglaries so that Shorty still the way to becoming highly educated. and fighting. a he quarreling
d.
played with his band, Sonny never missed At the age of 18, Yacub had finished and Then the the e torn whites by ruleYacub'
table-waiting at his exclusive parties. all of his nation's colleges and universi- It was written that after d
the e world
But it's a law of nature that every ties. He was known as "the big-head sci- for bleached-white ins race had had to our give ruled time -then
criminal expects to get caught. I had put entist." Among many other things he had the e blac block original years-down
race u would gdie birth
irt
a stolen watch into a jewelry shop for its learned how to scientifically breed races.
eople
broken crystal to be replaced. It was This bi -head scientist, Mr. Yacub, to one whose wisdom, knowledge and power about two days later, when I went to pick began g preaching in the streets of Mecca, that hat some would of the be original i n.It was
black people
up the watch, that things fell apart. I had making such hosts of converts that the should be brought as slaves to North
on my gun in the shoulder holster, under authorities, increasingly concerned, fi-
The loser of the watch, the America-to learn to better understand,
my coat. per- rally exiled him with his 59,999 followers firsthand, the white devils' true nature,
son from whom it had been stolen, had to the island of Patmos-described in the
d
described the repair that it needed. It was
a very expensive watch, that's why I had
kept it for myself. And all of the jewelers
in Boston had been alerted. That's how I
was arrested.'
The judge gave Shorty eight to 10
years. I got 10 years. They took Shorty
and me, handcuffed together, to the state
prison in Charlestown. This was in Feb-
ruary, 1946. I wasn't quite to the formal
manhood age of 21.
In that Charlestown jail I found out
fast you could buy drugs. But I made so
much trouble and spent so much time in
solitary that I sweated out all my habits
"cold turkey." Many times I thought I
was going to die-but even this was only
part of the total transformation that was
Bible as the island where John supposedly
received the message contained in Reve-
lations in the New Testament.
Though he was a black man, Mr.
Yacub, embittered toward Allah now,
I decided, as revenge, to create upon the
earth a "devil" race-a bleached-out,
white race of people!
He knew that it would take him several
total color-change stages to get from
black to white. Mr. Yacub began his
work by setting up a birth-control law
there on the island of Patmos.
There, among Mr. Yacub's 59,999 fol-
lowers, every third or so child that was
born would show some trace of brown.
As these became adult, only brown and
brown, or black and brown, were per-
mitted to marry. As their children were
born, Mr. Yacub's law dictated that, if a
black child, the attending nurse or mid-
wife should stick a needle into its brain
and give the body to cremators. The
mothers were told it had been an "angel
o come over me.
My brothers and sisters began sending
me letters about a new, natural religion .
for the black man. One day Reginald
wrote, "Don't eat any more pork." I
tried it and did it, and for the first time in
a long while I began to get a little feeling
of self-respect, though I hardly knew
even how to identify the feeling. Regi-
nald wrote more, about the worship of
Allah and the American teacher of Islam,
the Honorable Mr. Elijah Muhammad.
I learned that when Mr. Muhammad went
to Detroit he actually stayed at my
brother Wilfred's place. It was my sister
~. Hilda who told me that Mr. Muhammad
himself had been in prison, for draft
dodging, and she suggested that I write
to him. And on one visit she explained
baby," which had gone to heaven, to
prepare a place for her.
But a brown child's mother was told
to take very good care of it.
Others, assistants, were trained by Mr.
Yacub to continue his objective. Mr.
Yacub, when he died on the island at
the age of 152, had left laws and rules for
them to go by. Mr. Yacub, except in his
mind, never saw the "bleached-out devil
race..' that his procedures created.
A 200-year span was needed to elimi-
nate on the island of Patmos all of- the
ern times.
in mo
The greatest and mightiest God who
appeared on the earth was Master W. D.
Fard. He came from the East to the West,
,.appearing in North America at a time
when the history and the prophecy was
coming to realization, as the nonwhite
people all over the world began to rise.
Master W. D. Fard, in 1931, posing as
a seller of silks, met, in Detroit, Mich.,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He
gave Allah's message to Elijah and Allah's
divine guidance, to save "the Lost-Found
Nation of Islam," the so-called Negroes,
here in "this wilderness of America."
When my sister, Hilda, had finished
telling me this "Yacub's History," she
left. I don't know if I was able, even, to
open my mouth and tell her "good-bye."
I did write to The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad. He sent me a typed reply.
