Why was Malcolm Resurrected?

In the spring of 1991 at a Chicago Bulls practice, Michael Jordan came to the gym wearing an “X” cap. “X” paraphernalia was popping up everywhere as Spike Lee began his promotional campaign for his soon-to-be-released movie Malcolm X. The movie was scheduled to be released in 1992, but caps and T-shirts were being sold everywhere by the summer of 1991.

Minister Louis Farrakhan was growing in strength and popularity, even though members of the Jewish community wanted him dead. He had been touring Black America and Black college campuses on a “Stop the Killing” campaign to stop Black-on-Black violence. The youth were becoming more politicized with the release of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in 1990. The system had to put a stop to this activism before it got out of hand. Why was Malcolm being “resurrected” at this time? Who would benefit?

In his book Racial Matters: The FBI’s Secret File on Black America, 1960—1972 (1989), Kenneth O’Reilly describes the purpose of a special division of the FBI: “Division Five also worked to ‘prevent the rise of a “messiah”–someone ‘who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement.’ Malcolm X had been the most likely candidate, but his assassination removed that threat. Malcolm was simply ‘the martyr of the movement today.’” Notice that the FBI did not specify Black “messiah,” because the wise Whites of this world know that the real “Children of Israel” are Black. They have always known that the Jesus of history was Black and the Christ to come would be “Black.” (See Final Call articles “Was Jesus Black?” and “Color Struck: America’s White Jesus Is a Global Export.”

Malcolm X, considered a “threat” to the established White order, was “removed” in 1965, but he had to be brought back to life at a later time to be used to stop the rise of Farrakhan, “who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement.” At the time of his assassination Malcolm was not liked by White journalists, but after his death he was used by white journalists to cause mischief. The New York Times is America’s “newspaper of record” and this quote is from an editorial published February 22, 1965, the day after Malcolm’s murder:

“Malcolm X had the ingredients for leadership, but his ruthless and fanatical belief in violence not only set him apart from the responsible leaders of the civil rights movement and the overwhelming majority of Negroes. It also marked him for notoriety, and for a violent end.”

This, from a 1963 Playboy interview, is what Malcolm thought about the Jews:

“Anybody that gives even a just criticism of the Jew is instantly labeled anti-Semite. The Jew cries louder than anybody else if anybody criticizes him. You can tell the truth about any minority in America, but make a true observation about the Jew, and if it doesn’t pat him on the back, then he uses his grip on the news media to label you anti-Semite. Let me say just a word about the Jew and the Black man. The Jew is always anxious to advise the Black man. But they never advise him how to solve his problem the way the Jews solved their problem. The Jew never went sitting-in and crawling-in and freedom-riding, like he teaches and helps Negroes to do. The Jews stood up, and stood together, and they used their ultimate power, the economic weapon. That’s exactly what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is trying to teach Black men to do.”

Not a loved fella by either White Gentiles or Jews, but by 1999 he was on a U.S. postage stamp. Why was his image cleaned up? The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan related an encounter with a leading Jewish religious leader, Rabbi Marx, who told him: “You’re a very talented person. You could go a long way and nobody in history that has been an enemy of the Jewish people has ever been written of well in history, and we want you to be written of in history as a friend of the Jewish community.” And then he, in front of Rabbi Shalman, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Irv Kupcinet, George O’Hare (an Irish Catholic), and a few other rabbis, said: “If you do all these … things [on a list of demands], we will clean up your image.”

When Malcolm died, he was considered “an enemy of the Jewish people.” So why did they “clean up” his image? Manning Marable, in Black Routes to Islam (2009), described how The Autobiography of Malcolm X was put together by Alex Haley:

“In late 1963, Haley was particularly worried about what he viewed as Malcolm X’s anti-Semitism. He therefore rewrote material to eliminate a number of negative statements about Jews in the book manuscript, with the explicit covert goal of ‘getting them past Malcolm X,’ without his coauthor’s knowledge or consent. Thus, the censorship of Malcolm X had begun well prior to his assassination.”

After he was killed they even tried to make Malcolm a “civil rights leader” instead of a “Black nationalist.”

In 1994 Minister Farrakhan announced plans to stage a Million Man March to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., and began a “Men’s Only” tour of the country promoting the March. By the end of 1994, a documentary was produced called “Brother Minister: The Assassination of Malcolm X,” which was used by Gabe Pressman to lure Betty Shabazz into a trap and confrontation with Minister Farrakhan that they hoped would stir up division and break the spirit of the 1995 Million Man March. Not only was the March successful–2 million men showed up–but Betty Shabazz even spoke at the March to further the process of reconciliation.

Okay, resurrecting Malcolm in 1991 and 1994 did not stop the rise of a “messiah,” so they put Malcolm away, only to be resurrected again as Minister Farrakhan starts a campaign to prove that Black people are “The Real Children of Israel” and White so-called Jews are imposters. In 2012 Minister Farrakhan brings in scientists at the Nation of Islam’s Saviours’ Day Convention that prove that “9/11 was an inside job.” Also in 2012, Minister Farrakhan went back to the streets to stop Black-on-Black crime and began touring college campuses to prevent the mental genocide of Black students. He has a major presence on Twitter and has embarked on a 52-week lecture series on the Internet called “The Time and What Must Be Done,” where he is speaking directly to Black and White people alike.

This time they don’t just resurrect Malcolm and put words in his mouth, they resurrect Betty Shabazz, who passed away in 1997, and manipulate her words to try once more to stop the rise of a “messiah” for Black people. They did this act through the Lifetime movie called “Betty and Coretta.” However, there is an antidote for this poison. Please continue to read The Final Call and go to www.NOI.org to view Minister Ava Muhammad’s definitive defense of Minister Farrakhan and let us allow our brother Malcolm X to rest in peace.

(Ridgely A. Mu’min Muhammad, Ph.D., is an Agricultural Economist and a member of the Nation of Islam Research Group. Visit www.noirg.org and join the conversation on FaceBook.com/NOIResearch and Twitter @ NOIResearch)