Part 4 (2/2)

The NOI never captured the following in the South that it achieved in the mostly urban industrial Midwest, on the East Coast, and in California. Its organizational weakness in the region was compounded by several critical errors it made in its response to newly emerging desegregation campaigns. Following Muhammad's lead, NOI leaders believed that white Southerners were at least honest in their hatred of blacks. The NOI could not imagine a political future where Jim Crow segregation would ever become outlawed. Consequently, Malcolm concluded, ”the advantage of this is the Southern black man never has been under any illusions about the opposition he is dealing with.” Since white supremacy would always be a reality, blacks were better off reaching a working relations.h.i.+p with racist whites rather than allying themselves with Northern liberals. This was a tragic replay of Garvey's disastrous thesis that culminated in his overtures to white supremacist organizations. ”You can say for many Southern white people that, individually, they have been paternalistically helpful to many individual Negroes,” Malcolm was to argue in Autobiography Autobiography. ”I know nothing about the South. I am a creation of the Northern white man.”

Even though Malcolm's Southern campaign ultimately scored limited gains, that effort paled in comparison to his remarkable success in growing the Nation of Islam across the country. Of the thousands of new converts he made in 1956-57, two would figure in his own life in ways he could not have imagined. One was James Warden, a New York City native and son of a labor organizer who may once have been a member of the Communist Party. After graduating from the Bronx High School of Science, Warden attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and then served a two-year stint in the military, returning home to enroll in an M.A. program at Columbia University's East Asian Inst.i.tute. Sometime in 1957, when he was twenty-five, a black friend persuaded him to go to the NOI temple to hear Malcolm. He took some convincing: Warden disliked everything he had heard about this strange, racist cult. ”I was convinced that these people were saying, 'The white man is the devil,'” he recalled. ”I figured, hey, it's some crazy group, [but] America is full of them.” Upon entering the temple at West 116th Street and Lenox Avenue, he was offended to find he had to submit to a physical search. When the program began, he met with further frustration; the evening's speaker was not Malcolm but Louis X Walcott. As Louis launched wildly into his sermon, a bewildered Warden asked himself, ”Has this man lost his mind?” The concept of whites literally as devils seemed ridiculous. Warden vowed to himself, ”If I get out of this place without being arrested, I will never come back.”

But curiosity got the better of him. Five nights later he returned, but once again was disappointed when yet another minister addressed the congregation. Still, he persisted, and two nights later finally heard Malcolm. The experience was a revelation. On display was Malcolm's great strength not merely as an orator, but as a teacher. For this sermon, as for many, he used a chalkboard as part of his presentation and employed evidence from academic sources to b.u.t.tress his arguments. He also didn't mind being challenged. When Warden left that night, he realized he wanted to return. For the next nine months, he continued to attend meetings regularly, though he stopped short of joining formally. What finally put him over was finding himself the target of racial insults from schoolmates at Columbia. When they ridiculed him as a ”n.i.g.g.e.r,” he became infuriated. ”I felt that I was in cla.s.srooms with people who because of our mutual interests had some kind of appreciation or respect for me as a person,” he said. ”This was not the case.” Giving himself over to the Nation, Warden flourished, and by 1960 was named an FOI lieutenant. It was in this capacity that his friends.h.i.+p with Malcolm grew to dedication. Short, pugnacious, fluent in three foreign languages including j.a.panese, the workaholic Warden-renamed James 67X-would eventually become one of Malcolm's most steadfast advisers.

Another significant recruit was Betty Sanders. Born on May 28, 1934, like Malcolm she had been raised in a household where race issues played a prominent role. Her foster parents, Lorenzo and Helen Malloy, had taken her in from a broken home as a young girl and provided her with a stable middle-cla.s.s existence. Lorenzo Malloy was a graduate of Tuskegee Inst.i.tute and a businessman who owned a shoe repair shop in Detroit. Helen Malloy was active in civil rights, serving as an officer in the National Housewives League, a group that initiated boycotts of white-owned businesses that refused to hire blacks or sell black products . She also belonged to the NAACP and to Mary McLeod Bethune's National Council of Negro Women, two pillars of the black bourgeoisie. Betty attended Detroit's Northern High School, and upon receiving her diploma in 1952 enrolled in the Tuskegee Inst.i.tute, intent on studying education. After two years, she switched her major to nursing; against her parents' advice she transferred to Brooklyn State College School of Nursing, where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1956, and soon began her clinical studies at the Bronx's Montefiore Hospital.

