A Policy Of Apartheid

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30682, 23 February 1965, Page 13

A Policy Of Apartheid

Malcolm X, who often advocated violence to settle racial problems, suggested that an American Mau Mau was needed to force whites in the United States into giving Negroes first-class citizenship.

He also called for the formation of Negro rifle clubs to allow Negroes to defend themselves in the South.

Since his . emergence as Elijah Muhammed’s righthand man in the Black Muslim movement several years ago, Malcolm X was steeped in controversy. He broke with the Black Muslims about two years ago after what was believed to be a power struggle with the elderly Muhammed, and this caused a major rift in the militant Negro movement. Since then, there has been a verbal battle between the Chicago-based Muslims and Malcolm, whose headquarters were in the Teresa Hotel in the heart of Harlem.

Malcolm advocated an apartheid society in the United States, once asking for three states to be set aside entirely for Negroes. Largely self-educated, Malcolm was often seen at the United Nations headquarters in New York, attending receptions given by African nations.

His suspension from the Black Muslims was officially based by the Muslims an comments he made after the assassination of President Kennedy.

Malcolm had said the assassination was “the chickens coming home to roost.” He then set up his own movement called the Organisation of Afro-American Unity, announcing a call for Negro intellectual recruits who favoured racial separation but who could not accept the Muslim religion. Cassius Clay, the world heavy-weight boxing champion ; who prefers to be known as Muhammed Ali, is a member of the Black Muslims; but he remained on friendly terms

with Malcolm after the latter broke away. Two weeks ago Malcolm flew from London to Paris but was back within a few hours after French police barred him from entering. Interior Ministry officials said it was felt his presence might cause trouble. Earlier this month he visited the racially-conscious industrial town of Smethwick in the English Midlands.

In a television Interview, he said: “The blacks in Smethwick are being treated in the same way as the Negroes were treated in Alabama—like Hitler treated the Jews.” If he was a coloured immigrant he would not wait until the Fascists had built the gas ovens, he said. Last December he received a long ovation when he spoke in an Oxford Union debate on extremism. The son of a Baptist preacher, he was born in Omaha, Nebraska, -ffne of 10 children of the Rev. and Mrs Earl Little.

Soon after, he was born, the family moved to Milwaukee and in his early life he was told vivid stories by his mother of Ku Klux Klan night raids on the Little’s Nebraska home. His father was active in recruitment for the “back-to-Africa” movement of the Negro nationalist, Marcus Garvey. After Malcolm began school, his family moved to a white neighbourhood in Lansing, Michigan, where their home burned to the ground. Two years later, Mr Little was found under a street car, beaten to death. “My father was the colour of this,” Malcolm once said as he pointed to his black shoes. “And njy mother, whose mother was raped by a white man, was light enough to pass for white. I hate every drop of white blood in me because it is the blood of a rapist.” He ran away from home at the age of 11 and, after escaping from a detention home, spent three years with a half-sister in Boston. At 15, he went to New York where, lying about his age, he was hired as a railway worker. He lost the job and fell into the world of Harlem crime and narcotics trade. In 1945. he returned to Boston where he was arrested for burglary and sentenced to eight to 10 years in prison. By then he was addicted to drink and narcotics.

In prison, Malcolm became interested in reading, and the correct use of English became an obsession with him.

Another convict, he said, influenced him to give up dope, drink, tobacco and loose living and to improve his meagre education.

He became a Muslim while in gaol, and was paroled in 1952 after serving . six years and five months. In recent years, particularly since his break with the Muslims, Malcolm has identified the Negro struggle in America with that of the nations of Africa. He recently toured Egypt and other countries of Africa.