revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

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as a national spokesman and leader in the black liberation movement by
1963 .
Malcolm's break with the
religious black nationalism of the Nation of
Islam was an important development because it provided the movement with a
public center for political black nationalism .
On March 8, 1964, Malcolm held a press conference declaring his independence
from the Nation of Islam .
He first organized the Muslin Mosque,
Inc . a Sunni Muslim organization of which he would be Iman . The philosophy
of the Muslim Mosque, Inc . he said would be black nationalism . But Malcolm
represented a different brand of black nationalism which was revolutionary
black nationalism .
I am prepared, Malcolm said, to cooperate in local civil rights
actions in the South and elsewhere and shall do so because every
campaign for specific objectives can only heighten the political
consciousness of the Negroes and intensify their identification
against white society . . . .
There is no use deceiving ourselves, Malcolm said . Good education,
housing and jobs are imperative for Negroes, and I shall
support them in their fight to win these objectives, but I shall
tell the Negroes that while these are necessary they cannot
solve the main Negro problem . 26
Malcolm had many objectives in mind .
One was involving disciplined Muslims
and black nationalists in the civil rights movement and transforming the
civil rights movement into a human rights movement .
The failure of the FDP to be seated led SNCC to attempt organizing an
all black independent political party a year later .
Stanford called an emergency organizational
meeting in Detroit of BLF
cadres, James and Grace Boggs, and other supporters . He gave a report on
the conditions within the Mississippi field staff which was ready to move
26 George Breitman, The Last Year of Malcolm X (New York : Schocken
Books, 1967), pp . 19-20 .