It had an all but electrical effect on me to
actually see the signature of the Messen-
ger of Allah. He told me to have courage.
He even enclosed some money for me, a
five-dollar bill. Mr. Muhammad to this
day sends money all over the country to
prison inmates who write to him.
I began pretty soon to write to people
in the hustling world that I had known,
such as my close friend Sammy, the pimp,
SEP 12, 1964 Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
 dope peddlers. I told them brother, appealing for him. I told him ! were stapled on the sofas. Imitation
or the different
all about Allah and IsAppn d A el13asg4O W'O4168tI (4F14-I T9jOpfl 9P"oroo'O p4ftgg4, "tiger skin"
Muhammad. What surely went on the brother meant to me. I put the letter into ; rugs, such stuff as that. I would see,
Harlem and Roxbury wires was that the box for the prison censor. Then, all 'I clumsy, calloused hands scratching the
"Detroit Red," in "stir," either was going of the rest of that night, 1 prayed to signatures on the contract, agreeing to
crazy, or he was trying some "hype" to Allah. I don't think that anyone ever highway-robbery interest rates in the fine
shake up the warden's office, through prayed more sincerely to Allah. I prayed print that never was read.
writing what the prison censors obviously for some kind of relief from my terrible Mosque No. I in Detroit was the first
would report. confusion. mosque to be formed, back in 1931, by
I got frustrated at how I couldn't ex- It was that night, or, rather, it was the i%.astcr W. D. 1-ard and the Messenger
press what I wanted to convey in letters. ' next night, 1 lay on my bed. And I sud- El jah Muhammad. I had never seen any
When I started trying to figure what to do denly, with a start, became aware of Christian-believing Negroes conduct
about that, I saw that the best thing I a man sitting beside me in my chair. He themselves like the Muslims who came,
could get hold of was a dictionary to had on a dark suit, I remember. I could the individuals and the families alike. The
study, to learn some words. Probably I see him as plainly as I see anyone 1 look men were quietly, tastefully dressed. The
spent two days just uncertainly riffling at. He wasn't black, and he wasn't white, women wore ankle-length gowns, no
through the pages of that dictionary. I He was light-brownskinned, an Asiatic makeup, and scarves covered their heads. `..
never had realized there were so many complexion, and had oily black hair. The children were mannerly and neat.
words. I didn't know which words for a He just sat there. Then, as suddenly as on the Sunday before Labor Day in
better vocabulary! Anyway, finally, the he had come, he was gone. Later, of 1952 Detroit Mosque No. 1 Muslims
only way I saw to just start some kind of ! course, I learned that my prevision was of I went in a motor caravan, about 10 auto-
action, I began copying-In a couple of Master W.D. Fard, the Messiah, who mobiles of us, to visit the Chicago
weeks, without having had any original had appointed Mr. Elijah Muhammad as Mosque No. 2, to hear, in person, The
intention in the world of even thinking His Last Messenger to the black people Messenger Elijah Muhammad.
of doing such a thing, the A section of of North America. I was unprepared, totally, for the Mes-
the dictionary had filled a whole tablet. senger Elijah Muhammad's physical im-
and I just naturally went on into the B's. Greater than Allah pact upon my emotions. From the rear of
That was the way I started copying, Mosque No. 2 he came toward the plat-
eventually, the entire dictionary. It went Gradually I saw the chastisement of form. The small, brown face, the sensi-
a lot faster after, through the practice. ; Allah-what Christians would call "the tive, gentle face that I had studied on
I had picked up handwriting speed. curse" come upon Reginald. He had be- photographs until I had seen it in dreams,
It was inevitable, I suppose, that as my gun to lose his mind-as we know it. was fixed straight ahead as the Messen-
word base broadened, for the first time, In prison, since I had become a Muslim, ger strode, encircled by the marching,
1. could pick up a book and actually un- 1 had grown a beard. He visited me, he strapping "Fruit of Islam" guards. The
derstand what the book was saying. moved nervously about in his chair; he Messenger, compared to them, seemed
I had meanwhile' been transferred to told me that each hair of my beard was a fragile, almost tiny. He and the Fruit
Norfolk Prison Colony, a rehabilitation snake. He saw snakes everywhere. of Islam were dressed in dark suits, white
center for model prisoners.' This was be- He next began to believe that he was shirts and bow ties. The Messenger wore
cause my disposition had improved and the Messenger of Allah. He went around a gold-embroidered fez. Hearing his
because Ella was working for me with in the streets of Roxbury, Ella relayed to voice, I sat leaning forward, riveted upon
the authorities outside. Let me tell you nee, telling people that he had some di- his words. That Sunday after the meeting
something! From then until I left that vine power. He graduated from that to Mr. Muhammad, who had been Wilfred's
prison, within its routine, in all of the free 'saying that he was Allah. houseguest, invited our entire family
time I had, I was in the library: picking up And, finally, he began saying that he group and minister Lemuel Hassan to be
some more books. ' was greater than Allah. his guests for dinner at his new home.
