Substantially, as I saw it, the organization I hoped to build would differ from the Nation of Islam in
that it would embrace all faiths of black men, and it would carry into practice what the Nation of
Islam had only preached.
Rumors were swirling, particularly in East Coast cities-what was I going to do? Well, the first thing
I was going to have to do was to attract far more willing heads and hands than my own. Each day,
more militant, action brothers who had been with me in Mosque Seven announced their break
from the Nation of Islam to come with me. And each day, I learned, in one or another way, of more
support from non-Muslim Negroes, including a surprising lot of the "middle" and "upper class"
black bourgeoisie, who were sick of the status-symbol charade. There was a growing clamor:
"When are you going to call a meeting, to get organized?"
To hold a first meeting, I arranged to rent the Carver Ballroom of the Hotel Theresa, which is at
the corner of 125th Street and Seventh Avenue, which might be called one of Harlem's fuse-box
locations.
The Amsterdam News reported the planned meeting and many readers inferred that we were
establishing our beginning mosque in the Theresa. Telegrams and letters and telephone calls
came to the hotel for me, from across the country. Their general tone was that this was a move
that people had waitedfor. People I'd never heard of expressed confidence in me in moving ways.
Numerous people said that the Nation of Islam's stringent moral restrictions had repelled them-
and they wanted to join me.
A doctor who owned a small hospital telephoned long-distance to join. Many others sent
contributions-even before our policies had been publicly stated. Muslims wrote from other cities
that they would join me, their remarks being generally along the lines that "Islam is too inactive"..
."The Nation is moving too slow."
Astonishing numbers of white people called, and wrote, offering contributions, or asking could
they join? The answer was, no, they couldn't join; our membership was all black-but if their
consciences dictated, they could financially help our constructive approach to America's race
problems.
Speaking-engagement requests came in-twenty-two of them in one particular Monday morning's
mail. It was startling to me that an unusual number of the requests came from groups of white
Christian ministers.
I called a press conference. The microphones stuck up before me. The flashbulbs popped. The
reporters, men and women, white and black, representing media that reached around the world,
sat looking at me with their pencils and open notebooks.
I made the announcement: "I am going to organize and head a new mosque in New York City
known as the Muslim Mosque, Inc. This will give us a religious base, and the spiritual force
necessary to rid our people of the vices that destroy the moral fiber of our community.
"Muslim Mosque, Inc. will have its temporary headquarters in the HotelTheresa in Harlem. It will
be the working base for an action program designed to eliminate the political oppression, the
economic exploitation, and the social degradation suffered daily by twenty-two million Afro-
Americans."
Then the reporters began firing questions at me.
It was not all as simple as it may sound. I went few places without constant awareness that any