When Malcolm X established his own
Muslim sect in
Harlem in March 1964, he stated that its purpose would be to "find a common approach, a common solution, to a common problem." The problem was racism, and he had devoted his whole being to struggling with it as a minister of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam-also know as the Black Muslims. A fringe religion that advocatted the creation of a seprate black nation, it taught that whites were oppressors who would ultimately reap apocalyptic fruits for their evil ways.
Malcolm Little, as he was born in
1925, had embraced the faith during a prison term, taking the name Malcolm X. The "
X", he said, "Replaces the white slave-master name imposed upon my paternal
forebears by some blue-eyed devil."
For
12 years the charismatic and bitingly articulate Malcolm led recruitment afforts for the movement, encouraging black Americans to be proud of their African heritage and to lead respectable lives. He also preached that
whites were to be resisted "
by any means necessary"- including violence. A persuasive speaker, Malcolm attracted hundreds of new members but eventually earned the disfavor of the movement's leader, Elijah Muhammad, after accusing him of financial and sexual corruption.
During a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, Malcolm found himself sharing
Islamic fellowship with people of all
colors-including
white. True Islam, he came to believe, precludes racism, "because people...who accept its religious principles...accept each other as brothers and sisters, regardless of differences in complexion." Returning home as
el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, he founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. But his goal of uniting blacks throughout the world would go unrealized. On February 21, 1965, at a Harlem rally, he was gunned down be three men, two of them Black Muslims.
1960's project