“Those Who Say Don’t Know and Those Who Know Don’t Say”: The Nation of Islam and the Politics of Black Nationalism, 1930-1975 by Garrett A. Felber A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (American Culture) in the University of Michigan 2017 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Matthew J. Countryman, Chair Associate Professor Sherie M. Randolph Associate Professor Heather A. Thompson Professor Penny M. Von Eschen, Cornell University Associate Professor Stephen M. Ward Prisoners pray under surveillance at Folsom Prison, 1963 Garrett A. Felber [email protected] ORCID id: 1350-2020-5504-2003 © Garrett A. Felber 2017 For my mother, Lynette. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project started many years ago through the gracious mentorship of Manning Marable. Outside of my parents and my partner, I have never experienced such a resolute belief in my potential. I feel great sorrow that I cannot share the final product of this work with him, but his commitment to black history as a political praxis speak though this dissertation and continue to impact my thinking and doing every day. I am also honored to have been part of a tremendous intellectual community at the Malcolm X Project, many of whom continue to be my closest friends and colleagues: Zaheer Ali, Maytha Alhassen, Elizabeth Hinton, Megan Marcelin, Liz Mazucci, Russell Rickford, and Jasmin Young. And to the rest of my IRAAS family – Sharon Harris, Shawn Mendoza, and Courtney Teague – I am so grateful. Finally, I owe so much to Leith Mullings, who has continued the warm mentorship and friendship of her late husband. At the University of Michigan, this project was developed with the help of a wonderful cohort without whom I could not have survived graduate school: Lloyd Barba, Jenny Kwak, Jasmine Kramer, Katie Lennard, and Eric Shih. I am so proud of all of you, and grateful for your impact on my thinking and for sharing in the lighter moments that got us through the days. I am thankful for the tremendous support of our current- and past directors of graduate studies: Stephen Berrey and Kristin Hass. Thank you Marlene Moore for being an advocate, an ally, and always making everything as simple as possible. Thank you to the faculty who offered encouragement along the way: Sandra Gunning, Martha Jones, Susan Juster, Mary Kelley, Matt iii Lassiter, Gina Morantz-Sanchez, and Rebecca Scott. My dissertation writing was helped along in its early stages by the Sweetland Dissertation Writing Institute, and Paul Barron in particular. I cannot thank the members of my committee enough. Matthew Countryman chaired my committee, supported my student organizing, and embodied the meaning of engaged pedagogy. I am indebted to the ways he shaped my research and political organizing, but also all the smaller moments of support. His advice at the outset of prelims – “remember to go swimming” – remains the best graduate school survival template I have received. Sherie Randolph and Stephen Ward: you are like the big sister and brother I never had. You have always been in my corner, and you remain my favorite teaching tandem. Sherie, despite your instance that “you are not my friend,” I am happy to call myself yours. Stephen (and your beautiful family, Sekai and Chaney), you have never wavered in your belief of me and this project. Whether it is talking Malcolm, early ’90s Hip hop, or fantasy basketball, you have always been a phone call away, and it means the world to me. Thank you to Penny Von Eschen, whom I have known since before this project began and who has stuck with me throughout all its various incarnations. And thank you to Heather Ann Thompson, for joining my committee in its latter stages and not missing a beat in mentoring and helping to develop this project. I have also been fortunate to receive gracious support throughout my young career from those beyond Michigan, in particular from Dan Berger, Farah Jasmine Griffin, Elizabeth Hinton, Robin Kelley, Julilly Kohler-Hausmann, Barbara Ransby, Russell Rickford, and Ula Taylor. At Kalamazoo College before that, many thanks are due to James Lewis, Charlene Boyer Lewis, and Andy Mozina. As Robin Kelley notes, “social movements generate new knowledge, new theories, new questions.”1 Many of the questions this dissertation raises grew out of organizing the United 1 Robin Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002), 8. iv Coalition for Racial Justice (UCRJ) at the University of Michigan in 2013-2014. Thank you to those who labored all those long hours to address the desperate need for racial justice at the University and helped to broaden the conversation on campus beyond myopic “diversity.” A partial list includes: Cass Adair, Chloe Brown, Tatiana Cruz, Becky Christensen, Scott