Betty's discovery of the NOI was, like Warden's, entirely fortuitous. One Friday night in mid-1956, an older nurse at Montefiore invited her to an NOI-sponsored dinner, followed by a temple sermon. Betty found the main lecturer ”bewildering.” With serious reservations, she consented to go one more time, and on this occasion Malcolm spoke. As she noted his thin frame, her first impression was one of concern. ”This man is totally malnourished!” she thought. Following the lecture, she was introduced to him, and as they conversed Betty was struck by Malcolm's relaxed manner. Onstage, he had seemed soldierly and stern; in private, he was personable, even charming. Intrigued, she began attending Temple No. 7 sermons, at first hiding her fascination with the Muslims from her parents. By that fall, Betty Sanders officially joined, becoming Betty X, and serving as a health instructor in the MGTs General Civilization Cla.s.s. Her friends outside the temple believed that her newfound dedication to the Nation had a lot to do with her feelings for Minister Malcolm.

In late 1958, an African-American FBI informant candidly evaluated both Malcolm's character and his standing within the NOI: Brother MALCOLM ranks about third in influence. He has unlimited freedom of movement in all states, and outside of the Messengers immediate family he is the most trusted follower. He is an excellent speaker, forceful and convincing. He is an expert organizer and an untiring worker. . . . MALCOLM has a strong hatred for the ”blue eyed devils,” but this hatred is not likely to erupt in violence as he is much too clever and intelligent for that. . . . He is fearless and cannot be intimidated by words or threats of personal harm. He has most of the answers at his fingertips and should be carefully dealt with. He is not likely to violate any ordinances or laws. He neither smokes nor drinks and is of high moral character.

This a.s.sessment underscored the FBI's problem. Though the Bureau saw Malcolm as a potential threat to national security, his rigid behavioral code and strong leaders.h.i.+p skills would make him hard to discredit. He did not have obvious vulnerabilities, nor was he likely to be baited into making a mistake. Yet what the evaluation also gathered, quite astutely, was that Malcolm's authority within the sect emanated directly from his closeness to Elijah Muhammad. It would not take the Bureau long to deduce that any conflict provoked between Muhammad and Malcolm could weaken the Nation as a whole.

By late 1957, Malcolm was becoming the NOI's version of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.-a celebrity minister based in New York City, but whose larger role took him on the road for weeks at a time. His responsibilities still growing, he led a pressurized existence, his life often a blur of planes and trains, speeches and sermons. At some level, he must have felt a great weight of loneliness and frustration, especially as the freshness of new initiatives gave way to the inevitability of routine. The acclaim he found so intoxicating at the beginning came with equally significant burdens: the difficulties and humiliations that all blacks encountered when traveling across the country during these years; the administrative and budgetary puzzles of managing thousands of people; the challenges involved in pastoral work-going to see members in hospitals, overseeing funerals, preparing sermons and prayers. When he was in New York, he was expected to be a nightly presence in his temple, while the week's schedule was strictly regimented. Every Monday was FOI night, where men were drilled in martial arts, as well as ”the responsibilities of a husband and father,” as Malcolm put it. Tuesday evenings were ”Unity Night, where the brothers and sisters enjoy each other's conversational company.” Wednesday was Student Enrollment, with lectures explaining NOI theology. Thursdays were reserved for the MGT and General Civilization Cla.s.s, at which Malcolm frequently lectured. Fridays were Civilization Night, with cla.s.ses ”for brothers and sisters in the area of the domestic relations, emphasizing how both husbands and wives must understand and respect each others true natures.” On Sat.u.r.days, members were free to visit each others homes, with Sundays reserved for the week's main religious service.

