MLK’s criticism of Malcolm X was exaggerated in famous 1965 interview: researcher
In its January 1965 issue, Playboy Magazine published author Alex Haley's in-depth interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Haley and MLK covered a lot of ground during their conversation, including King's philosophical differences with Malcolm X — which didn't come as a major surprise.
King embodied nonviolent civil disobedience during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, applying the Hindu principle of ahimsa and the methods of Mahatma Gandhi. Malcolm, however, argued that nonviolence was sometimes unrealistic in light of the violence that African-Americans were facing in the United States at the time.
Yet some historians believe that the differences between King and Malcolm have been exaggerated. And according to researcher Jonathan Eig, that exaggeration is evident in Haley's article.
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Eig, journalist Brooke Leigh Howard reports in an article published by the Daily Beast on May 10, has found a transcript of Haley's interview with King. Some of the more scathing criticism of Malcolm that appeared in Haley's Playboy piece, according to Eig, is missing from the transcript.
Haley quoted King as saying, "I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice." But that quote, according to Eig, is not in the transcript. And Howard writes that another quote Haley attributed to King was "taken completely out of context."
King was quoted as saying, "Fiery, demagogic oratory in the black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as (X) has done, can reap nothing but grief." According to Eig, however, King was talking about extremism in general — not about Malcolm specifically.
King did criticize Malcolm during the interview. But Eig, according to Howard, found that the criticism was much more nuanced than what Haley's article portrayed 58 years ago.
In the transcript, King said of Malcolm, "I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views, as I understand them. I don't want to seem to sound as if I feel so self-righteous, or absolutist, that I think I have the only truth, the only way. Maybe he does have some of the answer. But I know that I have so often felt that I wished that he would talk less of violence, because I don't think that violence can solve our problem. And in his litany of expressing the despair of the Negro, without offering a positive, creative approach, I think that he falls into a rut sometimes."
In an article published by the Washington Post on May 10, Eig emphasizes that King and X had a lot more in common than many historians realize.
Eig told the Post, "We've been teaching people for decades, for generations, that King had this harsh criticism of Malcolm X, and it's just not true…. King was much more open-minded about Malcolm than we've tended to portray him."
King was highly critical of the Nation of Islam and the teachings of its leader Elijah Muhammed, who preached a Black separatist ideology that King rejected. Malcolm was a member of the Nation of Islam for many years, but near the end of his life, he left the Nation, became an orthodox Sunni Muslim and went on a 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca.
Before his death, Malcolm had collaborated with Haley on his autobiography, which was published posthumously. Malcolm was assassinated in New York City on February 21, 1965. And King was assassinated only three years later in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
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The Daily Beast's full report continues at this link (subscription required). The Washington Post's is here (subscription required).
