>
> KL: This libels even Elijah Muhammad, who certainly was no "friend of the
> Klan" -- regarded as a group of white devils. I'm beginning to wonder whether
> the protagonists in this debate ever read Muhammad Speaks in the 1960s and
> 1970s, which hammered away constantly at racist terror as long as Elijah
> Muhammad lived.
Yeah but all whites were considered to be white devils. How often were the Klan called out in the Final Call? I do not know the answer but am wondering if others do.
One thing that is clear though is that near the very end of his life Malcolm did not think that the NOI fought racist terror enough. The following quote is from a speech called "On Afro-American History" which was given on January 24, 1965 and which is printed in a short book/long pamphlet of the same name published by Pathfinder.
"<referring to the Nation of Islam> Whenever you find an organization that's equipped like that, and you never see it take part in any kind of action that's for the good of Black people against the real enemy, but they will turn all their anger against each other, to destroy each other, why, you've got to start really analyzing the situation.
"I hate to bring that up, but it's true. A very bad situation has set in and deteriorated to the point where you have Black people trying to kill Black people; and they should be using that talent really to go after the Rockwell's and the Klan. And you, frankly, the more I talk about Rockwell and the Klan, the more it infuriates them -not Rockwell and the Klan, but them. One of these days, I will tell you why. You'll never read anything in the Black Muslim newspaper against the Ku Klux Klan or Rockwell. You never will, not even accidentally. But if you'll go back into some of the back issues, you'll find J.B. Stoner interviewed in the Black Muslim newspaper, and he was interviewed objectively, favorably. That's not an accident, and like I say, if you keep pressing me, I'll tell you why." (p.56-57.)
Earlier in the speech Malcolm read off a letter that he had written to Rockwell that went something like this...
"To George Lincoln Rockwell: This is to warn you that I am no longer held in check from fighting white supremacists by Elijah Muhammad's's separationist Black Muslim movement, and that if your present racist agitation against our people there in Alabama causes physical harm to Reverend King or any other Black American who are only attempting to enjoy their rights as free human beings, that you and your Ku Klux Klan friends will be met with maximum physical retaliation from those of use who are not handcuffed by the disarming philosophy of nonviolence, and who believe in asserting our right to self-defense - by any means necessary." (p.52-53)
That last quote seems to sum up much Malcolm's philosophy in terms of practical action as it applied to the U.S. What the two quotes together seem to show is not proof that NOI was tied to the KKK -although that is strongly hinted at in the first quote- but an argument that if one was faithfully serving Elijah Muhamad that one could not be fully fighting white supremacist terror.
Micah
(As a side note I used to work at the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan which is a collection of materials related to political radicalism and social protest. It began as the papers of an Anarchist named Joseph Labadie who a biography has recently been published on by Wane State University's press. I have not read it yet but would be interested as to what other think if they have read it.
Anyways one of the things that really interested me was the Final Call and how the rhetoric in it was much more subdued than what NOI people would be saying on CSPAN. There was very little anti-Semitism or anti-white sentiments. More often there homophobic/hetrosexist comments but even those were tame from what I remember hearing Khalid Muhamad say on CSPAN.)