Produced by Tim Lindell, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
THE RELUCTANT AFRICAN THE NEGRO REVOLT WHEN THE WORD IS GIVEN ...
A REPORT ON ELIJAH MUHAMMAD, MALCOLM X, AND THE BLACK MUSLIM WORLD
THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY CLEVELAND AND NEW YORK
Published by The World Publishing Company 2231 West 110th Street, Cleveland 2, Ohio
Published simultaneously in Canada by Nelson, Foster & Scott Ltd.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-21624
WP963 Copyright © 1963 by Louis E. Lomax.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher, except for brief passages included in a review appearing in a newspaper or magazine. Printed in the United States of America.
To James Leonidas Lomax, consecrated preacher, dedicated teacher, and devoted parent. What little love there is among men today is due to men like Uncle James.
4. THE BLACK MUSLIMS AND THE NEGRO REVOLT 85
This book comes at a time when the American race issue seems at a climax. Disturbing though it may be, it is encouraging that such a book as this can be written, that a group like the Black Muslims not only lives among us but that it can be investigated and studied. This means that at long last we are about to become honest about the race question. Negroes are saying what they think; white people are pausing to listen. These are the prerequisites of dialogue in a free society, and I predict that on the whole the Black Muslims will have a healthy influence on our social structure.
I know white people are frightened by Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad; maybe now they will understand how I have felt all my life, for there has never been a day when I was unafraid; we Negroes live our lives on the edge of fear, not knowing when or how the serpent of discrimination will strike and deprive us of something dear--a job here, a house there, an evening out over there, or a life itself. But things are better now than they once were; I am convinced they will soon be better than they are now. I am optimistic because I feel Negroes are now determined to better their lot; I believe we will win because there is every evidence that white people are beginning to yield some of their power, and that--power--is what the argument is really about.