Two other areas of experience which Authorities picked up Reginald, and he I talked with my brother Wilfred back
have been extremely formative in my life was put into an asylum, and stayed. in Detroit. I offered my services to our
were first tasted there in prison. For one It was spring, 1952, when I joyously mosque's minister, Lemuel Hassan, He
thing I had my first experiences in com- wrote to Mr. Elijah Muhammad and to shared my determination that we should
municating Mr. Muhammad's teachings my family that the Massachusetts state apply the Messenger's methods in a
to some of the black prisoners. And, the parole board had voted that I should be recruitment drive. Beginning that day,
other thing, when I had read enough to released. My record was good, and it may 1 every evening, straight fr:,m work at the ,
know something to talk with, I began to have helped that they knew I was a Mus- furniture stote, I went doing what we.
get into the weekly debating program- lim. Maybethey wanted meremoved from Muslims later came to call "fishing." I
my baptism into public speaking. spreading Mr. Muhammad's teachings knew the streets' language, and its think-
I'd "knock out" my brother Reginald amongotherNegroconvicts.Iwasparoled ing. "My man, let me pull your coat to
when he visited me in prison, telling him into the custody of my oldest brother, something--"
things I'd found that documented the Wilfred, in Detroit, who now managed a My application had, of course, been
Muslim teachings. furniture store. Wilfred got the man who made, and I received from Chicago my
But Reginald, I learned later, had ac- owned the store to sign that upon release l "X" during this time. The X for the
tually been suspended from the Nation would immediately be given employment. Muslim was a symbol for the true Afri-'
of Islam by The Messenger Elijah Mu- Wilfred invited me to share his home can family name that he never could
hammad, charged with immorality. After and I gratefully accepted, know; it would replace the white-slave
he had learned the truth, and had ac- The furniture store that my brother master name which had been imposed
cepted the truth and the laws of the Wilfred managed was right in the black upon my paternal forebears by some
Muslim, he still was reportedly carrying ghetto of Detroit. NOTHING DOWN ad- blue-eyed devil. It meant, the receipt of
on improper relations with some woman vertisements drew poor Negroes into that my X, that in the Nation of Islam there-
of his who lived in New York. Some other store like flypaper! It was a shame, the after I would be known as Malcolm X.
Muslims who learned of it had made way they paid probably three and four Within a few months of our plugging
charges against Reginald to Mr. Muham- times what the furniture had cost, be- away, our storefront Mosque No. 1
mad in Chicago, and Mr. Muhammad cause they could get credit. It was the about tripled its membership. And we had
had suspended Reginald. same kind of cheap, gaudy-looking junk '? so deeply pleased Mr. Muhammad that'
I was in a torment. Finally, I wrote to that you can see in any of the black i he paid us the honor of a personal visit.
Mr. Muhammad, trying to defend my uhe-ttn furniture stores today. Fabrics n L u i "
SEA 1 2 1984Approved For Release 2004/04/08 :CIA-RDP75=001498000500140017-7
 He gave me warm praise when minister conditioned audience for Mr. Muham- Then this particular sister-well, in
0
Lemuel Hassan exprCA%d}V69c i6VRe182e?e t2OI] 11 4/68 c1c1 4lRCPT O149R,Z@lb1A W*41O0 e7No. 7. 1 just
And soon after that minister Lemuel
Hassan urged me to make an extempora-
neous lecture to the brothers and sisters.
I was hesitant-but at least, I had debated
in prison. I tried my best.
In the summer of 1953-all praise is
due to Allah-I was named Detroit
Mosque No. I's assistant minister. Every
time I could get off, I would go to Chicago
and see Mr. Elijah Muhammad. He en-
couraged me to come when I could. I felt
like, and I was treated like, another son,
or another brother, by Mr. Muhammad
and his dark, good wife Sister Clara
Muhammad, and their children, and his
dear mother, Mother Marie.
