THE ASSASSINATION OF THE CENTURY: AN EXAMINATION OF MALCOLM

X’S SPEECH ENTITLED “THE RACE PROBLEM IN AMERICA”

Michael Banerjee History 465: The Post World War II Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Sanders December 16, 2014

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On Wednesday, January 23, 1963, Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam’s

redheaded and black-skinned firebrand, delivered a scintillating speech entitled “The

Race Problem in America” at Michigan State University’s Erickson Kiva, in Lansing,

Michigan.1 While the speech is known most commonly for its discussion of the “House

Negro” and “Field Negro,” it is significant in other ways as well. Not only did the speech

put on display Malcolm’s virtuosity as a rhetor and orator, it also served as a timely,

sweeping attack on the leaders of the mainstream civil rights organizations, known

collectively as the “Big Six.”2 The “Big Six” represented the element of the civil rights

movement that was characterized by an adherence to nonviolence, middle class values,

and the overarching goal of improving the condition of black people in America by way

of integration into mainstream white society. In the speech, Malcolm sought to discredit,

or to rhetorically assassinate, the “Big Six” as a whole by first discrediting the beliefs to

which they adhered.

To understand the significance of the Michigan State University address, one

must first understand the events that precipitated it. Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little

to Earl Little, Sr. and Louise Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska at the

University Hospital.3 Earl Little, Sr. was a preacher and staunch supporter of the father

of Black Nationalism, Marcus Garvey.4 Malcolm’s birth coincided uncannily well with

                                                                                                               1  “Red Tape Blog,” Michigan State University, last modified June 22, 2014, http://blogpublic.lib.msu.edu/index.php/june-22-1963-malcolm-x?blog=5. 2 Jermaine Spradley, "The Big Six Organizers of the March on Washington: Where Are They Now?," last modified August 28, 2013, The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/big-six-march-on-washington_n_3826958.html. 3 Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (New York, 2011), 23.  4  Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 20.  

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the “apex of [Ku Klux] Klan activity in Nebraska.”5 Due to the extensive involvement of

both Earl and Louise in Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, the family

faced the constant threat of violence at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan and the Black

Legion (a Ku Klux Klan off-shoot), and relocated several times before eventually settling

down in Lansing, Michigan, when Malcolm was no more than four years old.6 It is

during the twelve years the Little family called Lansing home that Malcolm’s father

would be murdered, his mother would be committed to the Kalamazoo State Hospital,

and Malcolm himself would become a ward of the state.7

After Malcolm’s tumultuous time in Lansing, he moved on to Boston to live with

his half-sister, Ella Collins, in 1941.8 The two shared a father but besides that could find

little common ground. Ella would eventually be admitted, much like Malcolm’s mother,

to a mental hospital.9 It was in Boston that Malcolm learned to negotiate the streets, in

addition to picking up a habit of smoking “reefer” and running “numbers.”10 Malcolm

began to straighten his hair by way of “conking,” a practice he would continue until his

incarceration five years later.11 Malcolm secured “a job on a railroad line as a fourth-

class cook,”12 and by virtue of his employment, Malcolm was able to travel extensively,

selling marijuana and visiting cities such as New York and Washington, D.C.13 Malcolm

eventually fell in love with New York City and decided to migrate to the Big Apple.

                                                                                                               5 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 23. 6 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 23-25.  7  Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 36. 8 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 39. 9 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 40.  10  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 43.  11  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 45.  12  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 48.  13  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 50.  

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After a sojourn in Harlem, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and a group of his

associates would commit, and subsequently be arrested for, an infamous string of

burglaries.14 Malcolm “received three concurrent six-to-eight year sentences” in Norfolk

County and “four concurrent eight-to-ten-year sentences” in Middlesex County for his

involvement in the burglaries—because Malcolm committed crimes in two separate

jurisdictions, there were two separate trials, two separate convictions, and two separate

sentences.15

While in prison, Malcolm met a fellow “former burglar named John Elton

Bembry: the man who would change his life.”16 Malcolm was impressed by Bembry’s

intellect, knowledge, and “verbal skills.”17 Bembry’s tutelage helped Malcolm to

develop his “newfound enthusiasm for study and self-improvement.”18 Just over a year

after the advent of Malcolm’s shift in attitude, he received a letter “from his brother

Philbert, one that would have enormous consequences.”19 In Philbert’s missive was an

exhortation for Malcolm to “pray to Allah for deliverance.”20 Philbert and other

members of Malcolm’s family admonished Malcolm to join the Nation of Islam (NOI),

so after several appeals, Malcolm capitulated and joined.21 Acting in accordance with the

NOI’s belief that the last names black people had in America were in actuality their slave

names, given to slave by slave master, Malcolm replaced his last name with an “X”

following his conversion. The “X” was intended to represent the unknown because,

                                                                                                               14  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 67.  15  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 68.  16  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 73. 17  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 73.  18  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 74.  19  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 75.  20  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 75.  21  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 78.  

