Malcolm X (37 page)
Authors: Clayborne Carson
END AND PLS HOLD
COMMUNICATIONS SECTION
AUGUST 7, 1964
TELETYPE
SENT BY CODED TELETYPE
FBI NEW YORK
10-15 PM URGENT 8-7-64 DAE
TO DIRECTOR -14- 100-399321-ENCODED
FROM NEW YORK 105-8999
MALCOLM K. LITTLE, IS-MMI.
[BUREAU DELETION] ADVISED EIGHT SEVEN SIXTY FOUR, THAT [BUREAU DELETION]ON SAME DATE TOLD [BUREAU DELETION] HE RECEIVED A “WRITE-UP OF A PRESS RELEASE” FROM MALCOLM THAT HE IS GOING TO RELEASE TODAY. RELEASE STATES THAT ON EIGHT, FOUR SIXTY FOUR IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT, MALCOLM X ADDRESSED OVER EIGHT HUNDRED MUSLIM STUDENTS REPRESENTING SEVENTY THREE DIFFERENT AFRICAN AND ASIAN COUNTRIES AT A BANQUET GIVEN BY THE SUPREME COUNCIL OF ISLAMIC AFFAIRS IN WHICH HE EXHORTED THEM TO CALL TO THE ATTENTION OF THEIR GOVERNMENTS WHO IN TURN SHOULD BRING TO THE ATTENTION OF THE UN THE PLIGHT OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA. AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE BANQUET, ACCORDING TO THE RELEASE, ONE [BUREAU DELETION] /LNU/ OFFERED MALCOLM X TWENTY FREE EXPENSE PAID SCHOLARSHIPS TO AL-AZER /PH/ UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO SO THAT MALCOLM X CAN HAVE YOUNG MEN TRAINED IN THE /MUSLIM/ RELIGION, [BUREAU DELETION] STATED THAT ONE [BUREAU DELETION] HAD INVITED MALCOLM-S MUSLIM MOSQUE, INC., /MMI/ TO JOIN THE ISLAMIC FEDERATION IN THE UNITED
STATES AND THAT MALCOLM-S [BUREAU DELETION] SHOULD BE A PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MMI WHICH [BUREAU DELETION] AGREED TO BECOME. THE ABOVE IS DETAIL OF INFO OF THAT SUBMITTED IN SUMMARY TELETYPE THIS DATE.
LHM FOLLOWS.
END AND PLS HOLD.
MEMORANDUM
DATE: September 2, 1964
TO | : | Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation |
FROM | : | J. Walter Yeagley |
SUBJECT | : | MALCOLM K. LITTLE |
Information has come to our attention reflecting that Malcolm K. Little, aka “Malcolm X,” in the course of his recent tour of Middle East and African states has reportedly been in communication and contact with heads of foreign governments urging that they take the issue of racialism in America before the United Nations as a threat to world peace.
Since such activities could conceivably fall within the provisions of the Logan Act, and are moreover deemed to be inimical to the best interests of our country, prejudicial to our foreign policy, we are requesting the Secretary of State to make appropriate inquiries of our Embassies in the Middle East and Africa for any pertinent information concerning Malcolm X's alleged contacts and communications with heads of foreign governments.
We would also appreciate having your Bureau furnish us with
any information which you may receive concerning Malcolm X's activities abroad indicating a possible violation of the Logan Act.
9/11/64
SAC, New York (105-8999)
Director, FBI (100-399321)
MALCOLM K. LITTLE
SECURITY MATTER - MMI
Enclosed for your information is a copy of a letter from Assistant Attorney General J. Walter Yeagley, Internal Security Division, Department of Justice.
The Logan Act mentioned by the Department's letter is Title 18, Section 953, U. S. Code Annotated and reads as follows:
Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply, himself or his agent, to any foreign government or the agents thereof for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects. June 25, 1948, c. 645, 62 Stat. 744.
While the Logan Act is not a statute over which the Bureau has primary investigative jurisdiction, your attention is called to the Assistant Attorney General's request in the last sentence of his letter. You are to review your file on Little beginning with his first departure on foreign travel for any information which may tend to show a violation of the above-mentioned statute. This request should also be kept in mind during future investigation of the subject. Any information which appears pertinent to Mr.
Yeagley's request should be promptly submitted in a memorandum suitable for dissemination to the Department.
