Malcolm X_ A Life Of Reinvention Part 3

By early 1950, Malcolm had converted several black inmates, including Shorty. The small group began to demand concessions from the prison administrators, on the grounds that they were exercising their rights of religious freedom. They requested that Norfolk's menu be changed, to accommodate the dietary restrictions of Muslims, and also refused to submit to standard medical inoculations. Norfolk's officials viewed these requests as disruptive, and in March 1950 Malcolm and Shorty were told that they would be transferred back to Charlestown along with several other Black Muslims. Norfolk's officials also recorded that Malcolm's letters provided indisputable evidence of "his dislike for the white race."

Malcolm rationalized the transfer as best he could. "Norfolk was getting on my nerves in many ways, and I didn't have as much Solitude as I wished for," he complained to Philbert. "Here we are in our cells for seventeen of the twenty-four hours in each day . . ." He also recounted a brief visit by their sister. "Ella wants to try to get me out. What should I do? Previously when she had asked me if I wanted out I have said 'not particularly.' But Sat.u.r.day I told her to do whatever she can."

He began agitating for even greater concessions, impelled by the requirements of his faith. He and other Muslims not only insisted on changes in their food and on the rules governing typhoid inoculations; they asked to be moved into cells that faced east, so that they could pray more easily toward Mecca. When the warden rejected their requests, Malcolm threatened to take their grievances to the Egyptian consul's U.S. office, at which point the warden backed down. The local media learned about the controversy, and several articles soon appeared, the first to present Malcolm to a public audience. On April 20, 1950, the Boston Herald Boston Herald reported the incident under the headline "Four Convicts Turn Moslems, Get Cells Looking to Mecca." More colorful and descriptive was the reported the incident under the headline "Four Convicts Turn Moslems, Get Cells Looking to Mecca." More colorful and descriptive was the Springfield Union Springfield Union: "Local Criminals, in Prison, Claim Moslem Faith Now: Grow Beards, Won't Eat Pork, Demand East-Facing Cells to Facilitate 'Prayers to Allah.'"

In the middle of the controversy, Malcolm sent a sober, detailed letter to the commissioner of the Ma.s.sachusetts Department of Correction. His purpose was to provide examples of discrimination against Muslims, appealing for greater religious freedom. He highlighted the case of one Muslim who had been placed in solitary confinement at Norfolk for four months. "He wholeheartedly embraced Islam," Malcolm argued, "and by doing this he incurred the wrath [of prison authorities]. Because the Brother wishes to be Black Black (instead of negro or collared [ (instead of negro or collared [sic]), because of his desire to be a good Muslim . . . he is being maliciously prosecuted."

In a second letter to the commissioner, and in subsequent correspondence, he shifted his argument, accusing Charlestown's authorities of severely restricting the books by black authors that were available in the prison library. The tone was intellectual but increasingly intense and argumentative. "Is it actually against the 'law' for a Black man to read about himself? (let me laugh!)," he complained. He deplored the hara.s.sment experienced by Muslims who he claimed had done nothing wrong, and contrasted the example of one Black Muslim who had been rejected from enrolling in a prison literacy workshop with "the h.o.m.os.e.xual perverts" behind bars who "can get job-changes whenever they wish to change or acquire new 'husbands.'" In more explicit language than ever before, he warned the commissioner that the Muslims would prefer to be kept separate from other prisoners, but if denied fair treatment they would be forced to become disruptive. "If it becomes the Will of Allah for peace to cease," Malcolm predicted, "peace will cease!" This was a step beyond self-invention : Malcolm was in effect developing his powers of protest. He was teaching himself to be a great orator.

In June 1950, the United States initiated military actions in Korea, under the auspices of the United Nations, to suppress communist insurgency. On June 29, Malcolm brazenly wrote a letter to President Truman, declaring his opposition to the conflict. "I have always been a Communist," he wrote. "I have tried to enlist in the j.a.panese Army, last war, now they will never draft or accept me in the U.S. Army. Everyone has always said MALCOLM is crazy so it isn't hard to convince people that I am."

It was this letter that brought Malcolm to the attention of the FBI, which opened a file on him that would never be closed. It also marked the beginning of their surveillance of him, which would continue until his death.

Malcolm kept up his letter-writing campaign throughout 1950 and into 1951, even reaching back to people who had known him as a juvenile delinquent. One such letter, dated November 14, 1950, was addressed to the Reverend Samuel L. Laviscount of Roxbury. Apparently, Malcolm had occasionally attended meetings at Laviscount's St. Mark's Congregational Church in 1941. "Dear Brother Samuel," he began. "When I was a child I behaved like a child, but since becoming a man I have endeavored to put away childish things. . . . When I was a wild youth, you often gave me some timely advice; now that I have matured I desire to return the favor." He recounted his involvement in crime, his arrest, and subsequent incarceration. But "this sojourn in prison has proved to be a blessing in disguise, for it provided me with the Solitude that produced many nights of Meditation." The experiences of imprisonment had confirmed the validity of Elijah Muhammad's indictments. Malcolm proclaimed that he had subsequently "reversed my att.i.tude toward my black brothers," and "in my guilt and shame I began to catch every chance I could to recruit for Mr. Muhammad." The task of emanc.i.p.ating black people from the effects of racial oppression, he explained, required a fundamental rejection of white values: "The devil['s] strongest weapon is his ability to conventionalize our Thought . . . we willfully remain the humble servants of every one else's ideas except our own . . . we have made ourselves the helpless slaves of the wicked accidental world."

After months back in Charlestown, however, the terrible conditions there took their toll. In a letter to Philbert sent in December 1950, Malcolm complained, "I have ulcers or something but I've had my fill of hospitals since being here. Ole man, I think I'm actually falling apart physically. Nothing more physically wrecks a man, than a steady prison diet." He explained that he was "reading the Bible diligently," but worried whether his interpretations of scriptures were "sound, or even on the correct track," and looked forward to when he could listen to Elijah Muhammad's latest teachings. For the first time, he signed his name, "Malcolm X (surprised?)." He also revealed that "a very wealthy man for whom I once worked, visited me today and is going to try and get me a recommendation from the parole board (Insha Allah) The Will of Allah will be done." The "wealthy man" almost certainly was Paul Lennon. The most striking aspect of Malcolm's continuing contacts with Lennon was that his affluent benefactor was white; given Malcolm's professed hatred of all "white devils" (and his comments on h.o.m.os.e.xual inmates), his continuing contacts with Lennon may have indicated that his determination to get out of prison exceeded his commitment to Yacub's History. Or perhaps the physical intimacies between the two men created a bond. Malcolm uncharacteristically stumbled somewhat as he explained, "By the way, he's not an original"-meaning that he was not a Negro. "However he can give me a home and a job . . ."