I would sit, galvanized, hearing from
Mr. Muhammad's own mouth the true
history of our religion, the true religion
for the black man. Mr. Muhammad told
me that he one evening had a revelation
that Master W. D. Fard represented the
fulfillment of the prophecy, that on the
Last Day the Messiah would cone as
lighting from the East and appear in the
West to resurrect the Lost Sheep and re-
We went fishing fast and furiously when noticed her, not with the slightest interest,
those little evangelical storefront churches you understand. For about the next year I
let out their 30 to 50 people on the side- just noticed her. You know. It was Sister
walk. "Come to hear us, brother, sis- Betty X. She was tall. Brown-skinned-
ter-" These congregations were usually darkerthanlwas.Andshehad browneyes.
Southern-migrant people, usually older But 1 didn't pay too much attention.
people, who would go anywhere to hear I knew she was a native of Detroit,
what they called "good preaching." These and that at Tuskegee institute down
were the church congregations who were there in Alabama, she had been a stu-
always putting out little signs announc- dent-an education major. She was in
ing that inside they were selling fried- New York attending one of the big hos-
chicken-and-chitterlings dinners to raise pitals' School of Nursing. She lectured to
some money. And three or four nights a the Muslim girls' and women's classes on
week they were in their storefront re- hygiene and medical facts.
hearsing for the next Sunday, I guess, One day I thought it would help the
shaking and rattling and rolling the Gos- women's classes if I took her-just be-
pels with their guitars and tambourines. cause she happened to be an instructor-
Fknew the mosque that I could build if to the Museum of Natural History. I
I could really get to those Christians. wanted to show her some museum dis
But I knew also that our strict moral plays having to do with the family tree
code of disciplines was what repelled of evolution that would help her in her
them most. I fired at this point, at the lectures. I could show her actual proofs
reason for our code: "The white man of Mr. Muhammad's teachings of such
wants black men to stay immoral, un- things as that the filthy pig is only a large
clean and ignorant." rodent. The pig is a graft between a rat,
The. code, of course, had to be ex- cat and dog, Mr. Muhammad taught.
plained to any who were tentatively in- Then, right after that, one of the older
store them forever to their own people. terested in. becoming Muslims. Any forni- sisters confided to me a personal prob-
In 1934, ready to leave, Master W.D. cation was absolutely forbidden in the, lem that Sister Betty X was having. When
Fard called' together all of his ministers. Nation of Islam. Any eating of the filthy ! Sister Betty X had told her foster parents,
He instructed them that Mr. Elijah' pork, or other injurious or unhealthy; who were financing her education, that
Muhammad was to be the Messenger to foods; any use of tobacco, alcohol or she was a Muslim, they had given her a
the Lost-Found Nation of Islam-who narcotics. No Muslim could dance, . choice: leave the Muslims, or they'd cut
was the black man-in the wilderness of
gamble, date, attend movies, or sports, or off her nursing-school financing.
North America. !take long vacations from work. Muslims I got to turning it over in my mind.
Then Master W.D. Fard disappeared 1 slept no more than health required. Any: What would happen if I just should hap-
without a trace. ! domestic quarreling, any discourtesy, es- pen, sometime, to maybe think about
Mr. Muhammad invited me to live at pecially to women, was disallowed. No: maybe getting married to somebody? I
his home in Chicago while he trained me lying, or stealing was permitted, or no was so shocked, at myself, when I realized
for months. Then in March, 1954, the insubordination to civil authority, except; what I was thinking, I quit going any-
Messenger
moved me on to Philadelphia. on the grounds of religious obligation, ~ where around Sister Betty X, or anywhere
The City of Brother Love black people Our moral laws were policed by our I knew she would be. Because she sure
reacted fast. And Philadelphia's Mosque Fruit of Islam-able and dedicated and, wasn't going to have any chance to em-
No.12 was established by the end of May. trained Muslim men. Infractions resulted barrass me.1 had heard too many women
It had taken a little under three months,
in suspension by Mr. Muhammad, or bragging, like, "I told that chump `Get
The next month, because of that Phila- isolation for various periods, or even' lost!"' I'd had too much of all kinds of
delphia success, Mr. Muhammad ap- expulsion for the worst offenses, "from' experience to make a man very cautious.
pointed me to be the minister of Mosque the only group that cares about you." But I told The Honorable Elijah Mu-
No. 7-in vital New York City! It was We had grown, by 1956-well, sizable. hammad, when I visited him in Chicago
nine years since West Indian Archie and Every mosque had fished with enough that month, that I was thinking about a
1 had been stalking the streets, momen- : success that there were far more Muslims very serious step. hie smiled when he
tarily expecting to try and shoot each especially in the major cities of Detroit, heard what it was. Mr. Muhammad said
other down like dogs. Chicago and New York than anyone ever that he'd like to meet this sister.
