Malcolm vs. McKissick
Before he moved to NYC and succeeded Farmer as the national director of CORE, Floyd McKissick also debated Malcolm. Despite their differences, the two had much in common. Aspects of McKissick's life whih were similar to that of a Black nationalist allowed him to have a different relationship with Malcolm than Malcolm had with Farmer and Rustin.

McKissick was married to a Black woman, owned property and had his own business as an attorney in Durham, North Carolina. The area has a history of being a unique African American community in that Blacks exercised a great deal of control over local institutions and businesses including its own version of 'Black Wall Street'.

He already had a good relationship with leaders of the local NOI mosque. He had done legal work for the NOI and often worked with them on education programs. Members in turn protected Mckissick's house after bomb threats were made against his family and at least on one occasion took it upon themselves to provide security for one of his demonstrations(40).

"What is the future of the Negro?", which took place in April of 1963, was not so much of a debate as it was McKissick and Malcolm X stating the positions of their respective organization. Duke University refused to have the event. North Carolina College refused to allow it to take place on its campus.

Even after a community center for the event was secured, the first date was canceled at the last minute when the city refused to allow its use. The city identified the NOI not as a religious organization but a violently segregationist organization that advocated racial supremacy. (41)

McKissick's oldest daughter, Jocelyn, an NCC student, took it upon herself to hook a loud speaker on top of a car so that Malcolm could speak to Black students at a local ice cream parlor/ soda shop in order to promote the event. She was suspended for two weeks as a result.(42)

Before he left Durham, Malcolm even stayed with the McKissicks at their home as opposed to a hotel or the home of someone from the NOI.(43)

Who's Scared of Black Power? You! That's Who (aka Yoo-Hoo)
Considered by many scholars to be Malcolm X's most iconic speech, 'The Ballot or The Bullet' was first delivered at a Cleveland CORE rally. In the speech he advocated Black nationalism which he defined as controlling the politics, economics, all the institutions and aspects of society in the Black community.(44)

Having officially left the Nation of Islam his intention was to announce his desire to inject himself and his soon to be Organization of Afro-American Unity into the civil rights struggle in order to expand it to that of a human rights struggle. In doing so, he planned to take the entire movement into the United Nations (which he portrayed as the equivalent of a world court). The goal was to charge the American government with violating the human rights of its Black citizens. By April, he announced he was going to organize a mass voter registration drive. Of course, this was work CORE had been doing for years, work which Malcolm ironically had consistently put down while in the NOI. Elijah Muhammad forbade members from participating in politics.(45)

Malcolm's speech ends with words that echoed those of New York CORE chairman Gladys Harrington in stating that whether one advocated integration or separation, both sides wanted the same thing - freedom. Farmer himself noted years after their Open Mind debate that in his analysis, Malcolm X was moving closer to the civil rights movement and the movement closer to the perspective of Malcolm X.(46)

Farmer, however, did not want CORE to turn into a Black Power organization even though he still supported CORE after he stepped down as national director. He implies in his book Freedom... When? that he equated some nationalists in CORE with 'rabid racists'.(47) Having seen the writing on the wall, he made predictions of what was to come and 'discouraged' CORE members from going to OAAU meetings. Professor Jeffrey Ogbar accounts this to Farmer's fear (or respect) for Malcolm's power of persuasion.(48)

The two organizations did share members such as Calvin Cobb (Suffolk County CORE), Nan Bowe, Yuri Kochiyama (7 Arts CORE), Herman Ferguson (South Jamaica CORE), and most notably Omar Abu Ahmed (East River CORE). It was most probably Ahmed who was responsible for several other members of East River CORE going to OAAU meetings in the Teresa Hotel where it was headquartered to meet with Malcolm. By coincidence, Harlem CORE also had its office set up there temporarily.(49)

After the assassination, many OAAU members such as Ralph Poynter (Harlem CORE) and Charles Hynes migrated over to CORE. Hynes, like Ahmed, Kochiyama and Ferguson had been in the Audubon that day.(50)

>>>> Part 6 <<<<

>>>> footnotes part 2 <<<<

>>>> footnotes part 3 <<<<