Malcolm X Backs Out of Englewood Rally

Aug. 7, 1962 - Malcolm X, national spokesman for the Nation of Islam and minister of Temple No. 7 in Harlem, announced today that he would not speak in Englewood, N.J., at a rally on Aug. 18. White and Negro community leaders had protested the invitation he had previously accepted. The rally is over a school segregation dispute. The Muslim leader declared: “The narrow-mindedness of some of the Negro ministers makes it impossible for them to work in a united front with persons whose philosophy differs with theirs. Since we don’t want to contribute to the disunity of the Negro community, we would not want to involve ourselves in any affair in which we’re not welcome.” In a joint statement, the Rev. J. Isaiah Goodman of the First Baptist Church and the Rev. Walter S. Taylor of the Galilee Methodist Church condemned Paul Zuber, New York Negro attorney and integrationist leader, for inviting Malcolm X to speak. “We would like to point out that racists cannot fight the battle for integration in a community,” the statement said. “This is certainly true of the Black Muslims in that they teach separation of races and the impossibility of integration in our society.”#blackmuslims #malcolmx #civilrights