In the spring of nineteen fifty-nine-some months before Brother Johnson Hinton's case had awakenedthe Harlem black ghetto to us-a Negro journalist, Louis Lomax, then living in New York, asked meone morning whether our Nation of Islam would cooperate in being filmed as a televisiondocumentary program for the Mike Wallace Show, which featured controversial subjects. I told Lomaxthat, naturally, anything like that would have to be referred to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. AndLomax did fly to Chicago to consult Mr. Muhammad. After questioning Lomax, then cautioning himagainst some things he did not desire, Mr. Muhammad gave his consent.
Cameramen began filming Nation of Islam scenes around our mosques in New York, Chicago, and Washington, D. C. Sound recordings were made of Mr. Muhammad and some ministers, includingme, teaching black audiences the truths about the brainwashed black man and the devil white man.
At Boston University around the same time, C. Eric Lincoln, a Negro scholar then working for hisdoctorate, had selected for his thesis subject the Nation of Islam. Lincoln's interest had been arousedthe previous year when, teaching at Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, he received from one of hisReligion students a term paper whose introduction I can now quote from Lincoln's book. It was theplainspoken convictions of one of Atlanta's numerous young black collegians who often visited ourlocal Temple Fifteen.
"The Christian religion is incompatible with the Negro's aspirations for dignity and equality inAmerica," the student had written. "It has hindered where it might have helped; it has been evasivewhen it was morally bound to be forthright; it has separated believers on the basis of color, although ithas declared its mission to be a universal brotherhood under Jesus Christ. Christian love is the whiteman's love for himself and for his race. For the man who is not white, Islam is the hope for justice andequality in the world we must build tomorrow."After some preliminary research showed Professor Lincoln what a subject he had hold of, he had beenable to obtain several grants, and a publisher's encouragement to expand his thesis into a book.
On the wire of our relatively small Nation, these two big developments-a television show, and a bookabout us-naturally were big news. Every Muslim happily anticipated that now, through the whiteman's powerful communications media, our brainwashed black brothers and sisters across the UnitedStates, and devils, too, were going to see, hear, and read Mr. Muhammad's teachings which cut backand forth like a two-edged sword.
We had made our own very limited efforts to employ the power of print. First, some time back, I hadmade an appointment to see editor James Hicks of the _Amsterdam News_, published in Harlem.
Editor Hicks said he felt every voice in the community deserved to be heard. Soon, each week's_Amsterdam News_ carried a little column that I wrote. Then, Mr. Muhammad agreed to write acolumn for that valuable _Amsterdam News_ space, and my column was transferred to another blacknewspaper, the Los Angeles _Herald Dispatch_.
But I kept wanting to start, somehow, our own newspaper, that would be filled with Nation of Islamnews.
Mr. Muhammad in 1957 sent me to organize a Temple in Los Angeles. When I had done that, being inthat city where the _Herald Dispatch_ was, I went visiting and I worked in their office; they let meobserve how a newspaper was put together. I've always been blessed in that if I can once watchsomething being done, generally I can catch onto how to do it myself. Quick "picking up" wasprobably the number one survival rule when I'd been out there in the streets as a hustler.
Back in New York, I bought a secondhand camera. I don't know how many rolls of film I shot until I could take usable pictures. Every chance I had, I wrote some little news about interesting Nation ofIslam happenings. One day every month, I'd lock up in a room and assemble my material and picturesfor a printer that I found. I named the newspaper _Muhammad Speaks_ and Muslim brothers sold iton the ghetto sidewalks. Little did I dream that later on, when jealousy set in among the hierarchy,nothing about me would be printed in the paper I had founded.
Anyway, national publicity was in the offing for the Nation of Islam when Mr. Muhammad sent meon a three-week trip to Africa. Even as small as we then were, some of the African and Asianpersonages had sent Mr. Muhammad private word that they liked his efforts to awaken and lift up theAmerican black people. Sometimes, the messages had been sent through me. As Mr. Muhammad'semissary, I went to Egypt, Arabia, to the Sudan, to Nigeria, and Ghana.
You will often hear today a lot of the Negro leaders complaining that what thrust the Muslims intointernational prominence was the white man's press, radio, television, and other media. I have noshred of argument with that. They are absolutely correct. Why, none of us in the Nation of Islamremotely anticipated what was about to happen.
In late 1959, the television program was aired. "The Hate That Hate Produced"-the title-was editedtightly into a kaleidoscope of "shocker" images . . . Mr. Muhammad, me, and others speaking . . .
strong-looking, set-faced black men, our Fruit of Islam . . . white-scarved, white-gowned Muslimsisters of all ages. . . Muslims in our restaurants, and other businesses . . . Muslims and other blackpeople entering and leaving our mosques . . . .
Every phrase was edited to increase the shock mood. As the producers intended, I think people satjust about limp when the program went off.
In a way, the public reaction was like what happened back in the 1930's when Orson Welles frightenedAmerica with a radio program describing, as though it was actually happening, an invasion by "menfrom Mars."No one now jumped from any windows, but in New York City there was an instant avalanche ofpublic reaction. It's my personal opinion that the "Hate . . . Hate . . ." title was primarily responsible forthe reaction. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, black and white, were exclaiming "Did you hearit? Did you see it? Preaching _hate_ of white people!"Here was one of the white man's most characteristic behavior patterns-where black men areconcerned. He loves himself so much that he is startled if he discovers that his victims don't share hisvainglorious self-opinion. In America for centuries it had been just fine as long as the victimized,brutalized and exploited black people had been grinning and begging and "Yessa, Massa" and UncleTomming. But now, things were different. First came the white newspapers-feature writers andcolumnists: "Alarming" . . ."hate-messengers" . . ."threat to the good relations between the races" . . ."black segregationists" . . ."black supremacists," and the like.
And the newspapers' ink wasn't dry before the big national weekly news magazines started: "Hateteachers" . . ."violence-seekers" . . ."black racists" . . ."black fascists" . . ."anti-Christian" . . . "possiblyCommunist-inspired . . . ."It rolled out of the presses of the biggest devil in the history of mankind. And then the aroused whiteman made his next move.
Since slavery, the American white man has always kept some handpicked Negroes who fared muchbetter than the black masses suffering and slaving out in the hot fields. The white man had these"house" and "yard" Negroes for his special servants. He threw them more crumbs from his rich table,he even let them eat in his kitchen. He knew that he could always count on them to keep "good massa"happy in his self-image of being so "good" and "righteous." "Good massa" always heard just what hewanted to hear from these "house" and "yard" blacks. "You're such a good, _fine_ massa!" Or, "Oh,massa, those old black nigger fieldhands out there, they're happy just like they are; why, massa,they're not intelligent enough for you to try and do any better for them, massa-"Well, slavery time's "house" and "yard" Negroes had become more sophisticated, that was all. Whennow the white man picked up his telephone and dialed his "house" and "yard" Negroes-why, he didn'teven need to instruct the trained black puppets. They had seen the television program; had read thenewspapers. They were already composing their lines. They knew what to do.