Malcolm's choice of words-"a home"-implies more than a business a.s.sociation. The fact that Lennon went to see Malcolm behind bars suggests a degree of friendship. But Malcolm's commitment to the Nation eventually made any kind of continued contact with Lennon impossible. No correspondence between Malcolm and Lennon has been found following Malcolm's prison sentence ending in 1952. Malcolm firmly put behind him the episodes with Lennon, along with some other events from Detroit Red's life of drugs and criminality. Malcolm Little, petty criminal and trickster, had transformed himself into Malcolm X, a serious political intellectual and Black Muslim. That metamorphosis left no s.p.a.ce for a rich gay white man.

Malcolm's subsequent FBI files cite a revealing letter, written in January 1951, to someone whose name has been redacted in its records, but from the tone of the correspondence may have been Elijah Muhammad. "You once told me that I had a persecution complex," it runs. "Quite naturally I refused to agree with you. . . . I was blinded by my own ignorance." The letter recounts a visit to Charlestown by several family members, who raised with him the wrongs that he had committed: With great remorse I now think of the hate and revenge that I have been preaching in the past. But from here on in my words shall all be of Love and Justice. . . . Now that the Way has been made clear to me my sole desire is to replace the seeds of hate and revenge, that I have sown into the hearts of others, with the seed of Love and Justice . . . and to be Just Just in all that I think, speak and do. in all that I think, speak and do.

Malcolm's further "apology for the unrest and misrepresentation of the Truth" was probably prompted by Elijah's disapproval over the publicity surrounding the campaign for Muslim prisoners' rights. For months, Malcolm had attempted to "embarra.s.s" penal authorities by sending a stream of letters to local and state officials. Given Muhammad's own prison hardships, the NOI leader recognized that any adverse publicity could threaten the sect's survival. He also feared that prisoners who had converted to the Nation of Islam in other inst.i.tutions might become targets of hara.s.sment by prison guards.

Malcolm had himself already experienced such hara.s.sment at Charlestown. When prison cooks learned about the Muslims' refusal to eat pork, they frequently served Malcolm's food from utensils that had been used to process the meat, and made sure Malcolm and his fellow Muslims knew. In response, over his final two years in prison Malcolm existed on a diet composed primarily of bread and cheese. Such deprivations, combined with the lack of competent medical care while in prison, caused him health problems that would plague him the rest of his life. After arriving back at Charlestown, he was diagnosed with astigmatism and received his first pair of gla.s.ses. He came to believe that his impaired vision had been caused at Norfolk because he had "read so much by the lights-out glow in my room."

In late 1950, Malcolm had submitted a pet.i.tion to the commissioner of corrections requesting an official pardon from Ma.s.sachusetts governor Paul A. Dever. On December 13 the district attorney for the Northern District of the Commonwealth of Ma.s.sachusetts recommended the pet.i.tion be denied. Not surprisingly, Dever agreed.

That same month, Charlestown's officials had refused to allow Muslim prisoners to leave their beds after lights-out curfew, to face east in solemn prayer. Writing in protest, Malcolm condemned the ban as an attack upon religious rights and warned that such an abridgment might require him to issue an appeal for redress to "the Whole Body Whole Body of Islam"-that is, Islamic countries throughout the world. There might have been differences between the rituals of the Nation of Islam and orthodox Islam, but Malcolm saw himself in a global community. of Islam"-that is, Islamic countries throughout the world. There might have been differences between the rituals of the Nation of Islam and orthodox Islam, but Malcolm saw himself in a global community.

His next request to be paroled would be considered on June 4, 1952. After a review of his prison records, he was granted parole on condition that he go to Detroit to live with Wilfred. On August 4 the Ma.s.sachusetts supervisor of parole, Philip J. Flynn, informed the parole board that Malcolm had obtained full-time employment at the Cut Rate department stores in Detroit. The date for his release was set for August 7. Wilfred's willingness to sponsor Malcolm in his home and to secure a job for him was a collective decision by Little family members, including Ella. Given their brothers chaotic histories in both Roxbury and Harlem, they must have decided that it was preferable for him to be in Detroit. At the time, Wilfred was working at Cut Rate and persuaded his boss to take his younger brother on as a salesman.

Just weeks before Malcolm's release, however, the state experienced several prison uprisings. On July 1, 1952, 41 out of approximately 680 men at Concord prison rioted. This may have inspired some inmates at Charlestown to plan their own revolt. On July 22 about forty prisoners there staged an even more destructive outburst. Two prison guards were seized as hostages. When state police at last retook the facility, everybody who had taken part was placed in solitary confinement; some were also prosecuted. The two officers who had been hostages were retired, and fourteen guards were added to the prison staff for greater security. Eventually an inmates' council was established, elected by prisoners, which regularly met with the warden to resolve grievances. Malcolm was not involved in the uprising and it did not affect his release. Indeed, he would have felt little sense of solidarity with rioting white inmates.

Malcolm was finally released on August 7. He later described the occasion as just one more humiliation: "They gave me a lecture, a cheap L'il Abner suit, and a small amount of money, and I walked out of the gate. I never looked back . . ." Hilda was waiting outside. After the two embraced, they went to Boston to spend the night at Ella's house. That evening, Malcolm visited a Turkish bath, to get "some of that physical feeling of prisontaint off me." To start his new life, he purchased a new pair of gla.s.ses, a suitcase, and a wrist.w.a.tch. Reflecting on his purchases, he wrote, "I was preparing for what my life was about to become." He would see more, he would travel, and he would seize the time.

CHAPTER 4.

"They Don't Come Like the Minister"

August 1952May 1957

Malcolm's elder brother Wilfred and his wife, Ruth, lived in the quiet, suburban black neighborhood of Inkster, just outside Detroit, at 4336 Williams Street. This was to be Malcolm's base for the seven months after his release from prison. In his autobiography, Malcolm recounted the morning routine that Wilfred supervised. "'In the name of Allah, I perform the ablution,' he would say before washing first his right hand, then his left." After the family had showered, completing "the whole body's purification," it was ready for morning prayers. Part of this ritual was similar to practices of orthodox Islam; however, like many of the NOI's methods, it also had special elements. First, Nation of Islam members, like Moorish Science Temple followers, faced east and raised their hands when praying, but did not prostrate themselves. They also did not recite the shahada shahada or practice any other of the five pillars. At one point, when Elijah Muhammad felt slighted by Arab Muslims, he briefly commanded NOI members to face the direction of Chicago rather than Mecca for their prayers. or practice any other of the five pillars. At one point, when Elijah Muhammad felt slighted by Arab Muslims, he briefly commanded NOI members to face the direction of Chicago rather than Mecca for their prayers.