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according to the NOI, the God-given names of black people in America were just that—

unknown.

The NOI’s apostate teachings included “black separatism, self-reliance, and a

black deity,” reminiscent “of Earl Little’s Garveyite sermon.”22 Because his father

followed Garvey, Malcolm was already familiar with ideas such as these. Malcolm

continued his course of study and committed himself to the NOI and the heretical sect’s

leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, before being released from prison on parole on

August 7, 1952, at the age of 27.23 Malcolm would remain under the supervision of the

State until May 4, 1953.24 Meanwhile, Malcolm’s rise within the NOI was nothing less

than meteoric: from a lowly evangelist working on behalf of the NOI’s Detroit Temple

No. 1, to Assistant Minister at Temple No. 1, to Head Minister of several temples, to

national spokesman, all within about a decade’s time.25 By the early 1960s, as his

popularity grew, Malcolm began receiving more and more invitations to speak and

lecture at colleges and universities across the nation.26 The podium from which he spoke,

in this case, served as the perfect assassin’s perch.

Malcolm was invited to speak at Michigan State University by the university’s

chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

and the university’s African Students Association.27 Although the NAACP’s national

leaders felt the NOI spokesman was too controversial and conservative a figure to be

                                                                                                               22  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 77.  23  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 98.  24  Marable,  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 103.  25  Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 258. 26 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 171. 27 “Malcolm Describes the Difference Between the ‘House Negro’ and the ‘Field Negro.’” Columbia University, accessed December 13, 2014, http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/mxp/speeches/mxa17.html.  

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associated with, this was not the first time Malcolm received and accepted an invitation

from a college NAACP chapter; for instance, on February 14, 1961, Howard University’s

NAACP chapter invited Malcolm to speak in Washington, D.C.28 The Michigan State

affair was a homecoming of sorts, seeing as Malcolm had lived in Lansing from 1929

until 1941.29 In fact, for a brief time, the Little family even owned six acres near what

would later become part of the Michigan State University campus.30

Although he had home field advantage, Malcolm still faced a formidable

rhetorical challenge, since he was invited by the university’s NAACP chapter and spoke

in front of what was presumably a well-integrated crowd based on how he addressed the

audience; this means that the crowd was composed of people more likely to fall into the

category of detractor or abjurer, rather than supporter, of Malcolm’s philosophy. In fact,

the disgruntlement of the crowd can be heard in the recording of the speech on a number

of occasions.

The rhetorical challenge Malcolm faced was compounded by the fact that he

aimed to discredit the leaders of the mainstream civil rights organizations, known as the

“Big Six,” and by extension, the mainstream civil rights organizations themselves. The

“Big Six” included Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership

Conference (SCLC), John Lewis of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

(SNCC), Whitney Young of the National Urban League, A. Philip Randolph of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, James Farmer of the Congress of Racial Equality

                                                                                                               28 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 185. 29 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 25-38. 30 Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, 27.  

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(CORE), and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP.31 Because these leaders held mainstream

values and sought integration rather than “separation” (which, according to Malcolm, can

be distinguished from segregation by its origin: segregation is “that which is forced upon

inferior by superior,” while separation is the result of a group exercising its right to

choose where to live, work, and spend money), they were more likely to resonate with the

audience Malcolm addressed at Michigan State University than was Malcolm.32 Once

again, Malcolm’s goal was to discredit the “Big Six” by discrediting nonviolence,

middle-class values, and integration, mainly through a comparison between the “House

Negro” and the “Big Six” leaders.

