The Messenger, page 61
26. BOSSI file on MX, memo dated July 23, 1959.
27. “Mr. Muhammad Speaks,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 18, 1958, A05.
28. FBI file on Wallace D. Fard; also see Los Angeles Herald Dispatch, April 10, 1958.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Sepia, October 1957.
32. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
33. Ibid.
34. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad. Muhammad also spoke lightheartedly about himself as “Papa” when addressing Malcolm as his son. See JUNE mail file on Elijah Muhammad; also see Collins, Seventh Child, 135–36.
35. “New York Cops Rip Moslem Leader’s Home, Land in Hospital,” Los Angeles Herald Tribune, May 22, 1958, 1, 40. “New York Muslims Repulse Fascist Attack,” Los Angeles Herald Dispatch, May 29, 1958, 1.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid., June 26, 1958; also see FBI Chicago file on Wallace D. Fard; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
38. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; also see, Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 206.
39. Supra, note 35; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
40. “Hanafi Massacre,” Washingtonian, February 1980, 87–88; Hakim, True History, 226–30; “Rival Leader Tells of Efforts to Convert Black Muslims,” New York Times, January 31, 1973; “Hanafi Muslim Chief Quit Key Muslim Post,” Washington Post, February 2, 1973, A01.
41. Ibid.; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
42. Evanzz, The Judas Factor, 88–92; also see “Text of Talks by Lodge, Wagner, and Khrushchev at Luncheon Given by City,” New York Times, September 18, 1959, A16.
43. Ibid.
44. “Nasser Donates to U.S. Moslems; Two Midwesterners Fulfill Mission in Cairo—Imams Will Be Sent to Teach,” New York Times, September 20, 1959, A21; “Despite Worldwide Growth, Muslims Are Still Scarce in the U.S.,” Baltimore Sun, April 9, 1979, A14.
45. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Malcolm X; also see “Notables,” New York Courier, July 19, 1958.
46. Ibid.; also see “The Black Supremacists,” Time, August 10, 1959, 24–25.
47. Pittsburgh Courier, August 2, 1958, 14.
48. FBI HQ file on Malcolm X; also see Los Angeles Herald Dispatch, August 7, 1958.
49. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 3; JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
50. Ibid.
51. Ibid.
52. Los Angeles Herald Tribune, April 16, 1959, 1.
53. FBI HQ file on Betty Shabazz; FBI NY file on Malcolm X; Public Source Material file on the NOI.
54. FBI HQ file on Malcolm X.
55. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
56. BOSSI file on Malcolm X, memo dated May 6, 1959.
57. BOSSI file on Malcolm X.
58. Ibid.
59. CIA file on Elijah Muhammad.
60. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 3, memo dated May 26, 1959.
61. Ibid.
62. FBI NY file on Malcolm X; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
63. Ibid.
64. CIA file on Elijah Muhammad, memo dated February 10, 1960, quoting from the FBI’s memo of June 5, 1959.
65. “UAR Envoy Here Reported Named,” Washington Post, March 27, 1958.
66. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
67. Ibid.
68. “The Hate that Hate Produced,” excerpts of which appear in transcript form in the FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; also see “Wallace’s Guide to the ‘Black Supremacy’ Movement Challenged by Experts,” New York Times, July 22, 1959, A53.
69. Ibid.
70. “Egypt’s Nasser Dares Israel to Attack,” U.S. News & World Report, August 10, 1959, 20.
71. “Dr. King, Keating Blast Muslims Group,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 29, 1959, 6.
72. “The Rev. Abernathy Says: ‘Working for Brotherhood … Not Black Supremacy,’ ” Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1959, section 2, 1.
73. “The Hate That Hate Produced”; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
74. Supra, note 71.
75. Lincoln, Black Muslims, 129; “S. B. Fuller New Courier Board Member,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 18, 1959, 2; also see “Banquet Ends Fuller Confab,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 22, 1959, 4–5.