Shortly after moving back to Michigan, Malcolm started working at the Cut Rate department store to fulfill the conditions of his parole. He was grateful to have a job, but soon described his experiences with some bitterness: "Nothing Down " advertis.e.m.e.nts drew poor Negroes into that store like [flies to] flypaper. It was a shame, the way they paid three and four times what the furniture had cost, because they could get credit from those Jews. It was the same kind of cheap, gaudy-looking junk that you can see in any of the black furniture stores today. . . . I would see clumsy, work-hardened, calloused hands scrawling and scratching signatures on the contract, agreeing to highwayrobbery interest rates in the fine print that never was read.

It was his first work experience of the outside world since his conversion, and the episode had a profound impact on Malcolm. It was the first time he had offered a strongly negative generalization about Jews, categorizing them as a group.

Established in 1932, downtown Detroit's Temple No. 1 was the Nation of Islam's oldest, but after twenty years it still had barely one hundred formal members. Its minister, Lemuel (Anderson) Ha.s.san, like all NOI clergy, had been selected personally by Elijah Muhammad, to whom he was required to report each week. Despite its modest size, the temple possessed an active religious and social life. "The men were quietly, tastefully dressed," Malcolm recalled. Seating arrangements were by gender, men to the right, women to the left. Unlike in an orthodox Muslim masjid masjid (mosque), which had no furniture, members sat upright in chairs throughout all services, which largely consisted of lectures about Elijah's teachings. It did not take long for Malcolm to wonder why, after two decades of existence, Temple No. 1's membership was so tiny, and he was surprised to learn that Ha.s.san and other senior members were not eager to proselytize. Malcolm voiced his frustration to his family, but Wilfred advised patience. (mosque), which had no furniture, members sat upright in chairs throughout all services, which largely consisted of lectures about Elijah's teachings. It did not take long for Malcolm to wonder why, after two decades of existence, Temple No. 1's membership was so tiny, and he was surprised to learn that Ha.s.san and other senior members were not eager to proselytize. Malcolm voiced his frustration to his family, but Wilfred advised patience.

That August Malcolm asked his parole officer if he might travel to Chicago to visit Elijah Muhammad, explaining that he would be accompanied by three of his brothers. Approval granted, Malcolm partic.i.p.ated in Temple No. 1's automobile caravan, consisting of ten cars, to make the trip. Arriving in Chicago's sprawling South Side, Malcolm waited impatiently at the temple for the formal program to start. Finally Allah's Messenger entered, surrounded by Fruit of Islam guards in dark suits, white shirts, and bow ties. In a soft voice, Muhammad-wearing a gold-embroidered fez-reminded his audience about the personal sacrifices he had made for over two decades. African Americans were truly the Original People, he said, unjustly stolen to North America. Only the Nation of Islam's teachings could restore black people to their rightful place. Malcolm "sat riveted"-then, unbelievably, Elijah called out his name. Stunned, he stood up before several hundred congregants as Muhammad explained that Malcolm had been so devoted while in prison that he had written to him daily; such peerless example recalled Job.

After the service, Malcolm and his whole group were invited to dinner. The Messenger's family had only recently moved into an eighteen-room mansion at 4847 South Woodlawn Avenue, in the exclusive Hyde Park section of Chicago's South Side, purchased with funds t.i.thed by the Nation's increasing membership. During the meal, Malcolm mustered the courage to ask how Detroit's Nation of Islam should reach out to recruits. Muhammad counseled him to concentrate on young people-"The older ones will follow through shame," he explained. The point went home.

In orthodox Islam, evangelical work is known as da'wa da'wa. In Western countries, it has two purposes: to promote Muslim practices and values among nonbelievers, and to reinforce what the scholar Ismail al-Faruqi termed "Islamicity." In the Nation of Islam, da'wa da'wa was called "fishing for converts." Almost immediately after his return home Malcolm plunged into Detroit's bars, pool halls, nightclubs, and back alleys, aggressively "fishing." Night after night, he attempted to interest his "poor, ignorant, brain-washed black brothers" in Muhammad's message. At first, only a trickle of the curious came to temple meetings, but persistence soon paid off. Within a few months temple membership had almost tripled. was called "fishing for converts." Almost immediately after his return home Malcolm plunged into Detroit's bars, pool halls, nightclubs, and back alleys, aggressively "fishing." Night after night, he attempted to interest his "poor, ignorant, brain-washed black brothers" in Muhammad's message. At first, only a trickle of the curious came to temple meetings, but persistence soon paid off. Within a few months temple membership had almost tripled.

Malcolm's most remarkable convert during this time was a young man named Joseph Gravitt, who would become for a time one of his closest confidants and an important figure in the Nation of Islam over the next decade. Born in Detroit in 1927, Gravitt served in the army in 194647, winning, according to his own account, the "World War II Victory Medal"; his official army record shows evaluations that ranged from "unknown" to "excellent." Returning to civilian life, he found it difficult to get work, soon becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol and developing a reputation for violence against women. In November 1949, police charged him with "indecent and obscene conduct in a public place."

By the time Malcolm encountered him, Gravitt was sleeping in Detroit's alleys, but Malcolm sensed his potential, and personally supervised his rehabilitation. Having experienced military discipline, Gravitt responded well under Malcolm's stern authority. Within days, his entire life was taken up by the Nation of Islam: during the daytime he worked as the short-order cook and waiter at the temple restaurant; in the evenings he directed Fruit of Islam members in the martial arts, and he sacked out to sleep in the restaurant at night. Within months he had become a devoted-even fanatical-Fruit of Islam leader, his metamorphosis adding to Malcolm's reputation.

As he was devoting an increasing amount of time to the Nation of Islam, Malcolm struggled to find regular work that he could tolerate. In January 1953, he was taken on at the new Ford a.s.sembly plant in Wayne as a "final a.s.sembler" on the production line. Although he was employed for only one week, it was long enough for him to become a member of United Auto Workers Local 900. A short time later, he was hired at Gar Wood Industries, a company famous for its innovations in truck equipment, cranes, and road machinery. By the 1950s, Gar Wood was one of Detroit's major employers, but many of the jobs made available to blacks were dirty and dangerous. Malcolm's technical cla.s.sification was as a grinder, defined as a "worker who pulverizes material or grinds surface objects." It paid a little better than his previous employment, but it was a miserable, monotonous job, and Malcolm felt caged.

Wilfred, in whom he confided, may have conveyed his brothers discontent to Minister Ha.s.san; or perhaps, with his eye for identifying talent, Elijah suggested a new a.s.signment for his young disciple. When in early 1953 Malcolm was approached about becoming an NOI minister, he must have felt profound relief, as well as justifiable pride, yet he also recognized that the inner council surrounding Elijah demanded humility. He duly responded that he was "happy and willing to serve Mr. Muhammad in the lowliest capacity," reluctantly agreeing to deliver a brief talk to Temple No. 1 about "what Mr. Muhammad's teachings had done for me." The lecture went off well, and as a follow-up he gave another, devoted to "my favorite subject . . . Christianity and the horrors of slavery." He came to look back nostalgically on these early efforts as the beginnings of his life as a minister.