Whether prompted by a gnawing sense of emptiness in his life or something less emotional, Malcolm's thoughts turned to marriage. Such a move would have practical benefits; Malcolm calculated that he could be a more effective representative of Elijah Muhammad if he married. He had heard the many rumors about his romantic attachments, and had tried to suppress them. Everyone in Temple No. 7 undoubtedly knew about their ministers long-term relations.h.i.+p with Evelyn Williams. It is impossible to know whether the minister rekindled s.e.xual intimacies with his longtime lover, or if Islamic sanctions against premarital s.e.x affected their behavior. In 1956, Malcolm proposed marriage and Evelyn accepted, but a few days later he retracted his offer. Of all the women with whom he was involved, Malcolm would later write to Elijah Muhammad, ”Sister Evelyn is the only one who had a legitiment [sic] beef against me . . . and I do bear witness that if she complains she is justified.”

But Evelyn was not the only recipient of a marriage proposal from Malcolm in 1956. That same year, he asked another NOI woman, Betty Sue Williams. Little is known of her, though she was likely the sister of Robert X Williams, minister of the Buffalo temple. Both women, in different ways, were unsuitable choices. Malcolm sensed that he had built bonds of trust and spiritual kins.h.i.+p between himself, his religious followers, and to a growing extent the Harlem community. The woman he chose as his wife would impact all these relations.h.i.+ps. Romantic love and s.e.xual attractiveness, he reasoned, had little to do with fulfilling his primary roles as a minister and role model. Evelyn had known and loved him when he was Detroit Red, and though he had changed drastically, her claim on him by virtue of their shared past would always compete with his commitment to the Nation. For this reason, Malcolm believed it necessary for his spouse to have no knowledge of or connection to his prior life. And Betty Sue, who probably lived in Buffalo, four hundred miles from Harlem, was not a member of Temple No. 7's intimate community. Malcolm was proud of the bonds he had established with both the members of Temple No. 7 and the Harlem community generally. The minister 's wife, he felt, was an extension of himself ; she would sometimes be his representative at public occasions, and would have to possess the same commitment to Muhammad and the NOI that he had. Malcolm's failed proposals in 1956 surely increased his sense of personal isolation and private loneliness.

If practical reasons came to dominate the way Malcolm thought about choosing a wife, it may have had much to do with the sense of betrayal he long harbored about his mistreatment at the hands of partners past, especially Bea. He had come to fear that it was impossible for him to love or trust any woman. ”I'd had too much experience that women were only tricky, deceitful, untrustworthy flesh,” he complained. ”To tell a woman not to talk too much was like telling Jesse James not to carry a gun, or telling a hen not to cackle.” And knowing when not to talk was a crucial skill for anyone who was to be Mrs. Malcolm Shabazz.

Malcolm also possessed firm ideas about the role a wife should play. ”Islam has very strict laws and teachings about women,” he observed. ”The true nature of a man is to be strong, and a woman's true nature is to be weak . . . [a man] must control her if he expects to get her respect.” Because he viewed all women as inherently inferior and subordinate to males, he was not looking for a spouse with whom he would share his innermost feelings. He expected his wife to be obedient and chaste, to bear his children and to maintain a Muslim household.

These sentiments were much in keeping with those of the Nation at large, which were in turn similar to those of orthodox Islam. In the Quranic tradition, the primary objectives of marriage (nikah) are s.e.xual reproduction and the transfer and inheritance of private property from one generation to the next. Nikah Nikah also controls the temptation toward promiscuity. Carnal knowledge can easily lead to social chaos, or also controls the temptation toward promiscuity. Carnal knowledge can easily lead to social chaos, or fitna fitna, if not tightly controlled. To most Muslims, premarital s.e.x, h.o.m.os.e.xuality, prost.i.tution, and extramarital s.e.xual intercourse are all absolutely forbidden.

Throughout the Islamic world, marriage is perceived as the uniting of two families or kins.h.i.+p lines rather than an act dictated by two individuals. In the negotiations with the relatives of the husband-to-be, a first-time bride is often represented by a wali wali, or guardian, who is normally a father or elder male relative. Premarital meetings between women and men are strictly supervised. Marriage is perceived as based on mutual respect, friends.h.i.+p, and a joint commitment toward an Islamic lifestyle. These processes, unfortunately, have tended to reinforce Islamic structures of patriarchy and domestic violence against women down through the centuries.

