Malcolm offered only a vague description about the objectives of MMI, as he was not entirely sure of his own direction. He had said that whites were welcome to support his organization, but they could not join. There could be no unity between blacks and whites until blacks had unified themselves. And although he still rejected the goals and tactics of civil rights leaders, he claimed that he wanted to cooperate with those leaders, whom he had once derided as Uncle Toms.32
The media focused most of its attention on Malcolm’s self-defense rhetoric, characterizing his message in simple, violent terms. Malcolm had never sounded so dangerous, writers fretted. Elijah Muhammad assured a New York Times writer that Malcolm was not nearly as threatening as the press made him sound. His former minister had no following, no guns, and no divine authority. Malcolm’s plan sounded “silly” to him. “Where are they going to get guns and arms?”33
In the wake of Malcolm’s press conference, black Americans debated his future in the freedom struggle. Bayard Rustin suggested that most blacks would never consider creating a separate state or migrating back to Africa, but they accepted Malcolm’s “analysis of the evils that are being practiced on the Negro people,” and that could make him a potent leader. “In appearance, personality, and philosophical outlook,” a Sepia writer opined, “Malcolm comes closer to being a revolutionary than any other American Negro leader.” Liberator’s Carlos Russell agreed. He found Malcolm charismatic and persuasive, but the Nationalist minister provided more slogans than answers to the black man’s problems. If Malcolm ever developed an effective program, “he would indeed become the most formidable leader black people have ever known.”34
Freed from Elijah Muhammad’s authority, many wondered if Malcolm had changed. Who was this independent Malcolm X? Was he a demagogue or revolutionary? Was he merely an orator or would he actually fight for freedom? Did he really hate white people or did he simply hate the injustices that he had witnessed?
Dick Schaap sought the answers when he visited with Malcolm at the Hotel Theresa. When the Muslim minister welcomed the Jewish reporter into his office, Schaap realized that Malcolm was nothing like the frightening agitator that he had read about. Malcolm was surprisingly friendly. “It is almost impossible, upon meeting him, not to like him,” he wrote. In private, other white writers learned that Malcolm did not love the white man, but he did not necessarily hate him either. “There were two Malcolms, really,” said Mike Handler, one of the few white journalists whose home Malcolm had visited. “There was the private Malcolm, a man of ineffable charm and courtesy, a born aristocrat. And there was the public Malcolm, Malcolm in combat, whose job was to frighten the white man out of his shoes.”35
Schaap departed Malcolm’s office with a new perspective, yet he remained frustrated. Malcolm had avoided most of his questions, repeating old lines and delivering verbose answers. He left wondering if Malcolm would ever lead when action was needed. “No one really knows the extent of his power because he has never put his power to any real test.” But he could not dismiss Malcolm either. He was too eloquent and too intelligent to be ignored. Trying “to figure out Malcolm X,” he concluded, was as difficult as cracking a secret code. “It is a game that almost every thinking person in Harlem is playing these days.”36
ELIJAH’S PRECIOUS TREASURE finally arrived at his home. On Saturday, March 14, a day after Muhammad Ali took another army entrance exam in Louisville, the champ visited Elijah in Chicago. Before he drove to Elijah’s mansion, a crowd of reporters met Ali at the airport, pestering him with questions about his relationship with Malcolm. “Muhammad taught Malcolm X everything he knows,” he said. “So I couldn’t go with the child, I go with the daddy.”37
At the mansion, Ali and his brother embraced Elijah. Sitting on the living room couch with his arm around Elijah, Ali listened as the soft-spoken elder read from the Koran, lecturing about Allah. They discussed his victory over Liston, the backlash against his Muslim name, and his plans to travel abroad. Elijah told him that many Americans hated the idea of a Muslim champion because there was widespread “hatred of the Muslims and Islam in America.” That is why boxing officials wanted to vacate his title, and why so many people refused to use his Muslim name. Ali left that night convinced of Elijah’s wisdom and power. “Can’t nobody prove Elijah Muhammad wrong,” he declared.38