The Ma.s.sachusetts Parole Board certified Malcolm's discharge from parole on May 4, 1953; Michigan's discharge followed shortly thereafter. Malcolm X-as he was now known within the Nation of Islam-was free to travel throughout the United States. One day that same month, during his work shift, he was pulled off the production line by his supervisor. Waiting to see him was an FBI field agent, who ordered Malcolm to accompany him to his supervisor's office. Once there, he was asked why he had not registered for the Korean War draft. Malcolm was aware that Elijah Muhammad had encouraged the evasion of the draft during World War II, but instead of citing the Messenger 's example, he informed the agent that he had just been released from prison and thought that former prisoners were not allowed to register. He was allowed to leave, and a few days later registered at the local Selective Service office, claiming conscientious objector status. According to FBI records, he wrote that his country of citizenship was Asia. He also a.s.serted that his "mental att.i.tude and outlook in general regarding war and religion" merited "disqualification from military service." On May 25 he was given a physical exam for the draft and failed: the subject "had [an] asocial personality with paranoid trends."

That summer, Malcolm became Detroit Temple No. 1's a.s.sistant minister. He was already commuting regularly between Detroit and Chicago, where he was preparing for the ministry, much of his tutelage being directly under the supervision of Elijah Muhammad. "I was treated as if I had been one of the sons of Mr. Muhammad and his dark, good wife Sister Clara," Malcolm recalled fondly. "In the Muslim-owned combination grocery-drug store on Wentworth and 31st Street, Mr. Muhammad would sweep the floor or something like that . . . as an example to his followers." Malcolm relished the opportunity to ask questions of the man he believed to embody perfection. "The way we were with each other," he recalled, "it would make me think of Socrates on the steps of the Athens marketplace, spreading his wisdom to his students."

In June, Malcolm quit his job at Gar Wood and began working full-time for the Nation of Islam. Technically, NOI clergy were not employees; the income they received from temple offerings was deemed an informal contribution for voluntary services. Throughout the remainder of that year, Malcolm continued to steer scores of fresh converts into Detroit's temple. He also gained confidence in his ability to speak in public, lecturing on a range of topics. By late 1953, Elijah Muhammad decided that his protege should be promoted to minister and be a.s.signed to establishing a temple where the Nation of Islam had few followers. Boston was the logical choice: Malcolm had lived there for several years and had numerous relatives and old friends in the city. One NOI member who lived in the city, Lloyd X, agreed to house him and invite small groups to his home to hear the young minister. Years later, Malcolm could recall the appeal he delivered to one such gathering in early January 1954. What he could not have known was that within his audience was an FBI informant. The fact that the Boston field office of the FBI thought it prudent to conduct surveillance even of tiny NOI gatherings, in their homes, reveals just how potentially dangerous the sect was believed to be.

Within the Nation of Islam, each successful temple had four decision-making officers who exercised authority over routine activities, though always under Muhammad's autocratic guidance: the minister, the temple's secretary-treasurer, the women's captain of Muslim Girls Training (MGT), and the men's captain, the head of the Fruit of Islam (FOI). These personnel were frequently selected directly by the national secretariat in Chicago, which in effect included Muhammad, national captain of the Fruit of Islam Raymond Sharrieff, Sharrieff's wife and Muhammad's daughter, national MGT captain Ethel Sharrieff, and the national secretary-treasurer; indirectly, Elijah Muhammad, Jr., Herbert Muhammad, and other relatives were involved in the process. At local levels, the minister was the public face of the temple, the Nation of Islam's chief representative to the outside world. Internally, his role was pastoral. But in terms of how the temple functioned as a social organization, as a kind of secret society whose borders had to be policed constantly, no one was more important than the Fruit of Islam captain. Forever on the lookout for acts of disobedience or disloyalty, his disciplinary rod was essential in maintaining a well-run temple.

Although Malcolm's initial activities focused on Boston, he traveled up and down the East Coast and as far west as Chicago. Sometime that first January back east, he went to several meetings at New York City's tiny Temple No. 7 in Harlem. In February he served as a guide for pilgrims coming to Chicago to attend the Nation of Islam's major annual event, the Saviour's Day convention, celebrating the birth and divinity of its founder, Wallace D. Fard. This marked the first time that the young apprentice took the stage as a featured speaker before a national audience. FBI surveillance indicated that he "spoke against the 'white devils'" and encouraged "greater hatred on the part of the cult towards the white race."

By late February, Malcolm's recruitment efforts had been so successful that there were sufficient converts to create a new temple in Boston, No. 11. At one of his larger public gatherings, he was delighted to see Ella, but she remained a stubborn holdout against the Nation's call. With its focus on recruiting prisoners and the poor, the Nation didn't fit with her notions of black middle-cla.s.s respectability, and she was skeptical of Muhammad's claim to be Allah's Messenger. Knowing Ella's stubborn temperament, Malcolm doubted that his words would ever change her negative view of the Nation. "I wouldn't have expected anyone short of Allah Himself to have been able to convert Ella." During this time, it's possible that Malcolm also reconnected with his former girlfriend Evelyn Williams, who continued to harbor deep feelings for him. She subsequently joined the NOI, and when Malcolm moved to New York later that year, she followed him there.

His next a.s.signment, as minister of Philadelphia's temple, required both diplomacy and a firm administrative hand. The temple was run by Willie Sharrieff (no relation to Raymond). Malcolm spoke at one of its meetings, informing his stunned audience that he had been authorized to "shake things up." Along with Isaiah X Edwards, the minister of Baltimore's temple, he had conducted a preliminary investigation of the temple's affairs. The day before the meeting, March 5, Sharrieff had been removed from his position. Eugene X Bee, who had been appointed Fruit of Islam temple captain as well as a.s.sistant minister by Sharrieff, was also dismissed. Malcolm a.s.sumed the t.i.tles "teacher" and "acting minister." To consolidate his position, he led or partic.i.p.ated in a series of eight temple meetings throughout the last three weeks of March.

Malcolm's progress was carefully monitored by the FOI's supreme captain, Raymond Sharrieff. In 1949, Sharrieff had married Muhammad's second oldest child, Ethel, and before long exercised administrative authority that went well beyond the Fruit of Islam, overseeing the Nation's growing real estate and commercial ventures in Chicago. For years, the Nation of Islam had lacked a substantial inst.i.tutional presence in many key cities, but its failure to grow was now shown not to have been due to a lack of interest in its message but to poor local leadership. In Detroit, Malcolm had exposed Lemuel Ha.s.san as, at best, a mediocre minister. By 1957 Ha.s.san would be rea.s.signed to the less prestigious temple in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Malcolm's brother Wilfred elevated to become minister of Detroit's Temple No. 1, second in status only to Chicago. Malcolm's rise and Ha.s.san's demotion infuriated Ha.s.san's brother, James X, who was the a.s.sistant minister of Chicago Temple No. 2, as well as a.s.sistant princ.i.p.al of the University of Islam. James's hostility toward Malcolm would, within several years, be shared by most of the Nation of Islam's ruling elite in Chicago.