I'm not going to call any names. But if you make a list of the biggest Negro "leaders," so-called, in 1960,then you've named the ones who began to attack us "field" Negroes who were sounding _insane_,talking that way about "good massa.""By no means do these Muslims represent the Negro masses-" That was the first worry, to reassure"good massa" that he had no reason to be concerned about his fieldhands in the ghettoes. "Anirresponsible hate cult" . . ."an unfortunate Negro image, just when the racial picture is improving-"They were stumbling over each other to get quoted. "A deplorable reverse-racism" . . ."Ridiculouspretenders to the ancient Islamic doctrine" . . ."Heretic anti-Christianity-'
The telephone in our then small Temple Seven restaurant nearly jumped off the wall. I had a receiveragainst my ear five hours a day. I was listening, and jotting in my notebook, as press, radio, andtelevision people called, all of them wanting the Muslim reaction to the quoted attacks of these black"leaders." Or I was on long-distance to Mr. Muhammad in Chicago, reading from my notebook andasking for Mr. Muhammad's instructions.
I couldn't understand how Mr. Muhammad could maintain his calm and patience, hearing the things Itold him. I could scarcely contain myself.
My unlisted home telephone number somehow got out. My wife Betty put down the phone aftertaking one message, and it was ringing again. It seemed that wherever I went, telephones wereringing.
The calls naturally were directed to me, New York City being the major news-media headquarters,and I was the New York minister of Mr. Muhammad. Calls came, long-distance from San Francisco toMaine . . . from even London, Stockholm, Paris. I would see a Muslim brother at our restaurant, orBetty at home, trying to keep cool; they'd hand me the receiver, and I couldn't believe it, either. Onefunny thing-in all that hectic period, something quickly struck my notice: the Europeans never pressedthe "hate" question. Only the American white man was so plagued and obsessed with being "hated."He was so guilty, it was clear to me, of hating Negroes.
"Mr. Malcolm X, why do you teach black supremacy, and hate?" A red flag waved for me, somethingchemical happened inside me, every time I heard that. When we Muslims had talked about "the devilwhite man" he had been relatively abstract, someone we Muslims rarely actually came into contactwith, but now here was that devil-in-the-flesh on the phone-with all of his calculating, cold-eyed, self-righteous tricks and nerve and gall. The voices questioning me became to me as breathing, livingdevils.
And I tried to pour on pure fire in return. "The white man so guilty of white supremacy can't hide_his_ guilt by trying to accuse The Honorable Elijah Muhammad of teaching black supremacy andhate! All Mr. Muhammad is doing is trying to uplift the black man's mentality and the black man'ssocial and economic condition in this country.
"The guilty, two-faced white man can't decide what he wants. Our slave foreparents would have beenput to death for advocating so-called 'integration' with the white man. Now when Mr. Muhammadspeaks of 'separation,' the white man calls us 'hate-teachers' and 'fascists'!
"The white man doesn't _want_ the blacks! He doesn't _want_ the blacks that are a parasite upon him!
He doesn't _want_ this black man whose presence and condition in this country expose the white manto the world for what he is! So why do you attack Mr. Muhammad?"I'd have _scathing_ in my voice; I _felt_ it.
"For the white man to ask the black man if he hates him is just like the rapist asking the _raped_, or thewolf asking the _sheep_, 'Do you hate me?' The white man is in no moral _position_ to accuse anyoneelse of hate!
"Why, when all of my ancestors are snake-bitten, and I'm snake-bitten, and I warn my children toavoid snakes, what does that snake sound like accusing _me_ of hate-teaching?""Mr. Malcolm X," those devils would ask, "why is your Fruit of Islam being trained in judo andkarate?" An image of black men learning anything suggesting self-defense seemed to terrify the white man. I'd turn their question around: "Why does judo or karate suddenly get so ominous because blackmen study it? Across America, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA, even the YWCA, the CYP, PAL-they _all_teach judo! It's all right, it'sfine-until _black men_ teach it! Even little grammar school classes, little girls, are taught to defendthemselves-""How many of you are in your organization, Mr. Malcolm X? Right Reverend Bishop T. Chickenwingsays you have only a handful of members-""Whoever tells you how many Muslims there are doesn't know, and whoever does know will nevertell you-"The Bishop Chickenwings were also often quoted about our "anti-Christianity." I'd fire right back onthat:
"Christianity is the white man's religion. The Holy Bible in the white man's hands and hisinterpretations of it have been the greatest single ideological weapon for enslaving millions of nonwhite human beings. Every country the white man has conquered with his guns, he has always pavedthe way, and salved his conscience, by carrying the Bible and interpreting it to call the people'heathens' and 'pagans'; then he sends his guns, then his missionaries behind the guns to mop up-"White reporters, anger in their voices, would call us "demagogues," and I would try to be ready after Ihad been asked the same question two or three times.
"Well, let's go back to the Greek, and maybe you will learn the first thing you need to know about theword 'demagogue.' 'Demagogue' means, actually, 'teacher of the people.' And let's examine somedemagogues. The greatest of all Greeks, Socrates, was killed as a 'demagogue.' Jesus Christ died on thecross because the Pharisees of His day were upholding their law, not the spirit. The modern Phariseesare trying to heap destruction upon Mr. Muhammad, calling him a demagogue, a crackpot, andfanatic. What about Gandhi? The man that Churchill called 'a naked little fakir,' refusing food in aBritish jail? But then a quarter of a billion people, a whole subcontinent, rallied behind Gandhi-andthey twisted the British lion's tail! What about Galileo, standing before his inquisitors, saying 'Theearth _does_ move!' What about Martin Luther, nailing on a door his thesis against the all-powerfulCatholic church which called him 'heretic'? We, the followers of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, aretoday in the ghettoes as once the sect of Christianity's followers were like termites in the catacombsand the grottoes-and they were preparing the grave of the mighty Roman Empire!"I can remember those hot telephone sessions with those reporters as if it were yesterday. The reporterswere angry. I was angry. When I'd reach into history, they'd try to pull me back to the present. Theywould quit interviewing, quit their work, trying to defend their personal white devil selves. Theywould unearth Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves. I'd tell them things Lincoln said in speeches,_against_ the blacks. They would drag up the 1954 Supreme Court decision on school integration.
