Malcolm’s speech articulated an ambitious program that he could not deliver. Facing mounting pressures, his attention fractured under too many demands. Without his salary from the Nation, Malcolm could hardly afford to feed his family, let alone fund two fledgling organizations. Continuing an extensive travel schedule, he tried raising money and building alliances abroad, but spending so much time away undermined his ability to build the OAAU. He hoped that publicizing the death threats would give him added protection from his assassins, but it also scared away potential members from attending his meetings.
On July 2, a few days after Malcolm announced the formation of the OAAU, two women filed paternity suits against Elijah Muhammad in Los Angeles. The sex scandal made sensational headlines. In large, bold letters, the Chicago Defender screamed: “PATERNITY SUITS AGAINST MR. MUHAMMAD DENIED.” Muhammad’s former secretaries were not the only ones discrediting him. His grandson Hasan told the Defender that he had quit the NOI because the officials, including his relatives, exploited the members. His grandfather was nothing more than “a fake and a fraud,” stealing money from the poor. He could not understand why many of his grandfather’s longtime followers never received their “original names,” yet “Cassius Clay was blessed to receive a Holy name.” Hasan’s uncle Wallace echoed his nephew’s charges, claiming that the Nation’s officials ordered attacks against dissidents. “The leadership in Chicago is ruthless and frantic,” he said, and “they will kill you.”26
THE TIME FOR talking was over. The blood season was beginning. A day after Muhammad’s mistresses filed paternity suits, Malcolm worked from home while Betty rested at the hospital, recuperating from childbirth. Around eleven thirty p.m., he told the babysitter that he needed to move his car, possibly because he did not want assassins to think that he was home. After teaching the teenage girl how to handle a shotgun, Malcolm quietly opened the front door and peeked outside. Darting toward his car, he spotted two knife-wielding men charging at him. Before they could catch him, he leapt into the sedan, turned the key, and sped away. After circling the neighborhood, he returned home, called the police, and waited for them to arrive, shotgun in hand.27
The following day, Boston captain Clarence X and Springfield captain John Muhammad visited the Harlem mosque. Given full authority over the East Coast Fruit, Clarence, an arrogant, stocky man built like an “ex–middleweight boxer,” offered a reward to anyone who eliminated Malcolm. While he was in New York, he met with Leon Ameer. The two knew each other well because Clarence had been assigned as Muhammad Ali’s bodyguard and Leon worked as the champ’s press secretary. According to Leon, Clarence revealed a .38 caliber revolver that he intended to use on Malcolm and asked Leon if he could help locate a silencer. Stunned, Ameer said that he did not know where Clarence could find one, and began contemplating whether he should warn Malcolm.28
But Malcolm needed no warning. He already knew that his life was in danger. For his family’s sake, he needed to get away from his assassins. Only Betty and a few trusted assistants knew that he planned to attend the second Organization of African Unity Conference in Cairo, tour Africa, and return in six weeks. On July 9, when he boarded TWA Flight 700, bound for London, he felt a sense of relief that he had not experienced since he last visited Africa. Escaping abroad brought him peace—a peace that would prove hard to relinquish even after a nearly twenty-week hiatus from the troubles that followed him at home.29
IN THE MONTHS after Muhammad Ali’s return from Africa, Elijah Muhammad forbade him from staying at the Hotel Theresa. In early July, when Ali appeared on a television show, Ladies of the Press, New York Amsterdam News writer Sara Slack asked him if he and Malcolm had split. Cautiously, he explained that when the Honorable Elijah Muhammad “cuts a man off, then he’s automatically cut off from all of his followers.” Curious, the reporter asked if the division between Elijah and Malcolm had led him to cancel his accommodations at the Theresa. Interrupting her, Ali said, “My leader told me, uh, not my leader, but various officials said it would not be nice being in the same hotel he was in, and whatever they say goes.”30