De Orio, Jennifer Alzate Gonzalez, Dan Green, Sophie Hunt, Lisa Jong, Frank Kelderman, Nora Krinitsky, Jim McAsey, Austin McCoy, Ozi Uduma, and Robin Zheng. To the faculty that supported our organizing – Matthew Countryman, Tiya Miles, and Stephen Ward in particular – thank you. Austin McCoy has been there every step of the way, since my first semester at Michigan when I wrangled my way into a game of pickup basketball. Austin, I am honored to have shared so many years of history, music, exercising, organizing, writing, basketball, and carrot cake (all of my favorite things) with you. It is rare to meet someone who has so much in common and also complements your weaknesses with strengths. You have always been that for me, pushing me and supporting me, and I look forward to a lifetime of collaboration, friendship, and struggle together. In the last several years, I have had the pleasure of writing from Portland, Oregon, and I am grateful for the friendship and warmth of my new Pacific Northwest colleagues: Reiko Hillyer at Lewis and Clark College, Anoop Mirpuri at Portland State University, and Mark Burford and Margo Minardi at Reed College. A special thanks to Reiko and Elizabeth LaCarney at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) for advocating for me and setting the groundwork for what would become Liberation Literacy and the Freedom Library. To all my brothers and sisters at Liberation Literacy, who were dedicated to putting in the work to making the program the special space that it is, you continue to inspire me and I am so grateful. v So much of the labor of a dissertation by the many librarians and archivists who helped to gather these disparate materials together often goes unrecognized. I have tried to maintain a list over the years and apologize if I have missed anyone: Jennifer Allison at the Harvard Law School Library; Okezie Amalaha at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History; Brooke Black at the Huntington Library; Shelley Barber and Adrienne Pruitt at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College; Robyn Carlton at the Appellate Division Law Library in Rochester, New York; Donnelyn Curtis at the University of Nevada at Reno; Sigrid Cornell and Alexa Pearce at the University of Michigan; Graham Duncan at South Caroliniana Library; Jennifer Fauxsmith at the Massachusetts Archives; Jim Folts at the New York State Archives; Susan Gilroy at the Harvard College Library; Julie Herrada at the Labadie Collection; Karen Jania at the Bentley Historical Library; Jessica M. Herrick at the California State Archives; Christina Jones at the National Archives at College Park; Norwood Kerr at the Alabama Department of Archives and History; Nan Mehan and Tim Noakes at Stanford’s Special Collections; Derek Mosely and Kayin Shabazz at Clark Atlanta University; David Null at the University of Wisconsin; Kathi Neal and Rebecca Darby-Williams at the University of California - Berkeley; and Bill Offhaus at the University Archives at the University of Buffalo. Thank you to J. Herman Blake, Ned Block, Richard Fallenbaum, Ernest Green, Charles Keil, Lucy Komisar, Gay Plair, and Michael Winston, student activists who invited Malcolm X to their campuses in the 1960s and were willing to share their recollections fifty years later with me. Many thanks to Richard Griffin and Tony Bouza, who also offered their reminiscences. Finally, I owe so much to my friends and family. To Ernie, Phil, and Zach, who have been always been there for me. To my other mothers, Ngina Munge and Robin Norman, one can never have too much love. To my Forsch family - Christine, Kiefer, Nick, and Randy - for vi welcoming me with open arms and holding me tightly ever since. To my mother, Lynette, and father, Steven, for raising me right. My father gave me his sense of humor, without which graduate school would have be an onerous and bleak endeavor. My mother has read as many drafts of this dissertation as I have written, offering invaluable insight all along the way. She was the first in her family to graduate from college; she earned her PhD, inspired me to teach, and showed me what it is to be a true lover of books. Margaux, you are the most beautiful, kind, supportive, thoughtful human on this earth. I share with you the dreams of a better, more just world, and in our dreaming I find myself transformed. They haven’t yet made words for you. But all who have had the pleasure of meeting you know what I mean. I look forward to the rest of our lives together. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication…………..……….………………………..……….……………...........ii Acknowledgements…………..……….………………………..……….…………iii List of Figures…………………..……….………………………..……….……….ix List of Abbreviations…………………..……….………………………..…………x