"That was one of the greatest magical feats ever performed in America," I'd tell them. "Do you mean totell me that nine Supreme Court judges, who are past masters of legal phraseology, couldn't haveworked their decision to make it stick as _law_? No! It was trickery and magic that told Negroes theywere desegregated-Hooray! Hooray!-and at the same time it told whites 'Here are your loopholes.'"The reporters would try their utmost to raise some "good" white man whom I couldn't refute as such.
I'll never forget how one practically lost his voice. He asked me did I feel _any_ white men had everdone anything for the black man in America. I told him, "Yes, I can think of two. Hitler, and Stalin. Theblack man in America couldn't get a decent factory job until Hitler put so much pressure on the whiteman. And men Stalin kept up the pressure-'
But I don't care what points I made in the interviews, it practically never got printed the way I said it. Iwas learning under fire how the press, when it wants to, can twist, and slant. If I had said "Mary had alittle lamb," what probably would have appeared was "Malcolm X Lampoons Mary."Even so, my bitterness was less against the white press than it was against those Negro "leaders" whokept attacking us. Mr. Muhammad said he wanted us to try our best not to publicly counterattack theblack "leaders" because one of the white man's tricks was keeping the black race divided and fightingagainst each other. Mr. Muhammad said that this had traditionally kept the black people fromachieving the unity which was the worst need of the black race in America.
But instead of abating, the black puppets continued ripping and tearing at Mr. Muhammad and theNation of Islam-until it began to appear as though we were afraid to speak out against these"important" Negroes. That's when Mr. Muhammad's patience wore thin. And with his nod, I beganreturning their fire.
"Today's Uncle Tom doesn't wear a handkerchief on his head. This modern, twentieth-century UncleThomas now often wears a top hat. He's usually well-dressed and well-educated. He's often thepersonification of culture and refinement. The twentieth-century Uncle Thomas sometimes speaksWith a Yale or Harvard accent. Sometimes he is known as Professor, Doctor, Judge, and Reverend,even Right Reverend Doctor. This twentieth-century Uncle Thomas is a _professional_ Negro . . . bythat I mean his profession is being a Negro for the white man."Never before in America had these hand-picked so-called "leaders" been publicly blasted in this way.
They reacted to the truth about themselves even more hotly than the devilish white man. Now their"institutional" indictments of us began. Instead of "leaders" speaking as themselves, for themselves,now their weighty name organizations attacked Mr. Muhammad.
"Black bodies with white heads!" I called them what they were. Every one of those "Negro progress"organizations had the same composition. Black "leaders" were out in the public eye-to be seen by theNegroes for whom they were supposed to be fighting the white man. But obscurely, behind thescenes, was a white boss-a president, or board chairman, or some other title, pulling the real strings.
It was hot, hot copy, both in the white and the black press. _Life_, _Look_, _Newsweek_ and _Time_reported us. Some newspaper chains began to run not one story, but a series of three, four, or five"exposures" of the Nation of Islam. The _Reader's Digest_ with its worldwide circulation of twenty-four million copies in thirteen languages carried an article titled "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," by thewriter to whom I am telling this book; and that led off other major monthly magazines' coverage of us.
Before very long, radio and television people began asking me to defend our Nation of Islam in paneldiscussions and debates. I was to be confronted by hand-picked scholars both whites and some ofthose Ph.D. "house" and "yard" Negroes who had been attacking us. Every day, I was more incensedwith the general misrepresentation and distortion of Mr. Muhammad's teachings; I truly think that notonce did it cross my mind that previously I never had been _inside_ a radio or television station-letalone faced a microphone to audiences of millions of people. Prison debating had been my onlyexperience speaking to anyone but Muslims.
From the old hustling days I knew that there were tricks to everything. In the prison debating, I hadlearned tricks to upset my opponents, to catch them where they didn't expect to be caught. I knewthere were bound to be tricks I didn't know anything about arguing on the air.
I knew that if I closely studied what the others did, I could learn things in a hurry to help me to defendMr. Muhammad and his teachings.
I'd walk into those studios. The devils and black Ph.D. puppets would be acting so friendly and"integrated" with each other-laughing and calling each other by first names, and all that; it was such abig lie it made me sick in my stomach. They would even be trying to act friendly toward me-we allknowing they had asked me there to try and beat out my brains. They would offer me coffee. I wouldtell them "No, thanks," to please just tell me where was I supposed to sit. Sometimes the microphonesat on the table before you, at other times a smaller, cylindrical microphone was hung on a cordaround your neck. From the start, I liked those microphones better; I didn't have to keep constantlyaware of my distance from a microphone on the table.
The program hosts would start with some kind of dice-loading, non-religious introduction for me. Itwould be something like-and we have with us today the fiery, angry chief Malcolm X of the New York Muslims. . . ." I made upmy own introduction. At home, or driving my car, I practiced until I could interrupt a radio ortelevision host and introduce myself.
"I represent Mr. Elijah Muhammad, the spiritual head of the fastest-growing group of Muslims in theWestern Hemisphere. We who follow him know that he has been divinely taught and sent to us byGod Himself. We believe that the miserable plight of America's twenty million black people is the fulfillment of divine prophecy. We also believe the presence today in America of The Honorable ElijahMuhammad, his teachings among the so-called Negroes, and his naked warning to Americaconcerning her treatment of these so-called Negroes, is all the fulfillment of divine prophecy. I amprivileged to be the minister of ourTemple Number Seven here in New York City which is a part of the Nation of Islam, under the divineleadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad-"I would look around at those devils and their trained black parrots staring at me, while I was catchingmy breath-and I had set my tone.
They would outdo each other, leaping in on me, hammering at Mr. Muhammad, at me, and at theNation of Islam. Those "integration"-mad Negroes-you know what they jumped on. _Why_ couldn'tMuslims _see_ that "integration" was the answer to American Negroes' problems? I'd try to rip that topieces.
"No _sane_ black man really wants integration! No _sane_ white man really wants integration! Nosane black man really believes that the white man ever will give the black man anything more thantoken integration. No! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches that for the black man in America theonly solution is complete _separation_ from the white man!"Anyone who has ever heard me on radio or television programs knows that my technique is non-stop,until what I want to get said is said. I was developing the technique then.
