Malcolm X - Interview At Berkeley (1963)

today in our discussion of minority groups we have with us two guests one is Minister Malcolm X Shabazz one of the top leaders of the Nation of Islam or the so-called black Muslims and we also have mr. Herman Blake one of the teaching assistants in the course we will discuss today some of the the goals and some of the strategies of the Nation of Islam and I wonder if mr. Blake might started off by asking mr. Shabazz a question a minister Malcolm the thing that I thought might be good for starting it off is to talk about one of the most pervasive beliefs in the general society about the Nation of Islam and that is that it is an organization dedicated to the use of violent means to attain its goals the question I have is how true is this and why do you think it persists in society well the Muslims accepted the religion of Islam and follow their religious guidance of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad have never bombed any churches have never murdered any little girls as was done in Birmingham they have never lynched anybody have never at any time been guilty of initiating any aggressive acts of violence during the entire 33 years or more that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has been teaching us the charge of violence against us actually stems from the guilt complex that exists in the conscious and subconscious minds of most white people in this country they know that they've been violent in their brutality against Negroes and they feel that someday the Negro is going to wake up and try and do unto them as they have done unto do unto the whites as the whites have done unto us we are a violent group we do we are taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to be to obey the law to respect everyone who respects us we're taught to display courtesy to be polite but we're also taught that at any time anyone in any way inflicts or seeks to inflict violence upon us we are within our religious rights to retaliate in self-defense to the maximum degree of our ability we never initiate any violence upon anyone but if anyone attacks us we reserve the right to defend ourselves so to accuse us of being violence is like accusing a man who is being lynched who is being hung on a tree simply because he struggles vigorously against his Lynch ur the victim is accused of violence but they'll ensure is never accused of violence and I only point this out because the various racists groups that are set up in this country by whites and who have actually practiced violence against Blacks for four hundred years are never associated or identified or made synonymous with the term violence but quite speak of Muslims almost synonymously with violence whenever Muslims are mentioned by them violence is broader but not but it's not connected with any other group this is a sort of a propaganda tactic or what I would call psychological warfare to in some way make the image of the Muslims in this country being a violent image rather than a religious image I'd like to ask a question in that regard what's interesting is that members of the Nation of Islam have not used violence even when black Americans were attacked how do you account for this does this in any way contradict some of the basic premises of your movement I don't know how you mean well you maintain for example that that you will not or that you should not use violence unless you are attacked by the white man and I think we can note in the last several years certainly dozens and dozens and dozens of instances in which Negroes have been attacked killed in some instances I mean in these demonstrations and and the bombings for example recently in Birmingham where they killed four little Negro girls and what interests me is the fact is that the Nation of Islam has not done anything to retaliate I think you should be happy important thing is does your lack of action though contradict any of your basic I'll explain it you should be happy that Muslims who follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad number one don't believe in any form of integration and who will and believe that every mention of the word integration by whites whether it be from the mouth of Kennedy on down to the mouth of the lowest raggedy-ass white liberal in the street who is beatnik like involving himself in these integration efforts if we believed in it we would integrate and we would fight anybody who got in our way no or made any effort whatsoever to stop us from integrating if we really believed that the law of the land the Supreme Court and other so-called judicial bodies were for real when they talked about integration we would integrate and knowing that the law was in any effort we made to demonstrate toward integration why we would know the law should be on our side if it's the law of the land if it is the law of the land then the demonstrators are within the law and the discriminators are against the law but to show you the hypocrisy of the law when Negroes demonstrate for integration instead of arresting the discriminators the law arrests the demonstrators so this is a foolish move on the part of Negroes and when you foolishly get yourself involved with a enemy then whatever comes upon you that's your business as Muslims we believe that separation is the best way in the only sensible way not integration and on but on the other hand when we see our people being brutalized by white bigots white racists we think that they are foolish to allow themselves to be beaten and brutalized and do nothing whatsoever to protect themselves they are foolish they're if they should have the right to defend themselves against any attack made against them by anyone if a dog is biting a black man the black man should kill the dog whether the dog is a police dog or hound dog or any kind of dog if our dog is 6 on a black man when that black man is doing nothing but trying to take advantage of what the government says it's supposed to be is then that black man should kill that dog or any two-legged dog who 6 the dog on it should other black men help that particular person who was attacked I think you'll find sir that there will come a time when black people wake up and become intellectually independent enough to think for themselves as other humans are intellectually independent enough to think for themselves then the black man will think like a black man and he will feel for other black people and this new thinking and feeling we'll cause black people to stick together and then at that point you'll have a situation where when you attack one black man you are attacking all black men and this type of black thinking will cause all black people to stick together and this type of thinking also will bring an end to the brutality inflicted upon black people by white people and it is the only thing that we're bringing into it no federal court