an original man

“Interestingly, the relationship between the Nation of Islam and its closest ideological component in the white community went beyond common ideology and rhetoric. During a secret meeting in Atlanta on the night of January 28, 1961, Malcolm X and Jeremiah X, the local Muslim minister, met with members of the KKK to discuss their mutual hostility toward integration. According to the accounts of Malcolm X and an FBI informant present at the conference, the two sides exchanged views on race, and the New York minister went so far as to attribute the whole struggle for integration to a Jewish conspiracy carried out by unsuspecting blacks. He also intimated that the Klan should kill those whites who advocated integration. Besides swapping platitudes with segregationists, the ultimate reason for attendance of Muhammad's representatives at the gathering appears to have been to protect Southern mosques from the threat of destruction at the hands of a revitalized Klan. Toward this purpose, they negotiated a non-aggression pact with the Klansmen specifying that Muslim affairs in the South would not be censured by the KKK as long as the Nation did not aid civil rights efforts there. “The KKK's motive for meeting with the Muslims was apparently to maintain segregation by bolstering the Nation of Islam as a viable vehicle of nationhood for African-Americans. Klan negotiators, according to one source, may have offered the Muslims as much as twenty thousand acres of Georgian land for use as a settlement for black separatists. In general the nocturnal dealings of the Nation of Islam and the Invisible Empire were mutually advantageous, and to some extent both sides seem to have kept their promises. Following the conference, Malcolm X, who would later regret his collusion with Klansmen, dutifully reported to Chicago the land offering made by the KKK. As for Jeremiah X, the Atlanta minister was now in good standing with the powerful Klan of the Peace[sic] State. He would later be warmly be received at KKK meetings as the representative of the Nation of Islam. … “The interactions between Muslims and white supremacists can only be explained in relation to the political context of the early 1960's and the organizational interests of the Nation of Islam. These contacts were probably not intended to result in working partnerships with segregationists, but instead, to preclude confrontations between Muslims and white racists and to increase membership. Muhammad recognized the growing strength of the Klan in the South and, like Marcus Garvey, chose to negotiate a truce before a war could break out between mosques and klaverns. In the event of hostilities, the outnumbered Muslims could not fight off a Klan onslaught, not to mention their silent supporters in Southern police departments and the general population. The options were between extinction and adjustment, and the Muslims chose the latter. “In regard to Rockwell, the decision to sanction his appearance at Muslim meetings was actually a recruitment ploy. The Nazi leader was supposed to represent a brutally honest white man who spoke “for all white[s].” He was a sort of bugbear that Muhammad used to scare blacks into the Nation of Islam. While these tactics perhaps gained the group some immediate benefits, cooperation between Muslims and white racists, albeit perhaps pragmatic at the time, certainly carried a price, as it had for Garvey's UNIA. Arguably, black nationalism as a philosophy and a program is potentially progressive when aimed at eliminating or minimizing the influence of those institutions, forces, and groups that have historically oppressed African-Americans. However, when black separatists seek accommodation and rapprochement with racists and reactionary elements of society, they compromise the moral force behind their struggle for liberation regardless of how noble their intentions may be. To a certain extent, Muhammad had done exactly that by entertaining the Georgia Klan and countenancing Rockwell. Even worse, he had allowed the nation to stray dangerously close to the ideological pathway of white supremacy.” pp. 152-153, 154-155, “Trials and Tribulations,” AN ORIGINAL MAN: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, by Claude Andrew Clegg III (St. Martin's Press, New York, NY: 1997)