Night editor; Rob Bier
Saturday, February ,21, 1970
Night Editor: Rob Bier Saturday. February 21, 1970
96
4
understand
his
ideas
By CAMILLE DALEY
Daily Guest Writer
IT IS HARD to believe that five years ago our revolutionary son
and brother, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, better known as Mal-
colm X, was assassinated while we stood and watched numbly -
doing nothing - some of us even cheered. It is hard to imagine
that Brother Malcolm, one of the most dynamic forces the black
community has produced in this century, is really dead and buried,
for his spirit, his revolutionary spirit, is still with us.
At a time when most of our "leaders" still placed faith in the
American political, economic and social systems, Brother Malcolm
saw the dangers of integrating into a power structure which is
built on racism. He felt that the corrupt institutions of the United
States would lead this country to its own downfall, in the same
way that other self-proclaimed great Syphilisations hai fallen.
The demise of the American economy and government would
not come about through any foreign aggression; rather, America
would fall from within unless the cancer of racism could be rooted
out. If this coutry can not grant freedom, justice, and equality to
all its citizens, then the oppressed people of this country will de-
stroy it. The hope of the future lies in the Afro-American struggle.
We must obtain our peace and security in this country.
BROTHER MALCOLM also realized the international character
of the liberation of his'people. He said:
"Colonialism or imperialism, as the slave system of the West
is called, is not something that is just confined to England or
France or the United States. The interests in this country are in
cahoots with the interests in France and the interests in Britain.
It's one huge complex or combine, and it creates what's known not
as the American power structure or the French power structure,
but an international power structure. This international power
structure is used to suppress the masses of dark-skinned people
all over the world and exploit them of their natural resources."
After his first trip to Africa, he became convinced that all
people of African descent, must unite and identify with their com-
mon struggle. We must work together to overcome the forces which
are working on us. Our primary tool was Brother Malcolm, who
helped brother in the United States, Africa, and the West Indies
cooperate and understand each other to -the point that a true
brotherhood is developing among all people of African descent.
REALIZING that organizations with too many differences
among them were only working against reaching the ultimate goal,
Brother Malcolm helped found the Organization of Afro-American
Unity (OAAU), whose goal was freedom and equality for all black
brothers and sisters, by any means necessary.
The OAAU is non-functional now, but its goals were copied
and expanded by many new black leaders. Brother Huey may not
have been inspired directly by them, but the ten-point platform
of the Black Panther Party is essentially the same as the basic
aims and objectives of the OAAU. The new revolutionary organiza-
tions have filled in where the U.S. government has failed in the
past: they are mobilizing the people for their own self-defense.
At a time when most people were still debating non-violence
and civil disobedience, Brother Malcolm repudiated them both:
"Tactics based solely on morality can only succeed when you
are dealing with basically moral people or a moral system. A man
or system which oppresses a man because of his color is not moral.
It is the duty of every Afro-American and every Afro-American
community throughout this country to protect its people against
mass murderers, bombers, lynchers, floggers, brutalizers and ex-
ploiters."
Brother Malcolm who was himself deemed unfit to compete
in the white educational system firmly believed that before we
could begin to move in any positive direction, we would have to
know about ourselves !in relation to our unique environment. He
sought a re-education, a debrainwashing of all brothers and sisters.
He challenged education.
"What is actually meant by theoretical or academic education?
The unity of theoretical education and the application of this
wealth of knowledge to the practical requirements and demands of
our liberation is a difficult challenge. A scholar in my opinion con-
stitutes a guiding light in a revolutionary period and is the bond
that unites the abstract and the concrete.
At a time when other "leaders" wanted integration into the
white schools because they were supposedly better, Brother Mal-
colm saw the solution in the development and improvement of
black education.
He saw the existing black schools as the foundation for a new
educational system, community control of schools. Now we have
followed through this ideology with the establishment of Black
Studies programs, liberation universities, Black Tutorial programs,
and schools run by the people of the community, in conjunction
with all-black faculty and administrastors.
BROTHER MALCOLM also saw the cultural phase of the
Black Revolution. An awareness of self would be the first step in
breaking the bonds of white supremacy hesaid. The black music-
ians, artists, poets and writers of today are trying to do this by
calling for both brotherhood and revolution.
No, Brother Malcolm is not dead, or even dying: in the im-
morality of his people he is reaching the potential he could have
never hoped to achieve during his lifetime. The universe has yet
to feel the full impact of his ideas.
"I
'4
Is
A man
By JOANN NICHOLS
Daily Guest Writer
CAPITALISM not only breeds
racism, but it also creates
people who revolt against that
racism. One such man was born
in 1925 and slaughtered in 1964
when he was on the brink of'
fulfilling his revolutionary ideas.
Malcolm X was bitterly aware
of the noose around the neck of
the black man in America. He
had journeyed nearly every path
in America accessible to black
men. At the age of four, 'Mal-
colm's home was burned down
by Klanners. Shortly afterwards,
his father met a violent death
as a result of a lynching party.
In many ways, Malcolm's life
was like a chronicle of black sur-
vival in America. Living in
poverty and a victim of educa-
tion and social deprivation, he
saw at an early age that he
would have to fight to survive.
