Malcolm X now holds down three jobs: he is minister of Temple Number Seven, New York; minister of Temple Number Four, Washington, D.C.; and traveling bishop-trouble shooter for the entire movement. Malcolm roams the nation holding press conferences and being the official presence wherever Muslims get into trouble with the police; he moves between temples, making sure that internal problems are handled correctly; he moves from town to town organizing new temples and addressing mass rallies; he has spoken at most major universities outside the South and fills the air waves with his beguiling jargon.
Then Malcolm commutes several times a month to Phoenix, Arizona, where the asthma-stricken Elijah Muhammad now lives, for further guidance and policy conferences. Hardly a day passes that Malcolm does not speak with the Messenger from wherever he is by telephone. I know from many personal experiences that even so trivial a request as one for Malcolm to sit for an interview is cleared with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I also know that Muhammad sometimes says “no” and that Malcolm obeys. Many commentators make much over what they call the “New York-Chicago” cleavage within the Black Muslim movement. I am inclined to doubt the reality of that cleavage, but I am also convinced that there are stresses and strains within the movement, the same kinds of stresses and strains that afflict any organization that involves human beings.
Elijah Muhammad officially lives in Chicago but actually spends almost all of his time in Arizona. This is for reasons of health alone and talk to the contrary is untrue. From Phoenix the Messenger runs everything. Chicago is the nerve center of the movement, and Elijah activates it by telephone calls and couriers. It is now clear that Elijah has delegated to Chicago the responsibility for turning out the movement’s publications and over-all policy statements. It is equally clear that the finances and other administrative chores of the movement are carried out in Chicago. Malcolm at one time carried some of these responsibilities, particularly the publishing of the Muslim newspaper, and many observers thought they saw an intraorganizational fight when these responsibilities were taken from him and given to Chicago. They are wrong; what they saw was a freeing of Malcolm X, a decision by Muhammad that Malcolm was needed as ambassador-at-large for the Black Muslims, that he should not be tied down to the responsibility of editing and publishing a weekly newspaper. This decision by Muhammad was made possible because John X, a former FBI agent and perhaps the best administrative brain in the movement, was shifted from New York to Chicago.
Raymond Sharrieff is without doubt the strong man of the movement. He is tall, big, and quiet, as a strong man should be. But his strength, too, flows down from that enigmatic man, Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad has been able to harness Malcolm X, John X, and Sharrieff to the same plow and make them pull in tandem. But once Muhammad dies—at least, so most observers feel—this triumvirate will fly apart and wreck the movement. I doubt it. The Black Muslims know the world is waiting for just this to happen, and I am positive they have already made certain that it will not happen.
The New Policy
Succession is not the major question facing the Black Muslims; the young, thinking men in the hierarchy know what the big issue is, know that they must issue a new policy statement if they are to capture the minds of the Negroes who are carrying out the current revolution. Calling the white man a devil and exhorting all Negroes to prepare for life in a separate state simply is not enough to win over the children who marched at Birmingham and all over this republic. No, if the Black Muslims are to get a hearing, they must have more than this to say.
This new policy statement is the prime concern of the Black Muslim movement. Several factors are involved:
First, the consensus among the Black Muslim hierarchy is that the current Negro demonstrations will end in bitter defeat and disappointment. These men, including Elijah Muhammad, are unalterably convinced that white America will not honor the promise of integration. Then, at least so the thinking goes, the Negro people will set off trouble; they will denounce and abandon Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, and James Farmer; they will turn for leadership to someone who foresaw the defeat clearly. In the meantime, however, good but misguided Negroes will take to the streets and demonstrate because they still have faith in integration, they still believe in the ability of white people to do the right thing.
I predict the Black Muslims will erect a policy of active wait-and-see; they will not join picket lines and participate in demonstrations, but they will take a more active part in general community life. This, I think, is the meaning behind the recent announcement that the Black Muslims are considering active participation in politics. The suggestion was made during the movement’s annual convention in Chicago early in the spring of 1963. It is still not clear just what the Muslims have in mind, but I see them first moving to register their people and then supporting Negro candidates who share some of the Muslims’ concerns.