"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that since Western society is deteriorating, it hasbecome overrun with immorality, and God is going to judge it, and destroy it. And the only way theblack people caught up in this society can be saved is not to _integrate_ into this corrupt society, but to_separate_ from it, to a land of our _own_, where we can reform ourselves, lift up our moralstandards, and try to be godly. The Western world's most learned diplomats have failed to solve thisgrave race problem. Her learned legal experts have failed. Her sociologists have failed. Her civilleaders have failed. Her fraternal leaders have failed. Since all of these have _failed_ to solve this raceproblem, it is time for us to sit down and _reason!_ I am certain that we will be forced to agree that ittakes _God Himself_ to solve this grave racial dilemma."Every time I mentioned "separation," some of them would cry that we Muslims were standing for thesame thing that white racists and demagogues stood for. I would explain the difference. "No! We reject_segregation_ even more militantly than you say you do! We want _separation_, which is not thesame! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that _segregation_ is when your life and libertyare controlled, regulated, _by someone else_. To _segregate_ means to control. Segregation is thatwhich is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But _separation_ is that which is done voluntarily, by twoequals-for the good of both! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that as long as our peoplehere in America are dependent upon the white man, we will always be begging him for jobs, food,clothing, and housing. And he will always control our lives, regulate our lives, and have the power to segregate us. The Negro here in America has been treated like a child. A child stays within the motheruntil the time of birth! When the time of birth arrives, the child must be separated, or it will _destroy_its mother and itself. The mother can't carry that child after its time. The child cries for and needs itsown world!"Anyone who has listened to me will have to agree that I believed in Elijah Muhammad andrepresented him one hundred per cent. I never tried to take any credit for myself.
I was never in one of those panel discussions without some of them just waiting their chance to accuseme of "inciting Negroes to violence." I didn't even have to do any special studying to prepare for thatone.
"The greatest miracle Christianity has achieved in America is that the black man in white Christianhands has not grown violent. It _is_ a miracle that 22 million black people have not _risen up_ againsttheir oppressors-in which they would have been justified by all moral criteria, and even by thedemocratic tradition! It is a miracle that a nation of black people has so fervently continued to believein a turn-the-other-cheek and heaven-for-you-after-you-die philosophy! It _is a miracle_ that theAmerican black people have remained a peaceful people, while catching all the centuries of hell thatthey have caught, here in white man's heaven! The _miracle_ is that the white man's puppet Negro'leaders,' his preachers and the educated Negroes laden with degrees, and others who have beenallowed to wax fat off their black poor brothers, have been able to hold the black masses quiet untilnow."I guarantee you one thing-every time I was mixed up in those studios with those brainwashed,"integration"-mad black puppets, and those tricky devils trying to rip and tear me down, as long as thelittle red light glowed "on the air," I tried to represent Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam tothe utmost.
Dr. C. Eric Lincoln's book was published amid widening controversy about us Muslims, at just aboutthe time we were starting to put on our first big mass rallies.
Just as the television "Hate That Hate Produced" title had projected that "hate-teaching" image of us,now Dr. Lincoln's book was titled _The Black Muslims in America_. The press snatched at that name.
"Black Muslims" was in all the book reviews, which quoted from the book only what was critical of us,and generally praised Dr. Lincoln's writing.
The public mind fixed on "Black Muslims." From Mr. Muhammad on down, the name "BlackMuslims" distressed everyone in the Nation of Islam. I tried for at least two years to kill off that "BlackMuslims." Every newspaper and magazine writer and microphone I got close to: "_No!_ We are black_people_ here in America. Our _religion_ is Islam. We are properly called 'Muslims'!" But that "BlackMuslims" name never got dislodged.
Our mass rallies, from their very beginning, were astounding successes. Where once Detroit's struggling little Temple One proudly sent a ten-automobile caravan to Chicago to hear Mr.
Muhammad, now, from East Coast Temples-the older Temples as well as the new ones that all of themassive publicity had helped us to bring into being-as many as 150, 200 and even as many as 300 big,chartered buses rolled the highways to wherever Mr. Muhammad was going to speak. On each bus,two Fruit of Islam men were in charge. Big three-by-nine-foot painted canvas banners hung on thebuses' sides, to be read by the highway traffic and thousands of people at home and on the sidewalksof the towns the buses passed through.
Hundreds more Muslims and curious Negroes drove their own cars. And Mr. Muhammad with hispersonal jet plane from Chicago. From the airport to the rally hall, Mr. Muhammad's motorcade had asiren-screaming police escort. Law agencies once had scoffed at our Nation as "black crackpots"; nowthey took special pains to safeguard against some "white crackpots" causing any "incidents" or"accidents."America had never seen such fantastic all-black meetings! To hear Elijah Muhammad, up to tenthousand and more black people poured from public and private transportation to overflow the bighalls we rented, such as the St. Nicholas Arena in New York City, Chicago's Coliseum, andWashington, D.C. 's Uline Arena.
The white man was barred from attendance-the first time the American black man had ever dreamedof such a thing. And that brought us new attacks from the white man and his black puppets. "Blacksegregationists . . . racists!" Accusing us of segregation! Across America, whites barring blacks wasstandard.
Many hundreds arrived too late for us to seat them. We always had to wire up outside loudspeakers.
An electric atmosphere excited the great, shifting masses of black people. The long lines, three andfour abreast, funneling to the meeting hall, were kept in strict order by Fruit of Islam mencommunicating by walkie-talkie. In anterooms just inside the halls, more Fruit of Islam men andwhite-gowned, veiled mature Muslim sisters thoroughly searched every man, woman, and childseeking to enter. Any alcohol and tobacco had to be checked, and any objects which could possibly beused to attempt to harm Mr. Muhammad. He always seemed deathly afraid that some one wouldharm him, and he insisted that everyone be searched to forestall this. Today I understand better, why.
The hundreds of Fruit of Islam men represented contingents which had arrived early that morning,from their Temples in the nearest cities. Some were detailed as ushers, who seated the people bydesignated sections. The balconies and the rear half of the main floor were filled with black people ofthe general public. Ahead of them were the all-Muslim seating sections-the white-garbed beautifulblack sisters, and the dark-suited, white-shirted brothers. A special section near the front was for blackso-called "dignitaries." Many of these had been invited. Among them were our black puppet andparrot attackers, the intellectuals and professional Negroes over whom Mr. Muhammad grieved somuch, for these were the educated ones who should have been foremost in leading their poor blackbrothers out of the maze of misery and want. We wanted them to miss not a single syllable of thetruths from Mr. Muhammad in person.
The front two or three press rows were filled with the black reporters and cameramen representing theNegro press, or those who had been hired by the white man's newspapers, magazines, radio, andtelevision. America's black writers should hold a banquet for Mr. Muhammad. Writing about theNation of Islam was the path to success for most of the black writers who now are recognized.
Up on the speaker's platform, we ministers and other officials of the Nation, entering from backstage,found ourselves chairs in the five or six rows behind the big chair reserved for Mr. Muhammad. Someof the ministers had come hundreds of miles to be present. We would be turning about in our chairs,beaming with smiles, wringing each other's hands, and exchanging "As-Salaam-Alaikum" and "Wa-Alaikum-Salaam" in our genuine deep rejoicing to see each other again.