During the speech, Malcolm described the philosophy of nonviolence that was

being propagated contemporaneously by King and other movement stalwarts as

“cowardly.”33 Malcolm was an avid proponent of self-defense, a stance that conflicted

directly with King’s philosophy of nonviolence. At Michigan State University, this

contrast was made clear: Malcolm did not “believe in any kind of peaceful suffering” and

in response to an attack by a white person, believed in “retaliating if it cost him his

life.”34 His fierce advocacy for self-defense was met with audible disapproval from the

audience but the appeal itself was nevertheless tactful. Framing self-defense as the

opposite of “peaceful suffering” was adroit in that it recognized nonviolence’s strongest

appeal—its peacefulness—but attempted to use this component of nonviolence against

that to which it belonged. Nonviolence is a tactic that is difficult to attack because it uses

                                                                                                               31 Spradley, "The Big Six.” 32 Malcolm X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University—January 23, 1963,” last modified December 6, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNZDfyJRdLw. 33 X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.” 34 X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.”  

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only the weapon of love in the battle for justice but the route Malcolm took to discredit

nonviolence was as good an approach as any. Attempting to convert what was ostensibly

nonviolence’s greatest strength into its greatest weakness was a sagacious strategy but

nonetheless was not received well by the Michigan State audience. Although it failed to

resonate with the audience Malcolm spoke to on this particular occasion, it was an attack

on no fewer than three “Big Six” leaders who subscribed to nonviolence, and by

extension, was also an attack on their respective organizations. Martin King, John Lewis,

and James Farmer had all committed themselves to nonviolence and also required the

same of those who joined their organizations. King’s SCLC, Lewis’s SNCC, and

Farmer’s CORE “all had policies of nonviolence,” and Malcolm castigated them for it.35

Over the course of his career as a public figure and advocate of the “so-called”

Negro, a distinct class-consciousness firmly entrenched itself in Malcolm’s ideology.

This class-consciousness was perhaps the resulting aftertaste of a bitter cocktail

composed of his personal experience, the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

and the climate of the civil rights movement era. This class-consciousness was palpably

present in his address at Michigan State University in his reference to the “House

Negro”-“Field Negro” dynamic. On the antebellum plantation, the “House Negro” was

part of the slave minority that was treated relatively well by his slave master and

“identified himself in the same sense that his master identified himself”;36 conversely, the

Field Negro was “in the majority” that was treated brutally by his master and despised

                                                                                                               35  Charles E. Cobb, Jr., This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible (New York, 2014), 130.  36 “Malcolm Describes.”

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him.37 Malcolm noted that the “House Negro,” in response to a call for “separation,”

would refuse, just as the “twentieth-century-type of House Negro” would.38 According to

Malcolm, the modern “House Negro” also tried to live close to the white man, via

integration, just as his antebellum counterpart tried to live close to his slave master. By

recognizing this parallel, Malcolm was equating the “House Negro,” the docile and stupid

slave, with the nonviolent, middle-class-oriented, black integrationist, while at the same

time and in stark contrast, equating the “Field Negro” with the self-defense-advocating,

lower-class-oriented, black separationist. While they lived during different times, as far

as Malcolm was concerned, the antebellum “House Negro” and the modern black

integrationist were one and the same: Uncle Toms.39 “Uncle Tom” was the typical

subservient black man whose only allegiance was to his white oppressor, whether that be

the slave master or the post-World War II segregationist. To Malcolm, every member of

the “Big Six” was an “Uncle Tom.”40

According to Malcolm, these “Uncle-Tomming” Negroes’ main reason for

seeking integration was to engage in interracial relationships with white women.41 This

was an attack specifically on Farmer and King. Farmer, who had married a white woman

by the name of Lula in 1949, was well aware of X’s disapproval of his marriage. In a

1965 interview with the Harvard Crimson, when asked whether or not any issues had

come about due to his marriage, Farmer responded (understatedly), “Malcolm X used to

                                                                                                               37 “Malcolm Describes.” 38 X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.” 39 “Malcolm Describes.”  40  X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.”  41  X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.”  

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kid me a little about it.”42 This portion of Malcolm’s speech also targeted King, who was

known to philander frequently with women of a lighter hue.43 According to Malcolm, the

20th-Century Uncle Tom (encapsulated in the likes of Farmer and King) sought

principally to engage in sexual relations with white women, and promoted an

integrationist agenda as a means to reach that end.44 Although the connection between

white women and the “Big Six” can be directly drawn only to Farmer and King, this part

of Malcolm’s speech was aimed toward all members of the “Big Six,” because they were

all integrationists.