When I got back to'Harlem I quickly would have guessed from the outside. In:. The Nation by this time was financially
found out from the wire that West Indian ' fact, as you know, in the really big cities able enough that the expenses could be
Archie was just another penniless old you can have a very big organization that, borne for different instructor sisters,
man. I went to see him and he told nie, if it makes no public show, or noise, no from different mosques, to be sent on a
"Red! I am so glad to see you!" I pressed one will be aware that it is around. i trip to Chicago to attend the Head-
some money on him and told him a little 1 haven't made any mention of it be-' quarters Mosque No. 2 women's classes.
about the Nation of Islam. I also found fore now, but I had always been so very and, while there, to meet The Honorable
out that Shorty was out of jail and had careful to stay completely clear of any Elijah Muhammad in person. Sister Betty
another small band. Sammy, the pimp, personal closeness with any of the Mus- X, of course, knew all about this, so there
they told me had married a young g,rl, lim sisters. My total commitment to Islam was nothing for her to think when it was
and then been found dead across his bed demanded having no other interests, es- arranged for her to go to Chicago. And
one morning-they said with $25,000 in pecially, I felt, no women. But I hadn't like all visiting instructor sisters she was
his pockets. been involved with many mosques where the houseguest of The Messenger and
I keep having to remind myself that at least one single sister hadn't let out Sister Clara Muhammad.
then Mosque No. 7 in New York City some broad hint that she thought I The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
was a little storefront. We discovered the I needed a wife. told me that he thought that Sister Betty
best fishing audience of all, by_far the bests
SEP 12 19P4
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
 Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
SEP 12 1964
X was a fine sister, who would make a Attilah the Hun. (He sacked Rome.)
good Muslim wife. I proposed to her Shortly after Attilah came, we moved to
"Look, do you want to get mar- i our present seven room home in an all-
direct, She acted all surprised and shocked, black section of Queens.
The more I have thought about it, to this Another girl, Quiblah (named after
day I believe she was putting- on an act. Emperor Kubla Khan), was born on
Because women know. Christmas Day of 1960. Then, llyasah
On the fourteenth of January, 1958, a ("Ilyas" is Arabic for Elijah) was born in
Tuesday, we had driven out to Lansing, July, 1962. We have just had a fourth
Mich., where my brother Philbert lived. child, who was going to be named "La-
We got the necessary blood tests, then mumba," but it turned out to be another
the license. Then we went to the justice girl. And she has the feminine form,
of the peace "Lamumbah," with an "h."
An old hunchbacked white devil per- You know-any husband observes his
formed the wedding. And all of the wit- wife, just like the other way around, the
nesses were devils. Where you are sup- wife observes the husband. I guess by
posed to say all those "I do's," we (lid. now I will say I love Betty. She's the only
They were all standing there, smiling and woman I ever even thought about loving.
watching every move. The old devil said, And she's one of the. very few-foul
"1 pronounce you man and wife," and women-whom I have ever trusted. The
then, "kiss your bride." thing is, Betty's a good Muslim woman
1 got her out of there. All of that and wife. You see, Islam is the only
Hollywood stuff! Like these women want- religion that gives both husband and
ing nien to pick them up and carry them wife a true understanding of what love is.
across thresholds, and some of them , The Western "love" concept, you take
weigh more than you do. I don't know apart, it really is lust. But ]slam teaches
how many marriage breakups aren't us to look into the woman, and teaches,
caused by these movie- and television- her to look into us.
addict women expecting some bouquets During the next years, radio and tele-
and kissing and hugging and being swept vision people began asking me to defen.i
out like Cinderella for dinner and danc- our Nation of Islam's program in "panel
ing-then getting mad when a poor, ' discussions" and "debates" against hanL.-
scraggledy husband comes in tired and picked "scholars," both whites and son.e
sweaty from working like a dog all day, of those Ph.D. "house" and "yard"
looking for some food. Negroes who had been attacking us.
We lived for the next two-and-a-half Dr. C. Eric Lincoln's book about us
years in Queens, New, York, sharing a was published amid widening controversy -
1 'house of two small apartments with about us Muslims, just about the time
Brother John All and his wife. He's the that we were starting to put on our first
national secretary in Chicago. big mass rallies. Now this book's title was
Attilah, our oldest daughter, was born Black Muslims in America. And we never
in November,' 1958. She's named for could get that "Black Muslim" name dis-
lodged. Later Mr. Muhammad directed
that we would admit the white press. Fruit
of Islam men thoroughly searched them,
as everyone else was searched-their
notebooks, their cameras, camera cases,
and whatever else they carried. We were
watched. Our telephones were tapped.