Always, meeting us older hands in Mr. Muhammad's service for the first time, there were several newministers of small new Temples. My brothers Wilfred and Philbert were respectively now theministers of the Detroit and Lansing Temples. Minister Jeremiah X headed Atlanta's Temple. MinisterJohn X had Los Angeles' Temple. The Messenger's son, Minister Wallace Muhammad, had thePhiladelphia Temple. Minister Woodrow X had the Atlantic City Temple. Some of our ministers hadunusual backgrounds. The Washington, D.C., Temple Minister Lucius X was previously a SeventhDay Adventist and a 32nd degree Mason. Minister George X of the Camden, New Jersey, Temple wasa pathologist. Minister David X was previously the minister of a Richmond, Virginia, Christianchurch; he and enough of his congregation had become Muslims so that the congregation split and themajority turned the church into our Richmond Temple. The Boston Temple's outstanding youngMinister Louis X, previously a well-known and rising popular singer called "The Charmer," hadwritten our Nation's popular first song, titled "White Man's Heaven is Black Mali's Hell." MinisterLouis X had also authored our first play, "Orgena" ("A Negro" spelled backwards); its theme was theall-black trial of a symbolic white man for his world crimes against non-whites; found guilty,sentenced to death, he was dragged off shouting about all he had done "for the nigra people."Younger even than our talented Louis X were some newer ministers, Minister Thomas J. X of theHartford Temple being one example, and another the Buffalo Temple's Minister Robert J. X.
I had either originally established or organized for Mr. Muhammad most of the represented temples.
Greeting each of these Temples' brother ministers would bring back into my mind images of "fishing"for converts along the streets and from door-to-door wherever the black people were congregated. Iremembered the countless meetings in living rooms where maybe seven would be a crowd; thegradually building, building-on up to renting folding chairs for dingy little storefronts which Muslimsscrubbed to spotlessness.
We together on a huge hall's speaking platform, and that vast audience before us, miraculouslymanifested, as far as I was concerned, the incomprehensible power of Allah. For the first time, I trulyunderstood something Mr. Muhammad had told me: he claimed that when he was going through thesacrificial trials of fleeing the black hypocrites from city to city, Allah had often sent him visions of great audiences who would one day hear the teachings; and Mr. Muhammad said the visions alsobuoyed him when he was locked up for years in the white man's prison.
The great audience's restless whisperings would cease . . . .
At the microphone would be the Nation's National Secretary John Ali, or the Boston Temple MinisterLouis X. They enlivened the all-black atmosphere, speaking of the new world open to the black manthrough the Nation of Islam. Sister Tynetta Dynear would speak beautifully of the Muslim women'spowerful, vital contributions, of the Muslim women's roles in our Nation's efforts to raise the physical,mental, moral, social, and political condition of America's black people.
Next, I would come to the microphone, specifically to condition the audience to hear Mr. Muhammad,who had flown from Chicago to teach us all in person.
I would raise up my hand, "_As-Salaikum-Salaam-_""_Wa-Alaikum-Salaam!_" It was a roared response from the great audience's Muslim seating section.
There was a general pattern that I would follow on these occasions:
"My black brothers and sisters-of all religious beliefs, or of no religious beliefs-we all have in commonthe greatest binding tie we could have . . . we all are _black_ people!
"I'm not going to take all day telling you some of the greatnesses of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
I'm just going to tell you now his _greatest_ greatness! He is the _first_, the _only_ black leader toidentify, to you and me, _who_ is our enemy!
"The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the first black leader among us with the _courage_ to tell us-outhere in public-something which when you begin to think of it back in your homes, you will realize weblack people have been _living_ with, we have been _seeing_, we have been _suffering_, all of ourlives!
"Our _enemy_ is the _white man!_"And why is Mr. Muhammad's teaching us this such a great thing? Because when you know _who_your enemy is, he can no longer keep you divided, and fighting, one brother against the other!
Because when you recognize who your enemy is, he can no longer use trickery, promises, lies,hypocrisy, and his evil acts to keep you deaf, dumb, and blinded!
"When you recognize _who_ your enemy is, he can no longer brainwash you, he can no longer pullwool over your eyes so that you never stop to see that you are living in pure _hell_ on this earth, whilehe lives in pure _heaven_ right on this same earth!-This enemy who tells you that you are bothsupposed to be worshiping the same white Christian God that-you are told-stands for the _same_ things for _all_ men!
"Oh, _yes_, that devil is our enemy. I'll _prove_ it! Pick up any daily newspaper! Read the falsecharges leveled against our beloved religious leader. It only points up the fact that the Caucasian racenever wants any black man who is not their puppet or parrot to speak for our people. This Caucasiandevil slavemaster does not want or trust us to leave him-yet when we stay here among him, hecontinues to keep us at the very lowest level of his society!
"The white man has always _loved_ it when he could keep us black men tucked away somewhere,always out of sight, around the comer! The white man has always _loved_ the kind of black leaderswhom he could ask, 'Well, how's things with your people up there?' But because Mr. ElijahMuhammad takes an uncompromising stand with the white man, the white man _hates_ him! Whenyou hear the _white man_ hate him, you, too, because you don't understand Biblical prophecy,wrongly label Mr. Muhammad-as a racist, a hate-teacher, or of being anti-white and teaching blacksupremacy-"The audience suddenly would begin a rustling of turning . . . .
Mr. Muhammad would be rapidly moving along up a center aisle from the rear-as once he hadentered our humble little mosques-this man whom we regarded as Islam's gentle, meek, brown-skinned Lamb. Stalwart, striding, close-cropped, hand-picked Fruit of Islam guards were a circlesurrounding him. He carried his Holy Bible, his holy Quran. The small, dark pillbox atop his head wasgold-embroidered with Islam's flag, the sun, moon, and stars. The Muslims were crying out theiradoration and their welcome. "Little Lamb!" "As-Salaikum-Salaam!" "Praise be to Allah!"Tears would be in more eyes than mine. He had rescued me when I was a convict; Mr. Muhammadhad trained me in his home, as if I was his son. I think that my life's peaks of emotion, until recently, atleast, were when, suddenly, the Fruit of Islam guards would stop stiffly at attention, and theplatform's several steps would be mounted alone by Mr. Muhammad, and his ministers, including me,sprang around him, embracing him, wringing both his hands . . . .
I would turn right back to the microphone, not to keep waiting those world's biggest black audienceswho had come to hear him.
"My black brothers and sisters-_no_ one will know _who_ we are . . . until _we_ know who we are! Wenever will be able to _go_ anywhere until we know _where_ we are! The Honorable ElijahMuhammad is giving us a true identity, and a true position-the first time they have ever been_known_ to the American black man!
