Malcolm concludes with a statement regarding “some of the devil’s watchdogs,” i.e. FBI informants, present at this meeting of the MCI Temple No. 12: “A black man who can come in here and sit under these teachings will only suffer death for spying against his own people.”
[BUREAU DELETION] a chicken dinner was held by the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI. [BUREAU DELETION] the subject attended this function.
[BUREAU DELETION] a meeting of the MCI was held by the Philadelphia Temple. [BUREAU DELETION] that at this meeting the subject made the principal address in which he related to them how Temple No. 12 is growing faster than any other temple in the United States.
He stated that Brother GEORGE is doing a good job and that the Messenger is pleased with the way things are going and for them to keep up the good work. He told them that he was not inclined to do much teaching that night as both of the brothers who had gone before him had taught them enough Islam to see them through the hereafter.
He put the subject on the board as “Why?” and “Feel?” He then proceeded to explain that there were no other people who had undergone the treatment that we had suffered at the hands of an enemy as cruel and vicious as this devil, and yet was always ready to defend him and show love for him. The question is “Why Feel?”
As he explained, “there was no one who could love someone who had treated them as the white man has treated you and I, but a fool.”
He told the group that there was an informer in the group, and that it was the worst in the nation because they knew what he had said in the temple almost before he got back to New York, but that he did not fear for he knew that if they heard his teaching long enough they must turn against the devil for the biggest fool must eventually learn who is his enemy.
He talked on Masonic symbolism, explaining the degrees between the points of the stars, and that in Islam they have the knowledge of the entire 360 degrees in lieu of the 33 degrees of Masonry. He told that they taught immediately who the God is and that you could not learn this until you reached the top of the Masonic order. He told them, too, that it was all free, but that the Mason paid for each step.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a MCI meeting [BUREAU DELETION] the subject told the group that the Negro in the United States “loved” the white man in spite of all he had done to them only because they feared him.
He asked them why they did not go to Girard College, which is in the northern part of the country. He stated that when they are told of lynching and persecutions experienced by their people, they state that it is done down South, but he explained that Girard College is in the northern part of the United States yet they are excluded because they are “too black.”
He then told the audience that there is no difference between the North and the South, only their methods are different.
He stated that stool pigeons, who have the nerve to come to the temple, listen to the teachings and tell the white man, will not be harmed by them (the Muslims), but that Allah will kill them; they are not playing with just a man, but with the work of God.
He stated that police who come in the temples have their guns and blackjacks checked at the door. Once they have heard the teachings they could never be the same. He advised them “not to tell their ‘chiefs’ for they already know what we teach here.”
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE went on to state that Muslims respect their women and demand that everyone else respect them. He related how eleven Muslims went to jail because the train conductor touched one of their women and when the officers came into their car with guns, the brothers took them from them. He stated that the Muslims are peaceful people, but they will die for their women and demand that their women keep “straight.”
He claimed that the black man has been controlled by fear and that he went around the world to fight for the white man, but refused to go across the street to defend his rights or protect even his mother.
He stated that he was not speaking against the government, but stated that the white man “lynched us, raped our women, segregated us and discriminated against us.” He claimed that this was done by the white man and he cannot deny it, and that this is not against the government.
MALCOLM told the group to obey the law and keep out of controversy with the “devils,” as they would try to provoke them into trouble.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting held by the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI on July 8, 1955, MALCOLM LITTLE told the group that the Temple of Islam is the only place in the “wilderness of North America” that the “black man and black woman” hear the truth about themselves.
He told them that it was stated in the Bible that the truth will make you free, but since they were in mental bondage and did not know anything about themselves, they could not have the truth. However, thanks to Allah and his Messenger, the truth has come and they are now receiving freedom, justice and equality. . . .
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE stated that the men who have the advantages of the teachings of the temple respect their women. He told the women that the men they were able to attract by the display of their bodies were as common as the dog we see chasing the other dog in the streets.
He called upon them to clean themselves up and look to the guidance of ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, of whom it is spoken in the Bible would come in the last days to redeem the last people. He called them fools who would sit and listen to the teaching of Islam and then still refuse to act on their own. . . .
He told them that they would be visited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but that this was only an effort to intimidate them and make them fear to come and hear anything about themselves.
[BUREAU DELETION] the subject made the following remarks to a meeting of the Philadelphia Temple of the MCI.
Editor’s note. “Charity begins at home,” quotes Malcolm at the beginning of the extract included in the file at this point. But, he adds, too many black people have been so long “mentally dead’’ that they have been blind to the significance of the familiar maxim and deaf to the teachings of Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm argues that the charity of black people has been misplaced ever since they were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, “in the year 1555.” For four hundred years, then, says Malcolm, they have been fighting for the enemy they should be fighting against—an enemy who preaches white supremacy, who rapes black women, hangs black men, tortures black children. The enemy is the white man, and the white man the devil soon to be “wiped off the planet earth.” Thus comes Malcolm’s admonition regarding charity to this enemy: “Do not have love in your heart for this man because he is about to be destroyed and if you love him, you will be destroyed along with him.”