The Holy Qur'an is quite specific regarding Islamic expectations for the duties of women. Surah XXIV Surah XXIV, verse 33, instructs ”believing women”: to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husband or fathers or husband's fathers, or their sons or their husband's sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment.

The Nation attempted to incorporate some of these values within its own catechism. Elijah Muhammad's views about gender relations would be set out in his 1965 manifesto Message to the Blackman in America Message to the Blackman in America. To Muhammad, males and females occupied separate spheres. Black women had been the mothers of civilization, and they would play a central role in the construction of the world to come. Metaphorically, they were the field in which a mighty Nation would grow; thus it was essential for black men to keep the devil, the white man, away from his ”field,” because the black woman was far more valuable than any cash crop. There was no question that all women had to be controlled; the question was, who should exercise that control, the white man or the black? He also warned against birth control, a devilish plot to carry out genocide against black babies. It was precisely a woman's ability to produce children that gave the weaker s.e.x its value. ”Who wants a sterile wom[a]n?” he asked rhetorically.

What attracted so many intelligent, independent African-American women to such a patriarchal sect? The s.e.xist and racist world of the 1940s and 1950s provides part of the answer. Many African-American women in the paid labor force were private household workers and routinely experienced s.e.xual hara.s.sment by their white employers. The NOI, by contrast, offered them the protections of private patriarchy. Like their middle-cla.s.s white counterparts, African-American women in the Nation were not expected to hold full-time jobs, and even if Malcolm's frequent misogynistic statements, especially in his sermons, were extreme even by the s.e.xist standards of the NOI, it offered protection, stability, and a kind of leaders.h.i.+p. Malcolm's emphasis on the sanct.i.ty of the black home made an explicit promise ”that families won't be abandoned, that women will be cherished and protected, [and] that there will be economic stability.

Temple women during those years rarely perceived themselves as being subjugated. The MGT was its own center of activity, in which members partic.i.p.ated in neighborhood activities and were encouraged to monitor their children's progress in school. At the Newark NOI temple, not far from Temple No. 7, women were involved in establis.h.i.+ng small businesses. They also took an active role in working with their local board of education as well as other community concerns. It is likely that Harlem's women made similar efforts. As with those who were working in civil rights, women in the NOI had in mind the future of the black community. What attracted them to the Nation was the possibility of strong, healthy families, supportive relations.h.i.+ps, and personal engagement in building crime-free black neighborhoods and ultimately an independent black nation.

In the Autobiography Autobiography, Malcolm tells how his relations.h.i.+p with Betty Sanders evolved within the parameters defined by both Islam and the NOI. By early 1957 he was aware that Betty had joined Temple No. 7. He soon learned that she was from Detroit, had attended Tuskegee, and was currently at nursing school in the city. She was physically attractive-medium brown in color, dark hair, brown eyes, and a lively smile. Her education had given her the confidence and experience to stand before groups and lecture, and to direct the work of others. Malcolm began dropping in on Betty's cla.s.ses at the temple on Thursday evenings. His att.i.tude toward her was formal but friendly. He eventually overcame his reservations to invite her out-to New York's Museum of Natural History. As he recounted their first date, his sole purpose was to view several museum displays that would help her in her lectures. Betty agreed to go and an afternoon outing was set. Hours before their meeting, however, Malcolm got cold feet, calling her to say that he had to cancel; another matter had come up. Betty's rejoinder was surprisingly blunt: ”Well, you sure waited long enough to tell me, Brother Minister, I was just ready to walk out of the door.” Embarra.s.sed, he recanted, and hastily agreed to keep the date after all. The afternoon went off well, and he was pleasantly surprised to be ”halfway impressed by her intelligence and also her education.” The two continued to meet and work together, but Malcolm was paralyzed by the thought that if he showed he was romantically attracted to her she might reject him.

