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“Playboy - May, 1963 _. PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: MALCOLM X a candid conversati(. with the militant major-domo £} ne black suelins "Within the past five years, the militant American Negro has become an increasing- ly active combatant in the struggle for civil rights. Espousing the goals of unquali- fied equality and integration, many of these outspoken insurgents have participated is freedom rides and protest marches against their segregationist foes. Today, they face opposition from not one, but two inimical exponents of raciem and segregation: the white supremacists and the Black Muslims. A relatively unknown and insignificant rad- ical religious Negro cult until a few years ago, the Musiims have grown into a Gedica- ted, disciplined nationwide movement which runs its own school, publishes its own news- paper, owns stores and restaurants in four major cities, buys broadcast time on 50 radio stations throughout the country, stages mass rallies attended by partisan crowds of 10,000 and more, and maintains its own police force of judo-treined athletes called the Fruit of Islan. Predicated on the proposition that the black man is morally, spiritually and in- tellectually superior to the white man, who is called a "devil," Muslim doctrine dooms him to extermination in an imminent Armageddon - along with Christianity itself, which is denounced as an opiate designed to lull Negroes ~ with the promise of heaven - into passive acceptance of inferior social status. Amalgamating elerents of Christianity and Mohammedanism (both of which officially and unequivocally disown it) and spiked with a black-supremacy version of Hitler's Aryan raciel theories, Muslimism was founded tioning obedience from thousands of followers as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Mass- enger of Allah. At the right hand of God's Messenger stands 36-year-old Mselcole Littie, a lanky onetime dining-car steward, bootlegger, pimp and dope pusher who left prison in 1952 to heed Muhammad's message, abandoned his “slave name,” Little, for the symbol- ic "K" (meaning identity unknown), and took an oath to abstain thereafter from smoking, drinking, gambling, cursing, dancing and sexual promiscuity - as required of every Muslim. The ambitious young man rose ewiftly to become the Messenger's most ardent and erudite disciple, and today wields all but absolute authority over the movement and its membership as Muhammad's business manager, trouble shooter and heir apparent. In the belief thet knowledge and awareness are necessary and effective entitoxins against the venom of hate, PLAYBOY asked Malcolm X to submit toa cross-examination on the means and ends of his organization. The ensuing interview was conducted at # se- cluded table in a Harlem restaurant owned by the Muslims. Interrupting his replies occasionally with a sip of black African coffee and whispered asides to deferential aides, the dark-suited minister of Harlem's Musiim Temple Number Seven spoke with can- dor and ~ except for moments of impassioned execration of all whites - the ersonal tone of a self-assured corporation executive. aie ae tee AtAehed POE. Many will be shocked by what he has to say; 6-will be’outraged. Our own view is that this interview is both an eloquent t did faga it f e ONGAIE of one noxious facet of rampant racism. As euch Ha belive ‘1 Yiae) i A ida vipa NEE and reading. rinks 1S HIRIDD ADCs en ee pre epyfis Orr | PLAYBOY: What is the ambition of the Balck Muslims}; { TY; 12 BY 020K MALCOIM X: Freedom, justice and equality are our principal aivitio Ard £; fully serve and follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is the guiding goal of eves Muslim. Mr. Mubammad teaches us the knowledge of our own selves, and Of dlr own peopje. He cleans us up ~ morally, mentally and spiritually - and he reforms us of the vices that have blinded us here in the Western eociety. He stops bleck men from getting drunk, stops their dope addiction if they had it, stops nicotine, gambling, stealing, letma crhasatina farnitzeatrtian adultarv prostitution. juvenile delinauency. I think oJ *4H_Q SUSBVeunw, Swe Ua ewwrersyg SB Vwer r= #3 of this whenever somebody talks about someone investigating us. Why investigate the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? They should subsidize him. He's cleaning up the mess that white men have made. He's saving the Goverment millions of dollars, taking black men off of welfare, showing them how to do something for themselves. And Mr. Muhammad teaches us love for our own kind, The white man has taught the bisck people in this ENCLOSURB ~~ : —