"You can be around this man and never dream from his actions the power and the authority he has-"(Behind me, believe me when I tell you, I could _feel_ Mr. Muhammad's _power_.)"He does not _display_, and _parade_, his _power_! But no other black leader in America has followers who will lay down their lives if he says so! And I don't mean all of this non-violent, begging-the-white-man kind of dying . . . all of this sitting-in, sliding-in, wading-in, eating-in, diving-in, and allthe rest"My black brothers and sisters, you have come from your homes to hear-now you are _going_ to hear-America's _wisest_ black man! America's _boldest_ black man! America's most _fearless_ black man!
This wilderness of North America's most _powerful_ black man!"Mr. Muhammad would come quickly to the stand, looking out over the vacuum-quiet audience, hisgentle-looking face set, for just a fleeting moment. Then, "As-Salaikum-Salaam-'
" WA-ALAIKUM-SALAAM!"The Muslims roared it, as they settled to listen. From experience, they knew that for the next twohours Mr. Muhammad would wield his two-edged sword of truth. In fact, every Muslim worried thathe overtaxed himself in the length of his speeches, considering his bronchial asthmatic condition.
"I don't have a degree like many of you out there before me have. But history don't care anythingabout your degrees.
"The white man, he has filled you with a fear of him from ever since you were little black babies. Soover you is the greatest enemy a man can have-and that is fear. I know some of you are afraid to listento the truth-you have been raised on fear and lies. But I am going to preach to you the truth until youare free of thatfear .. . .
"Your slavemaster, he brought you over here, and of your past everything was destroyed. Today, youdo not know your true language. What tribe are you from? You would not recognize your tribe's nameif you heard it. You don't know nothing about your true culture. You don't even know your family'sreal name. You are wearing a _white man's_ name! The white slave-master, who _hates_ you!
"You are a people who think you know all about the Bible, and all about Christianity. You even arefoolish enough to believe that nothing is _right_ but Christianity!
"You are the planet Earth's only group of people ignorant of yourself, ignorant of your own kind, ofyour true history, ignorant of your enemy! You know nothing at _all_ but what your whiteslavemaster has chosen to tell you. And he has told you only that which will benefit himself, and hisown kind. He has taught you, for his benefit, that you are a neutral, shiftless, helpless so-called'Negro.'
"I say _'so-called'_ because you are _not_ a _'Negro.'_ There is no such thing as a race of _'Negroes.'_You are members of the Asiatic nation, from the tribe of _Shabazz_! 'Negro' is a false labelforced on you by your slavemaster! He has been pushing things onto you and me and our kind ever since he brought the first slave shipload of us black people here-"When Mr. Muhammad paused, the Muslims before him cried out, "Little Lamb!" . . ."All praise is dueto Allah!" . . ."_Teach_, Messenger!" He would continue.
"The _ignorance_ we of the black race here in America have, and the _self-hatred_ we have, they arefine examples of what the white slavemaster has seen fit to teach to us. Do we show the plain commonsense, like every other people on this planet Earth, to unite among ourselves? No! We are humblingourselves, sitting-in, and begging-in, trying to _unite_ with the slavemaster! I don't seem able toimagine any more ridiculous sight. A thousand ways every day, the white man is telling you 'Youcan't live here, you can't enter here, you can't eat here, drink here, walk here, work here, you can't ridehere, you can't play here, you can't study here.' Haven't we yet seen enough to see that he has no planto _unite_ with you?
"You have tilled his fields! Cooked his food! Washed his clothes! You have cared for his wife andchildren when he was away. In many cases, you have even suckled him at your _breast_! You havebeen far and away better Christians than this slave-master who _taught_ you his Christianity!
"You have sweated blood to help him build a country so rich that he can today afford to give awaymillions-even to his _enemies_! And when those enemies have gotten enough from him to then beable to attack him, you have been his brave soldiers, dying for him. And you have been always hismost faithful servant during the so-called 'peaceful' times"And, _still_, this Christian American white man has not got it in him to find the human _decency_,and enough sense of _justice_, to recognize us, and accept us, the black people who have done somuch for him, as fellow human beings!""YAH, Man!" . . ."_Um-huh_!" "_Teach_, Messenger!" . . ."_Yah_!" . . ."_Tell 'em_!" . . ."You_right_!" . . ."Take your _time_ up there, little Messenger!" . . ."Oh, _yes_!"Others besides the Muslims would be shouting now. We Muslims were less extroverted than ChristianNegroes. It would sound now like an old-fashioned camp meeting.
"So let us, the black people, _separate_ ourselves from this white man slavemaster, who despises us somuch! You are out here begging him for some so-called '_integration_!' But what is this slavemasterwhite, _rapist_, going about saying! He is saying _he_ won't integrate because black blood will_mongrelize_ his race! _He_ says that-and look at _us_! Turn around in your seats and look at eachother! This slavemaster white man already has '_integrated_' us until you can hardly find among ustoday any more than a very few who are the black color of our foreparents!""God-a-mighty, the man's right!" . . ."_'Teach_, Messenger-" "_Hear_ him! _Hear_ him!""He has left such a little black in us," Mr. Muhammad would go on, "that now he despises us so bad meaning he despises _himself_, for what he has _done_ to us-that he tells us that _legally_ if we havegot _one drop_ of black blood in us, that means you are all-black as far as his laws are concerned!
Well, if that's all we've got left, we want to _reclaim_ that one drop!"Mr. Muhammad's frail strength could be seen to be waning. But he would teach on:
"So let us _separate_ from this white man, and for the same reason _he_ says-in time to save ourselvesfrom any more '_integration_! '
"Why _shouldn't_ this white man who likes to think and call himself so good, and so generous, thiswhite man who finances even his enemies-why _shouldn't_ he subsidize a separate state, a separateterritory, for we black people who have been such faithful slaves and servants? A separate territory onwhich we can lift _ourselves_ out of these white man's _slums_ for us, and his _breadlines_ for us.
And even for _those_ he is complaining that we cost him too much! We can do something for_ourselves_! We never have done what we _could_-because we have been brainwashed so well by theslavemaster white man that we must come to him, begging him, for everything we want, and need-"After perhaps ninety minutes, behind Mr. Muhammad, every minister would have to restrain himselffrom bolting up to his side, to urge him that it was enough. He would be pressing his hands tightlyagainst the edges of the speaker's stand, to support himself.
"We black people don't _know_ what we can do. You never can know what _anything_ can do-until itis set _free_, to act by itself! If you have a cat in your house that you pamper and pet, you have to freethat cat, set it on its _own_, in the woods, before you can see that the cat had it in him to shelter andfeed itself!
"We, the black people here in America, we never have been _free_ to find _out_ what we really can_do_! We have knowledge and experience to pool to do for ourselves! All of our lives we have farmed-we can grow our own food. We can set up factories to manufacture our own necessities! We can buildother kinds of businesses, to establish trade, and commerce-and become independent, as othercivilized people are"We can _throw off_ our brainwashing, and our self-hate, and live as _brothers_ together . . .