state court or City Court we're bringing into it is something that the black man has to bring it into himself Minister Malcolm let me on the basis of your tumor remarks ask a double Kong question one is it then your assertion that the laws with respect to how Negroes are supposed to have equal opportunity and equal rights in this country are not meaningful or believed by whites and secondly what it then is your opinion and attitude toward the civil rights movement in general and particularly the Reverend Martin Luther King and his philosophy of non-violence through direct action if the white people really passed meaningful laws it would not be necessary to pass any more laws there are already enough laws on the law books to protect an American citizen you only need additional laws when you're dealing with someone who was not regarded as an American citizen but whites are so hypocritical they don't want to admit that this black man is not a citizen so they classify him as a second-class citizen too to get around making him a real citizen if he was a real citizen you'd need no more laws you need no civil rights legislation civil rights that when you have civil rights you have citizenship it's automatic white people don't need laws to protect their citizenship because they're citizens but they want the they don't want to tell us we're not sitting and at the same time they don't want to pass laws that are meaningful enough to protect us as if we were citizens and the Supreme Court desegregation decision is the best example I know that's a law from the Supreme Court ten years have gone by no no desegregated schools it hasn't been implemented beyond I think nine percent in ten years so this just shows you the hypocrisy of the American white man they talk out of both sides of them up and for this reason we who are Muslims that is who believe in the religion of Islam who believe in God we don't believe that black people will ever get any laws yet any problem with laws being passed or new persons being put in office white liberals being put in office there is nothing that the white man will ever do to bring about true since their citizenship or civil rights recognition for black people in this country nothing will they ever do they will always talk it but they won't practice it and with the Supreme Court if the n-double-a-cp can tell me that they want a desegregation decision for me ten years ago but yet the schools haven't been desegregated as I say this is a victory with no victory it's a victory that you can talk about but it's a victory you can't show me so if you represent the n-double-a-cp and you were telling me about this great victory you won for me when I look at you I have to conclude that either you have been duped yourself or else you were trying to do me and in most instance instances where the civil rights struggle is involved there is no civil rights leader can point to me one concrete gain practical gain that black people have made in the civil rights field in this country not only during the past ten years but during the past 100 years now the other part was with respect to mr. King and the nonviolent direct action well I will let Jimmy Baldwin and John killings and Lou Lomax the writers answer that speaking right after these this church was bombed in Birmingham Christian Church was bombed in Birmingham by Christians - mind you and these four little girls were murdered John killings and James Baldwin and Lomax and the Negro writers and actors had a meeting at the Town Hall in New York and killin pointed out concerning these murders of these little girls said the killings had raised doubts about the intelligence of the nonviolent of non-violence in the civil rights struggle he went on to declare that he could no longer be asked to love those who persecuted and killed Negroes he also and the writer mr. handler who whose describing this said that killings it was not clear concerning killers killings remarks to his audience that he was breaking with the it was clear rather to his audience that he was breaking with the doctrine of the Reverend Martin Luther King's philosophy that as Christians Negroes should love their fellow man in a truly religious sense now James Baldwin speaking on that same platform said and I was present during this entire affair asserted that the American people shared a collective guilt for the persecution of Negroes much as Germans did because of their silence during the Nazi persecution he denounced President Kennedy for what he termed Kennedy's lack of passion in the civil rights struggle mr. Baldwin said that there could no longer be a Republican Party for the Negro people as long as it listed a Barry Goldwater nor a democratic party for the Negro people with a senator eastland on its roster he asserted that the federal government acted swiftly and energetically that unless the federal government acted swiftly and energetically future slaughter would make Birmingham look like a dress rehearsal right now what do I think about Kings attitude King's right-hand man Wyatt Walker at Kings convention according to the New York Times on September the 26th said we had quote we have been duped meaning these persons involved in a civil rights struggle of which King is the symbolic leader his right-hand man says and I quote we have been duped or have duped ourselves into believing that chains have been broken when in truth we have only been chained more securely half freedom has in many instances been worse than no freedom at all why don't ask me what I think about this struggle I can tell you what they think about their struggle and they have and they are pointing out that it is becoming more difficult every day for the civil rights leaders to keep the masses of black people nonviolent and long-suffering and patient and keep them from becoming disenchanted I hope that answers your question well now there's a new party which is started on the East Coast called the freedom now party and all black organization would you comment upon this and also upon the possibility that the Nation of Islam might begin to turn some of its attention to the political arena in view of the fact that it is in the political arena that Negroes have not been able to in any way get justice as has been pointed out in your previous statement I'm not familiar with the freedom now party I'm not too familiar with politics period only that in the sense that white politicians have usually been very hypocritical where the so-called Negroes are concerned so I'm a bit disenchanted with politicians and politics the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is a religious man and his teaching is religious and his solutions are religious the freedom now party from what I understand is headed by a man named a lawyer named Conrad Lin I know him probably means well before passing an opinion on what it is he's trying to do I