Only the Ques Would Debate Malcolm X: the Civil Rights Movement’s Big Six and the Safe Distance at Which They Kept America’s Foremost Militant

Rumor has it that the name Big Six was given to the group by a member of the press, while other accounts claim that the name originated with the men themselves during a 1963 meeting at a glitzy New York hotel where the men decided that the time had come to launch a dramatic demonstration, that became the March on Washington in August of that year. It is more likely, that the moniker was appropriated from the original Big Six which comprised of the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention. Kwame Nkrumah, first prime minister, and first president of Ghana; Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, founding member of the UGCU; Edward Akufo-Addo, founding member of the UGCU and subsequently Chief Justice and president of Ghana; Joseph Boakye Dan Quah, founding member of the UGCU; Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, founding member of the UGCU and William Ofori Atta, founding member of the UGCU. The United Gold Coast Convention was one of the leading political parties in the British Colony of the Gold Coast, known after independence as Ghana. It should also be noted that while the Big Six gets a lot of deserved credit for the success of the modern civil movement, there were scores of actors, many of whom were women who were just as important and just as valuable to the movement.

As a student, James Farmer Jr. had been a member of the 1935 debate team at Wiley College that defeated the University of Southern California, the reigning national debate champion.

FOR was founded in 1915 by sixty-eight pacifists who opposed America’s entry into World War II. It is the largest and oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in America.

To Whitney Young’s credit, he did attend a meeting at which Malcolm X was present. Clarence Jones, general counsel for the Gandhi Society for Human Rights, and a group of Black activists, entertainers, and intellectuals met with Malcolm at the home of Sidney Poitier to hear his plans to bring the U.S. government before the United Nations on charges of human rights violations. Also at the meeting was the writer John Killens, Ruby Dee, and Ossie Davis, representatives of A. Philip Randolph and CORE, and Benjamin Davis of the Communist Party. See Manning Marable (2011). Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention. New York: Penguin Books. By contrast, the closest his Big Six colleague, Roy Wilkins, had ever come to coalescing with Malcolm was in 1961 when Wilkins sent a telegram that of support of efforts designed to get justice for NOI member Ronald Stokes who was killed by members of the LAPD. Wilkins’s telegram was read at the press conference that Malcolm put together at the Staler-Hilton Hotel and reprinted in the Nation of Islam’s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. See Lois Sander, “L.A. Negro Community Unites in Defense of Black Muslims,” The Militant, 21 May 1962.

For many Blacks, the airing of that documentary was their first glimpse of the Nation of Islam. Many were shocked at the very public, yet disparaging, but truthful manner in which the Muslims spoke of the white man.

U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona was the most popular figure among college students at that time.

He spoke at Howard University, Morgan State College, and Tuskegee Institute.

Malcolm also tried to contact King by telegram, to no avail. Interestingly, one year after Malcolm was killed, King found time to squeeze in a meeting with Elijah Muhammad at his home in Chicago.

CUCRL stands for Council on United Civil Rights Leadership.

In other sources, it appears as the Committee on Social and Economic Unity, comprising representatives of labor, , civil rights, religious, and civic organization from the Black and Puerto Rican communities.

On this same day the Soviet Union detonates Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear device in human history. The weapon yielded fifty-seven megatons of TNT; four times larger than any nuclear device tested by the United States.

While Framer was considered the force behind the Freedom Rides, the venture was modeled after the Journey of Reconciliation, an initiative created by Bayard Rustin.

The debate was aired at 5:00 pm on Sunday over WVBR-FM Radio.

According to Farmer, one week before the debate, he received a call from the chairman of the student council at Cornell who had informed him that Malcolm had sent a wire saying, “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us to attack only when attacked; therefore, I must speak first or no debate.” “Would I agree to have the first speech and the first rebuttal? “Yes, I would be glad to on one condition: that after Malcolm’s rebuttal, there be an open-ended one-on-one cross discussion between him and me with the moderator not interfering.” This was, of course, another safeguard against being blown out of the water by one of Malcolm’s one-liners. Malcolm was at his best when on the attack—when blasting the crimes committed by the white man and the white world against Black people since they were brought to America in chains. Any Black opponent was in an untenable position trying to defend the white world against Malcolm’s valid criticisms. He had to come across as either an imbecile or a “Tom.” “Malcolm was at his weakest when discussing his program for a solution to the problem.” “Programmatically, he was stuck with Elijah Muhammad’s dogmas calling for a separate Black state or land that someone would give us somewhere on the globe. For all but the most naïve audiences, such a solution was subject to endless ridicule” (Farmer 1985, p. 224–225).

That King sent Walker in his stead is no surprise, for in November of 1962, Dr. King’s secretary, Dora McDonald, informed Malcolm X that Dr. King would not debate him because “he has always considered his work in a positive action framework rather than engaging in consistent negative debate.” See Chronology of the Life and Activities of Malcolm X. alkalimat.​org. accessed on December 5, 2022.

During the debate with James, Malcolm was asked to respond to Wilkins’ claim that the Nation of Islam was a Black version of the KKK, to which Malcolm responded: “Wilkins is actually too intelligent to have made that statement.” “I will challenge Roy Wilkins anytime, anywhere and under any conditions to a public debate concerning his charges that we who follow the Muslim faith are no better or no different than the Ku Klux Klan...” See Branham (1995). “I was Gone on Debating”: Malcolm’s Prison Debates and Public Confrontations. Argumentation and Advocacy Vol. 31 (Winter): 117–137.

Murray Kempton was the moderator. Kempton was also a well-known newsman, having worked for the New York Post and the New York Herald-Tribune, among others, as well as served as editor of The New Republic.