Both Muhammad and Sharrieff may also have worried that Malcolm, still only twenty-nine, might be moving too quickly. One of them initiated the order in early 1954 to Joseph X Gravitt to travel first to Boston, then to the Philadelphia temple, to aid in the reconsolidation of both temples' Fruit of Islam as their new captain. Joseph's immediate supervisor, however, was not to be Malcolm, but Sharrieff.

Joseph's presence in Philadelphia afforded Malcolm the rare luxury of having occasional mornings and afternoons off, and whenever he could he explored sites such as the city's art museum and libraries. Most of his time, however, was taken up by his administrative duties throughout the Northeast, which kept him constantly in transit. His absence required Joseph to speak frequently at Philadelphia's Temple No. 12. The subject of one May 1954 speech was "the duty of Muslims to take the heads of four devils for which they will win a free trip to Mecca." He explained that this meant "the bringing of a lost Muslim into the Nation of Islam and thereby cutting off a devil's head." Such h.e.l.l-and-d.a.m.nation rhetoric lacked even the sophistication of the young Malcolm, but in an organization that lived by disclipline such a no-nonsense manner had its advantages.

Side by side, both living in Philadelphia (Malcolm in a rented flat at 1522 North Twenty-sixth Street), the two men seemed an unlikely duo, but over these months they formed bonds of trust and codependence. Malcolm was six feet, three inches tall and weighed no more than 170 pounds; he was youthful, pa.s.sionate, constantly in motion, intent on honing his language. Joseph, at five feet, six inches, possessed a muscular build, and was small but very tough at 145 pounds; he was quiet and cautious, yet volatile. As in Boston, much of the credit for getting the Philadelphia temple in order went to Malcolm, and indeed in June, in recognition of his outstanding efforts, Muhammad named him the new minister of Harlem's Temple No. 7. Yet during the two and a half months after Joseph's arrival in Philadelphia, Malcolm had partic.i.p.ated in only four local meetings: Joseph had absolutely been in charge, both as head of the Fruit of Islam and as subst.i.tute minister. In the Autobiography Autobiography, Malcolm is silent about Joseph's contributions.

In less than a year, Malcolm had gone from line worker at Gar Wood to full minister of the Nation of Islam in one of the most important black centers in the United States. He was keenly aware of the challenge ahead of him. He would later recall, "Nowhere in America was such a single temple potential available as in New York's five boroughs. They contained over a million black people."

Sometime in June 1954, Malcolm relocated to New York City. For another three months he continued to serve as the princ.i.p.al minister in both Harlem and Philadelphia, but he devoted most of his time trying to make sense of the situation in New York. His first step was to appoint a man named James 7X as his a.s.sistant minister, but not until August was Joseph X transferred to New York, to join him at Temple No. 7 as its FOI captain.

Malcolm found himself with a membership that numbered only a few dozen people. Even that figure is an informed guess: neither he nor any other NOI minister ever revealed publicly the actual numbers, in part because they were so low. From 1952 to early 1953, there were probably fewer than one thousand members throughout the country.

Malcolm found to his dismay that Harlem's Temple No. 7 was even more disorganized than Philadelphia. For six months he labored to reproduce the growth he had created in Boston and Philadelphia, but without success. The Autobiography Autobiography offers several explanations. First, Harlem was still filled with ex-Garveyites and a variety of aggressive nationalist groups all pushing their agendas. "We were only one among the many voices of black discontent," Malcolm noted. "I had nothing against anyone trying to promote independence and unity among black men, but they still were making it tough for Mr. Muhammad's voice to be heard." He also mentioned the social apathy and lack of political awareness to which Harlem blacks seemed to have succ.u.mbed. "Every time I lectured my heart out and then asked those who wanted to follow Mr. Muhammad to stand, only two or three would . . . sometimes not that many." offers several explanations. First, Harlem was still filled with ex-Garveyites and a variety of aggressive nationalist groups all pushing their agendas. "We were only one among the many voices of black discontent," Malcolm noted. "I had nothing against anyone trying to promote independence and unity among black men, but they still were making it tough for Mr. Muhammad's voice to be heard." He also mentioned the social apathy and lack of political awareness to which Harlem blacks seemed to have succ.u.mbed. "Every time I lectured my heart out and then asked those who wanted to follow Mr. Muhammad to stand, only two or three would . . . sometimes not that many."

The challenges were more complicated than he was willing to admit. The postwar economic boom had left much of African America behind. The conditions of Harlem's tenements had deteriorated significantly from the neighborhood's more glorious times in the 1920s. Many buildings were vermin- and rat-infested; it was not unusual even along major thoroughfares for disgruntled tenants to throw their garbage into the streets. Asthma, drug addiction, venereal disease, and tuberculosis were rampant. In 1952, for example, central Harlem's tuberculosis mortality rate was nearly fifteen times that for nearly all-white Flushing, Queens.

Despite these problems, in the decade after World War II Harlem had also developed a small, status-conscious black middle cla.s.s that was wealthier and politically more influential than during the depression. New York City's farther suburbs were still largely segregated, but slowly middle-cla.s.s blacks began to move to the outer boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. The number of black professionals grew, but many were still only beginning to escape from the ghettos of Harlem and Brooklyn.

The heavy concentration of black voters in Manhattan also led to expanding political power. The 1953 election of Harlem resident Hulan Jack as the first black president of the borough of Manhattan symbolized that growing clout. Constantly pushing Harlem's political agenda was of course Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., who by the time of Malcolm's return had been in Congress for a decade. In March 1955, Powell called for a boycott of Harlem savings banks that "practice 'Jim Crow-ism' and 'economic lynching.'" He urged Abyssinian Baptist Church's fifteen thousand members to withdraw their funds from white-owned banks and transfer them to either the black-owned Carver Federal Savings in Harlem or the black-owned Tri-State Bank in Memphis, Tennessee. At the national level, he disrupted the Democratic Party's presidential campaign for Adlai Stevenson by his surprise endors.e.m.e.nt of Dwight Eisenhower, who in the election that November received nearly 40 percent of the African-American vote nationally. Powell's justification was the domination of Southern "Dixiecrats" who controlled the Democratic Party in Congress. He explained, "This does not necessarily mean a shift to the Republican party. It does mean that the Negro people are standing up as American men and women, thinking for themselves and voting as independents." Malcolm probably admired the black congressman's feisty independence from the Tammany Hall Democratic Party machine. Powell's model of political independence, as a black man who could not be dominated by whites, would influence how Malcolm defined independent politics after his departure from the Nation of Islam.