would like to analyze it and see who's subsidizing him see who his friends are especially who his white friends are and after a careful analysis if I could conclude that there was no white support I would be inclined to have confidence in it but if I saw him leaning too heavily upon his white liberal friends for support and I'd be suspicious of that too the Muslims in my opinion represent an all black party and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad pointed out at before 10,000 in Philadelphia on September the 29th at a rally that we were having that in 1964 the black people should band together and do something about electing selecting and electing representatives black representatives politically who have the rights in the the best interests of the black people at heart and that we should also unite together and sweep out of office all of the black political puppets who are used by the white power structure to continue white supremacy in our communities in that regard would you include congressman Dawson for example from Chicago and some of the people who represent him on the Chicago City Council in which we go in in the area of acting as a puppet I don't know what mr. Muhammad's opinion is of congressman Dawson they both live right there in the city of Chicago together I don't know what his opinion is of congressman Dawson I'm suspicious of any Negro be he politician be he clergyman or civic leader who is constantly patted on the back by quite I have a tendency to lead toward the Negro politician who is constantly condemned by the white power structure this is my thought pattern I'm giving you an insight of it you don't mention mr. Lyne and saying you'd like to know who his white friends are now I'm wondering if you didn't make a contradictory statement in Muslim turns by using white and friend in the same phrase as I say friend in quotes I say in other words if a black man cannot have a white man as a friend he may have a white man who's friendly but being friendly and being a friend I think are two different things I think there are many whites who act friendly toward Negroes of Fox X X friendly toward the land and usually the Fox is the one who ends up with the lamb chop on his plate the wolf doesn't act friendly and therefore the wolf has more difficulty in getting the lamb child in his plate I'd like to point out though that I say that because it is usually the if you study the structure of the Negro community economically politically civically psychologically and otherwise it's controlled by the white liberal who usually poses as the friend of the Negro who actually differs from the white conservative and in the same way that the Fox differs from the wolf their appetite is the same their motives are the same it's only their mannerisms and methods that differ I would agree that no doubt there's been a large number of whites who have posed as liberals and as friends in the Negro and who have time and again betrayed the Negro on the other hand I think one could point to a large number of whites who have struggled for civil rights give me more equality and have got little or nothing out of it other than quite a few bruises give me an example well the the large number of white students who have gone into the South for example working for snick and other organizations not working for smick or other organizations but working for the white political machines will benefit by the voting efforts of Negro okay I'll be more specific I would cite Herbert Hill for example as as a kind of person who has championed Negro job rights for example in New York City and elsewhere he has fought the political machine first time I met Herbert Hill personally was when they were picketing to stop the working on the Harlem Hospital in Harlem Negroes for 10 years had to fight the city to get an annex built on the Harlem hospital because in Harlem we need a hospital more so than anything else how people are sick plus we do a lot of cutting and shooting of each other though we profess to be nonviolent and Herbert Hill brought his forces out and stopped the working on that st. this is the first time I ever saw him then when work was brought to a halt on a hospital in Harlem the same Negroes tried to stop the work at the downstate medical center in Brooklyn which is predominantly white they were out there for three months during the summer couldn't stop anything and I never saw her but he'll out there one time now whatever something whenever it takes a stoppage of something that's going to affect the white man you find the white liberal absent but is when it involves something that primarily will affect the best interests of black people and black people only then that white liberal is President Herbert Hill is the labor secretary for the n-double-a-cp and if he was interested in black people he would prepare a black man with the type of knowledge and understanding of the labor troubles involving black people that would enable a black man to sit in the same position as secretary of labor or labor secretary Indian double-a-c-p I'm suspicious of whites who joined Negroes and always have to be in the lead who always have to be the head who always have to be at the top in Negro organizations those whites who really have the interest of blacks at heart let them give some advice to some Negroes and stand on the sidelines but don't join the organization and then get at the head of it and pose as a friend of Negroes well I I would defend his sincerity and his commitment and more than that I would say that just because a person is a Negro or a black American does not mean there's going to struggle for Negro rights or for jobs for Negroes or anything else I think that today you could point to a large number of Negro leaders who have consistently betrayed Negroes in a whole host of areas they aren't really Negro leaders these are puppets that have been put in front of the Negro community by white liberals these are parents that have been put in front of the Negro community by white liberals you can't name me a Negro later who has been Negro leader who has been bitter who has betrayed Negroes who is not who has not been endorsed sanctioned subsidized and supported by the white liberals Minister Malcolm I'd like to well I could cite one example of the congressman Dawson for example in Chicago and in Chicago a large number of liberals locate in the Hyde Park district have consistently fought Dawson and his betrayals of the Negro they've also fought some of the people who represent Dawson on the Chicago City Council the only Negro I know who is constantly for only Negro politician that I know who is constantly fought by white liberals is Adam Clayton Powell and they called him a racist because he speaks so bluntly on the race issue but I'm not as I said not too familiar with Dawson and his work let me let me return to the Nation of Islam