Not long ago, the black man in America was fed a dose of another form of the weakening, lulling and deluding effects of so-called "integration" It was that "Farce on Washington", i call it.
For twenty or more years the March on Washington idea had floated around among Negroes. And, spontaneously, suddenly now, that idea caught on.
Overalled rural Southern Negroes, small town Negroes, Northern ghetto Negroes, even thousands of previously Uncle Tom Negroes began talking "March".
Nothing since Joe Louis had so coalesced the masses of Negroes. Goups of Negroes were talking of getting to Washington any way they could- in rickety old cars, on buses, hitch-hiking- walking, even, if they had to. They envisioned thousands of black brothers converging together upon Washington- to lie down on the streets, on airport runways, on goverment lawns- demanding of the Congress and the White House some concrete civl rights action.
This was a national bitterness; militant, unorganized and leaderless. Predominatly, it was young Negroes, defiant of whatever might be the consequences, sick and tired of the black man´s neck under the white man´s heel.
The white man had plenty of good reasons for nervous worry. The right spark- some unpredictable emotional chemestry- could set off a black uprising. The government knew that thousands of milling, angry blacks not only could completely disrupt Washington- but they could erupt in Washington.
The White House speedily invited in the major civil rights Negro "leaders". They were asked to stop the planned March. They truthfully said they hadn´t begun it, they had no control over it- the idea was national, spontaneous,unorganized and leaderledd. In other words. it was a black powder keg.
Any student of how "integration" can weaken the black man´s movement was about to observe a master lesson.
The White House, with a fanfare of international publicity, "aproved", "endorsed", and "welcomed" a March on Washington. The big civil rights organization right at this time had been publicly squabbling about donations. The New York Times had broken the story. The N.A.A.C.P. had charged that other agencies demonstrations, highly publicized, had attracted a major part of the civil rights donations- while the N.A.A.C.P. got left holding the bag, supplying costly bail and legal talent for the other organizations jailed demonstrators.
It was like a movie. The next scene was the "big six" civil rights Negro "leaders" meeting in New York City with the white head of a big philanthropic agency. They were told that their money-wrangling in public was damaging their image. And a reported $800.000 was donated to a United Civil Rights Leadership council that was quickly organized by the "big six".
Now, what had instantly achieved black unity? The white man´s money. What string was attached to the money? Advice. Not only was there this donation, but another comparable sum was promised, for sometime later on, after the March....obviously if all went well.
That original "angry" March on Washington was now about to be entirely changed.
Massive international publicity projected the "big six" as March on Washington leaders. It was news to those angry grass-roots Negroes steadily adding steam to their March plans. They probably assumed that now those famous "leaders" were endorsing and joining them.
Invited next to join the March were four famous white public figures: one Catholic, one Jew, one Protestant, and one labor boss.
The massive publicity now gently hinted that the "big ten" would "supervise" the March on Washington "mood", and its "direction".
The four white figures began nodding. The word spread fast among so-called "liberal" Catholics, Jews, Protestans and laborites: it was "democratic" to join this black March. And suddenly, the previously March-nervous whites began announcing they were going.
It was as if electrical current shot through the ranks of bourgeois Negroes- the very so-called "middle-class" and "upper-class" who had earlier been deploring the March on Washington talk by grass-roots Negroes.
But white people, now, were going to march.
Why, some downtrodden, jobless, hungry Negro might have gotten trampled. Those "integration"-mad Negroes practically ran over each other trying to find out where to sign up. The "angry blacks" March suddenly had been made chic. Suddently it had a Kentucky Derby image. For the status-seeker, it was a status symbol. "where you there?". You can hear that right today.
It had become an outing, a picnic.
The morning of the March, any rickety carloads of angry, dusty, sweating small-town Negroes would have gotten lost among the chartered jep planes, railroad cars, and airconditioned buses. What originally was planned to be an angry riptide, one English newspaper apty described now as "the gentle flood".
Talk about "integrated"! It was like salt and pepper. And, by now, there wasn´t a single logistics aspect uncontrolled.
The marchers had been instructed to bring no signs- signs were provided. They had been told to sing one song: "We Shall Overcome". They had been told how to arrive, when, where to arrive, where to asemble, when to start marching, the route to march. First-aid stations were strategically located- even where to faint!
Yes, I was there. I observed that circus. Who ever heard of angry revolutionist all harmonizing "We Shall Overcome"...Suum Day..." while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against? Who ever heard of angry revolutionist swinging their bare feet together with their oppressor in likypad park pools, with gospels and guitars and "I Have a Dream" speeches?
And the black masses in America were- and still are- having a nightmare. These "angry revolutionist" even followed their final instructions: to leave early. With all of those thousands upon thousands of "angry revolutionist", so few stayed over that the next morning the Washington hotel association reported a costly loss in empty rooms.
Hollywood couldn´t have toppet it.
In a subsequent press poll, not one Congressman or Senator with a previous record of opposition to civil rights said he had changed his views. What did anyone expect? How was a one-day "integrated" picnic going to counter-influence these representatives of prejudice rooted deep in the psyche of the American white man for four hundred years?
The very fact that millions, black and white, believed in this monumental farce is another example of how much this country goes in for the surface glossing over, the scape ruse, surfaces, instead of truly dealing with its deep-rooted problems.
What that March on Washington did do was lull Negroes for a while. But inevitably, the black masses started realizing they had been smoothly hoaxed again by the white man. And, inevitably, the black man´s anger rekindled, deeper than ever, and there began bursting out in different cities, in the "long, hot summer" of 1964, unprecedent racial crisis.
Malcolm X, 1965 Autobiography
Y sus últimas palabras, 3 meses antes de su asesinato, con las que concluye su libro.
"Yes, I have cherished my "demagogue" role. I know that societies often have killed the people who have helped to change those societies. And if i die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help to destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America- then, all of the credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine".
