The Martyrdom of Malcolm and Martin

Street Spirit Volume 17, No. 01 January 2011 $1.00 A publication of the American Friends Service Committee JUSTICE NEWS & HOMELESS BLUES IN THE B AY A REA The Martyrdom of Malcolm and Martin Our prophets of change, Malcolm and Martin, were spied on and undermined by government agencies in ways that led, step by step, to their murders. by James W. Douglass Martin and Malcolm were both execut- Salaam aleikum. ed by what Dr. King described, at the Shalom. height of the Vietnam War, as “the great- est purveyor of violence in the world Peace be with you. 1 When Martin Luther King, Jr., was today — my own government.” assassinated in the spring of 1968, I was While our government waged a criminal teaching a religion course at the war in Southeast Asia, in which the poor, University of Hawaii called “The largely people of color, of the United States Theology of Peace.” Several students fought the poor of Vietnam on behalf of a were moved by King’s death and his military-industrial complex, our two great- resistance to the Vietnam War to burn est prophets resisted that systemic, racist their draft cards, making them liable to evil with their whole lives. years in prison. I joined their anti-war Malcolm and Martin came to see the group, the Hawaii Resistance. entire Cold War as a scam, in which a cor- A month later, we sat in front of a con- porate, racist power dominated as much of voy of trucks taking the members of the the world as it could by lying about both Hawaii National Guard to Oahu’s Jungle itself and its ideological enemy. Our Warfare Training Center, on their way to prophets of change, Malcolm and Martin, the jungles of Vietnam. I went to jail for were then spied on and undermined by two weeks — the beginning of the end of government agencies in ways that led, my academic career. Members of the step by step, to their murders. Hawaii Resistance served from six Let us begin with the story of months to two years in prison for their Malcolm’s martyrdom, which will lead us Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream” speech to a huge gathering by draft resistance, or wound up going into into the story of Martin’s martyrdom. the Washington monument. In April 1968, King was assassinated while planning exile in Sweden or Canada. THE FBI AND COINTELPRO to return to Washington, D.C., to launch a massive Poor People’s Campaign. Martin Luther King’s martyrdom was A New York FBI director, James Fox, our baptism into nonviolence as a way of once made a carefully worded denial that At the same time Malcolm X was con- not Elijah Muhammad, that was the real life, a step beyond our classes where we the FBI was involved in Malcolm X’s fronting Elijah, he also spoke out publicly power behind the plot against him. talked hopefully but abstractly about a assassination. While granting that the FBI on President John F. Kennedy’s assassina- Malcolm, who always had eyes in the theology of peace. King’s willingness to used its Counterintelligence Program tion in a shocking way that gave Elijah an back of his head, is the best analyst of his give his life inspired us to choose life. (COINTELPRO) to destroy black activists, excuse for punishing him. Elijah ordered own murder. We learned that freedom is not free. The Fox said, “I do, however, reject any sugges- Malcolm to be silent for 90 days. What MALCOLM APPEALS TO THE UN cross is real. A way of liberation passes tion that the FBI was directly involved in Malcolm had done, unlike any other pub- 2 In March 1964, Malcolm X left the through fire. More than three decades later, the murder of Malcolm X.” lic figure, was to link JFK’s murder with Nation of Islam. He then began a cam- while attending the only trial ever held for The FBI could not deny having been at U.S. intelligence agencies. paign to bring U.S. violations of African- Dr. King’s murder, in a Memphis court- least indirectly involved in killing Malcolm On December 1, 1963, after a speech Americans’ human rights before the court room a few blocks from where he was X, because in the 1970s it became public he gave in New York City, Malcolm was of world opinion in the United Nations. killed, I heard 70 witnesses describe the knowledge that the Bureau had successfully asked his opinion of the president’s mur- The FBI realized it had made a major fire he passed through. developed a deadly conflict between Nation der. His response is repeated in his autobi- miscalculation. Its COINTELPRO opera- The witnesses testified how King was of Islam founder Elijah Muhammed and his ography: “Without a second thought, I tion that provoked the divorce between stalked and killed, not by the scapegoat disciple, Malcolm X. said what I honestly felt — that it was, as Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad liberat- James Earl Ray, but by U.S. government The FBI’s documented purpose was to I saw it, a case of ‘the chickens coming ed Malcolm for a bigger mission than any- agencies using Mafia intermediaries, develop a factional dispute that would home to roost.’ I said that the hate in thing he could do in the Nation of Islam. Memphis police officers, and an Army divorce Malcolm from the Nation of white men had not stopped with the 3 Yet the Nation could still be used to silence Special Forces team. I learned that Martin Islam (NOI). The FBI infiltrated “key killing of defenseless black people, but Malcolm. Malcolm had to be stopped Luther King, Jr., after vowing to end the persons” into the national staff of the NOI that hate, allowed to spread unchecked, 4 because his international strategy invoking Vietnam War and systemic poverty in the at its Chicago office. FBI operatives in finally had struck down this country’s human rights against the U.S. government United States, was set up and murdered Chicago then developed the fatal division Chief of State. I said it was the same thing was catching the attention of a potential ally by our national security state. His assassi- between Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm as had happened with [civil rights leader] far more powerful than Elijah Muhammad: nation was carried out and covered up by X, forcing Malcolm to resign from the Medgar Evers, with Patrice Lumumba, Martin Luther King, Jr. the same government that now honors his NOI, just as the FBI had plotted. The final with Madame Nhu’s husband.” 5 Martin and Malcolm met on the steps birthday as a national holiday. fruit of the FBI’s COINTELPRO and a Of the three examples Malcolm cited of the Capitol Building in Washington, The revelation of Martin’s martyrdom wider government conspiracy was for the “chickens coming home to roost” D.C., on March 26, 1964. They had both led me to investigate the martyrdom of Malcolm X’s assassination. in Dallas, two involved CIA-instigated been listening to the Senate’s debate on Malcolm X. What I discovered was a simi- The most serious conflict between killings in Third World countries: the civil rights legislation. As they shook lar plot. I learned that Malcolm X, El-Haj Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X assassinations of Patrice Lumumba in the hands warmly and were interviewed, Malik El-Shabazz, while trying to put the occurred when Malcolm learned of Congo and of Ngo Dinh Nhu with his Malcolm grinned and said he was there to United States on trial in the United Nations rumors about his mentor’s affairs with brother Diem in South Vietnam. remind the white man of the alternative to for human rights violations against African young women. The FBI was spreading the Malcolm’s statement on the president’s Dr. King. King offered a militant alterna- Americans, also became a government tar- rumors, sending fake letters on Elijah’s murder anticipated the prophetic insight tive of his own, saying that if the Senate get. He was stalked and killed by U.S. intel- infidelities to his wife and ministers, fore- he would have into the covert forces kept on talking and doing nothing, a “cre- ligence agencies using, not Mafia, but shadowing what the Bureau would do to behind his own assassination. He would Nation of Islam intermediaries. destroy Martin Luther King. finally realize it was the U.S. government, See The Converging Martyrdom page 5 2 S TREET S PIRIT January 2011 Organizing to Save the California Dream Without Stage 3 Childcare, struggling “I was a client at a homeless mothers and fathers will be forced to choose between taking care of their chil- shelter. I have been hungry. dren and going to work. A reduction in I have been afraid. I have childcare subsidies will lead directly to worked hard to reach the more unemployed parents. Another harmful alternative could be place I am today and I am that children who are not developmentally not going back to the life I ready to care for other children will have no choice but to stay home with younger used to lead.” siblings while parents try to maintain their — LaTanya Wolf, St. Mary’s Center employment. Mason powerfully concluded, “Cutting by Paige Hustead this program would be cruel and unusual. spirited community forum held The stress and impact that this cut will at St. Mary’s Center in Oakland have on parents is probably more than I on Dec.

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