Harlem was also a common site for many civil rights protests. One of the largest, soon after Malcolm's arrival, occurred on September 25, 1955. More than ten thousand people gathered at the Williams Inst.i.tutional Church on Seventh Avenue at West 132nd Street to denounce the acquittal by an all-white jury of two white men accused of murdering Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy in Mississippi. The rally demanded that President Eisenhower "convene a special session of Congress and . . . recommend the immediate pa.s.sage of a Federal anti-lynching bill." Abyssinian's a.s.sociate pastor, the Reverend David N. Licorish, who represented Powell, called upon blacks to protest in Washington, D.C. The NAACP leader, Roy Wilkins, urged black New Yorkers to address racial discrimination in the city.

Far from being a community overwhelmed and silenced by the weight of racial oppression, Harlem continued to be a lively political environment. The level of partic.i.p.ation was high and in full evidence: public rallies, boycotts, and fund-raisers were common. Street philosophers and orators would climb up ladders placed along major thoroughfares, primarily 125th Street, and declaim their ideas to pa.s.sersby. The Nation found it difficult to make headway, largely because its appeal was apolitical apolitical; Elijah Muhammad's resistance to involvement in political issues affecting blacks, and his opposition to NOI members registering to vote and becoming civically engaged, would have struck most Harlemites as self-defeating.

Many in the neighborhood had already been introduced to a more orthodox Islam through the extensive missionary activities of the Ahmadiyya Muslims. The sect had won the respect of many blacks through its vigorous opposition to legal segregation and its criticism of Christian denominations for accepting Jim Crow. In 1943, for example, the Ahmadis' Moslem Sunrise Moslem Sunrise had characterized Detroit's race riot as a "dark blot on this country's good name." The colored world would recognize "that black-skinned people are killing and being killed by white-skinned people in free America." Five years later, the magazine published a survey of nearly 13,600 Presbyterian, Unitarian, Lutheran, and Congregational churches doc.u.menting that only 1,331 of them had any nonwhite members. Racism within Christian churches led many African-American artists, writers, and intellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s to consider converting to some version of Islam. Recruiting was particularly effective in the bebop world. A key figure was Antigua-born Alfonso Nelson Rainey (Talib Dawud), onetime member of Dizzy Gillespie's band. Dawud's own conversion persuaded tenor saxophonist Bill Evans to become a Muslim, acquiring the name Yusef Lateef; his conversion was followed by Lynn Hope's (Hajj Rashid) and drummer Kenny Clarke's (Liaqat Ali Salaam). Based in Philadelphia, Dawud developed a working relationship with Harlem's International Muslim Brotherhood, throughout which a supportive network was established linking largely black had characterized Detroit's race riot as a "dark blot on this country's good name." The colored world would recognize "that black-skinned people are killing and being killed by white-skinned people in free America." Five years later, the magazine published a survey of nearly 13,600 Presbyterian, Unitarian, Lutheran, and Congregational churches doc.u.menting that only 1,331 of them had any nonwhite members. Racism within Christian churches led many African-American artists, writers, and intellectuals in the 1940s and 1950s to consider converting to some version of Islam. Recruiting was particularly effective in the bebop world. A key figure was Antigua-born Alfonso Nelson Rainey (Talib Dawud), onetime member of Dizzy Gillespie's band. Dawud's own conversion persuaded tenor saxophonist Bill Evans to become a Muslim, acquiring the name Yusef Lateef; his conversion was followed by Lynn Hope's (Hajj Rashid) and drummer Kenny Clarke's (Liaqat Ali Salaam). Based in Philadelphia, Dawud developed a working relationship with Harlem's International Muslim Brotherhood, throughout which a supportive network was established linking largely black masjids masjids in Providence, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Dozens of other popular jazz artists became a.s.sociated with Ahmadi Islam, including Art Blakey, Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner, Sahib Shihab, and Talib Dawud's wife, the vocalist Dakota Staton (who changed her name to Aliyah Rabia after conversion). Even those who did not formally convert, like John Coltrane, were heavily influenced by the Ahmadiyya. in Providence, Washington, D.C., and Boston. Dozens of other popular jazz artists became a.s.sociated with Ahmadi Islam, including Art Blakey, Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner, Sahib Shihab, and Talib Dawud's wife, the vocalist Dakota Staton (who changed her name to Aliyah Rabia after conversion). Even those who did not formally convert, like John Coltrane, were heavily influenced by the Ahmadiyya.

In Cleveland, an Ahmadiyya mosque had been established during the Great Depression; by the 1950s it had more than one hundred African-American congregants. Indeed, the Cleveland mosque's Ahmadi leader, Wali Akram, became perhaps the first black American awarded a visa for a pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1957. All of these activities created among many African Americans a general awareness of different types of Islam, beyond that represented by the Nation of Islam. This was particularly true in Harlem, which made winning converts difficult.

Not until September 1954 did Malcolm secure permanent living quarters in the New York area: at 25-35 Humphrey Street, in the quiet neighborhood of East Elmhurst, Queens. The property was owned and shared by a black couple, Curtis and Susie Kenner. Although Malcolm's princ.i.p.al responsibility was now Temple No. 7, he was informally promoted to be Elijah Muhammad's chief troubleshooter along the East Coast, and even in the Midwest. He continued to lecture regularly at the Philadelphia temple throughout the fall and winter months of 1954-55, and also made trips by automobile to Springfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, and Cincinnati, Ohio, to support local initiatives.

Even more than in the Philadelphia temple, he came to rely on Captain Joseph, routinely dictating instructions to his lieutenant, who in turn barked out orders to subordinates. One Sunday when Malcolm was away, a guest sermon was delivered by the minister from the Baltimore temple. The meeting, however, actually belonged to Joseph, who opened the proceedings by upbraiding all the male members who had missed meetings or turned up late, demanding "explanations of their delinquencies in attendance." Joseph praised Baltimore's minister as "a man of peace," but sharply reminded the faithful that he (Joseph) "was not."

Despite Joseph's hard work, nearly all the praise for the successes in New York centered increasingly on Malcolm. At this time, Joseph was living in a small bas.e.m.e.nt apartment far uptown in West Harlem. He received no salary for his labors as FOI head and worked as a cook at a restaurant owned by an NOI member, the Shabazz restaurant on Fifth Avenue. Sometime during his a.s.signment in Philadelphia, he started dating a woman in the Philadelphia temple, and by early 1956 she had moved in with him. If Joseph planned to start a family, Malcolm must have realized, the Nation owed him a more dependable income. Perhaps for these reasons, Malcolm started praising Joseph during his temple sermons or remarks to the Fruit of Islam. The Nation of Islam's administrators in Chicago also recognized Joseph's contributions and considered rea.s.signing him to a more prestigious position. Two weeks prior to the Saviour's Day convention in February 1955, Joseph was summoned to Chicago, probably by Raymond Sharrieff, and told of a new national program in which he would supervise the recruitment and training of a thousand recruits. For several weeks it appeared that he would be transferred, and at Temple No. 7's Fruit of Islam meeting on February 21 members received word that he would no longer be with them. But, for reasons still unclear, in early March it was announced that he would be remaining in New York.