If I said on my home telephone right
today, "I'm going to bomb the Empire
State Building," I guarantee you that in
Continued
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
 five minutes it would be surrounded. I t '! t! 1V do be ~n to hear
eo
re sir
me a n
p o
c
g at the Man-
Speaking publicly, so! p
1 J M\;& mase/2OSh4J0 h6~8to Gd~A9F 7i.5=0aW~
WUlc n celed, and
which faces in the audience were FBI possible on this and to indicate my own
or other types of agents. Both the reactions, that M r. Muhammad is the ! the question-and-answer period, , some-
police and the FBI intently and persis- defendant in two paternity suits in Los one asked me right off the bat, What do
tently visited and questioned us. Mr. you think about President Kennedy's'',
Angeles. I don't know how those suits, assassination?"
Muhammad said, "I do not fear them, from two girls who once were his secre- And I said without a second thought
1 have all that I need, the truth." taries, are going to come out, but I do what I honestly felt-that, as I saw it,
And so, by 1961, our Nation of Islam know that at the time 1 first heard those
flourished. Mr. Muhammad evidenced ! h' 11CC_ it was a case of "the chickens coming
l
ations about is mora t home to roost." I said that the hate in
the depth of his trust in me. In certain wicked specu
I could not ignore them. white men had not stopped with the kill-
areas he told me to make decisions myself-' B late 1962, a number of Muslims
By ing of defenseless black people, but that,
"Brother Malcolm, I want you to become were leaving Mosque No. 2 in Chicago. allowed to spread unchecked, it had
well known," Mr. Muhammad said to I learned that reliably-and the ugly
me. "But, Brother Malcolm, there. is rumor was spreading swiftly there among Bstruck LACK this MUSLIMS, country's LMiX! CHICKEN. Sta.
something that you need to know. YOU non-Muslims, as well. So some months COME HOME T To O ROOST. That . That X was HiCKENS_
will grow to be hated when you be- t promptly
later I sat down. and I wrote to Mr. in headlines and on news broadcasts.
come well known. Because usually peo- Muhammad what poison was being The next day, I went to Chicago, on my
ple will get jealous of public figures." spread about him. He had me to fly to monthly visit to Mr. Muhammad. "That
Nearly every day some attack on "the his new home in Phoenix to see him in
Black Muslims" appeared in newspapers.' April, 1963. was a very bad statement," he said. "The
Increasingly, a focal target was something We embraced, as always; and almost country loved this man. The whole coup-
I had said or "Malcolm X" as an indi- try is in mourning. That was very ill-
immediately he took me outside, where timed. A statement like that can make it
vidual "demagogue." we began to walk by his swimming pool. hard on Muslims in general. I'll have to
Because as the Nation of Islam's mm- "Well, son," he said, "what is on your silence you for the next ninety days-so
ister in New York City in ,1963, I was
trying to cope with the newspaper and mind?" Plainly, frankly, pulling no that the Muslims everywhere can be dis-
punches, I told Mr. Muhammad what associated from the blunder."
television reporters determined to defeat was being said. And without waiting for I was numb. But I told Mr. Muhammad,.:;
Mr. Muhammad' teachings.
The New York 's s reorted me to be, response from him, mentioned Bible "Sir, I agree with you, and I submit,
p , passages about the sins of David, Moses, one-hundred-percent."
according to a poll which the Times had and Noah and discussed with him about
pre-
made on college and university campuses, When I got back to New York, pre-
"the-second-most-sought-after" speaker how good deeds outweighed bad, and pared to tell my Mosque No. 7 assistants
at colleges and universities. The speaker about the fulfillment of prophecy. that I had been suspended, or, in my case,
"Son, I'm not surprised," Elijah Mu- "silenced," I learned that already they
ahead of me, "most-sought-after," was
Sen. Barry Goldwater. hanunad said. "You always have had had been informed. Next, an announce- . 4
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad such a good understanding of prophecy, ment was made that I would be reinstated
,
each time I would go to see him fn and of spiritual things. You recognize within 90 days, "if he submits."
