Elijah also stayed in close contact with his son Herbert, whom he had selected to manage Ali. He told Herbert that he wanted to meet with Ali in Chicago to ensure that the boxer had severed ties with Malcolm. He also wanted to discuss Ali’s upcoming trip abroad because the “young fellow” needed to learn how to behave when he met with statesmen. He worried that Ali had never been out of the country, which was untrue, revealing how little he actually knew about the boxer’s career. Elijah instructed Herbert not to let Ali make any “plans with anyone until” they met. Finally, he advised, add “four more pages to [our] paper,” so that the whole world could read about the famous Muslim champion.23
On Monday, March 9, Muhammad telephoned Captain Joseph and declared that Malcolm must give up everything that belonged to the Nation of Islam, including his home. Joseph sent word to Maceo X, the secretary of the New York mosque, to draft an eviction letter. That same day, Herbert’s assistant called Malcolm to inform him that Elijah’s son would now serve as Ali’s manager and that Ali no longer planned to travel abroad with him.24
Malcolm fumed. He was the one who introduced Ali to African ambassadors. He was the one who had convinced Ali that he should embrace a larger role on the world stage and develop relationships with African leaders. He was the one who had strategically planned for Ali to visit Muslim countries in Africa and the Middle East, and now the Black Muslims had stolen his friend and his plan. But Malcolm was not ready to give up on Ali yet. Desperate to reach him, he telephoned Ali eight times that day, but he could not get through the men who surrounded the champ. In a phone interview, Ali told a reporter from the Amsterdam News that he still intended to tour Africa, but added, “I will not be traveling with Malcolm X.”25
After Malcolm announced his official break from the Nation, more reporters called Ali to learn about his future. He said that he disagreed with Malcolm’s sanguinary rhetoric. “I am against violence,” the boxer said. “I am a fighter and I am religious,” but “I am not going to do anything that is not right. I don’t know much about what Malcolm X is doing, but I do know that Muhammad is the wisest.”26
In front of newsmen at his Phoenix home, Muhammad wept, feigning disbelief over Malcolm’s departure. “I am stunned,” he professed. “I never dreamed this man would deviate from the Nation of Islam. Every one of the Muslims admired him.” Muhammad’s tears gave the impression that Malcolm had left the Nation under his own free will. Acting deserted and betrayed, Muhammad seemed to grieve the loss of a man whom he once considered his own flesh and blood, the same man that he had blamed for poisoning the Nation with lies about him.27
That same afternoon, March 10, Captain Joseph, Maceo X, and a squad from the Fruit showed up at Malcolm’s East Elmhurst home on 97th Street in Queens. Joseph served Malcolm with eviction papers and demanded that he surrender some of the mosque’s valuables. Malcolm handed over a few documents and securities from the Nation’s treasury, but he refused to leave the house. Muhammad had once told him that the house was his, even though the deed showed that the home was the legal property of the Nation of Islam. The moment Captain Joseph showed up at his doorstep, Malcolm regretted ever taking a vow of poverty and determined that he would fight back.28
Malcolm knew that this was only the beginning. The war had just begun. “They’ve got to kill me,” he told a reporter. “They can’t afford to let me live.”29
ON THURSDAY, MARCH 12, around ten a.m., a sleek black Chrysler pulled up to the curb in front of the Midtown Park Sheraton Hotel. Malcolm stepped out of the car wearing a pearl gray pinchecked suit and carrying a briefcase. A cadre of black men followed him inside, through the noisy lobby and up to the packed second-floor Tapestry Suite, where a crowd of reporters, photographers, and undercover FBI agents waited for him. Before he stepped to the podium, his aides distributed press releases announcing his split from the NOI and the creation of Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), a politically oriented Nationalist group of Muslims and secularists.30
Malcolm looked fried after a week of sleepless nights. Before he began speaking, he managed to smile, nodding at some of the reporters he recognized. Then he offered a chilling prelude to a long, hot summer in Harlem. “Because 1964 threatens to be a very explosive year on the racial front”—in fact, it would be one of the most violent in American history —“and because I myself intend to be very active in every phase of the Negro struggle for human rights, I have called this press conference this morning to clarify my own position in the struggle.” In careful language he advised blacks to purchase guns, form rifle clubs, and defend themselves by any means necessary.31