". . . some land of our _own_! . . . Something for _ourselves_! . . . leave this white slavemaster to_himself_. . . ."Mr. Muhammad always stopped abruptly when he was unable to speak any longer.
The standing ovation, a solid wall of sound, would go on unabating.
Standing up there, flailing my arms, finally I could quiet the audiences as Fruit of Islam ushers beganto pass along the seating rows the large, waxed paper buckets we used to take up the collection. I would speak.
"You _know_, from what you have just heard, that no white money finances The Honorable ElijahMuhammad and his program-to 'advise' him and 'contain' him! Mr. Muhammad's program, and hisfollowers, are not 'integrated.' Mr. Muhammad's program and organization are _all_-black!
"We are the _only_ black organization that _only_ black people support! These so-called 'Negroprogress' organizations-Why, they insult your intelligence, claiming they are fighting in your behalf,to get you the equal rights you are asking for . . . claiming they are _fighting_ the white man whorefuses to give you your rights. Why, the white man _supports_ those organizations! If you belong,you pay your two, or three, or five dollars a year-but _who_ gives those organizations those two, andthree, and five _thousand_ dollar donations? The _white_ man! He _feeds_ those organizations! So hecontrols those organizations! He _advises_ them-so he _contains_ them! Use your common sensearen't you going to advise and control and contain anyone that you support, like your child?
"The white man would love to support Mr. Elijah Muhammad. Because if Mr. Muhammad had to relyon his support, he could _advise_ Mr. Muhammad. My black brothers and sisters, it is _only_ because_your_ money, _black_ money, supports Mr. Muhammad, that he can hold these all-black meetingsfrom city to city, telling us black men the _truth_! That's why we are asking for your all-black_support_!"Nearly all bills-and far from all one-dollar bills, either, filled the waxed buckets. The buckets wereswiftly emptied, then refilled, as the Fruit of Islam ushers covered the entire audience.
The audience atmosphere was almost as if the people had gone limp. The collections always coveredthe rally expenses, and anything beyond that helped to continue building the Nation of Islam.
After several big rallies, Mr. Muhammad directed that we would admit the white press. Fruit of Islammen thoroughly searched them, as everyone else was searched-their notebooks, their cameras, cameracases, and whatever else they carried. Later, Mr. Muhammad said that _any_ whites who wanted tohear the truth could attend our public rallies, until a small separate section for whites was filled.
Most whites who came were students and scholars. I would watch their congealed and reddened facesstaring up at Mr. Muhammad. "The white man _knows_ that his acts have been those of a devil!" Iwould watch also the faces of the professional black men, the so-called intellectuals who attacked us.
They possessed the academic know-how, they possessed the technical and the scientific skills thatcould help to lead their mass of poor, black brothers out of our condition. But all these intellectual andprofessional black men could seem to think of was humbling themselves, and begging, trying to"integrate" with the so-called "liberal" white man who was telling them, "In time . . . everything's goingto work out one day . . . just wait and have patience." These intellectual and professional Negroescouldn't use what they knew for the benefit of their own black kind simply because even amongthemselves they were disunited. United among themselves, united with their own kind, they couldhave benefited black people all over the world!
I would watch the faces of those intellectual and professional Negroes growing grave, and set-as thetruth hit home to them. We were watched. Our telephones were tapped. Still right today, on my hometelephone, if I said, "I'm going to bomb the Empire State Building," I guarantee you in five minutes itwould be surrounded. When I was speaking publicly sometimes I'd guess which were F.B.I. faces inthe audience, or other types of agents. Both the police and the F.B.I. intently and persistently visitedand questioned us. "I do not fear them," Mr. Muhammad said. "I have all that I need-the truth."Many a night, I drifted off to sleep, filled with wonder at how the two-edged-sword teachings so hurt,confused, concerned, and upset the government full of men trained highly in all of the modernsciences. I felt that it never could have been unless The Most Learned One, Allah Himself, had giventhe little fourth-grade-trained Messenger something.
Black agents were sent to infiltrate us. But the white man's "secret" spy often proved, first of all, ablack man. I can't say _all_ of them, of course, there's no way to know-but some of them, after joiningus, and hearing, seeing and _feeling_ the truth for every black man, revealed their roles to us. Someresigned from the white man's agencies and came to work in the Nation of Islam. A few kept their jobsto counterspy, telling us the white man's statements and plans about our Nation. This was how welearned that after wanting to know what happened within our Temples, the white law agencies'
second major concern was the thing that I believe still ranks today as a big worry among America'spenologists: the steadily increasing rate at which black convicts embrace Islam.
Generally, while still in prison, our convict-converts preconditioned themselves to meet our Nation'smoral laws. As it had happened with me, when they left prison, they entered a Temple fully qualifiedto become registered Muslims. In fact, convict-converts usually were better prepared than werenumerous prospective Muslims who never had been inside a prison.
We were not nearly so easy to enter as a Christian church. One did not merely declare himself afollower of Mr. Muhammad, then continue leading the same old, sinful, immoral life. The Muslim firsthad to change his physical and moral self to meet our strict rules. To remain a Muslim he had tomaintain those rules.
Few temple meetings were held, for instance, without the minister looking down upon some freshlyshaved bald domes of new Muslim brothers in the audience. They had just banished from their livesforever that phony, lye-conked, metallic-looking hair, or "the process," as some call it these days. Itgrieves me that I don't care where you go, you see this symbol of ignorance and self-hate on so manyNegroes' heads. I know it's bound to hurt the feelings of some of my good conked non-Muslimfriends-but if you study closely any conked or "processed" Negro, you usually find he is an ignorantNegro. Whatever "show" or "front" he affects, his hair lye-cooked to be "white-looking" fairly shouts toeveryone who looks at his head, "I'm ashamed to be a Negro." He will discover, just as I did, that hewill be much-improved mentally whenever he discovers enough black self-pride to have that mess clipped off, and then wear the natural hair that God gives black men to wear.
No Muslim smokes-that was another of our rules. Some prospective Muslims found it more difficult toquit tobacco than others found quitting the dope habit. But black men and women quit more easilywhen we got them to consider seriously how the white man's government cared less about the public'shealth than about continuing the tobacco industry's _billions_ in tax revenue. "What does aserviceman pay for a carton of cigarettes?" a prospective Muslim convert would be asked. It helpedhim to see that every regularly priced carton he bought meant that the white man's government tookaround two dollars of a black man's hard-earned money for taxes, not for tobacco.
You may have read somewhere-a lot has been written concerning it-about the Nation of Islam'sphenomenal record of dope-addiction cures of longtime junkies. In fact, the _New York Times_ carrieda story about how some of the social agencies have asked representatives of the Muslim program forclinical suggestions.
