Blood Brothers (22 page)

Robinson did. He recognized that the minister believed that Clay could become a unifying force for the Nation. He also understood that Malcolm could not always be close to Clay. He had too many responsibilities and too many appointments. That's why he needed Robinson. When reporters noticed the new adviser escorting Cassius around town, he revealed little about their relationship and never mentioned Malcolm's name. “We were brought together by certain persons who knew us in New York,” he cryptically told a writer.
¹⁹

The more time Cassius spent with Robinson and Malcolm, the more he questioned his contract with the Louisville Sponsoring Group. In New York, Clay boasted that he was “going to free himself from the domination of his 12 white managers from Louisville.” As he had said in London, “I am my own master.” But as long as white men controlled his career and his finances, Malcolm taught him, he would never be truly free. At some point he would have to break the white man's shackles.
²⁰

His association with the Nation threatened the conservative sports establishment. Dan Parker maintained that the Black Muslims were just using Clay as a propaganda tool and that the boxer did not realize how they might damage his career. But Clay was not the dimwitted fool that Parker made him out to be. He fully understood the risks of associating with the Nation. Ever since he met Sam Saxon in Miami, he'd made sure not to talk about his relationship with the Muslims. If Clay had wanted to promote Elijah Muhammad's message, he could have done so, but he didn't. He knew exactly what he was doing.
²¹

Reporters and the members of the LSG were not the only ones interested in Clay's involvement with the Muslims. A day after Parker published his column, the FBI's Chicago field office filed a memorandum justifying the continued surveillance on Elijah Muhammad's mansion. The special agent in charge reported that the surveillance had “proven extremely valuable in covering the overall activities of the NOI.” The Bureau had learned about the sect's vulnerabilities and discovered that Cassius Clay, “the well-known heavyweight title contender, had made arrangements to meet
ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
and to also have his parents meet The Messenger.”
²²

Clearly, Malcolm was not the only power broker inside the Nation courting Clay. After seeing the way that his followers responded to Clay at the Philadelphia rally, Muhammad grasped the boxer's propaganda value. Given his interest in recruiting more converts and selling more copies of
Muhammad Speaks
, Elijah relaxed his strict prohibition against Muslim participation in sports, as long as it “remained in its proper perspective” and did not interfere “with the attainment of good education and the building of a strong nation.” He also authorized his son Herbert to publish more articles on black athletic achievements in the pages of
Muhammad Speaks
. Wider sports coverage, Elijah reasoned, would generate more newspaper sales and help him disseminate his message.
²³

Previous accounts of this dramatic moment have insisted that Elijah Muhammad had no interest in Clay before he won the heavyweight title. But that story simply isn't true. In fact, Muhammad had set his sights on bringing him closer to the center of the Nation well before he fought Sonny Liston. Of course, he also knew that Clay's value rose in proportion to his feats in the ring. If Cassius defeated Liston, it would prove the power of the righteous and affirm the Messenger's divine authority to bless those who followed him.

M
ALCOLM WAS SITTING
at a back table in the Shabazz Restaurant counseling his lieutenants when the phone rang. A shout went out to Captain Joseph; it was his wife on the other line. He walked over to the phone booth and picked up the receiver. Her voice was frantic. After Joseph hung up the phone, he walked back toward Malcolm's table looking visibly shaken. Then he announced to everyone in the luncheonette: President Kennedy had been shot.
²⁴

Malcolm asked one of the brothers to retrieve a radio from the back of the restaurant. When they dialed in to a news station, the announcer said, “To repeat, we're confirming that the President has been shot in Dallas, Texas, and at this point we don't know how serious it is.” Outside the Harlem restaurant, blacks huddled in front of appliance store windows and crowded inside bars, watching live news broadcasts on television.
²⁵

By midafternoon on November 22, the whole nation had come to a halt. Americans hovered near their radios or televisions while reporters and producers scrambled for news from Dallas. Shortly after two p.m., ABC Radio announcer Don Gardiner issued a special bulletin: “The president is dead. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a trying moment for all of us. Let us all pause and let us all pray.” When Malcolm heard the announcement, he remarked coldly, “That devil is dead.”
²⁶