force a minister by raising a question which struck me as a result of reading some of Baldwin's work namely the fire next time Baldwin pointed out that in Harlem for many years he had passed the street corners in the soap boxes and heard people speaking from these platforms who were known as black nationalists and nobody was listening and he said all of a sudden he realized that people were beginning to listen to the Muslim speakers on the street corners in Harlem the message essentially was the same but was that now many many people were listening to what this message was and you pointed out that the Nation of Islam has been in the picture for about 33 years what is it in your judgment that has caused this tremendous amount of support that the Nation of Islam has garnered in the Negro community in say the last 10 years when you put a seed in the soil it remains beneath the soil until the season changes and when the season change is that the seasonal change automatically brings about rather atmospheric conditions ring about a seasonal change that makes that seed come up or crop grow in its appointed time and all over this world today God himself has brought about political and changes a political atmosphere sociological social atmosphere economic atmosphere these economic conditions these political conditions and social conditions combine to bring about a raishin that is making black people in America more receptive their mind more fertile to the state of truth that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has been planting for 30-some years and this is springing up today and causing our people to see and understand now what they couldn't see and understand before what is the nature of the situation which is making black people more receptive the well you take the in the past say 15 years how the nations have emerged Dok nations have emerged in in Africa prior to ten years ago most Negros associated identified Africa with a savage jungle length place and whenever you mentioned the word African in their minds I they could see the image of a someone running around with a spear with no language you'd say I'll go Bugaboo or Bwana or something and who'd be in a jungle running from Lions or chasing Lions but then when after the war when the United Nations were set up in New York City black people began to look at men like Tom Mboya they began to look at men like on the chroma they began to see men like Lumumba they began to see men like NASA they began to see these below ah in a sick way who could exchange intellectually with whites on an international level in a political form and hold their own this made the black people in this country realize that what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had been teaching all the time actually had substance and they began to turn it over in their mind and see that what he was saying had more weight to it than what these other Negroes were saying and they began to identify themselves with the black world and the black struggle more closely than they identified themselves with this so-called white world let me ask you a question with respect to a statement which Sen udimm quotes as being on a bulletin board in the university of Islam in Chicago by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad according to Sen mr. Muhammad's state up you mighty race you can accomplish what you willed build your future on these foundations freedom justice and equality what is the definition of freedom justice and equality for the black man and where and when is it to be attained well take equality first the Honorable Elijah Muhammad doesn't teach us to associate equality with whites equality has nothing to do with whites we want we don't want to be equal with the white man he's not the criteria or yardstick by which equality is measured he's not in a position to tell us we are equal it's not his range it's not his to do equality we want equality we had equality before the white man was created we had that we had equality before the white man came into existence and we want equality whether the white man is on this earth or not equality means the opportunity to develop all of our dormant potential all all of our dormant capability and in in developing this dormant capability the rate and the ability to stand on this earth on some land of our own and bring about a civilization and a society and we will in which we will be completely independent complete freedom to take care of the needs to take care of the wants and the lakes and the dislikes of our people to establish our own nation our own society our own heaven our own future this is what we mean by freedom by equality and justice means as you sow so shall you reap if you do wrong you'll get wrong in return and if you do right you'll get right in return when you're in your own nation in your own land you're in a position to get justice but when you're in another man's country you know another man's land under another man's flag and under another man's government and another man's court system you have to look to that other man for justice and you'll never get it and Negroes in this country probably are authorities on that to what extent does this formulation approach that expounded by Zionists they for example many scientists Zionists maintained they could never expect justice in the Czarist courts and and the courts found in other countries in Eastern Europe and so on and they decided that would be wise to establish a separate state in Israel and in and all of the world powers got together the white world powers I should say got together and helped all of these white Jews to establish a separate state in the heart of dark-skinned people's territory and if white people can get together and let other White's help other lights to establish an independent nation right in the midst of docs in people and then we see we don't see where white people should be so much against the Honorable Elijah Muhammad solution not of a setting up an independent doc nation in a white people's property but he's asking the opportunity to set up an independent nation in our own on our own continent let us leave America and go back home among our own people on our own land and set up our own independent society but all he says is that this government which made us slaves should supply the transportation for us to get back home and give us all of the machinery and the tools necessary for us till the soil and establish our own agricultural system to feed and clothe our people our own economy and in some way become an independent people among our own people on our own continent this is intelligent and Zionists should never criticize us you say then that the United States is not the black man's country definitely no not black man's law no I American laws are not the black man's law although the laws here in America were made white by white people for