When Malcolm X Met With The KKK

A dance with the devil.

On January 28^th, 1961, representatives of two powerful racial factions met in Atlanta, Georgia. These factions enjoyed nationwide membership and influence. They were also unwavering in their loathing of one another, deeming the other incorrigible devils. How then, did the Nation of Islam (NOI) and Ku Klux Klan agree to meet with each other?

The KKK reached out to the NOI because they deemed that the two groups shared common goals. Malcolm X was firmly resolute against the idea of meeting with the KKK, but Elijah Muhammad convinced him and Minister Jeremiah X that striking a deal with the KKK would be to the NOI’s benefit. Malcolm reluctantly agreed, although the first cracks in his veneration of Elijah Muhammad began to appear.

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The meeting took place in the home of Minister Jeremiah X, the Atlanta minister for the NOI. The 10-car KKK convoy arrived, led by W.S. Fellows and a few of his comrades (one of whom was an FBI informant, unbeknownst to all present). It began with both parties feeling each other out. Les Payne writes:

Probing for common ground on their terms, Fellows said the Klan had gotten a bad reputation in the press. They didn’t really “hate all n-----s,” he said, in an attempt to break the ice. There were “some good n-----s,” he said to the nodding grins of his colleagues. “Some work for me. Our problem is the bad n-----s. You don’t like bad n-----s, yourselves.” Fellows said flat-out that he had “beat a few of these bad n-----s.” One was a “lazy” worker bent on tardiness. “He kept coming to work late, so I took a stick and whipped that n-----,” Fellows said. “He started coming to work on time after that.”

Before long, the discussion took a more serious turn. What were the shared goals and ideals that spurred the KKK to call for this meeting?

They both agreed that the other race was evil, and that reconciliation and harmonious living between the two races was beyond attainment. But in their shared vision of hate arose a mutually beneficial solution. The KKK saw in the NOI a potential ally to fully implement segregation, or complete separation between blacks and whites. Both parties agreed that granting blacks an unspecified allotment of land to live in separation from whites was the best solution moving forward. It was this potential proposal, the dream of a land or county exclusively for blacks, that piqued Elijah Muhammad’s interest in this meeting and sealed his decision to ratify it. What was lost upon these parties was that this division of land was pure fantasy. As Payne articulates:

The Klansmen at the kitchen table were all working-class whites with no easy access to the amassed wealth of the South. Yet, they diddled with Elijah Muhammad’s division-of-the-wealth proposition like so many day laborers contemplating the breakup, say, of the United Kingdom. Such geopolitical-economic matters were clearly beyond the grasp of the scrawny, poorly educated Klansmen—as well as the working-class Muslim ministers. With barely a college degree among them, each group worked through the sit-down as self-appointed diplomats for its entire race. The Klansmen, especially, bridled throughout the session, as they assumed the prerogatives of an ersatz ruling class.

Land was not the only subject of discussion. The KKK always held a greater degree of animosity towards liberal blacks who desired integration with whites; decades prior, they met with Marcus Garvey, the head of the more radical UNIA, to reach a compromise between the two group and discuss ways to combat the liberal NAACP. Now their aim was fixed upon the Reverend Martin Luther King Jnr. The intel they received informed them that he lived nearby, but they did not know his exact whereabouts. If the NOI officials were to disclose the whereabouts of MLK, then the KKK would be able to eliminate a shared enemy.

The lone meeting between Malcolm X and MLK in 1964.

The offer was stunning, both in its audacity and intent. Malcolm’s family home was threatened by KKK members when his mother was pregnant with him, and he grew up believing that his father was murdered by the KKK. And yet here he was, on the cusp of forging an alliance with the KKK to assassinate MLK. Malcolm X had never met MLK, though they often traded barbs with each other through the media. Malcolm derided MLK for his desire for integration, but he declined any offer to hand over information related to MLK’s whereabouts. Despite their sharp differences, he would not have another black man’s blood on his hands.

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In the series of posts dedicated to the legacy of Malcolm X, I’ve tried to delineate some of the key lessons to be derived from different episodes of his life. Here are a few that sprung to mind when I wrote this piece, particularly in light of the plight of the Middle East and the genocide in Gaza:

1. Religious communities are hierarchical, with scholars afforded the utmost respect and reverence. This is not problematic per se, but there is a serious danger in blindly following the dictates of your religion/sect/ideology. Although Malcolm could sense something was amiss, his clinging to personalities above principles delayed his departure from the NOI.

2. Uniting with another group/sect/ideology based solely on shared goals will inevitably lead to a compromise on your core principles. One example of this can be seen in the spectacular rise of the far-right in the past decade. That the far-right appears to share conservative values with Islam has led some Muslim figures to seek out alliances. But an alliance based on differing worldviews — and that with a group that bears hatred of Islam/non-whites — can never truly prosper. The stance adopted by most of these far-right figures/outlets in the genocide in Gaza should be proof enough for those foolish enough to seek an alliance with someone that despises them.

3. Even if you differ greatly in methodology, you should never betray one of your own. Despite the bad blood between them, Malcolm never thought to betray MLK to the KKK. The KKK, despite their claims of shared goals, had been hellbent on destroying any semblance of black self-determination. In the wake of the 1954 Brown vs Board Education ruling and the Montgomery bus boycott, the KKK stepped up operations, attacking and lynching blacks, as well as bombing churches and schools. Any man of principle, as Malcolm X was, could never support them in their goal to assassinate MLK. Muslims who bicker with each other over sectarian differences would do well to take a leaf out of Malcolm’s book.

The information and quotes for this post were drawn from The Dead Are Arising by Les and Tamara Payne.