The NOI by now possessed the financial resources to fly Malcolm to Chicago each month to consult with Elijah Muhammad. At one of these meetings, Malcolm admitted that he might ask Betty to marry him. Since her foster parents were opposed to her members.h.i.+p in the Nation, Muhammad decided to investigate her suitability for his prized disciple. On the pretext of several days' training at national headquarters, he invited Betty to Chicago. During her time there, she was the houseguest of Elijah and Clara Muhammad. Afterward, Muhammad told Malcolm approvingly that he thought Betty X was ”a fine sister.”

In Malcolm's telling (and in Spike Lee's film), s.e.xual attraction was the primary force drawing the two together, yet some of those who worked closely with Malcolm saw things differently. James 67X recalled that the minister saw his marriage as the fulfillment of an obligation to the Nation. Any personal feelings were secondary. ”Brother, a minister has has to be married,” Malcolm told him, alluding to the Islamic precepts. To avoid to be married,” Malcolm told him, alluding to the Islamic precepts. To avoid fitna fitna, the threats of scandal and sin, even a loveless marriage could become a haven. Another confidant, Charles 37X Morris, became convinced that Malcolm ”didn't have no feelings for a woman,” an ambiguous statement that nonetheless suggests that his minister was not enthusiastic about marriage. Charles believed that it was Elijah, not Malcolm, who was the chief instigator of his lieutenant's marriage. Years after Malcolm's death, Louis Farrakhan insisted that Malcolm continued to be deeply in love with Evelyn Williams. Yet Betty herself-or Dr. Betty Shabazz, as she became known-would always insist that Malcolm had pursued her ”persistently and correctly.”

Still, the unusual way Malcolm proposed to Betty suggests that his former lieutenants may have had a point. Early in the morning on Sunday, January 12, 1958, he stood in a pay telephone booth at a gas station in Detroit, having driven all night from New York City. He reached her at her hospital dormitory and immediately blurted out, ”Look, do you want to get married?” Betty, overcome, dropped the receiver, but as soon as she had it in hand again said, ”Yes.” She promptly packed her suitcase and immediately flew to Detroit.

As soon as Betty was in Detroit, the young couple went together to the Malloys, who were stunned. Betty recalled leaving Malcolm in the living room as she retreated with her parents to the back of the house to tell them the news. They did not respond well. Helen Malloy sobbed uncontrollably, complaining that Malcolm was too old and ”not even a Christian.” Her father was even more direct: ”What have we done to make you hate us so?” Betty began to weep as well, but she was determined to have her way. What Malcolm surmised from the raised voices and gales of sobbing is hard to know. He simply recalled that the Malloys ”were very friendly, and happily surprised.”

The news received a better reception from the Littles. Malcolm's siblings in the Detroit area were overjoyed, and probably extremely relieved, that their thirty-two-year-old brother was finally settling down. On January 14, Malcolm and Betty drove to nearby northern Indiana, where liberal marriage laws would make it easy to wed quickly. However, the state had recently established a mandatory waiting period, so the two went on to Philbert's home in Lansing, where they learned it was possible to marry within two days. They obtained the necessary blood tests, bought a pair of rings, and filled out a marriage certificate. Then came the ceremony itself, on January 4. Malcolm's rendering is both semicomical and bittersweet, because it reveals little sense of joy. ”An old hunchback white man,” a justice of the peace, performed the ceremony. Wilfred and Philbert were there, although in Malcolm's version of events all the witnesses were white. Malcolm was most offended when the justice of the peace instructed him to ”kiss your bride.” Malcolm protested, ”I got her out of there. All that Hollywood stuff!” He ridiculed ”these movie and television-addicted women expecting some bouquets and kissing and hugging . . . like Cinderella.” The newlyweds spent the night at a hotel, Betty flying back to New York the next day to attend her cla.s.ses.

When the news of Minister Malcolm's nuptials reached Temple No. 7, there was pandemonium, and not all of it celebratory. The NOI was predominantly an organization in which males fraternized easily with each other, hugging and embracing in public. While physical contact between genders was prohibited, male-to-male contact, especially within the martial arts context, was routine. It was not a surprise to Malcolm, therefore, when some brothers at Temple No. 7 ”looked at me as though I had betrayed them.” Malcolm was seen as a modern-day Abelard, the priest who had surrendered to earthly pa.s.sions, abandoning his true calling. But he was far more intrigued with the temple sisters' response to Betty. ”I never will forget hearing one exclaim, 'You got him!' That's like I was telling you, the nature nature of women. That's part of why I never have been able to shake it out of my mind that she knew something-all the time. Maybe she did get me!” of women. That's part of why I never have been able to shake it out of my mind that she knew something-all the time. Maybe she did get me!”

