Malcolm X
Authors: Clayborne Carson
Edited FBI file copyright © 1991, 2012 by David Gallen
Commentary copyright © 1991, 2012 by Clayborne Carson
Introduction copyright © 1991, 2012 by Spike Lee
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.
Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or
[email protected]
.
Skyhorse
®
and Skyhorse Publishing
®
are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
®
, a Delaware corporation.
Visit our website at
www.skyhorsepublishing.com
.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-61608-376-2
Printed in the United States of America
For my son, David Malcolm Carson
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The publisher gratefully acknowledges permissions to reprint from the following:
Amsterdam News
, for excerpts throughout.
Barry Gray and WOR Radio, for interview June 8, 1964.
William Kunstler, for WMCA Radio interview June 8, 1964.
Irv Kupcinet, for WBKB Television interview January 30, 1965.
Los Angeles Herald Dispatch
, for excerpts throughout.
New York Post
, for “Malcolm X to Elijah: Let's End the Fighting,” June 26, 1964. © 1964 by New York Post Company, Inc.
The New York Times
, for “Malcolm X Seeks U.N. Negro Debate,” August 13, 1964. © 1964 by The New York Times Company, Inc.
Omaha World-Herald
, for “Malcolm X's Talk June 30,” June 15, 1964; “Malcolm X's Talk Tonight,” June 30, 1964; “Malcolm X Declares Anything Whites Can Do Blacks Can Do Better,” by Duane Snodgrass, July 1, 1964.
Pittsburgh Courier
, for excerpts throughout.
Mike Wallace, for WNTA Television interviews in “The Hate That Hate Produced,” July 13-17, 1959.
Washington Post Company, Inc., for excerpts from
New York Herald Tribune
, April 26, 1964, and June 16, 1964. © 1964 by New York Herald Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved.
Westinghouse Broadcasting Company and WBZ Radio (Boston), for interview on “The Bob Kennedy Show,” March 24, 1964.
WMAL Radio, for interview February 2, 1963.
WUST Radio, for interview May 12, 1963.
CONTENTS
Part I: Malcolm and the American State
Social Origins of Malcolm's Nationalism
Malcolm's Ambiguous Political Legacy
INTRODUCTION
When I was growing up one of my favorite shows on television was
THE FBI
(Righter of the Wronged, Protector of the Weak). I liked how Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., the FBI Big Cheese, every week outguessed, outsmarted and outmaneuvered crooks, Communists, thieves, murderers, to uphold truth, justice and the American way. I know I couldn't have been the only one who watched it; the man himself, J. Edgar Hoover, loved it also. Back in those days I was young and believed the FBI, CIA and the police were the good guys; they were righteous. Over time, I found out, like many others, this isn't the case at all, except in television and the movies.
One can safely say the Federal Bureau of Investigation has never been a friend to African-Americans. As far back as Marcus Garvey and A. Phillip Randolph the Bureau has more than kept its watchful eye on black leaders trying to uplift their people.
I was fascinated reading this book. At the same time, though, I found it frightening. We all live in a wicked country where the government can and will do anything to keep people in check.
I might add that I see the FBI, CIA and the police departments around this country as one and the same. They are all in cahoots and along with the Nation of Islam they all played a part in the assassination of Malcolm X. Who else? King? Both Kennedys? Evers? Hampton? The list goes on and on.
J. Edgar Hoover was a known racist and he did all he could and more to stop any movement by or on behalf of blacks, all under the guise of protecting democrary.
This book chronicles the growth in the evolution of Malcolm from his early “white man is the devil” days to his later, more developed world outlook right before he was killed. One can see that the Bureau and agencies like it cannot work successfully
without informants. They had plants around Malcolm at the highest levels of all his organizations: The Nation of Islam, Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. To me, that's the sad part. Malcolm was sold out. A house nigger turned him into Massa just like one did Nat Turner and countless others. It's also ironic that Brother Gene, one of Malcolm's bodyguards who gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation seconds after he'd been shot down and was dying, also proved to be a police informant. The Bureau knew Malcolm's every move, knew he was being hunted down, but stood back and let him and Elijah fight it out in public (a dispute which they encouraged no doubt).
I'm still surprised they even let these papers out. Turn that around and wonder what was destroyed: What documents will we never know about?
It's 1991 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation we know from television and
Mississippi Burning
are far, far from reality. Fortunately, there are books like this that combat these Walt Disney/John Wayne bogus images. The Bureau, however, would make THE GREAT AMERICAN GANGSTER MOVIE.
