Josh Clark

He called him a fool and Uncle Tom.

He also said that he was subsidized by the white man, that the—

essentially, again, that white people had taken over the real levers of power with the civil rights movement and that it was completely useless now.

But even if that weren't the case, he was such a critic of the civil rights movement because he was basically saying like,

If you're starting a revolution and the revolution's goal is to love your enemy, like that's ridiculous.

That's stupid.

Like that's never going to work.

It doesn't even make sense.

So what are you doing?

Like all you're doing is distracting and continuing to keep subjugated the people you're supposedly trying to liberate and integrate.

Yeah.

He had also captured the attention of the NYPD around that time where there was a protest because the Harlem police had brutalized a member of the Nation of Islam.

And there was like just a bunch of people came out on the street and were shouting about it because the guy had been beaten so badly, his skull had been cracked open.

And they wouldn't disperse.

So Malcolm X was inside essentially negotiating that the guy should get care and take him to the hospital with the police officials and managed to get them to agree to that.

But the crowd was still angry, wouldn't disperse.

And the cops were trying.

It wasn't very effective.

So Malcolm X went outside and apparently didn't say a word, just waved his hand.

And the crowd stopped yelling and just dispersed.