June 5, 1963 - Malcolm X, the Eastern leader of the Black Muslim movement, charged last night that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s policy of non-violence was “disarming” Negroes in their struggle for rights. “The followers of Martin Luther King will cut each other from head to foot, but they will not do anything to defend themselves against the attacks of the white man,” Malcolm X said in a television interview. The interview, with Dr. Kenneth Clark, a professor of psychology at City College of New York, was recorded on tape for broadcast last night over stations WNDT in New York City and WGBH in Boston. “King is the best weapon that the white man, who wants to brutalize Negroes, has ever gotten in this country, because he is setting up a situation where, when the white man wants to attack Negroes, they can’t defend themselves because King has put this foolish philosophy — you’re not supposed to fight, or you’re not supposed to defend yourself.” He said followers of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Black Muslims, “don’t advocate violence, but Mr. Muhammad does teach us that any human being who is intelligent has the right to defend himself.”