Evelyn, who was at the temple when the news of Malcolm's marriage was announced, ran from the building screaming. Undoubtedly Malcolm felt guilty; if, as Farrakhan suggested, he continued to harbor feelings for her, the formal ending of their relations.h.i.+p may have been almost as difficult for Malcolm. But just as practical considerations had motivated his desire to be married, it now drove his resolve to restore order within the temple. He consulted with Muhammad, and it was decided that Evelyn would relocate to Chicago, where the national office would employ her as one of Muhammad's secretaries. This must have seemed like the best solution to Malcolm, because, even if he had heard the rumors that occasionally surfaced in the temple about the Messenger, he could not have guessed how the move would come to complicate his life.

The unease Malcolm had shown toward marrying Betty almost immediately manifested itself in their lives together as man and wife. The challenges they faced were linked, in part, to the general problems that many black Americans encounter when adopting Quranic standards for marriage. Many basic beliefs Muslims have about its purposes and duties are at odds with Western Christian values. Another serious issue is the concept of machismo that some African-American males carry into Islam. The Nation had long drawn its converts from the lowest rungs of black society, and many of its flock came from difficult or self-destructive backgrounds. Those who, like Malcolm, had converted while in prison often continued to bear painful scars, both physical and psychological, from that experience. Trauma can last an entire lifetime, and the Nation had no self-help program to a.s.sist men in overcoming such emotional problems. Malcolm's prior s.e.xual history had been largely defined by encounters with prost.i.tutes and women like Bea Caragulian. Now he would have an obligation not only to provide financially for Betty, but to address her emotional and s.e.xual needs.

He did at least try. At the beginning of 1958, the newlyweds moved into a duplex house at 25-26 Ninety-ninth Street in East Elmhurst, Queens. Betty and Malcolm shared the upstairs living quarters with temple secretary John X Simmons, his wife, Minnie, and their four-month-old baby; also living there were an Edward 3X Robinson and his wife. Occupants in the bas.e.m.e.nt and ground-level residence included John X and Yvonne X Molette, Mildred Crosby, Alice Rice, and her baby daughter, Zinina. All either were NOI members or were connected to the NOI through family ties. Betty quickly became pregnant and gave up her nursing career. For several months, Malcolm stopped extensive touring and tried to appear happy about the pregnancy. From the beginning, however, Betty's behavior displeased him. Just as she had defied her parents' wishes by transferring to nursing school and by marrying Malcolm, she retained an independent streak that her demanding husband found unacceptable. Even her continued attendance at MGT cla.s.ses bothered him. For her part, Betty confided to one girlfriend that while Malcolm's word was final inside the temple, in the privacy of their home ”that att.i.tude just didn't go.” James 67X later characterized Betty's combative opposition to the patriarchal behavior of both her husband and the NOI hierarchy as ”continuous,” explaining with a smile that ”no woman who has been brought up under the devil can accept this.” Although Betty's foster parents were black, their entrenched Christian values and middle-cla.s.s norms, as far as James 67X was concerned, were like those of whites.

Years after Malcolm's a.s.sa.s.sination, Betty would describe her marriage as ”hectic, beautiful, and unforgettable-the greatest thing in my life.” In reality, the twenty-three-year-old was poorly prepared for married life. She had never learned to cook. Even after she joined the Nation, she knew how to make little more than bean dishes and a few beef and chicken recipes. Malcolm never cooked, so it was up to her to plan nutritious and varied meals on a limited budget. Any romantic fantasies she may have had about her future life were largely extinguished by the end of their first year together. Malcolm rarely, if ever, displayed affection toward her. They almost never spent the night out in each other's company-throughout their seven years of marriage, he took her to a movie only once, in 1963. The most caring moments occurred around the births of their children. For example, Malcolm personally drove Betty for her regular appointments with her obstetrician, Dr. Josephine English (he'd made it clear that no male physician would touch his spouse). To allow for Malcolm's hectic schedule, Dr. English set Betty's appointments at seven a.m. at her hospital. Malcolm had convinced himself that his firstborn child would be male; indeed, he had told a.s.sociates that the only name he had come up with was a boy's. Then, on November 16, 1958, a girl was born and given the name Attallah. Whether Malcolm was disappointed or simply believed he had little postpartum role to play, he virtually disappeared following the birth. The next day he drove north to Albany to speak at an NOI gathering. Two days later, he was in Hartford, Connecticut, before moving along to Newark, New Jersey. He was back on the road, carrying on as though little had changed.

