3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

Meanwhile, Malcolm was becoming increasingly interested in the civil rights
movement. He was troubled by the sduggle for civil rights in the South : specifically, he was
troubled by integration, by acquiescence, and by the naessity of asking. Only when he could
comprehend the movement as part of a larger struggle for human rights could he accept its
aims . Those who knew him attest that Malcolm wanted to be involved in the civil rights
movement. "He wanted to be involved with black people," said Ossie Davis, "whenever and
wherever they were involved ."~ 9 He monitored the doings of SNCC and CORE, visited the
SCLC headquarters in Atlanta, and even showed up on the fringe of various protests and
demonstrations . "He would just go and look;' his lieutenant Charles Kenyatta said. "He
wanted to do it so bad ."~°
Despite this yearning, he recognized the impossibility of his participation in the
movement . Three reasons precluded his involvement . First, as Elijah Mohammed insisted,
and as Malcolm initially conceded, the Nation of Islam was not a civil rights organization : it
was a religious movement. Mohammed insisted that Malcolm refrain from participating in
protests not directly involving the NOL~~ Second, Malcolm felt his views on nonviolence
South was carrying a firearm by the time of the Mississippi Summer Project (1964) . To
gauge how many SNCC workers were armed, Stokely Carmichael asked those who were
carrying guns at an executive committee meeting in Holly Springs, Mississippi to place their
weapons on the table . Most present did . See Carson, InSa g, 164 and Herbert Heroes,
Black Radicals and the Civil Rifts MainstreAm__, 1954-L970 (Knoxville : University of
Tennessee Press, 1988), 53-54, 157-159 .
39Davis, quoted in Gallon, Malcolm X: As Thev Knew Him, 95 .
94 .
~~With Elijah Mohammed's approval, Malcolm and hundreds of other Muslims protested
the arrest of two Muslims selling Mohammed Sneaks in Times Square on December 23,
100