about. My not talking to her wouldn't give her any reason to think anything, since there had never
been one personal word spoken between us-even if she had thought anything.
I studied about if I just should happen to say something to her-what would her position be?
Because she wasn't going to get any chance to embarrass me. I had heard too many women
bragging, "I told that chump 'Get lost!'" I'd had too much experience of the kind to make a man
very cautious.
I knew one good thing; she had few relatives. My feeling about in-laws was that they were
outlaws. Right among the Temple Seven Muslims, I had seen more marriages destroyed by in-
laws, usually anti-Muslim, than any other single thing I knew of.
I wasn't about to say any of that romance stuff that Hollywood and television had filled women's
heads with. If I was going to do something, I was going to do it directly. And anything I was going
to do, I was going to do my way. And because I wanted to do it. Not because I saw
somebody do it. Or read about it in a book. Or saw it in a moving picture somewhere.
I told Mr. Muhammad, when I visited him in Chicago that month, that I wasthinking about a very
serious step. He smiled when he heard what it was.
I told him I was just thinking about it, that was all. Mr. Muhammad said that he'd like to meet this
sister.
The Nation by this time was financially able to bear the expenses so that instructor sisters from
different temples could be sent to Chicago to attend the Headquarters Temple Two women's
classes, and, while there, to meet The Honorable Elijah Muhammad in person. Sister Betty X, of
course, knew all about this, so there was no reason for her to think anything of it when it was
arranged for her to go to Chicago. And like all visiting instructor sisters, she was the house guest
of the Messenger and Sister Clara Muhammad.
Mr. Muhammad told me that he thought that Sister Betty X was a fine sister.
If you are thinking about doing a thing, you ought to make up your mind if you are going to do it,
or not do it. One Sunday night, after the Temple Seven meeting, I drove my car out on the Garden
State Parkway. I was on my way to visit my brother Wilfred, in Detroit. Wilfred, the year before, in
1957, had been made the minister of Detroit's Temple One. I hadn't seen him, or any of my family,
in a good while.
It was about ten in the morning when I got inside Detroit. Getting gas at a filling station, I just went
to their pay phone on a wall; I telephoned Sister Betty X. I had to get Information to get the
number of the nurses' residence at this hospital. Most numbers I memorized, but I had always
made it some point never to memorize her number. Somebody got her to the phone finally. She
said, "Oh, hello, Brother Minister-" I just said it to her direct: "Look, do you want to get married?"
Naturally, she acted all surprised and shocked.
The more I have thought about it, to this day I believe she was only putting on an act. Because
women know. They know.
She said, just like I knew she would, "Yes." Then I said, well, I didn't have a whole lot of time,
she'd better catch a plane to Detroit.
So she grabbed a plane. I met her foster parents who lived in Detroit. They had made up by this
time. They were very friendly, and happily surprised. At least, they acted that way.
Then I introduced Sister Betty X at my oldest brother Wilfred's house. I had already asked him
where people could get married without a whole lot of mess and waiting. He told me in Indiana.