no one in the Nation of Islam had any anticipation of the kind of thing that would happen in
Harlem one night.
Two white policemen, breaking up a street scuffle between some Negroes, ordered other Negro
passers-by to "Move on!" Of these bystanders, two happened to be Muslim brother Johnson
Hinton and another brother of Temple Seven. They didn't scatter and run the way the white cops
wanted. Brother Hinton was attacked with nightsticks. His scalp was split open, and a police car
came and he was taken to a nearby precinct.
The second brother telephoned our restaurant. And with some telephone calls,in less than half an
hour about fifty of Temple Seven's men of the Fruit of Islam were standing in ranks-formation
outside the police precinct house.
Other Negroes, curious, came running, and gathered in excitement behind the Muslims. The
police, coming to the station house front door, and looking out of the windows, couldn't believe
what they saw. I went in, as the minister of Temple Seven, and demanded to see our brother. The
police first said he wasn't there. Then they admitted he was, but said I couldn't see him. I said that
until he was seen, and we were sure he received proper medical attention, the Muslims would
remain where they were.
They were nervous and scared of the gathering crowd outside. When I saw our Brother Hinton, it
was all I could do to contain myself. He was only semi-conscious. Blood had bathed his head and
face and shoulders. I hope I never again have to withstand seeing another case of sheer police
brutality like that.
I told the lieutenant in charge, "That man belongs in the hospital." They called an ambulance.
When it came and Brother Hinton was taken to Harlem Hospital, we Muslims followed, in loose
formations, for about fifteen blocks along Lenox Avenue, probably the busiest thoroughfare in
Harlem. Negroes who never had seen anything like this were coming out of stores and
restaurants and bars and enlarging the crowd following us.
The crowd was big, and angry, behind the Muslims in front of Harlem Hospital. Harlem's black
people were long since sick and tired of police brutality. And they never had seen any
organization of black men take a firm stand as we were.
A high police official came up to me, saying "Get those people out of there." I told him that our
brothers were standing peacefully, disciplined perfectly, and harming no one. He told me those
others, behind them, weren't disciplined. Ipolitely told him those others were his problem.
When doctors assured us that Brother Hinton was receiving the best of care, I gave the order and
the Muslims slipped away. The other Negroes' mood was ugly, but they dispersed also, when we
left. We wouldn't learn until later that a steel plate would have to be put into Brother Hinton's skull.
(After that operation, the Nation of Islam helped him to sue; a jury awarded him over $70, 000,
the largest police brutality judgment that New York City has ever paid. )
For New York City's millions of readers of the downtown papers, it was, at that time, another one
of the periodic "Racial Unrest in Harlem" stories. It was not played up, because of what had
happened. But the police department, to be sure, pulled out and carefully studied the files on the
Nation of Islam, and appraised us with new eyes. Most important, in Harlem, the world's most
heavily populated black ghetto, the Amsterdam News made the whole story headline news,
and for the first time the black man, woman, and child in the streets were discussing "those
Muslims."
darsice
(darsice)
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