AMERICA'S EARLY EXPERIENCE WITH THE MUSLIM FAITH: THE NATION OF ISLAM

Middle East Policy, Fall 2008 by Talhami, Ghada Hashem

Then in 1865, he (the white man) came up with a trick, pretending that he was fighting a civil war to set us free which wasn't to set us free. He came up with another trick, that he was issuing an emancipation proclamation to set us free - which wasn't to set us free. And then he also pretended that he was putting some amendments to the Constitution to set us free -which wasn't to set us free. Later on, he came up with a Supreme Court decision which he said was to give us free access to better education .... And then last year he came up with a bill that he called also to give us more freedom - which also wasn't to do that.17

Constitutional gradualism was not for Malcolm, but neither was he willing during the latter transformation of his thought to adhere to the official version of race history in this country. Referring to one of the earliest heroes of black Americans, he wrote:

Not only Crispus Attucks, but many of us in America have died defending America. We defend our master. We're the most violent soldiers America has when she sends us to Korea or to the South Pacific or to Saigon, but when our mothers and our own property are being attacked we're nonviolent. Crispus Attucks laid down his life for America, but would he have laid down his life to stop the white man in America from enslaving black people?18

Official government institutions were alarmed by such a revolutionary re-reading of American history and call to black men not to allow the white man to dictate the pace of racial progress in this country. But when it came to another dissident group that diverged from the mainstream of political and racial transformation in this country, the FBI was much more tolerant. According to recently opened FBI files, this agency ran five counterintelligence programs (COINTELPRO) from 1956 to 1971 against what it perceived as the main sources of threat to the status quo. These targets included white hate groups such the KKK, as well as the New Left, which was made up of white and black organizations. In most instances involving open attacks by white hate groups on civil-rights workers, FBI agents watched passively while taking notes, claiming that the bureau's role in these matters prohibited direct intervention. The KKK, however, did not escape the FBI surveillance net. Pressure to force the creation of surveillance units targeting white hate groups apparently originated from the mainstream press, the White House and even the civilrights movement itself. This resulted in a limited war or, at best, "a sideshow to the real war" against the black American community. The war against white groups turned out to be a limited and narrow effort in comparison to the larger campaign designed to destabilize and weaken the larger black dissident movement. KKK-related organizations, such as the White Citizens' Councils were not even brought under this surveillance effort. Only when such groups exhibited a propensity towards violence were they targeted by the Bureau. Their teachings and philosophy, unlike those of black nationalist groups, were not considered a source of danger or destabilization to the American mainstream. The FBI waged a long campaign to influence public opinion against black groups, but white hate groups were not considered sufficiently subversive to warrant a similar campaign. Only when the KKK and its related organizations engaged in violent activity was it subjected to a campaign designed to lead to vilification in the media.