The Muslim program began with recognizing that color and addiction have a distinct connection. It isno accident that in the entire Western Hemisphere, the greatest localized concentration of addicts is in_Harlem_.
Our cure program's first major ingredient was the painfully patient work of Muslims who previouslywere junkies themselves.
In the ghetto's dope jungle, the Muslim ex-junkies would fish out addicts who knew them back inthose days. Then with an agonizing patience that might span anywhere from a few months to a year,our ex-junkie Muslims would conduct the addicts through the Muslim six-point therapeutic process.
The addict first was brought to admit to himself that he was an addict. Secondly, he was taught _why_he used narcotics. Third, he was shown that there was a _way_ to stop addiction. Fourth, the addict'sshattered self-image, and ego, were built up until the addict realized that he had, _within_, the self-power to end his addiction. Fifth, the addict voluntarily underwent a cold turkey break with drugs.
Sixth, finally cured, now an ex-addict completes the cycle by "fishing" up other addicts whom heknows, and supervising their salvaging.
This sixth stage always instantly eliminated what so often defeats the average social agencies-thecharacteristic addict's hostility and suspicion. The addict who is "fished" up knew personally that theMuslim approaching him very recently had the same fifteen to thirty dollar a day habit. The Muslimmay be this addict's buddy; they had plied the same dope jungle. They even may have been thievestogether. The addict had _seen_ the Muslim drifting off to sleep leaning against a building, or steppingas high over a matchstick as if it were a dog. And the Muslim, approaching the addict, uses the sameold junkie jungle language.
Like the alcoholic, the junkie can never start to cure himself until he recognizes and accepts his truecondition. The Muslim sticks like a leech, drumming at his old junkie buddy, "You're hooked, man!" It might take months before the addict comes to grips with this. The curative program is never reallyunderway until this happens.
The next cure-phase is the addict's realization of why he takes dope. Still working on his man, right inthe old jungle locale, in dives that you wouldn't believe existed, the Muslim often collects audiences ofa dozen junkies. They listen only because they know the clean-cut proud Muslim had earlier been likethem.
Every addict takes junk to escape something, the Muslim explains. He explains that most black junkiesreally are trying to narcotize themselves against being a black man in the white man's America. But,actually, the Muslim says, the black man taking dope is only helping the white man to "prove" that theblack man is nothing.
The Muslim talks confidentially, and straight. "Daddy, you know I know how you feel. Wasn't I rightout here with you? Scratching like a monkey, smelling all bad, living mad, hungry, stealing andrunning and hiding from Whitey. Man, what's a black man buying Whitey's dope for but to makeWhitey richer-killing yourself!"The Muslim can tell when his quarry is ready to be shown that the way for him to quit dope isthrough joining the Nation of Islam. The addict is brought into the local Muslim restaurant, he mayoccasionally be exposed to some other social situations-among proud, clean Muslims who show eachother mutual affection and respect instead of the familiar hostility of the ghetto streets. For the firsttime in years, the addict hears himself called, genuinely, "Brother," "Sir" and "Mr." No one cares abouthis past. His addiction may casually be mentioned, but if so, it is spoken of as merely an especiallytough challenge that he must face. Everyone whom this addict meets is confident that he will kick hishabit.
As the addict's new image of himself builds, inevitably he begins thinking that he can break the habit.
For the first time he is feeling the effects of black self-pride.
That's a powerful combination for a man who has been existing in the mud of society. In fact, once heis motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I callmyself the best example of that.
Finally, vitally, this addict will decide for himself that he wants to go on cold turkey. This means toendure the physical agonies of abruptly quitting dope.
When this time comes, ex-addict Muslims will arrange to spend the necessary days in around-theclock shifts, attending the addict who intends to purge himself, on the way to becoming a Muslim.
When the addict's withdrawal sets in, and he is screaming, cursing, and begging, "Just one shot, man!"the Muslims are right there talking junkie jargon to him. "Baby, knock that monkey off your back! Kickthat habit! Kick Whitey off your back!" The addict, writhing in pain, his nose and eyes running, is pouring sweat from head to foot. He's trying to knock his head against the wall, flailing his arms,trying to fight his attendants, he is vomiting, suffering diarrhea. "Don't hold nothing back! Let Whiteygo, baby! You're going to stand tall, man! I can see you now in the Fruit of Islam!"When the awful ordeal is ended, when the grip of dope is broken, the Muslims comfort the weak ex-addict, feeding him soups and broths, to get him on his feet again. He will never forget these brotherswho stood by him during this time. He will never forget that it was the Nation of Islam's programwhich rescued him from the special hell of dope. And that black brother (or the sister, whom Muslimsisters attend) rarely ever will return to the use of narcotics. Instead, the ex-addict when he is proud,clean, renewed, can scarcely wait to hit the same junkie jungle he was in, to "fish" out some buddy andsalvage _him_!
If some white man, or "approved" black man, created a narcotics cure program as successful as the oneconducted under the aegis of the Muslims, why, there would be government subsidy, and praise andspotlights, and headlines. But we were attacked instead. Why shouldn't the Muslims be subsidized tosave millions of dollars a year for the government and the cities? I don't know what addicts' crimescost nationally, but it is said to be _billions_ a year in New York City. An estimated $12 million a yearis lost to thieves in Harlem alone.
An addict doesn't work to supply his habit, which may cost anywhere from ten to fifty dollars a day.
How could he earn that much? No! The addict steals, he hustles in other ways; he preys upon otherhuman beings like a hawk or a vulture-as I did. Very likely, he is a school drop-out, the same as I was,an Army reject, psychologically unsuited to a job even if he was offered one, the same as I was.
Women addicts "boost" (shoplift), or they prostitute themselves. Muslim sisters talk hard to blackprostitutes who are struggling to quit using dope in order to qualify morally to become registeredMuslims. "You are helping the white man to regard your body as a garbage can-"Numerous "exposes" of the Nation of Islam have implied that Mr. Muhammad's followers werechiefly ex-cons and junkies. In the early years, yes, the converts from society's lowest levels were asizable part of the Nation's broad base of membership. Always Mr. Muhammad instructed us, "Goafter the black man in the mud." Often, he said, those converted made the best Muslims.
But gradually we recruited other black people-the "good Christians" whom we "fished" from theirchurches. Then, an increase began in the membership percentage of educated and trained Negroes.
For each rally attracted to the local temple a few more of that particular city's so-called "middle-class"Negroes, the type who previously had scoffed at us "Black Muslims" as "demagogues," and "hateteachers," "black racists" and all the rest of the names. The Muslim truths-listened to, thought about-reaped for us a growing quota of young black men and women. For those with training and talents,the Nation of Islam had plenty of positions where those abilities w
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