When journalist Louis Lomax asked Malcolm about reports implicating his break from Muhammad, he snapped, “It’s a lie! Any article that says there is a ‘minor’ difference between Mr. Muhammad and me is a lie. How could there be any difference between The Messenger and me? I am his slave, his servant, his son. He is the leader, the only spokesman for the Black Muslims.”34
Yet while Malcolm maintained public confidence in his return to the Nation, he noticed ominous signs. Elijah informed his aides that Malcolm would be reinstated, but only if he submitted, giving his disciples the impression that Malcolm had not capitulated.35
Over the course of December, Elijah’s suspicions of Malcolm deepened. His sons, Sharrieff, and Ali encouraged him to remind Malcolm, once and for all, who was the Supreme Minister. Sharrieff and Ali instructed Captain Joseph and the assistant ministers in Harlem to openly condemn Malcolm for spreading stories about Muhammad. They also reminded Elijah that Malcolm knew things about the royal family that could damage the movement. If he revealed the Nation’s secrets—the financial abuses, the promiscuous behavior, and the corporal punishment—the entire kingdom might collapse.36
On New Year’s Eve, Muhammad called Captain Joseph and the most prominent ministers on the East Coast. He learned that Malcolm had informed them about Elijah’s affairs, including Boston minister Louis X, in spite of Muhammad’s specific instructions not to tell Louis about their private conversations. When Malcolm had broached the subject with Louis, he had failed Elijah’s test of leadership.37
Elijah sensed that Malcolm’s ambition could not be contained. Malcolm was beyond his reach—Malcolm knew it, Elijah knew it, and soon the world would know it. Muhammad sent word to his most trusted followers on the East Coast to cut ties with the wayward minister. Anyone who took Malcolm’s side was his enemy. “I’m going to strip him of everything,” he told Louis X. Everything—his mosque, his following, his life.38
ELIJAH HAD GIVEN Malcolm a new life and now he intended to take it all back. When Malcolm languished in prison, he gave him hope. When he joined the Nation, Elijah gave him power, promoting him to minister. When he showed him loyalty, Elijah gave him love—the love of a father. But now it was all over.
On January 2, 1964, during a tense phone conversation, Elijah scolded Malcolm. “I’ve been hearing about Malcolm this and Malcolm that, and even Malcolm being called a leader,” Muhammad fumed. “You made an error,” he said harshly, referring to Malcolm’s conversations with the East Coast ministers.39
“I asked your permission in a letter before I said anything and I understood that it was all right,” Malcolm said nervously.
“I certainly didn’t say such a thing!” Elijah raged. Malcolm couldn’t believe that the frail, gentle man who had embraced him with such warmth had turned so cold. Elijah showed him no forgiveness. “How can you take this poison and pour it all over my people? I knew all along that you had some sly scheme or shrewd plan to undermine me, but it won’t work, sir, not this time.”
“Messenger,” Malcolm said, “I’d rather be dead than say anything against you.”
“Then how could [Ministers] Isaiah and Lonnie and [Captain] Joseph all have gotten the wrong impression from what you said?” Elijah shouted. “They all wrote to me and said about the same thing.” He paused, breathing heavily into the phone. “Why are you checking into my personal affairs?”
Malcolm answered that he’d only begun investigating the adultery charges after Muhammad’s son Wallace brought it to his attention. And then, after FBI agents in Boston questioned one of Elijah’s former secretaries, he’d become more concerned. When agents had asked the young woman if her newborn baby was Elijah’s, Malcolm had suggested to Louis that “it would be a good idea if we told some of our top people about all these rumors so that if they heard about the charges from somewhere else,” they would be prepared to deflect them with parables acceptable under Islamic law. He also admitted that he had mentioned this strategy to Captain Joseph and that he’d intended “to write you for instructions on how to deal with the matter.”
“I don’t need you to protect me,” Elijah said. “I don’t need you meddling in family matters. I know Wallace is the one spreading these lies. I’ve warned him about going to you with our troubles . . . you’re an outsider.”
Malcolm was shattered. He’d never imagined that Elijah, the man who had called him “son,” would ever consider him an outsider. Never before had he heard Elijah shout with such vitriol.