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By Root 1842 0

he leveled his criticisms against the Nation of Islam, he continued to push his new organization. On June 9 the first decisive organizational meeting of Malcolm’s secular political advisers was held at the Riverside Drive apartment of Lynne Shifflett. Unlike previous clandestine discussions, it finally brought together the idealistic young activists and the seasoned Harlem veterans. In the latter group were the historian John Henrik Clarke, the photographer Robert Haggins, the novelist John Oliver Killens, and the journalist Sylvester Leeks. It was Clarke’s suggestion to give themselves the name Organization of Afro-American Unity, modeled after the Organization of African Unity, founded on May 25 the previous year. He thought that the OAUʹs charter might provide a blueprint for the OAAU. This may have been a little ambitious. First, the OAU was a bloc of African nations joining together to achieve strategic objectives, not an ad hoc coalition of individuals. The OAAU was not even a united front of black American groups but resembled more a top-down sect, with Malcolm as charismatic headman. Second, there was little consideration about how decisions would be made and who would be responsible for organizing—and paying for—public events.

Malcolm handled these difficult questions in characteristic manner: by dumping them into James 67Xʹs lap. Driving over to Shifflett’s apartment, he curtly explained to James that “he didn’t form” this group, but “he wanted it formed. He told me that I was responsible for it being formed.” James immediately sensed trouble, and when he reached Shifflett’s his suspicions were quickly confirmed. “I went up to [Shifflett’s] apartment there thinking the thing is being formed,” he recalled, “and they’re sitting around talking about what great organizers each of them is.” Malcolm later made Shifflett the OAAUʹs organizing secretary, a role equivalent to James’s for the MMI. Their competitive positions fostered an animosity so deep that even decades later James 67X could barely utter her name. From the beginning, James recalled, “Malcolm treated them in an entirely different manner than he treated us.” The OAAU people never contributed funds “in charity” to help support Betty and the household. MMI loyalists “were accustomed to be told what to do and doing it. We didn’t quarrel with Brother Malcolm. If he said such and such, if he hinted at something, I was on it and I told the brothers to do it.”

On the same day as the OAAU meeting, Malcolm was the featured guest on a Mike Wallace news program, broadcast by NBC in New York City, on which he emphasized his new position on race—and blamed his “previous antiwhite statements” on his former membership in the Nation of Islam. As the weekend approached, Malcolm prepared to depart for Boston, where that Sunday at Ella’s house he was to speak to a large number of potential supporters, including representatives from the National Urban League and CORE. By Friday the public campaign against the Nation had reached fever pitch, and when he appeared on the radio to blame his departure on “a moral problem” within the sect, the show’s host told listeners that Malcolm had arrived at the studio under armed guard for fear of attack. Malcolm went into detail on Muhammad’s misconduct and reported that Wallace Muhammad had confirmed the behavior that “was still going on.” He estimated that Muhammad had at least six out-of-wedlock children. That evening he went on to repeat these charges on the Jerry Williams program, aired in Boston on WMEX radio, and claimed that Louis X had known about them first.

The appearances ratcheted tensions in Boston, but the next morning Malcolm quietly departed the city ahead of schedule; a hastily organized meeting of civil rights insiders and prominent black entertainers at Sidney Poitierʹs home in upstate New York on June 13 called him away. This meeting was unprecedented in several respects. First, it brought together individuals, or their representatives, who reflected major currents within the Black Freedom Movement. Dr. King, at that