Unblemished, Uncorrupted Leadership by John Henrik Clarke

Some Reminiscences of Malcolm X Unblemished, Uncorrupted Leadership by John Henrik Clarke The following are excerpts from the remarks by Dr. John Henrik Clarke at the November 13forum. These are very critical times in our life as looking at a Malcolm X is how Malcolm X approximate their words in developing the I a people. Once more we are standing at related to the radical ministry of the past. constitution for the Organization of African the crossroads of history. And I have a great I knew Malcolm X from 1958, when we American Unity, he was as happy as a child. [feeling of] dilemma - that we are debating met, until two weeks before he was assas- And it is little known that Malcolm X , and minor things and neglecting major subjects. sinated, and I talked with him consistently. I this is what made him so devastatingly effec- I have not seen the film, and therefore I will did not, even in the book that I compiled on tive, he had a non-Muslim "cabinet" that fed have little to say about the film. Malcolm X, say very much about my rela- him information but never told him what to In my brief discussion with Spike Lee [... ] tionship to him. So many phonies popped up do or how to do it. Yet we made sure that the I suggested that maybe the film should open after his death saying they were friends and information he dispensed was always correct. when they threw the mangled body of Mal- pals of Malcolm X. I didn't want to be as- Noone told him what to do with the facts but colm's father on the porch. And Malcolm as sociated with these phonies. So I kept my they made sure that the facts were straight. a kid, tugging at his mother's apron and as- relationship to myself. Most of it I have not The most memorable thing for me in this king, "What happened to father?" And his written about to this day. regard is [one time when] he wanted some- mother going slowly out of her mind. He was a man, one of the fastest learners thing on history - because I was in his Because that was the beginning of the that I have ever met in my life. You could give historical cabinet. His man picked it up at 7, making of the mind of Malcolm X. Because him information and he would read this in- he didn't get to read it until 9, and at 11 he he began to deal with the contradiction in this formation back to you, teaching you lessons debated four college professors on the Congo nation. He had to go through a whole lot of over and above your instruction to him with- situation. He reduced them to crying chil- other contradictions. People telling him what out offending you. He would speak to several dren. he could not be. Then the challenge within audiences simultaneously using the same I gave him some newspaper clippings, himself. And the question, "Why can't I be words without offending anyone in the audi- some xeroxes of B.D. Morel's work on King what other people are?" ence. He could speak to the reader and the Leopold's Congo, and I gave him a small I think one of the main reasons why at this nonreader, to the college professor and the book, tantamount to a goodsized pamphlet, juncture in history that a whole lot of phony illiterate, simultaneously, and his message by Mark Twain, King Leopold's Soliloquy, people are gravitating toward the image of would get across to all of them. that had a lot of statistics about murder in the Malcolm X and a whole lot of sincere people What then is the significance of Malcolm Congo. I told him an old trick that I used to are also gravitating toward that image, is that X for today? He called not only for the res- play often when I was active in the left move- they sense something in Malcolm X that is toration of nationhood, womanhood, man- ment. When people are talking about some- needed not only by this people but by all hood, he called for us to restore to our thing you don't know anything about, always people. Unblemished, uncorrupted, uncom- historical memory the time when we were not switch the conversation to something you promised leadership. dependent on other people to make decisions know about. [... ] Malcolm played that trick We've had so many hustlers disguised as for us. When we were the masters of our own on those college professors, and they were leaders. So many peddlers ofpeople. We keep destiny. He called on us to reconsider our begging for mercy. That was Malcolm. Sharp looking back at Malcolm and keep examin- position, not in the United States, but in the in mind, sharp in information. ing him over and over again. What was the world. I'm going to talk briefly about some ne- lesson that he taught? He taught a lesson The idea of an African American unity glected aspects of his life and some mis- around a subject that impinges on our minds patterned after the Organization of African interpretations, some misconceptions about now, and we are confused about how to grap- Unity started in the Saturday meetings after some of the things he did. I do not think we ple with that subject, and that subject is land he broke with the Nation [ofIslam]. He began have studied his growth, his evolution velY and nation. Because land is the basis of na- to have these meetings at Old Flash Inn on well. I do not think that we have put the light tion. McCombs Place on Saturday morning when emphasis on how he came out of the mire. You can talk all you want to about libera- the cafe had no customers. Out of these meet- [...] tion. If you have no control over the land, you ings came the structure and the idea for the I first met him in 1958 - he came to look cannot solidify the nation. Zimbabwe is a Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization at the Nation of Islam's exhibit at the World good example. They came to pseudo inde- of Afro-American Unity. Trade Show building, the African Heritage pendence with whites controlling most of the The constitution of the OAAU was fash- Exposition. He saw someone hanging around land and most of the food supply. That's not ioned in my livingroom. Charles Kenyatta, me, a Hungarian girl, and he kept looking, independence. That's programmed depend- still alive, was there. Lynn Chipplet, now in and when she left, he came over and said, ence. northern California, was the secretary. My 'That your woman?" I said, "No." He said, Now why the gravitation toward Malcolm former wife was there. My mother-in-law, "Good. That's a dead-end street. I've been X? Haven't we gone through a battery of still alive, was there. So I'm not talking about down that street." He went away, then he leaders? Haven't we examined them and ancient history or any kind of mystery. When came over again, looked me up and down and [found them wanting]? What we miss in we found matching phraseology in the Or- said, "I bet you're a pork eater." I admitted ganization of African Unity, when we could that I visited the pork chop once in a while February 1993 13 and that I had been known to admire and to These are some of the things very few within Islam. In the name of Allah, there have enjoy some chitlins. He suspected it. people know about, very few people write always been warring factions within Islam, Throughout all our relationship he kept razz- about. and still are, even now. He got trapped being me about being a pork eater, a swine eater. Because Malcolm X knew the good that tween these warring factions. Both of them He said, "You're a decent human being. I'm the Nation was doing, taking people out of wanted to control him. gonna give you 99. Leave that swine alone, prison, making them whole again, making When he went on the Hajj to Mecca, and I'll give you 100." I stopped eating pork them clean up themselves again, making them when he wrote back that he saw black Mus- about fifteen years ago. It had nothing to do throwaway old habits for new habits, teach- lims, white Muslims, brown Muslims wor- with religion at all; it had something to do ing them respect for women again, teaching shipping together, that was an observation, with health. I wanted to live a little longer, them responsibility again. And the movement not an analysis. Too many people think this and my high blood pressure just simply of Elijah Muhammad was not stealing people means he was now an integrationalist. Soon wouldn't take it. from the little church or the big church, be- after he arrived back here, he made clear he Soon after this meeting he started a news- cause they weren't in there. These were the had not changed his ideas on race one iota- paper. He called it Mr. Muhammad Speaks. people out there with no appreciable rallying if you're trying to say that near the end of his It later became Muhammad Speaks. And if point, with no appreciable leadership, who life he became an integrationalist.

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