heard more blunt criticism of Malcolm X than ever before in his career. There were, variously
expressed, two primary complaints. One was that actually Malcolm X only talked, but other civilrights
organizations were doing. "All he's ever done was talk, CORE and SNCC and some of
them people of Dr. King's are out getting beat over the head." The second major complaint was
that Malcolm X was himself too confused to be seriously followed any longer. "He doesn't know
what he believes in. No sooner do you hear one thing than he's switched to something else."
The two complaints were not helping the old firebrand Malcolm X image any, nor were they
generating the local public interest that was badly needed by his small, young OAAU.
A court had made it clear that Malcolm X and his family would have to vacate the Elmhurst house
for its return to the adjudged legal owners, Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam. And other
immediate problems which Malcolm X faced included finances. Among his other expenses, a wife
and four daughters had tobe supported, along with at least one full-time OAAU official. Upon his
return from Africa, our agent for the book had delivered to me for Malcolm X a check for a sizable
sum; soon afterward Malcolm X told me, laughing wryly, "It's evaporated. I don't know where!"
Malcolm X plunged into a welter of activities. He wrote and telephoned dozens of acceptances to
invitations to speak, predominantly at colleges and universities-both to expound his philosophies
and to earn the $150-$300 honorariums above traveling expenses. When he was in New York
City, he spent all the time he could in his OAAU's sparsely furnished office on the mezzanine floor
of the Hotel Theresa, trying to do something about the OAAU's knotty problems. "I'm not exposing
our size in numbers," he evaded the query of one reporter. "You know, the strongest part of a tree
is the root, and if you expose the root, the tree dies. Why, we have many 'invisible' members, of
all types. Unlike other leaders, I've practiced the flexibility to put myself into contact with every
kind of Negro in the country."
Even at mealtimes, at his favorite Twenty Two Club, or elsewhere in Harlem, he could scarcely
eat for the people who came up asking for appointments to discuss with him topics ranging from
personal problems to his opinions on international issues. It seemed not in him to say "No" to
such requests. And aides of his, volunteering their time, as often as not had to wait lengthy
periods to get his ear for matters important to the OAAU, or to himself; often, even then, he most
uncharacteristically showed an impatience with their questions or their suggestions, and they
chafed visibly. And at least once weekly, generally on Sunday evenings, he would address as
many Negroes as word of mouth and mimeographed advertising could draw to hear him in
Harlem's Audubon Ballroom on West 166th Street between Broadway and St. Nicholas Avenue,
near New York City's famous Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.
Malcolm X for some reason suddenly began to deliver a spate of attacks againstElijah
Muhammad, making more bitter accusations of "religious fakery" and "immorality" than he ever
had. Very possibly, Malcolm X had grown increasingly incensed by the imminence of the court's
deadline for him to have to move his wife and four little daughters from the comfortable home in
which they had lived for years in Elmhurst. And Sister Betty was again pregnant. "A home is really
the only thing I've ever provided Betty since we've been married," he had told me, discussing the
court's order, "and they want to take that away. Man, I can't keep on putting her through changes,
all she's put up with-man, I've got to love this woman!"
A rash of death threats were anonymously telephoned to the police, to various newspapers, to the
OAAU office, and to the family's home in Elmhurst. When he went to court again, fighting to keep
the house, he was guarded by a phalanx of eight OAAU men, twenty uniformed policemen, and
twelve plain-clothes detectives. The court's decision was that the order to vacate would not be
altered. When Malcolm X reached home in Long Island, one of his followers, telephoning him
there, got, instead, a telephone company operator who said that the OL 1-6320 number was
"disconnected." A carload of his OAAU followers, racing to Long Island, found Malcolm X and his
family perfectly safe. Inquiry of the telephone company revealed that a "Mrs. Small" had called
and requested that the service for that number be disconnected, "for vacation." The OAAU
followers drove back to Harlem. There was an ensuing confrontation between them and followers
of Elijah Muhammad in front of the Black Muslim restaurant at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue.
The incident wound up with policemen who rushed to the scene finding two guns in the OAAU
darsice
(darsice)
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