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t h r e e “By Any Means Necessary” Black Power and Pan-Africanism If South Africa is guilty of violating the human rights of Africans here on the mother continent, then America is guilty of worse violations of the 22 million Africans on the American continent. And if South African racism is not a domestic issue, then American racism is not a domestic issue. —Malcolm X, address to the Organization of African Unity’s Heads of State Summit, 17 July 19641 In 1964, Malcolm X made two triumphant tours of African countries, where he addressed the Organization of African Unity’s Heads of State Summit, met with individual leaders, and spoke at numerous universities. Malcolm’s worldview was transformed by his visits to Africa. Like Paul and Eslanda Robeson, W. E. B. Du Bois, and other African Americans, he was deeply in®uenced by African nationalist leaders such as Jomo Kenyatta, Ahmed Ben Bella, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Kwame Nkrumah. During his third tour of African countries, he became the ¤rst African American to address African heads of state at the Organization of African Unity meeting , at which he called for a strengthening of ties between Africans and African Americans,2 and for the OAU to raise the issue of African-American oppression at the United Nations and to link it to the campaign against apartheid in South Africa. In his address on 17 July 1964, Malcolm said, America is worse than South Africa, because not only is America racist, but she is also deceitful and hypocritical. South Africa preaches segregation and practices segregation. She, at least practices what she preaches. America preaches integration and practices segregation. South Africa is like a vicious wolf, openly hostile towards black humanity. But America is cunning like a fox, friendly and smiling, but even more vicious and deadly than a wolf.3 He went on to argue that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was part of a “propaganda maneuver . . . to keep the African nations from condemning [U.S.] racist practices before the United Nations, as you are now doing as regards the same practices in South Africa.” He then laid out the plan for the Organization of Afro-American Unity, saying that he intended to “internationalize ” the black freedom struggle in America by “placing it at the level of human rights.” This theme of internationalization of the freedom struggle is reminiscent of Du Bois’s efforts to get the UN Human Rights Commission to consider the issue of racial discrimination in the United States. The radical Civil Rights Congress had also addressed the UN commission on the issue, without results.4 Malcolm X, however, had a more powerful platform through the OAU and would no doubt have succeeded in his quest had he lived longer. By 1964, he was already being accused of in®uencing African heads of state to link the issue of the Congo with racial strife in Mississippi. In answer to a question about his role at the United Nations, Malcolm said, “I have never taken responsibility or credit, as you might say, for the stance taken by African nations. The African nations today are represented by intelligent statesmen. And it was only a matter of time before they would have to see that they would have to intervene in behalf of 22 million black Americans who are their brothers and sisters.”5 Nevertheless, Malcolm X had lobbied African nations to raise the issue of racial discrimination at the United Nations and was instrumental in reestablishing relations between African nationalists and black American nationalists. Like Du Bois and Robeson, Malcolm insisted that the AfricanAmerican struggle was an international one. “The Afro-American problem is not a Negro problem, or an American problem, but a human problem , a problem for humanity.”6 Malcolm’s internationalization of the black freedom movement was among his longest-lasting legacies. This revolutionary internationalist perspective attracted a number of talented young activists associated with SNCC and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Like Malcolm, the new generation of black activists was impatient with the old tactics. To them, the appeals, marches, sit-ins, and declarations had exhausted their potential. The urban rebellions in the northern cities were demonstrating a level of frustration that shocked moderate civil rights leaders. Free from the restraints of the NOI and eager to make connections with the movement, Malcolm began to reach out to movement activists, particularly to young workers in SNCC and its af¤liates in the colleges and...

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