As Cassius walked out of the UN, a reporter from the New York Times spotted him and asked a few questions. When he said that his new name was “Cassius X Clay,” the writer inquired if the “X” had replaced his middle name. “X is what the slave masters used to be called,” Cassius answered, making an obvious error. Malcolm clearly had more teaching to do. He elbowed Cassius, suggesting that they should end the interview.22
Elijah seethed when he learned that Malcolm had escorted Cassius to the UN again. He knew that his former minister “was out to destroy” him, but he refused to let Malcolm “snatch Cassius Clay” away from him. Since he called Cassius on the eve of the Liston fight, the boxer had ignored his warnings against socializing with Malcolm. Perhaps Cassius did not fully understand what was at stake, or maybe Malcolm had persuaded him that everything was fine. After Cassius returned from the UN, Elijah called him at the Theresa and made clear that he could no longer associate with the exiled minister. Cassius understood, promising that he would “stop seeing Malcolm starting today.”23
Torn between his friendship with Malcolm and his faith in Muhammad, Cassius wavered. He admired both men, but he was confused by Malcolm’s behavior. What no one knew was that Malcolm had told him something that he just could not believe. For nearly two years, he’d taught Cassius that Muhammad was Allah’s Messenger, the most powerful black man in America. Nearly every lesson began with, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us . . . ” Yet on or around the day of their second visit to the UN, Malcolm told Cassius and Rudy that Elijah was a false prophet who had lied and abused his power. He probably also revealed that Muhammad had impregnated numerous secretaries. When Rudy heard Malcolm talk such blasphemy, he wrestled him to the floor until Cassius pulled them apart. Malcolm’s allegations made Cassius question his friend’s motives. It made him wonder “why Malcolm was staying so close [to him] all the time.”24
Malcolm had a good reason to attach himself to Cassius. About a week earlier, when he returned from Miami, Malcolm had learned that Captain Joseph had contacted a soldier in the FOI. During a private conversation outside the Nation’s Harlem luncheonette, Joseph gave Lukman X a deadly assignment: “Plant a bomb in [Malcolm’s] ’63 Oldsmobile that will take care of him.” Suspicious of Joseph’s instructions, Lukman wondered why he did not follow the chain of command and deliver the message to one of his lieutenants as he normally did. Joseph never gave direct orders to the Fruit. The assignment made Lukman uneasy. He had long admired Malcolm for protesting police brutality. Skeptical of Joseph, he shared the assassination plot with Malcolm, forcing him to finally accept that his life with the Nation was over. “I knew they didn’t intend to reinstate me as a Muslim,” he said later. “You don’t point a shotgun at somebody who’s suspended.”25
HOURS AFTER HE left Cassius and Rudy at the Theresa, Malcolm turned up the volume on his car radio when he heard the voice of Elijah on WWRL. Over a nationwide broadcast, Muhammad announced that the name Cassius Clay “has no divine meaning. I hope he will accept being called by a better name. Muhammad Ali is what I will give to him as long as he believes in Allah and follows me.”26
Malcolm erupted behind the wheel, shouting to one of his aides, “That’s political! That’s a political move! He did it to prevent him from coming with me.” In the past, the boxer had professed great admiration for his name. It was hard for him to imagine being anyone other than Cassius Clay. Knowing that there were lifelong members in the Nation who never received their “original” names from Elijah made him doubt that he had earned such an honor. But the Messenger reminded him that his “original” name meant “one who is worthy of praise,” and no one was more deserving of the distinction than him.27
Cassius instinctively knew that the internecine fighting between Elijah and Malcolm had escalated to a critical, violent stage. He had heard stories about Muslims who crossed Muhammad and paid severely for it. Malcolm himself had once told him, “Nobody leaves the Muslims without trouble.” Now he had a choice to make. If he accepted the name Elijah gave him, would it end the brotherhood with Malcolm? If he rejected Elijah’s overture, would it cost him his life? Politics, he was discovering, was more dangerous than fighting Sonny Liston.28
Ultimately, he submitted to Elijah. When he denounced his “slave name” and accepted the name Muhammad Ali, he symbolically broke with a heritage tied to bondage. It signified an awakening, a reclamation of freedom from the white world. But it also cut his ties with Malcolm. Instinctively more than intellectually, he understood the choice he had to make. And as he had so often before, he chose the less dangerous path.