the benefit of white people the Constitution was written by whites for the benefit of white it was never written for the benefit of blacks and when you read the Constitution I think in article 1 section article 1 section 2 or section 1 article 1 someone and it's in the Constitution it says that that classifies black people as three-fifths of a man three-fifths of a man subhuman less than a human being it relegate sus to the level of cattle hogs chickens cows a commodity that could be bought and sold at the will of the master no it was written by whites for the benefit of whites and to the detriment of blanks and when our black man stands up talking about his constitutional rights he's out of his mind I'm innocent Malcolm in our textbook which the students have read supposedly there is a statement which is a quotation from Sen and essentially that from Lincoln to the effect that the Nation of Islam does not have a great deal of support in the Negro community in this country by and large and a recent national poll of American Negroes found that leaders and rank-and-file according to their statistics supported the Reverend Martin Luther King somewhere over 90 percent whereas the support unfavorable rating that they gave Minister Muhammad was less than 20% and somewhere around forty five percent of them gave an unfavorable rating to mr. Muhammad what would your response be in terms of Baldwin's statement that this is a growing thing and the kinds of evidence that we have that there isn't much to it well that that statement I made just made concerning the Constitution is article 1 section 2 in the Constitution where it classifies us as chattel Baldwin did point out that mr. Muhammad has the only grassroot support and is the only one whose whole the following operates all functions on the mass vehicle and I think Baldwin told dr. Kenneth Clark that Martin Luther King is at the end of his rope now concerning the poll taken by Newsweek magazine I think you said that this was the leaders who said that who went with King and against mr. Mohammed around 90 percent I just told you a little while ago these leaders that they call leaders this included Lena Horne this included Dick Gregory and this included comedians comics trumpet players baseball players show me in the white community where a comedian is a white leader show me in the white community where our singer is a white leader or a dancer or a trumpet player is a white leader these aren't leaders these are puppets and clowns that have been set up over the white community and are over the black community by the white community and have been made celebrities and usually say exactly what they know that the white man wants to hear and it is an honor actually that they endorsed dr. Martin Luther King and were against the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that's actually an honor now when you say that they also in the same Newsweek poll magazine they I think the pollster said that he went into the Negro community and asked about the Muslims and many Negroes only asked that will I never heard of the Muslims who are they you know this is rank-and-file words oh yeah now and when they got down to the rank-and-file this was the answers that they got this is the equivalent the situation in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising when many frightened whites in Kenya Africa would go among the Africans and ask them what about the Mau Mau and the African was there I never heard of them and the same white man who would ask the African this question and very naively believed what the African said when he went to bed that night he would lose his head and usually the one who took his head was the same African who told him that afternoon he had never heard of the Mau Mau except in the Newsweek poll they used Negro interviewers you'll find that oftimes Negroes are as much on guard around Negro interviewers who usually represent the bourgeois element of Negroes as they are on guard around whites usually Negroes know that when this bourgeois Negro walks through the door he is not doing something that he's initiated himself but he's involved in something in which the white man is the absolute author of and has sent him to the Negro community some information and when they give that Negro some information usually they give him the information that they want the white want him to take back to the white man because that's who is going to take it back to our time is just about up Minister Malcolm and perhaps you could summarize and conclude by giving us in your opinion in the opinion of mr. Elijah Muhammad what would be the ideal solution to the racial problem in the United States today well on Thursday October the 3rd the New York Tribune in an editorial pointed out in Boston on an article called the Civil Rights iceberg they pointed out how Kennedy had realized that beneath the water the civil rights whole problem was political suicide because in his own hometown the head of the Board of Education a woman named mrs. Hicks was running against the n-double-a-cp philosophy and she swept aside all other opposition the whole white community supported her in opposition to the n-double-a-cp s desire for integrated schools integrated housing and otherwise so I say that to say this that even the Jewish Committee community which is supposed to be pro liberal when against the n-double-a-cp whites are against integration in practice but therefore it in principle so the only solution is separation and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that this can be brought about simply by letting our people be exposed to the truth about ourselves about the white men about our history and our condition in this country and once we are exposed to the complete truth there's things about things as they actually exist in this country the masses of black people will choose complete separation from this entire system political system economic system social system and whatever other aspect or description you are adjective you want to attach to it let us go back home to our own people live among our own kind and solve our own problems ourselves and if the white man doesn't want us to go back to our own people and live in our own country then since we can't get along together in peace on this country with white people let a separate part of this continent migrate to that separate territory let the government give us everything we need to establish our own independent economic system in society and thereby will be able to solve our own problems ourselves and prove that we are human beings and a part of the human family and can do for ourselves what other humans have done for themselves men will be able to stop blaming the white man for what he has done and stop begging the white man to solve our problems we'll be able to solve our problems ourselves thank you very much that's it