Malcolm and Joseph's efforts in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, combined with other evangelical efforts by Malcolm in various cities, had increased NOI membership by perhaps a thousand new followers. This unprecedented growth signaled to the FBI, which had been tracking the Nation of Islam for decades, that something was stirring, something that they should take seriously. For years, the Bureau had monitored what it still described derisively in internal doc.u.ments as the "Moslem Cult of Islam" (MCI). Its surveillance now indicated that an ex-convict, one Malcolm K. Little, was largely responsible for the cult's new evangelical fervor. Malcolm had been on their radar, and under watch, since his letter-writing days at Norfolk and Charlestown, and on January 10, 1955, two FBI agents arranged to see him in New York. They subsequently reported that the subject had been "very uncooperative." He "refused to furnish any information concerning the officers, names of members, to furnish doctrines or beliefs of the MCI or family background data on himself." The ex-convict did, however, express several theological and political opinions, describing Elijah Muhammad as "the greatest prophet of all, being the last and greatest Apostle." When the agents challenged him about the NOIs "alleged teachings [of] racial hatred," he replied, "They do not teach hatred but the truth, that the 'black man' has been enslaved in the United States by the 'white man.'" When asked whether he would serve in the armed forces, Malcolm refused to answer. "The subject did, however, admit that during World War II he had admired the j.a.panese people and soldiers and that he would have liked to join the j.a.panese Army." Malcolm also denied ever having been a member of the Communist Party. His responses were far more confrontational than his interview with the FBI field agent several years earlier. He was unafraid to identify himself completely with Elijah Muhammad's creed and his organization, regardless of the political consequences. Malcolm subsequently warned members of Temple No. 7 not to cooperate with FBI agents who might contact them.

The February Saviour's Day convention of 1955 was symbolically Malcolm's coming out party as the Nation of Islam's uncrowned prince. In less than two years, he had tripled the size of Detroit's temple, established thriving temples in Boston and Philadelphia, and with Joseph's a.s.sistance was finally beginning to recruit members into Harlem's Temple No. 7. He had become a favorite guest minister in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Springfield, and other cities. The FBI surveillance of the NOI convention observed that throughout the proceedings "the subject appeared to be enjoying Elijah Mohammed's confidence, and seemed to have a free hand." Malcolm even set aside time to escort NOI members on a tour of Chicago's Museum of Natural History and "placed his various interpretations on the exhibits at the Museum as portraying the creation of the white man by the 'black man.'"

Attending the convention was an ambitious twenty-one-year-old singer and nightclub performer named Louis Eugene Walcott. Born in New York City on May 11, 1933, Walcott was raised as an Episcopalian in Roxbury. He would recall that both his parents, like Malcolm's, had been militant black nationalists: "My father was a Garveyite," he explained, "so I couldn't grow up in this society without the touch of Mr. Garvey in my soul, in my mind, and in my spirit." Both Walcott's parents had emigrated from the Caribbean, and as in the Little household from an early age he had been encouraged by his mother to read books and magazines doc.u.menting the issues affecting blacks. A track star in high school, he also excelled as a debater, violinist, and singer. After graduating from Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, he began his career in show business as a calypso artist, calling himself "the Charmer." Like Malcolm, he eventually came to remake himself, first as Louis X, and then as Louis Farrakhan.

It was in Boston in 1954 that "the Charmer" first encountered Malcolm. Walcott and his wife were living in a small apartment on Ma.s.sachusetts Avenue-only a few doors away from the apartment of Martin Luther King, Jr., who was in graduate school completing his Ph.D. Not far away was the nightclub where Walcott performed, and between his musical sets he would occasionally grab a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, the Chicken Lane. It was here that he was introduced to Malcolm, who "had on a brown tam, brown coat, brown suit, and brown gloves." The minister made an immediate impression. "He was an imposing man," Farrakhan remembered, "talking so bad about white folks, I was scared of him."

Walcott's first real experience of the Nation of Islam occurred at the 1955 Saviours Day convention. He was headlining a show, "Calypso Follies," at the Blue Angel nightclub on Chicago's North Side, when a friend invited him to the Nation's festival. The supreme minister had been told that Walcott, who was a minor celebrity in the music and nightclub business, would be present in the audience. Aides later informed Muhammad exactly where the young man was sitting. Well into his talk, Muhammad turned and began speaking directly to him. Farrakhan later described the moment as "instant love." His wife enthusiastically joined the Nation that night, and although he still harbored reservations, he agreed to join as well. The young couple duly completed the obligatory letter of request for membership and mailed it off to the Chicago office. They heard nothing for five months. That July, Walcott was in New York City, performing in Greenwich Village. He decided to attend a service at Harlem's Temple No. 7, primarily to hear Malcolm, whose oratory captivated him and who convinced him to dedicate his life to the Nation. "I had never heard a black man in my life talk the way this brother talked," Farrakhan recalled.

By the mid-1950s, the number of established jazz artists and popular musicians who had joined the Nation of Islam caused some consternation within the Chicago headquarters, which worried that their prominence might make them more independent than other members. The Nation demanded a conservative, sober lifestyle, something quite at odds with the way most musicians lived. In late 1955, the temples were informed that no NOI member would henceforth be permitted to work as a professional entertainer. Walcott first heard about the edict while in New York when visiting the Nation's restaurant on West 116th Street at Lenox Avenue. For him, with a wife and young child, it was a serious blow. Walcott walked several blocks, confused over what course to take. Somehow he came to a halt, turned around, and headed back to the restaurant with the intention of remaining faithful to the Nation. He was met by Captain Joseph, who was furious that someone had leaked the information prematurely. Malcolm had the job of subsequently informing Louis that he had been granted four additional weeks, but thereafter would have to quit the music business.

Louis had enrolled in the Monday FOI cla.s.s, and Joseph asked him to deliver a talk. His brief oration, which explained the reasons leading to his conversion, proved mesmerizing. Decades later, NOI veterans who were there could still recite Louis's words: "I will take the message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to every nook and cranny in the United States of America." Louis's talent as an orator convinced Malcolm to put the young apprentice into his small a.s.sistant minister cla.s.s. It was here, during the first six months of 1956, that Louis flourished, carefully modeling his presentations on Malcolm's, even studying his mentors mannerisms and dietary habits. It was clear that he brought to the ministry certain skills from his nightclub act. Not only did Malcolm not mind; he took genuine pride in Louis's accomplishments, and a bond developed. Eventually, Louis described Malcolm as "the father I never had."

