Life with the Liars

[H2O Man]

18. Oh, he was!

One of the funny things about the late 1950s and the '60s is how Malcolm, though his public image was "violent," was a peaceful man. The first time he was associated with violence came in 1957. In NYC, two police beat Hinton Johnson and three others with night sticks, leaving Johnson with bleeding on the brain. Malcolm insisted they take Johnson for medical treatment, but they hesitated. Soon the police headquarter's block was surrounded by NOI men, silent, dressed in suits. This convinced the police that they needed to take Johnson to the hospital.

Malcolm left the police station, gave a hand signal, and the NOI men left. A top cop told the Amsterdam News, "No one man should have that much power." Later, when Malcolm heard this, he said, "He meant 'no black man'." This incident brought Malcolm to the national news. Soon, someone said he was the only man who could either start a riot or end one. Malcolm thought for a minute, then said, "I don't know if I'd ever want to start a riot. And I don't know if I'd ever want to stop one."

These things scared people, especially white people. Malcolm had a way with words. Eventually, of course, came the second time he was associated with violence, when he was murdered while starting a speech at the Audubon Ballroom. Meanwhile, Martin Luther King was a prophet advocating nonviolence, who was subjected to frequent violence from racist trash, until he, too, was gunned down.

Only in America.