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Views: 3,100,699

Rating: 4.8666582 out of 5

Keywords: Kodak Black

Id: FZMrti8QcPA

Length: 40min 57sec (2457 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 11 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Malcolm was a real one ✊

[u/AnarchoTrucker]

His analysis of white liberals. The man had x-ray vision!

[u/freckles96]

I was just rewatching Fresh Prince a while ago, and can anybody remember when they 'tackled' Malcolm X? Something annoyed me about it then (with Vivian giving the rest of the whole of the rich white class flying colors on the project prior to this), and yeah, it still rubs me up the wrong way for some reason.

Sorry, yeah, I know it's kind of a non-sequitur, but whatever. It just felt like their socialist teachings were (and are still) being appropriated by a rich primarily white establishment (and you only need to look at the comments underneath that clip to see evidence of). I guess I'm just trying to make a point of how the teachings of guys like MLK and X have been hijacked over the years.

[u/Mr_Conductor_USA]

Well this is an interesting choice. Malcolm X was one of the most significant American public intellectuals of the 20th century, in my opinion THE most brilliant and significant, and he was an autodidact. He is a genuine radical. Much of what he says in this video is completely relevant in 2018.

On the other hand this video is firmly from his early phase when he treated Elijah Muhammed (a cult leader who took sexual advantage of women and financial advantage of his followers in general) as his father, brother, lord, and savior. NOI was not and is not a leftist organization (although it had a bit more left character in some ways in the 1960s because it had absorbed a lot of Black Nationalists to grow its ranks). It is reactionary.

Malcolm X after his pilgrimage to Mecca converted to Sunni Islam and rejected a lot of NOI's reactionary beliefs, including his opposition to racial integration that he talks about in this video.