Armageddon, according to Malcolm, has already begun. Already the white devils are being destroyed by the Most High in hurricanes and floods. Their boats are sinking, Malcolm tells his audience; their cars are crashing, their airplanes are falling out of the sky. They are dying of cancers more deadly than any diseases ever before known. Only the followers of Elijah Muhammad, the true messenger of Allah, will be led out of destruction and returned to their home in the East “where they will rule the planet.” For, Malcolm tells them, “you are descendants of the moon people and are from the tribe of Shabazz.”
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE was the principal speaker of the evening and devoted his lecture to the praising of ELIJAH MUHAMMAD and a lesson on the background of the Muslim movement.
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE stated that it would be advisable for all members of the temple to donate at least three percent of their weekly salary to the organization, which monies would be turned over to the prophet ELIJAH MUHAMMAD in Chicago for safekeeping.
[BUREAU DELETION] that MALCOLM LITTLE made the following remarks at a meeting of the MCI held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Editor’s note. Malcolm addresses the subject of black women in this particular extract in the FBI file. Black women who wear dresses cut “so low you can see [their] knees” and who laugh at their more modest sisters arouse Malcolm�
��s anger and despair, for such women belong to the devil’s kind. Indeed, the devil is using them to trick, tempt and mislead black men, just as he used a woman to deceive Adam. Nor is it inapt, as Malcolm sees it, that the Statue of Liberty is a woman, because she, like so many of the sisters who have fallen into a miserable state, promises her people the freedom to act as indecently as they please. Not until all “the lost-found sisters” awaken to the teaching of Elijah Muhammad will the nation of Islam be complete, for only then will all the black brothers be fully free of such black women’s evil influence and able finally to save themselves.
At this point, one of the sisters, evidently taking offense at Malcolm’s remarks, gets up and starts to walk out of the temple. Malcolm’s words follow her as he calls upon the congregation to observe her; he scorns her “hair [of] five different shades” and warns her of her peril in imitating white devils at a time when Allah is preparing to remove ‘‘this wicked people” from the very face of the earth.
Imitation, in Malcolm’s view, ensures bondage; for imitation of white people by blacks is premised—falsely—on the superiority of whites to blacks. Denying their own esteem, such blacks wear “mental chains”; they are bound in thought as well as deed to their white oppressor. Paradoxically, they act and think more like slaves than did their forefathers whose hands and feet may in fact have been manacled but whose minds were free. Not atypically, Malcolm then prophesies doom for the white oppressor (“Why do you think [Muslims] call the last day Judgment Day and the devils call it doomsday?”) and salvation for all the black brothers and sisters who have heeded the call of Elijah Muhammad, for they are the true “gods of the planet earth and children of Almighty God.”
[BUREAU DELETION] the following remarks were made at a meeting of the MCI at Philadelphia [BUREAU DELETION] by the subject.
Editor’s note. “We have a black body with a white head,” Malcolm tells his audience in the Bureau extract of his remarks on this occasion. Black people’s habits, all of them, “good and bad, belong to the white man,” Malcolm continues; so do their customs—because black people have been dispossessed of their birthright and their culture. From their forefathers blacks have learned only what the white man allowed them to teach, and from the white man himself they have learned only “slavery, suffering and death and his dying religion.” This white man’s Christian religion teaches blacks that their Savior died for them two thousand years ago; but, for all their churchgoing and praying, blacks have not been saved, and they have yet to know “any freedom, justice or equality.” What Malcolm would have his people realize, then, is that the time has come for them to end their years of bondage and suffering under the yoke of a white man’s religion, for what’s good for whites has not in any way proved to be good for blacks. He would awaken them to the truth that shall make them truly free, the truth offered them here and now by Islam in the teachings of Elijah Muhammad. The white man’s day—the day of their slavemaster and enemy—is ending; the future lies with Elijah and in Islam salvation for the blacks.
[BUREAU DELETION] subject’s lecture before a meeting of the MCI held at Philadelphia [BUREAU DELETION]
He stated that there were twenty-four scientists in the east that were responsible for the operation of the universe and that they were spoken of in the Bible as the twenty-four olders, that they had determined that the time allotted to the present rulers of the world had expired and that because of the evil they had created in the world they too must be destroyed. The black man, who has been their victim, must first be given a chance to save himself.
Then the speaker told them that Allah had come to earth himself and that he was a man and he pointed out that since it was stated that he had talked to MOSES face-to-face, that he must have had a face and if that was so, he must have had a body, so he must have been a man. He stated the head of the twenty-four olders wrote history before it happened, that he was the supreme being and that he had taught ELIJAH MUHAMMAD that he might be the door by which the black man and woman could be saved.