âSpike Lee
Malcolm and the American State
Â
Malcolm and the American State
For maximum effectiveness of the Counterintelligence Program, and to prevent wasted effort, long-range goals are being set
.
1. Prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups. In unity there is strength; a truism that is no less valid for all its triteness. An effective coalition of black nationalist groups might be the first step toward a real “Mau” in America, the beginning of a true black revolution
.
2. Prevent the rise of a “messiah” who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. Malcolm X might have been such a “messiah”; he is the martyr of the movement today. Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position. Elijah Muhammad is less of a threat because of his age. King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed “obedience” to “white, liberal doctrines” (nonviolence) and embrace black nationalism. . . .
âFBI memorandum, March 4, 1968.
Malcolm X's political and historical significance increased after his assassination. His public statements as a minister and political leader reached mainly a black urban audience while millions of every race read his posthumously published autobiography and speeches. He gained prominence as a caustic critic of civil rights leaders, but by the end of his life his evolving ideas had converged with the militant racial consciousness stimulated by the civil rights protest movement. During his public career, he was affiliated with one of the smaller African-American religious groups and never participated in the major national meetings of black leaders; yet he is remembered as one of the most influential political leaders of modern times. To some admirers he became
an iconâa heroic, almost mythological, figure whose arousing orations have become indisputable political wisdom. To detractors he remains a dangerous symbol of black separatism and anti-white demagoguery. One of the most widely discussed and controversial African-American leaders of this century, Malcolm remains insufficiently understood, the subject of remarkably little serious biographical and historical research.
This edition of Malcolm X's FBI surveillance file seeks to retify a particularly serious deficiency in previous writings on Malcolmâthat is, the failure to study him within the context of American racial politics during the 1950s and 1960s. The surveillance reports document Malcolm's life from his final years in prison during the early 1950s through the time of his assassination in February 1965. They trace Malcolm's movement from the narrowly religious perspective of the Nation of Islam toward a broader Pan-Africanist worldview. The file illuminates his religious and political world suggesting the extent to which his ideas and activities were perceived as threatening to the American state. When examined in the context of the FBI's overall surveillance of black militancy, Malcolm's FBI file clarifies his role in modern African-American politics.
Although some writings about Malcolm X have referred to the FBI file, most biographical accounts have not placed him within the framework of national or international politics. Instead, Malcolm has usually been portrayed as an exceptional individual whose unique experiences inspired his distinctive ideas, as a person affecting African-American politics rather than being affected by the constantly changing political environment.
1
Even Malcolm's relationships and activities within the Nation of Islam remained shrouded in rumor and mystery, despite the crucial role that organization played in Malcolm's ideological development.
Moreover, research regarding Malcolm remains largely uninformed by the outpouring of scholarly studies of his main ideological competitor, Martin Luther King, Jr. Although King, like Malcolm, was a remarkable orator, recent writings on him have placed King within the wider framework of African-American political and religious history.
2
Similarly broadly focused studies
are needed in order to understand Malcolm's evolving role in a multifaceted African-American freedom struggle that shaped his ideas even as he influenced its direction. Malcolm and King were articulate advocates of distinctive philosophies and political strategies, but neither leader's historical significance can be equated solely with the emotive power of his words. Both Malcolm and King sought to provide guidance for a mass struggle that generated its own ideas and leaders. Rather than simply followers of Malcolm or King, the activists, organizers, and community leaders who constituted the grass roots of the freedom struggle magnified both leaders' political impact.
Instead of extensive research based on sources produced at the time, popular and scholarly understanding of Malcolm X derives largely from published texts of his speeches and from
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
, a vivid and enlightening, yet undocumented, narrative prepared by Alex Haley. Haley shaped his subject's recollections into a moving account of Malcolm's transformation from abused child to ward to criminal to religious proselytizer to radical Pan-Africanist. The autobiography is an American literary classic that has enriched the lives of many readers. It elicits empathy, revealing the world through its narrator's eyes, but it is less successful as social and political history. Malcolm's political ideas become conclusions drawn solely from his personal experiences. His changing attitudes toward whites becomes the central focus of the narrative, while his political influences, contacts, and activities are reduced to subthemes. All serious study of Malcolm X must begin with the
Autobiography;
unfortunately, many works on him do not extend beyond the biographical and historical information provided by Malcolm himself.
3