76. BOSSI file on Malcolm X.
77. Ibid.
78. Ibid.
79. “Arabs Send Warm Greetings to ‘Our Brother’ of Color in U.S.A.; Malcolm X Finds Africans, Arabs Fret More About Us Than Selves,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 15, 1959, magazine section, 1
80. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
81. Also see “Muslim Leader Calls Moslem Leader ‘Phony,’ ” New York Amsterdam News, October 30, 1959, 11; “Singer Lashes Mike Wallace; Dakota Says There’s No Connection ’Tween Her Faith, Muhammad,” Pittsburgh Courier, August 1, 1959, 10.
82. “Is New York Sitting on a ‘Powder Keg’?” U.S. News & World Report, August 3, 1959, 48–51.
83. Supra, note 46.
84. Muhammad steadfastedly denied that he was hiding under the bed. See Cushmeer, This Is the One, 68.
85. BOSSI file on Malcolm X.
86. Ibid.
10. COMPROMISED
1. Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (New York: Signet, 1964), 85.
2. “Lip-Profession,” Holy Quran; trans. Maulana Muhammad Ali, 10.
3. “Baltimore College Will Allow Controversial Muslim to Speak,” Washington Post, February 3, 1994, a17.
4. “Negro Cult School in Detroit Closed,” New York Times, A08.
5. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
6. FBI JUNE (wiretap) mail file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. “White Man Is God for Cult of Islam,” Chicago New Crusader, August 15, 1959, 1.
10. FBI NY file on Malcolm X; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
11. Ibid.
12. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; also see Collins, Seventh Child, 213–18.
13. “Stoner Accuses Blacks, Jews of Plotting against Whites,” United Press International, May 30, 1990; “Racist Group Claims Bombs Avenge Rape, Pledges More Killings,” Washington Times, December 29, 1989, A01.
14. Supra, note 12.
15. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. “Marshall Calls ‘Moslem’ Leaders ‘Lawless’ Thugs,” Chicago Defender, October 24, 1959, 1.
21. FBI NY file on Malcolm X, summary of statements dated May 15, 1960, 17.
22. Ibid.; also see FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
23. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
24. Author’s interviews with Ella Collins and her son, Rodnell P. Collins; also see FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
25. JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
26. Ibid.
27. Supra, note 24.
28. FBI NYC file on Malcolm X, memo dated October 15, 1959; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
29. Supra, note 24; also see Collins, Seventh Child, 134–35.
30. Ibid.
31. FBI JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Evelyn Lorene Williams.
32. Ibid.
33. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 5, summary report dated March 30, 1960.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Ibid.
37. The “U” was a code to indicate that the document was “unclassified.”
38. CIA and U.S. Army intelligence files on Elijah Muhammad, Akbar Muhammad, and Herbert Muhammad.
39. Hirst and Beeson, Sadat, 87–88; “Anwar Sadat,” Current Biography 1971, 358–61.
40. Ibid.; also see Lincoln, Black Muslims, 148–149, and Muhammad, Our Saviour Has Arrived, 8, 71, 76, 160–67.
41. Hakim, Theology of Time, 339.
42. Army Intelligence file on Elijah Muhammad, memo from U.S. Army Staff Communications Office to Washington, January 7, 1960, 1; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 4, memo from Chicago SAC to HQ, dated January 13–14, 1960.
43. “Muhammad Speaks,” Los Angeles Herald Dispatch, January 14, 1960, A01.
44. Supra, note 42.
45. “Muhammad Speaks,” Los Angeles Herald Tribune, January 14, 1960.
46. FBI JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
47. Ibid.; FBI JUNE Mail file on Clara Muhammad.
48. Ibid.
49. FBI HQ file on Clara Muhammad; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
50. Ibid.
51. FBI HQ and JUNE Mail file on Clara Muhammad.
52. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Ola Hughes.
53. Ibid.
54. FBI HQ file on Clara Muhammad.
55. FBI JUNE Mail file on Clara Muhammad.
56. Author’s interviews. Also see JUNE Mail file on Malcolm X. The brother’s name has been omitted to protect the privacy of his daughter.
57. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
58. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
59. Ibid.
60. Hauser, Muhammad Ali, 91.
61. Author’s interviews; also see William Raspberry, “Local Muslim Has Little Patience with the New Black Nationalism,” Washington Post, June 15, 1966.
62. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 5, memo from Chicago SAC to director dated April 4, 1960.
63. Ibid., section 5, memo dated May 20, 1960.
64. Ibid.
65. FBI June Mail file on Elijah Muhammad, memo dated May 27, 1960.
66. “Stinking to High Heaven,” Time, March 4, 1996, 30.
67. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 5, summary.
68. A list of Fard’s aliases are in Appendix A of this book.
69. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
70. FBI HQ file of Malcolm X; Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 264.
71. FBI HQ file on Malcolm X.
72. The color selection was also odd because Muhammad taught that the color blue represented “falsehood” and “illusion.” Ministers teach that the blue section of the flag represents the sky, which, they say, is an illusion.
73. Eissen-Udom, Black Nationalism, 417, n. 76.
74. FBI HQ file on Tynetta Nelson; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
75. Ibid.
76. Ibid.
77. Wallace Terry, “Cult of Hate” (part 2 of 6), Washington Post, December 12, 1960.
78. Supra, note 74.
79. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
80. Hoover, Masters of Deceit, 246.
81. FBI HQ file on Nat King Cole.
82. Ibid.
83. FBI HQ file on Lorraine Hansbery, memo dated March 30, 1959.
84. FBI HQ file on Edward Kennedy Ellington.
85. Ibid.
86. FBI HQ file on Mahalia Jackson (cross-reference file).
87. All of the celebrities were direct or indirect subjects of FBI’s elaborate filing system. Thus, even though the Bureau claimed that it did not have a direct file on Ellington, Jackson, and others, the fact that it produced “cross-referenced material” with the names of the subjects highlighted suggests that its interest in monitoring their activities was more than merely casual.
88. Lucy, Einstein, and others were suspected members of the Communist Party, but Einstein’s efforts on behalf of Israel also played a role in the Bureau’s monitoring of his activities.
89. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
90. Ibid.
91. Ibid.; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
92. Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 9–10.
93. Carson, Malcolm X: The FBI File, 65, 203–4; Perry, Malcolm X: The Last Speeches, 135–36.
11. BLACK MACBETH
1. Macbeth (New York: Washington Square Press, 1964), act IV, scene iii.
2. Abraham Lincoln to Joshua F. Speed, August 24, 1855, cited in Seldes, The Great Quotations, 422. Italics in original.
3. This tenet was central to Fard’s so-called “Five-Percent” theory. See FBI HQ file on the Five-Percenters; Lee, By Any Means Necessary, 58–59.
4. FBI HQ file on Raymond Sharrieff; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
5. Ibid.
6. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
7. Ibid.; also see FBI HQ file on Raymond Sharrieff.
8. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad Jr.
9. FBI HQ file on Ethel Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Raymond Sharrieff; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
10. Ibid.; also see FBI HQ file on Malcolm X.
11. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
12. Ibid.; also see Betty Shabazz, “Loving and Losing Malcolm,” Essence, February 1992.
13. Ibid.
14. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
15. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
16. Ibid.
17. Author’s interviews.
18. FBI HQ file on Alex Haley.
19. Chicago American, July 29, 1959, 12.
20. Chicago Daily News, July 29, 1959.
21. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
22. FBI HQ file on Malcolm X.
23. Muhammad constantly changed the date of the demise of European nations. Initially, it was 1914, then 1935, then 1955, 1970, and later 1975. Muhammad, “The Time and the Judgement” (albums 1–3); Wallace Terry, “Cult of Hate” (part 3 of 6), Washington Post, December 13, 1960, B03.
24. Public Source Information file on Elijah Muhammad.
25. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
26. Ibid.; FBI HQ file on Martin Luther King Jr.; Church Committee Report, book 3, 220; Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 129–32.
27. See, in general, David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (New York: Random House, 1969); John Kenneth Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969).