Chicago, or Phoenix, would warm me that's what all of this is-prophecy. You This made me suspicious for the first
with his expressions of his approval and have the kind of understanding that only time. I had completely submitted. But
an old man has. Muslims were deliberately being given
confidence in me. He left me in charge of the implication that I had rebelled. Three
the Nation of Islam's affairs when he
made a pilgrimage to the Holy City, Submission days later the first word came to me that
members of Mosque No. 7 were being
Mecca. I would have hurled myself "I'm David," he said. "When you read told, "If you knew what the Minister did,
between Mr. Muhammad and an assassin. about how David took another man's you'd go out and kill him yourself." As
Now as far back as 1961, 1 had heard
chance negative remarks concerning wife, I'm that David. You read about a one-time hustler, I sensed that once
me,
or veiled negative implications, or I no- . Noah, who got drunk, that's me. You again I had to leave town fast.
read about Lot, who went and laid up I remembered Cassius Clay. We met
ticed other early evidences of the envy ' with his own daughters. I have to fulfill first in 1962 at a Detroit rally for Elijah
and jealousy which Mr.. Muhammad had
prophesied. I was trying to "take over" all of those things." Muhammad. Today he does not share my
the Muslims. I was "taking credit er I thought that when an epidemic is , feelings about Mr. Muhammad. But I
about to hit somewhere, you inoculate must always be grateful to him that just
Mr. Muhammad 's teaching." I was try- that community's people against ex- ' at this time, when he was training in
ing to build an empire" for myself. I loved posure, so that they are prepared to re- Miami to fight Sonny Liston, he invited
playing coast-to-coast "Mr. Big Shot." sist the virus. I decided to tell six other me, Betty and the children to come there,
But I don't believe that any man in the selected East Coast Muslim officials. I as his guests, as a sixth-wedding anni-
Nation of Islam could have gained the ' never dreamed that the Chicago Muslim versary present to Betty and me. Miami
international prominence that Mr..Mu- officials were going to make it appear was Betty's first vacation since we had
hammad's wings had let me gain-plus., that I was throwing gasoline on the fire -married. And our girls loved the heavy-
the freedom that he had granted me to instead of water. weight contender who romped and played
take liberties and do things on my own -
I expected headlines momentarily. But with them. I was in a state of emotional
and still have remained as faithful and as I didn't expect the kind which came. shock. I made an error, I know now, in
selfless a servant as I was. Yet I was very No one needs to be reminded that on
hypersensitive to internal critics. not speaking out the full truth when I
,
November 22, 1963, President John F.
Also, I could not help but hear some of was first "suspended."
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Tex.
the hints and rumors and vicious gossip Within hours after the assassination What was I goNgew to York do? After the
that was around, about the moral fight I returned to N City, where
going every Muslim minister received a direc-
behavior of our leader. Just to hear these, I. tive from Mr. Muhammad-to make no i Cont -nat=d
stories, why; it made me spooky with 'remarks at all concerning the assassina
fear! But the stories got wOrse ,and even tion. I had a previously scheduled speak-
Approved For Release 2004/04/08 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
SEP121964
 10
I had a large, direct 1'a~if~~?~` # ef> 2b4RM13s: @ irRJPP 9014911@195 f Qt*011 i7 -i iie position of
Each day, more of theeitant, action queries could be made, I told of the altera- voting for either one, or of recommending
brothers who had been with me in tion of my attitudes about white men who to any black man to do so. I'm just talk-
Mosque No. 7 announced their auto- practiced true brotherhood, such as I had ing about if America's white voters do in-
matically irrevocable break from the seen during my recent pilgrimage expe- stall Goldwater, the black people will at'
Nation of Islam to come with me. rience among Muslims in the Holy Land. least know what they are dealing with.
The Hotel Theresa is at the corner of Over a hundred speaking invitations They would at least know they were'
125th Street ; and 7th Avenue; which were waiting for me, either at home, or at fighting an honestly growling wolf, rather
might be called one of the fuse boxes of the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In my busy than a fox who could have them in his
Harlem. I called a press conference and weeks abroad I had had some chance to stomach and half-digested before they
"
made the announcement:
I am going think about the basic types of white man even know what is happening.
to organize and lead a new mosque in in America
ro They have called Goldwater a racist
and how the
affected Ne
.,
y
g
New York City known as the Muslim issues, and especially politics in this eTec and me a racist. Once I was a racist-yes.
Mosque, Incorporated, with temporary tion year. I had.thought out what I was But now 1 have turned my direction away
headquarters in the Hotel Theresa. It will
he the working base for an action nrogram going to say when I began appearing at from anything that's racist. So, some of
. . -- .