FROM THIS BEGINNING the
pervasive racism in America
continued to mold Malcolm into
a bitter social reactionary. His
survival depended entirely on
his ability and willingness to
strike back at the society which
deprived him. His stealing at the
age of twelve was a result of
want and the absence of an
honest avenue to satisfy his de-
sires. At 15, he dropped out of
school and worked at the j o b s
available to Negro youth -
and his ideas
shoeshine boy, soda jerk, hotel
bus boy, porter, waiter and even
a job as a cook.
Befora long, however, his ca-
reer as a hustling "boy" drift-
ed into the more exciting life of
the underworld - gambling,
drugs, and burglary, until a
burglary conviction for ten years
in prison in 1946; he was 21.
- IN PRISON, Malcolm was in-
troduced to the teachings of Eli-
jah Muhammad. He experienc-
ed a genuine religious conver-
sion, believing that theNation
of Islam 'provided, a path of
salvation not only for him but
for his people.
In March, 1963, an incident
occurred in New York which dis-
played the growing strength of
the Muslims and the re-emer-
gence of Malcolm X as a leader.
A cruising New York police
car stopped an automobile with
a black driver, and rather than
follow the usual procedures of
requesting a license, they pull-
ed the driver out and with no
provocation, began beating him.
until the victim slumped out on
the street. One ,of the men in
the gathering crowd was a Mus-
lim, and he questioned the ac-
tions of the police. Immediate-
ly, they pounced on him, took
him to jail, and didn't even
bother stating the nature of the
"crime" that had been commit-
ted.
However, in 15 minutes, 300
angry, unrelenting Black Mus-
lims had converged on the police
station. Suddenly Malcolm emer-
gad from the throng and in-
formed the police that unless
they were willing to have harm
inflicted on their property and
their person, he would advise
that his Brother was set free.
The Muslim was freed, Malcolm
stepped outside, raised his hands,
and in an instant the crowd dis-
persed.
ALTHOUGH JOINING t h e
Black Muslim religion was t h e
turning point in Malcolm's life,
the most essential change was
his split with it.
The occassion for the split
was a remark nmade by Mal-
colm after Pres. John F. Ken-
nedy's death in November 1963;
followedby, Muhammad'srsilenc-
ing of Malcolm with a virtual
suspension that was intention-
ally humiliating. But that was
only the excuse, not the cause.
The cause was that Malcolm
felt that the black man should
be helped immediately by the ap-
plicatioh of realistic ideas;
whereas Muhammad believed in
spiritual changes through theo-
retical concepts.
When Malcolm was awaken-
ing Black masses in the country
to the realization that black un-
ity and self-defense should be
the strongholds, he was lashed at
by blatant, racist, newspapers;
with the most deplorable slander
coming on the day of his death
from none less than The New
York Times:
"He was a case history, as well
as an extraordinary and twisted
man, turning many true gifts
to evil purpose... his ruth-
less and fanatical be~ef in vio-
lence . . . marked him for fame,
and for a violent end . . . he
did not fit into society or into
the life of his own people.
yesterday someone came out of
the darkness that he spawned
and killed him."
Malcolm X lives today; in a
spirit too turbulent to quiet,
too fiery to quench; and his
abiding beliefs are more relevant
today than they where when he
proposed them:
-Negroes can get their free-
dom only by fighting for it;
-The government is a racist
government and is not going to
grant freedom;
lI
A
4
-Malcoin
ALAN DOUGLAS.
Daily Guest Writer
FOR ABOUT 350 years, black people have
been living on this continent among
white people. Nearly every detail of their
lives has been dominated by the white
society. In order to obtain some degree of
security for themselves and their families,
it was necssary for'these blacks to accept
the white dictates-no matter how oppres-
sive and dehumanizing.
But there have always been a few blacks
who were unwilling to accept life on the
terms dictated to them by this racist so-
ciety. These people found it necessary to
sacrifice a secure life in order to obtain
self-dignity and a sense of nrnnse
N
A
least 19 Panthers, including Mi
Defense Huey P. Newton, have be
According to Chairman Bobby S4
is himself incarcerated, over 1001
are now in jail.
THE LENGTHS to which An
willing to go in order to suppre
who defy her were clearly displ
cently in the "trial" of Bobby S
was charged with violation of Pu
901284, chapter 102, the "Anti-R
This law which imposes, five y
prisonment and/or a $10,000 fine
one who travels from one state to
writes a letter, sends a telegram
beginning
nister of this travesty of justice and continued to
en killed. demand his rights, Judge Hoffman even-
eale who, tually attempted to silence him and keep
Panthers him seated by having him gagged ard
chained to his chair.
But it was not enough.
erica is Judge Hoffman, in declaring a mistrial
ass those and sentencing Seale to an unprecedented
eale who four-years imprisonment for contempt of
blie Law court, said:
ibli" Lawt"I find that the acts; statements and
iot" Act. conduct of the defendant Bobby Seale
ears im- constituted a deliberate and wilful attack
on any- upon the administration of justice, an at-
another, tempt to sabotage the functioning of the
n, makes Federal Judical System."