Muhammad released a short statement expressing shock over “the loss of our President,” a surprising comment given his past diatribes against the government. Privately, he worried that the Nation would be implicated in some way over the assassination. He ordered all ministers to remain silent about the president, and on Sunday, December 1, before Malcolm's speaking engagement at the Manhattan Center, he called to again remind him not to talk about Kennedy.
²⁷

After Malcolm's talk, reporters asked him about the president's assassination. At first, he refused to answer the writers' questions, suggesting that the media wanted to trap him into exclaiming, “Hooray, hooray! I'm glad he got it!” But when the crowd laughed and clapped, it stirred something in him. He relished delivering a memorable line, and with a little more prodding from the press, he finally gave in. The president's murder, he said, was a case of “the chickens coming home to roost.” Then, he added, “Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad.”
²⁸

Malcolm believed that Kennedy and the CIA were behind the murders of South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem and Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba. He also thought that Kennedy had sat passively while whites murdered blacks in the American South. The president's assassination was an inevitable result of America's culture of violence.

Incensed at Malcolm's comments, the Nation's national secretary John Ali immediately telephoned Elijah. Malcolm had disobeyed Muhammad's order, threatening the Nation's reputation. Ali also advised Elijah that Malcolm's comments would provoke closer scrutiny from the FBI.

Malcolm had made a fatal error: he had handed Ali, Sharrieff, and Elijah's sons the wedge they needed to separate him from Muhammad once and for all.

The next day, Malcolm and Ali flew to Chicago for a meeting at Muhammad's home. The morning edition of the
New York Times
quoted Malcolm, exacerbating Muhammad's disappointment in him. After Muhammad and Malcolm embraced, they sat in the living room. Malcolm knew Muhammad so well that he could usually predict what he would say. But this time he had no idea what was coming.
²⁹

“Did you see the papers this morning?” Muhammad asked.

“Yes, sir, I did,” Malcolm answered.

“That was a very bad statement. The country loved this man. The whole country is in mourning. That was very ill timed.”

Malcolm agreed, adding that he understood he had made a mistake.

Muhammad stressed that Malcolm's imprudent statement had consequences. “I'll have to punish you for the next ninety days—so that
Muslims everywhere can be disassociated from the blunder.” He was silencing Malcolm, muting a man whose voice defined him. Malcolm would rather lose a leg or an arm than his voice.
³⁰

But Malcolm had no choice. He accepted his punishment without protest. He would continue his administrative responsibilities at Mosque No. 7, but he would refrain from preaching or speaking to the media. Muhammad instructed Ali to release a public statement to the press. Denouncing Malcolm's comments about Kennedy, Ali informed the media that Malcolm was suspended from public speaking for an undetermined amount of time.
³¹

In the following days, writers speculated that Muhammad would permanently replace Malcolm as minister of Mosque No. 7. Journalists reported that the Nation would split into two factions: one in Chicago following Muhammad and another in New York supporting Malcolm. A writer called Muhammad to ask when he would lift Malcolm's public speaking ban, but he refused to offer a deadline. “We are still brothers and I still think Malcolm is wonderful worker of mine,” he answered. “But . . . we have rules; we must obey them.”
³²

Muhammad was not so generous toward Malcolm when he spoke to his closest advisers. He told one aide that Malcolm “should have known better than to talk about the President.” But Malcolm gave Elijah no choice after he made him “look like a fool.” “Papa,” he said, had to “spank his son.” If Malcolm disobeyed him again, then he would receive “a worse beating the next time.”
³³

M
ALCOLM BELIEVED THAT
if he was contrite, his suspension would not last the full three months. Muhammad had gone so far as to admit that he would have said the same thing about Kennedy—nonetheless, Malcolm had disobeyed him, and now Elijah would reassert his authority.