ACTIVITY IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
[BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE was the principal speaker at a meeting of the Boston Temple [BUREAU DELETION]. At the meeting [BUREAU DELETION] LITTLE gave warning to those who the FBI might visit and cautioned them not to talk to government agents about Islam, but to state briefly that Islam is a religion of peace and beyond that it should not be discussed.
He advised that should a FBI agent “visit your home, request his identification, hold it in your hand for quite a while, then return it to the agent telling him that you do not wish to discuss your religion.”
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
Reporting Office: New York
Office of Origin: New York
Date when made: 4/23/57
Period for which made: 5/11,15,18,19,22,25,28/56
Report made by: [BUREAU DELETION] b7C
Title: MALCOLM K. LITTLE, was
Malcolm X; Malcolm X Little
Character of case: Security Matter-NOI
SYNOPSIS:
[BUREAU DELETION] subject is official minister of NOI Temple No. 12, Philadelphia, Pa. [BUREAU DELETION] subject continues to be minister of NOI Temple No. 7, NYC. [BUREAU DELETION] believes LITTLE is No. 2 or No. 3 man in NOI. Activities of subject in various United States cities set forth. Subject resides at 25–46 99th Street, Elmhurst, New York, and has no employment other than duties in NOI.
POSITIONS HELD BY MALCOLM LITTLE
[BUREAU DELETION] as of November 11, 1955, MALCOLM LITTLE was the official Minister of Nation of Islam (NOI), Temple No. 12, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and of the Fruit of Islam (FOI) of this temple.
[BUREAU DELETION] that the first southern Goodwill Tour of the Brotherhood of Islam was held on Saturday evening, August 25, 1956, and all day Sunday, August 26, 1956, in Atlanta, Georgia. He advised that approximately two hundred or more members of the Nation of Islam from over ten cities attended this meeting. He advised that ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, leader of the Nation of Islam, did not attend this meeting but was represented by MALCOLM X of New York City [BUREAU DELETION].
[BUREAU DELETION] MUHAMMAD never intended to appear in Atlanta, inasmuch as all activities were well planned and proceeded like clockwork under the direction of MALCOLM.
[BUREAU DELETION] MALCOLM X is the Minister of New York City Temple No. 7 of the organization and was introduced by the Minister of the Atlanta Temple to deliver the main lecture of the meeting.
ACTIVITIES OF MALCOLM LITTLE IN
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting of the NOI held during the annual NOI Convention in Chicago, [BUREAU DELETION] Brother MALCOLM was one of the main speakers. [BUREAU DELETION] MALCOLM told those in attendance that the Muslim women should look around them and find out what the women from other temples are saying and wearing, in order that they might get ideas and find out what is going on. He also said that there has never been a man who stood up, taught his people what this man (ELIJAH MUHAMMAD) has taught in another man’s government. He told them that the prophet will not forsake them and the Almighty God ALLAH will destroy America in the near future.
[BUREAU DELETION] at a meeting of the Fruit of Islam (FOI), Temple No. 2, Chicago, Illinois, held at the Temple of Islam, 5335 South Greenwood Avenue, Chicago, [BUREAU DELETION] the subject was introduced and congratulated ISIAH, Minister of the Baltimore Temple of the NOI, for the inspiring talk he had delivered that evening.
The subject stated that there had recently been a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York City, which was attended by over twenty thousand persons, who listened to Mrs. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT. LITTLE stated that Mrs. ROOSEVELT told those present at the meeting that there are many more dark people in the world than white and it was time for Americans to wake up to this fact. LITTLE also declared that TALLULAH BANKHEAD also spoke at this rally on the deplorable treatment and persecution of the colored race in the South, especially in the State of A
labama.
LITTLE told the group that this government (United States government) sends troops all over the world to protect the rights of smaller nations, but refuses to send troops into the South to protect the rights of black Americans. He stated that the only solution to the race problem in America was ELIJAH MUHAMMAD.
[BUREAU DELETION] Minister MALCOLM of New York City spoke at a meeting of the Chicago Temple of the NOI. . . .
LITTLE called upon the American Negro to form his own government in the United States and told the congregation that southern white men had murdered the Negro’s father and raped the Negro’s mother. He stated that at this time there were two steps set forth by ELIJAH MUHAMMAD separating the Negro from the white man. The first step was for the Negro to drop the white man’s name and the second step was for the Negro to drop the white man’s religion, Christianity. LITTLE went on to advise that he first met ELIJAH MUHAMMAD in prison and embraced MUHAMMAD’s teachings while serving a ten-year sentence. He related that as a Christian he had committed various wicked acts, but since he had become a Muslim, he had lived a new and religious life.
[BUREAU DELETION] MALCOLM of New York City addressed a meeting of the NOI, Temple No. 2, Chicago, Illinois [BUREAU DELETION], LITTLE told the audience that ELIJAH MUHAMMAD had been sent to the United States by ALLAH to lead the black man out of the wilderness of North America and that the white man’s rule in North America was fast coming to an end as witnessed by the unrest and confusion in other parts of the world.
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