28. “Muslims Give JFK a Fit,” New Jersey Herald Tribune, February 4, 1961.
29. Ibid.
30. FBI NY file on Muslim Mosque Inc.
31. “Howard Students’ Bid to Muslim Canceled,” Washington Post, February 24, 1961.
32. FBI NY file on Malcolm X, memo from Boston SAC to director.
33. FBI NY file on Malcolm X, section 32.
34. FBI JUNE (wiretap) Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
35. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
36. Ibid.
37. Ibid.
38. Ibid.
39. For reasons which may have had to do with immigration, Naeem was extremely cooperative with the FBI and BOSSI. He is repeatedly identified by name in the BOSSI file on Malcolm as a highly reliable source.
40. Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 288.
41. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 6, memo dated October 6, 1961.
42. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
43. Ibid.
44. Ibid.; FBI HQ file on Tynetta Nelson.
45. FBI HQ file on Wallace Muhammad.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. FBI JUNE Mail file on Clara Muhammad.
49. Ibid.; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
50. Ibid.
51. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
52. Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
53. Ibid.
54. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
55. Ibid.
56. Ibid.
57. Ibid.; also see Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
58. FBI Public Source Material file on John Ali, aka John Simmons Jr. Conrad Lynn, an attorney who represented hundreds of Muslims during this period, said that he was appalled when he discovered that the NOI had accepted a donation from Rockwell. “I could not understand, for example, how … Elijah could accept twenty-five dollars from George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party. It reminded me of Marcus Garvey’s acceptance of support from Bilbo in the 1920s.” Lynn, There Is a Fountain, 187–89.
59. Ibid.
60. Despite Muhammad’s assertion that the owners of the Los Angeles Herald Tribune disliked Malcolm X and therefore would not lend coverage to the suit, the newspaper was the first to carry a full-length story on the scandal. In a story that ran in the July 10 edition, the paper ran a large photograph of attorney Gladys Root with the two secretaries and their children. “Elijah’s Two Paternity Suits—‘The Will of Allah,’ He Claims,” Los Angeles Herald Tribune, July 10, 1964, D01. Lucille Rosary was quoted thus: “He told us that under the teaching of the Holy Quran we were not committing adultery and that we were his wives.” Author’s interviews with members of Muhammad’s family; also see Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 298–99.
61. FBI HQ file on Clara Muhammad.
62. Ibid.
63. Ibid.; also see FBI HQ file on Herbert Muhammad.
64. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad, section 8.
65. Evanzz, The Judas Factor, 117–26; Bontemps, Anyplace but Here, 237.
66. Ibid.
67. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
68. Ibid. John Shabass is not to be confused with John Shabazz.
69. FBI JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad; also see Karim, Remembering Malcolm, 133–38.
70. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; FBI HQ file on Malcolm X.
71. Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
72. Supra, note 69.
73. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.; FBI HQ file on Tynetta Nelson.
76. FBI HQ file on Clara Muhammad.
77. FBI JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
78. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad; also see Shabazz, “Loving and Losing Malcolm.”
79. FBI HQ file on Raymond Sharrieff; FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
80. FBI JUNE Mail file on Elijah Muhammad.
81. Ibid.
82. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
83. Ibid.
84. FBI NY file on Malcolm X.
85. Ibid.
86. See Davis, Malcolm X: The Great Photographs, 78–85.
87. Public Source Material file on Elijah Muhammad.
88. Ibid.; “Black Muslim Inquiry Tentatively Approved,” Washington Post, August 15, 1962, A03.
89. Ibid.
90. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
91. FBI HQ file on Malcolm X; also see Haley, Autobiography of Malcolm X, 284–85.
92. FBI NY file on Malcolm X, memo from New Haven SAC to NYC SAC dated September 21, 1962.
93. FBI HQ file on Elijah Muhammad.
94. Muhammad Speaks, December 30, 1962, 4.
95. “Woman Beaten, Nab Son of Muhammad; Says She Was Once Lover of Leader’s Son, Chicago Defender, October 13–19, 1962, A01.