When journalist Louis Lomax asked Malcolm about reports implicating his break from Muhammad, he snapped, “It's a lie! Any article that says there is a ‘minor' difference between Mr. Muhammad and me is a lie. How could there be any difference between The Messenger and me? I am his slave, his servant, his
son
. He is
the
leader, the only spokesman for the Black Muslims.”
³⁴

Yet while Malcolm maintained public confidence in his return to the Nation, he noticed ominous signs. Elijah informed his aides that
Malcolm would be reinstated, but
only
if he submitted, giving his disciples the impression that Malcolm had not capitulated.
³⁵

Over the course of December, Elijah's suspicions of Malcolm deepened. His sons, Sharrieff, and Ali encouraged him to remind Malcolm, once and for all, who was
the
Supreme Minister. Sharrieff and Ali instructed Captain Joseph and the assistant ministers in Harlem to openly condemn Malcolm for spreading stories about Muhammad. They also reminded Elijah that Malcolm knew things about the royal family that could damage the movement. If he revealed the Nation's secrets—the financial abuses, the promiscuous behavior, and the corporal punishment—the entire kingdom might collapse.
³⁶

On New Year's Eve, Muhammad called Captain Joseph and the most prominent ministers on the East Coast. He learned that Malcolm had informed them about Elijah's affairs, including Boston minister Louis X, in spite of Muhammad's specific instructions not to tell Louis about their private conversations. When Malcolm had broached the subject with Louis, he had failed Elijah's test of leadership.
³⁷

Elijah sensed that Malcolm's ambition could not be contained. Malcolm was beyond his reach—Malcolm knew it, Elijah knew it, and soon the world would know it. Muhammad sent word to his most trusted followers on the East Coast to cut ties with the wayward minister. Anyone who took Malcolm's side was his enemy. “I'm going to strip him of everything,” he told Louis X. Everything—his mosque, his following, his life.
³⁸

E
LIJAH HAD GIVEN
Malcolm a new life and now he intended to take it all back. When Malcolm languished in prison, he gave him hope. When he joined the Nation, Elijah gave him power, promoting him to minister. When he showed him loyalty, Elijah gave him love—the love of a father. But now it was all over.

On January 2, 1964, during a tense phone conversation, Elijah scolded Malcolm. “I've been hearing about Malcolm this and Malcolm that, and even Malcolm being called a leader,” Muhammad fumed. “You made an error,” he said harshly, referring to Malcolm's conversations with the East Coast ministers.
³⁹

“I asked your permission in a letter before I said anything and I understood that it was all right,” Malcolm said nervously.

“I certainly didn't say such a thing!” Elijah raged. Malcolm couldn't believe that the frail, gentle man who had embraced him with such warmth had turned so cold. Elijah showed him no forgiveness. “How can you take this poison and pour it all over my people? I knew all along that you had some sly scheme or shrewd plan to undermine me, but it won't work, sir, not this time.”

“Messenger,” Malcolm said, “I'd rather be dead than say anything against you.”

“Then how could [Ministers] Isaiah and Lonnie and [Captain] Joseph all have gotten the wrong impression from what you said?” Elijah shouted. “They all wrote to me and said about the same thing.” He paused, breathing heavily into the phone. “Why are you checking into my personal affairs?”

Malcolm answered that he'd only begun investigating the adultery charges after Muhammad's son Wallace brought it to his attention. And then, after FBI agents in Boston questioned one of Elijah's former secretaries, he'd become more concerned. When agents had asked the young woman if her newborn baby was Elijah's, Malcolm had suggested to Louis that “it would be a good idea if we told some of our top people about all these rumors so that if they heard about the charges from somewhere else,” they would be prepared to deflect them with parables acceptable under Islamic law. He also admitted that he had mentioned this strategy to Captain Joseph and that he'd intended “to write you for instructions on how to deal with the matter.”

“I don't need you to protect me,” Elijah said. “I don't need you meddling in family matters. I know Wallace is the one spreading these lies. I've warned him about going to you with our troubles . . . you're an outsider.”