-
11 fEli
ld
f
oycuniug cugngcuicuw. --^_.,......-_...,.......,,>.........>......>.. ...,.....
uMac
designed to eliminate the political op- some o
still consider it a first-rank honor to kill
'?
They call me sometimes
the angriest
pression, the economic exploitation, and ; ? me. Also I know that an da
Negro in America. Well. the Bible says y y, any night;
- ,
by
the world coming together as one! It has "Let's keep the knee-grows in their place, More and worse riots will erupt. The
the most. I said, "The brotherhood: The' only meaning "Let's keep the niggers in story with at least a better picture than.
Ella said, "How much do you need?" Negroes; if white people attack them, to say t at ream t at one day history
I couldn't get over what she did then. should do exactly the same thing. will look upon me as having been one of
I obtained a visa to the Holy City and Johnson and Goldwater I feel that as the voices that perhaps helped to save
I left New York quietly. far as the American black man is con- America from a grave, even possibly fatal,
As a Muslim from America, I was the cerned, are both just about the same. It's catastrophe. If the reader can understand
center of attention in Mecca. They asked just a question of Johnson, the fox, or me, if then he can multiply me by the tens
me what about the Hajj had impressed me Goldwater, the wolf. "Conservatism" is of thousands, he will put down this life
,
want to make the pilgrimage to Mecca." ! law are inadequate. And I feel that from the race issue. I will even go so far as
h Id h
twenty-two million Afro-Americans." were is a time for anger. I teel tnat if ;- -~> -?- -- ???- --- - ? -? ?--- ^???-
There was one major thing more that .Negroes 'attack white people, then those devil racists. At the same time, however, can't
think
any
subject I needed to do. I took a plane, to my white people should defend themselves,. I
in Boston. "Ella," I said, I with arms, if necessary, if the forces of human beings today that you can divorce
sister Ella
I never would have believed possible- ter. Let's fool them more, with more derbelly of guilty fear. But, if through,
it shocked me when I considered it-the promises." Since these are the choices, the telling this story of my life, l have brought
~.J impact of the Muslim World's influence black man in America, I think, only needs any light, if I have spread any truth then
on my previous thinking. Many blacks' to pick which one he chooses to be eaten, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the
would cynically accuse me of "selling{ by, because they both will eat him. mistakes have been mine. THE END !
out" the fight, to become an integra- Goldwater, I respect, as a man, because
tionist." Nearly all whites would scoff and, he speaks out his convictions. True convic-
jeer. But I knew that there were a few wh'tions spoken out are rarely heard today in
would understand, who would accept `1 high-level politics. I think he's too intelli-
that in the land of Muhammad and Abra- gent to have risked his unpopular stand
ham, I had been blessed with a new in-. without conviction. He isn't another lib-
sight into the religion of Islam. eral just trying to please both racists and
I Before I left the Holy City I had an integrationists, smiling at one, and whis-
audience with Prince Faisal, who encour- pering to the other. Goldwater flatly tells
aged me to bring the-truth of Islam to the black man he's not for the black man.
American Negroes. I visited Nigeria and His policies make the black-white issue
where the reception for the militant would win; would realize that he had to
American Muslim Negro was tremen- fight harder; the black man would be more
dous. In Dakar the Senegalese at the air-positive in his demands, more aggressive
port stood in line to shake my hand and in his protests. The issue would be more
ask for autographs. quickly enjoined. While the black man,
From Dakar, I flew to Algiers. It was under the liberal "fox" could keep on sit-
Tuesday, May 19, 1964-my birthday. It ting around, begging and passive-resisting
was 39 years since the scene of this book's for another 100 years, waiting for "time"
beginning, with my mother pregnant with and for "good-will" to solve his problem.
me standing on the porch in Nebraska, as The black man in America, when he
the Ku Klux ? Klan threatened her. awakens, when he becomes intellectually
My next plane, a Pan American jet-it mature, when he becomes able to think
was Flight 115-landed in New York on for himself, then he will be able to make
May 21 at 4:25 in the afternoon. As we more,independent choices.
left the plane and filed toward Customs, 1,
saw the crowd-probably 50 or 60 report-
Ghana, where I talked with cabinet of- more clear-cut for the black man. So he
cers, intellectuals, ambassadors from the makes the black man recognize what he
rest of Africa, and many others. Every- has to,do. The black man, if Goldwater
2 1964 Approved For Release 2004/04/08 CIA-RDP75-00149R000500140017-7
SAP
1