Malcolm’s attack was perspicacious not only in so far as its content is concerned;

it was also perspicacious in so far as its timing is concerned. In the speech, Malcolm

described the invitation to speak at Michigan State University as “timely,” and hindsight

has revealed that the speech itself can be held in the same regard.45 In 1962, mere

months prior to Malcolm’s speech, King and the SCLC suffered what was arguably the

most devastating defeat of the civil rights movement in Albany, Georgia. In Albany, the

stratagem that had worked so well in Montgomery and other places in the South was

ineffectual, due largely to the tactical prowess of Albany’s Police Chief, Laurie

Pritchett.46 “Pritchett had enforced segregation in every phase of Albany’s life, and” was

on the receiving end of a great deal of media coverage and applause.47 On the other

hand, King, the SCLC, and supporters of the civil rights movement in general were left to

                                                                                                               42 Geoffrey L. Thomas, “James Farmer: Silhouette,” Harvard Crimson, October 6, 1965. 43  David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York, 1986), 375.  44  “Malcolm Describes.”  45  X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.”  46  Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 175.  47 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 217.

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contemplate the reasons “the movement had ended in failure.”48 SNCC’s Julian Bond

went further: King “ha[d] been losing since he left Montgomery [after the Montgomery

Bus Boycott of 1955-1956].49 He lost when he didn’t go on the Freedom Ride [of 1961]

when the students begged him to go on the Freedom Ride and he didn’t go.50 I think

he’[d] been losing for a long time.”51 Malcolm’s address was in fact so timely that the

same day he gave his piercing speech in Lansing, King and the rest of the SCLC’s

Executive Board met to discuss ways in which the group may rebound from the losing

streak described by Bond.52

What is more, on January 14, 1963, less than ten days before Malcolm delivered

his speech in Lansing, Governor George Wallace of Alabama issued a brazen peroration

supporting the maintenance of segregation during his inaugural address in Montgomery,

Alabama.53 During the address, Wallace indicated that the separation of the races was

here to stay when he proclaimed famously, “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, and

segregation forever.”54 This virulent exhortation, given by a powerful governor, dealt a

crushing blow to the mainstream civil rights movement, and joined with the

aforementioned shortcomings, to provide the opening Malcolm needed to deliver the

rhetorical kill shot.

                                                                                                               48 Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 216. 49  Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 202.  50  Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 202.  51  Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 202.  52  Garrow, Bearing the Cross, 231. 53 Samara Freemark and Joe Richman, “’Segregation Forever’: A Fiery Pledge Forgiven, But Not Forgotten,” last modified January 10, 2013, National Public Radio, http://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169080969/segregation-forever-a-fiery-pledge-forgiven-but-not-forgotten. 54 Freemark and Richman, “’Segregation Forever.’”

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In short, by the time Malcolm delivered his speech at Michigan State University

in January 1963, the civil rights movement had suffered some significant losses, making

his speech in Lansing one that was cognizant of time.55 Sensing the discouragement and

disenchantment brought about mainly by the loss suffered in Albany and Wallace’s

address, Malcolm took full advantage. He attacked the “Big Six” and their viewpoints at

a time when racial tensions were reaching dangerous heights that often resulted in

violence. In his address, Malcolm argued that the nonviolent, middle-class-oriented,

integrationist approach had not worked and will not work, and it was the most opportune

time for him to make such an argument.

Through the above-mentioned appeals, Malcolm was able to elicit roaring

applause, and (so it follows) roaring approval, from the crowd before which he spoke at

Michigan State University on January 23, 1963. Winning this crowd over was no easy

task. Rhetorically, it was far from an ideal situation: Michigan State University was (and

still is) a predominantly white institution by an overwhelming margin; he was in Lansing

under the auspices of the university’s chapter of the NAACP—an organization that

disagreed with Malcolm on myriad levels—making it likely that many of the members of

the Michigan State University NAACP chapter, and the audience he spoke before as a

whole, held similar viewpoints; furthermore, he aimed to discredit mainstream civil rights

leaders and their respective organizations. In spite of this rhetorical dilemma, Malcolm’s

arguments resonated surprisingly well with the crowd. This speech represented more

than a rhetorical masterclass—it was a rhetorical assassination of the “Big Six.” In

summation, Malcolm’s address at Michigan State University proffers more to the

                                                                                                               55 X, “Malcolm X at Michigan State University.”  

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collection plate of history than the humble tithing of the “House Negro”—“Field Negro”

dynamic. It was, in fact, a calculated, effective, and well-timed attack on the mainstream

civil rights movement and the agenda thereof.