Apr. 2, 1964 - Malcolm X, the insurgent Black Muslim leader, said today he would preach the gospel of Black Nationalism in the same manner that the evangelist Billy Graham spreads the gospel of Christ. Malcolm spoke before 40 members of the Brooklyn Methodist Ministers Association at the John Wesley Methodist Church in Brooklyn.
“I am taking my cue from methods used by Billy Graham to preach the gospel of Christ,” he told the integrated group. “I will preach the gospel of Black Nationalism to Negroes without asking them to join my organization, but rather urging them to go out and join any existing civil rights organization.”
Asked by a white minister whether he thought there were any good white people, Malcolm X replied: “I do not say there are no sincere white people, but rather that I haven’t met any.”
He told the ministers that the day when the Negro turned the other cheek was over. “Where the government will not protect the Negro, they must be willing to protect themselves,” he said.
Malcolm appeared before the clergymen at their regular monthly breakfast meeting. The ministers’ association is headed by the Rev. James McGraw.
The Black Muslim leader told the ministers that he was calling a conference around August of all civil rights groups. He hopes at that time to “organize a political party or an army to get results in 1964,” he said.
“I have no confidence in the legality or morality of the white man,” Malcolm went on, “but I do have confidence in his intelligence to do something about the Negro’s situation in America.”
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