"We, the black people here in America, we never have been free to find out what we really
can do! We have knowledge and experience to pool to do for ourselves! All of our lives we
have farmed-we can grow our own food. We can set up factories to manufacture our own
necessities! We can build other kinds of businesses, to establish trade, and commerce-and
become independent, as other civilized people are-
"We can throw off our brainwashing, and our self-hate, and live as brothers together...
"... some land of our own!... Something for ourselves!... leave this white slavemaster to
himself... ."
Mr. Muhammad always stopped abruptly when he was unable to speak any longer.
The standing ovation, a solid wall of sound, would go on unabating.
Standing up there, flailing my arms, finally I could quiet the audiences as Fruit of Islam ushers
began to pass along the seating rows the large, waxed paperbuckets we used to take up the
collection. I would speak.
"You know, from what you have just heard, that no white money finances The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad and his program-to 'advise' him and 'contain' him! Mr. Muhammad's program, and his
followers, are not 'integrated.' Mr. Muhammad's program and organization are all-black!
"We are the only black organization that only black people support! These so-called 'Negro
progress' organizations-Why, they insult your intelligence, claiming they are fighting in your
behalf, to get you the equal rights you are asking for... claiming they are fighting the white
man who refuses to give you your rights. Why, the white man supports those organizations! If
you belong, you pay your two, or three, or five dollars a year-but who gives those organizations
those two, and three, and five thousand dollar donations? The white man! He feeds those
organizations! So he controls those organizations! He advises them-so he contains them!
Use your common sense-aren't you going to advise and control and contain anyone that you
support, like your child?
"The white man would love to support Mr. Elijah Muhammad. Because if Mr. Muhammad had to
rely on his support, he could advise Mr. Muhammad. My black brothers and sisters, it is only
because your money, black money, supports Mr. Muhammad, that he can hold these allblack
meetings from city to city, telling us black men the truth! That's why we are asking for
your all-black support!"
Nearly all bills-and far from all one-dollar bills, either, filled the waxed buckets. The buckets were
swiftly emptied, then refilled, as the Fruit of Islam ushers covered the entire audience.
The audience atmosphere was almost as if the people had gone limp. The collections always
covered the rally expenses, and anything beyond that helped to continue building the Nation of
Islam.
After several big rallies, Mr. Muhammad directed that we would admit the white press. Fruit of
Islam men thoroughly searched them, as everyone else was searched-their notebooks, their
cameras, camera cases, and whatever else they carried. Later, Mr. Muhammad said that any
whites who wanted to hear the truth could attend our public rallies, until a small separate section
for whites was filled.
Most whites who came were students and scholars. I would watch their congealed and reddened
faces staring up at Mr. Muhammad. "The white man knows that his acts have been those of a
devil!" I would watch also the faces of the professional black men, the so-called intellectuals who
attacked us. They possessed the academic know-how, they possessed the technical and the
scientific skills that could help to lead their mass of poor, black brothers out of our condition. But
all these intellectual and professional black men could seem to think of was humbling themselves,
and begging, trying to "integrate" with the so-called "liberal" white man who was telling them, "In
time... everything's going to work out one day... just wait and have patience." These
intellectual and professional Negroes couldn't use what they knew for the benefit of their own
black kind simply because even among themselves they were disunited. United among
themselves, united with their own kind, they could have benefited black people all over the world!
I would watch the faces of those intellectual and professional Negroes growing grave, and set-as
the truth hit home to them. We were watched. Our telephones were tapped. Still right today, on
darsice
(darsice)
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