Note:
Little, former minister of Nation of Islam Temple No. 7, New York City, is now head of the Muslim Mosque, Inc., which he organized as a militant quasi-religious Negro organization deeply involved in the Harlem race demonstrations. His name is included in the Security Index.
Enclosure
New York, New York
September 17, 1964
Malcolm K. Little
Internal Security - Muslim Mosque Incorporated
A confidential source who has furnished reliable information in the past [BUREAU DELETION] made available a press release dated July 17, 1964, under the letterhead “Organization of Afro-American Unity” (OAAU), containing a cover sheet which stated, “During the midst of the racial turmoil here in America, the most militant of the militant NegroesâMalcolm Xâwas in Cairo, Egypt, where he was the only American allowed into the conference of the Organization of African Unity.”
“A resolution was passed at this conference condemning racism in the United States. Sincerely, OAAU.”
This press release stated that it is a “Copy of the statement that was prepared by Malcolm X on behalf of the OAAU and the 22 million Afro-Americans, and was delivered by him to the conference which opened in Cairo, Egypt, on July 17, 1964.”
The statement alleged to be prepared by Malcolm X was addressed to Their Excellencies, First Ordinary Assembly of Heads of State and Governments, Organization of African Unity, Cairo, U.A.R.
Editor's note.
“Our problems are your problems,” Malcolm asserts repeatedly throughout this plea to the Independent African
States for aid in the battle of “twenty-two million African Americans whose
human rights
are being violated daily by the racism of American imperialists.” Malcolm counts African Americans among the lostâa people taken in chains to a strange land that has submitted them for three hundred years to physical abuse and mental torture; a people today left defenseless by a government that has continually failed to protect their lives or property simply because they are black and of African descent. The problem, as Malcolm presents it, belongs not to a single nation, or even a continent, but the the world and to humanity; for “it is not a problem of civil rights, but a problem of human rights.”
America, Malcolm argues, is no less guilty of violating the human rights of her black citizens than is South Africa. In fact, Malcolm finds the situation in America worse because, in addition to being racist, “she is also deceitful and hypocritical.” South Africa, he points out, “practices what she preaches”âsegregationâwhereas in America what is practiced is segregation but what is preached is integration. To Malcolms view, “the much publicized, recently passed Civil Rights bill” amounts to little more than a “propaganda maneuver” designed to blind African nations to the injustices of American racism and the sufferings of the American black populace
.
According to Malcolm, the struggle of African Americans for their freedom should not be perceived at all as a domestic issue, and indeed the intent of the OAAU is “to âinternationalize' it by placing it at the level of human rights.” Thus he beseeches the Independent African States to place this issue before the United Nations because, firstly, the United States government is “morally incapable of protecting the lives and property of twenty-two million African Americans” and, secondly, their “deteriorating plight is definitely becoming a threat to world peace.”
As Malcolm sees it, “frustration and hopelessness” have pushed young blacks in America to the breaking point. By whatever means and whatever the consequences, these blacks, along with him and the OAAU, will “assert the right of self-defense . . .
and reserve the right of maximum retaliation against [their] racist oppressors" No longer will they be turning the other cheek, Malcolm says, but rather they will meet “violence with violence, eye for eye and tooth for tooth,” in a “racial conflict . . . that could easily escalate into a violent, worldwide, bloody race war.”
It is “in the interests of world peace and security,” then, that Malcolm couches his final plea for an investigation by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He does add a final caveat to the Independent African States: “Don't escape from European colonialism only to become even more enslaved by deceitful, âfriendly' American dollarism.”
SECTION 13
November 25, 1964âDecember 3, 1964
REPORTS: | 1. November 25, 1964. New York 2. December 15, 1964. Chicago 3. December 22, 1964. New York 4. December 3, 1964. Malcolm X at Oxford |
Section 13 is short, containing reports separated by less than a month. It describes the FBI's account of Malcolm's return to the United States on November 24, 1964, after spending eighteen weeks in Africa. He immediately held a press conference, where he answered questions about his trip. Although he was more conciliatory than in the past, he indicted FBI Director Hoover, the Attorney General, and the President for the lack of advances in civil rights and claimed that the United States would soon be on trial for its crimes.
In the month after his return, Malcolm's Pan-African views noticeably solidified, and he spoke frequently about Africa, its resources, and its politics. His view of the world had broadened in scope, and he commented, “I don't care what color you are as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.”