In June or July, Louis was named FOI captain for Boston's Temple No. 11. In the years since Malcolm's initial proselytizing efforts, the temple had suffered a membership decline and was in need of an energy boost. Within a year Louis was elevated to minister. Chicago officials were thrilled with their convert. They even allowed him to revive his singing career, but in the service of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad; he wrote and performed several "Islamic-inspired" gospel songs that became wildly popular among temple members.

Louis became Malcolm's first true protege. Many other young men would follow, fashioning their sermons and temple activities on Malcolm's dynamic model. It was not long before they were widely, and sometimes disparagingly, known within the Nation as "Malcolm's Ministers."

Malcolm believed that Muslim clergy could be divided into two categories-evangelists and pastors. Few outstanding evangelists excelled as pastors, which called for skill in providing comfort and support to congregants, while relatively few pastors could call their congregations to embrace a spiritual vision in the manner of a great evangelist. "My desire has always been to be good at both," he said. Several years later, he would equate himself with the greatest Christian evangelist of his time, Billy Graham.

He considered every sermon he delivered an evangelical opportunity, because usually the congregation included a small number of first-time guests. A typical NOI service was very different from most Christian services. The temple's secretary or captains might open the meeting with announcements; then the minister would lecture, frequently using a blackboard or posters to reinforce points being made. Malcolm would encourage his audience to ask questions, and even welcomed banter and debate with visitors. At one typical Philadelphia meeting, Malcolm declared that the Nation was "the only place in the 'wilderness of North America' that the 'black man and black woman' [hear] the truth about themselves." The lecture hammered at two themes. First, Malcolm repeatedly emphasized that blacks were spiritually dead as a group, and that their reawakening depended solely on their acknowledgment of the truth, represented by Elijah Muhammad. Second, Malcolm discussed the Nation's expectations of how women and men should relate to each other. Urging men to "respect their women," he also warned women to dress modestly. Women who attracted the amorous attentions of men by "the display of their bodies," Malcolm declared, "were as common as the dog we see chasing the other dog in the streets."

At another 1955 Philadelphia temple sermon he used experiences of racial oppression to explain why whites had no right to describe the Nation of Islam as subversive: Here is a man who has raped your mother and hung your father on his tree, is he subversive? Here is a man who robbed you of all knowledge of your nation and your religion and is he subversive? Here is a man who lied to you and trick[ed] you about all things, is he subversive? . . . This is a man who the Almighty G.o.d Allah is subversive against. Black men all over the planet are subversive to this devil and you come in here and get mad at us. You's better listen or you will be taken off the planet along with the devil. This wicked government must be destroyed and those of you who want to follow after the serpent and commit evil also. This is a warning to you that you are living in the last day and you must decide tonight, whether you want to survive the war of Armageddon. . . .

Throughout the Philadelphia sermon, Malcolm presented a vivid picture of d.a.m.nation for those who continued their allegiance to white values, though as an orator he had learned how to modulate his tone. Frequently he employed humor, and occasionally even references to bebop slang. "North America is already smothering with fire," he warned. "You think you are so hep and, Jack, you can't even smell the smoke." He even "ran the dozens," in the colloquial language of black folk culture, by making negative references to black mothers: "Your mother is a prost.i.tute when you are not respecting women-you might as well say this because this is what is proven by your actions." He declared that he had no fear of government surveillance: "The FBI follows me all over the country and they cannot do anything about this teaching unless it is the will of Allah. The devils have lost their power now and the only thing they can do is try to frighten the black men who are still dead."

As the sermon ended, he observed that, while there had been a large number of male converts recently, "there is something very wrong that sisters are not coming in." Instead of questioning the Nation's s.e.xist practices that discouraged the recruitment of new female members, Malcolm blamed the excessive gossiping of the temple's females. "I'd rather put all of the sisters out for bickering and go out and get a lot of prost.i.tutes. That sounds harsh, but I cannot stand this disunity." Tirades like these earned Malcolm a reputation for being aggressively hostile to black women and suspicious of the inst.i.tution of marriage. Taking his cue, many Fruit members applauded and imitated the ministers s.e.xist att.i.tudes and rhetoric.

Malcolm frequently cited episodes in American history, emphasizing the legacy of the slave trade to condemn both Christianity and the U.S. government. In another sermon, he remarked that all Negroes were "American citizens, but you cannot prove this because you have been fighting for civil rights ever since the enemy brought you to Jamestown, Virginia, in the year of 1555. You do not own any state in North America but today you say you are American." Black people could not look to whites to redeem their lives. "Today the white man does not have any power left and it is only the black man who has any chance to save himself." On another occasion, he reminded members that people of European descent were hopelessly outnumbered globally by Africans, Asians, and other nonwhites. "There are only two kinds of people, the white and the black, so if you are not white you must be black." He urged NOI members to patronize businesses managed or owned by Muslims. Without mentioning Wilfred by name, he noted that, in Detroit, "one of the brothers is the manager of a large department store and hires as many members . . . as he possibly can."

By 1955, Malcolm's popularity had become so intense that NOI headquarters called on him to relocate to Chicago for three weeks, to promote a membership drive in Temple No. 2. Recruitment efforts were ongoing, and during the mid-1950s the Nation of Islam seems to have looked closely at the model of Islamic proselytizing practiced by the controversial Ahmadi Muslims. Despite the Ahmadis' refusal to consider the Prophet Muhammad the Seal of the Prophets, which deeply disturbed nearly all orthodox Muslims, and at a time when the Pakistani government was moving to designate the sect a non-Muslim religious group, emigrant Ahmadis had successfully formed political coalitions and working relationships with Sunni Muslims in the United States and frequently worshipped side by side with them. By the late 1950s a significant number of African-American Ahmadis had joined the Nation, partially due to its explicitly black identification. In doing so, they introduced a more orthodox interpretation of cla.s.sical Islam, as well as a long-standing commitment to the international Islamic community. No matter how sectarian and heretical the NOIs theological tenets, Elijah Muhammad always insisted that his ministers present his creed as part of a global community of Muslims. These factors helped shape Malcolm's version of da'wa da'wa, and his pastoral duties. This was the main reason why, in the early 1960s, Malcolm would so vigorously criticize the phrase "Black Muslims" to describe the Nation of Islam.

As the Nation grew, it began to interact with traditional or orthodox Muslims in different ways. And despite the Nation's adherence to the theologically bizarre tenets of Yacub's History, the fundamental spiritual terrain that defined Islam's contours had a direct and inescapable pull on the NOI's evolution. Within orthodox Islam, there are two great divisions: the Sunni, who represent the overwhelming majority of Muslims, and the Shi'a, a group who be