His reaction dismayed Betty. Shortly after Attallah's birth, she collected some clothing and her daughter and took the subway to the home of Ruth Summerford, a distant cousin. When Malcolm arrived back to discover his wife and child missing, he guessed where they had gone. He sensed that Betty was upset with his behavior, but he had no intention of offering an apology. Instead, he waited nearly two days before he drove over to Summerford's house and ordered his wife to pick up their daughter and get into the car. Betty did as she was told.

Marriage continued to be filled with surprises. During her years as a single woman, Betty had collected a small number of debts. Malcolm had no knowledge about these before their marriage, but now thought it best not to let his young wife think that ”she had married a good thing,” so he allowed her to continue working to clear these debts. Still, he did not make it easy for her. When Betty asked him to drive her to work, which began at six a.m., he curtly refused. By keeping firm control of the family finances and denying Betty the opportunity to earn income beyond what was needed for the repayments, he kept his wife ”in jail financially,” as he put it.

If long days on the road had once turned Malcolm's thoughts to marriage and stability, the difficulties of his marriage now renewed the road's appeal, offering him a way to find solace and distance from his troubles. His first significant trip after his marriage was a monthlong visit to Los Angeles in the spring of 1958, which was in many ways as significant as his extended series of speeches in Detroit in the summer of 1957. Malcolm was determined to establish a strong NOI base on the West Coast. He also wanted to establish the NOIs Islamic credentials by engaging in public activities with Middle Eastern and Asian Muslim representatives in the region. In late March and early April, Malcolm addressed NOI members at meetings held at the Normandie Hall in Los Angeles. While in the city, he also attended a gala reception honoring the Republic of Pakistan, and spoke at a press conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, coordinated by Mohammad T. Mendi of Karbala, Iraq, using the platform to say it was ”absurd” for the Arabs to expect fair treatment from the white media ”since it is controlled by the Zionists.” On April 20 he was again the featured speaker at a public event designed to be an interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians. Three preachers walked out in protest when Malcolm criticized the wealth of some African-American churches and the poverty of their wors.h.i.+ppers. He also arranged with Louis X to deliver a sermon at Boston's temple in May. At its conclusion, Malcolm asked the audience if anyone wished to convert to the NOI. He was astonished to find among those standing his sister Ella; somehow their lives had come full circle.

Malcolm grew increasingly troubled by Betty's behavior. In a letter sent to Elijah in March 1959, he confessed that ”the main source of our trouble was based upon s.e.x s.e.x”: [S]he placed a great deal more stress upon it than I was physically physically capable of doing. Please forgive me for this topic, but I feel compelled to tell you of it, and would tell it to no one else but you. At a time when I was going all out to keep her satisfied (s.e.xually), one day she told me that we were incompatible s.e.xually because I had never given her any real satisfaction. From then on, try as I may, I began to become very cool toward her. I didn't ever again feel right (free) with her in that sense, for no matter how happy she would act I'd see it only as a pretense. . . . She stayed miserable during her expectancy, and those were the nine most miserable months of my life . . . she often cursed the day she married and of being pregnant, and capable of doing. Please forgive me for this topic, but I feel compelled to tell you of it, and would tell it to no one else but you. At a time when I was going all out to keep her satisfied (s.e.xually), one day she told me that we were incompatible s.e.xually because I had never given her any real satisfaction. From then on, try as I may, I began to become very cool toward her. I didn't ever again feel right (free) with her in that sense, for no matter how happy sh

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