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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

involved?

Clark:

I didn't make reference to that. To Malcolm X. To Philip Randolph's attempt to bring them together with Malcolm X. I had no knowledege of the--in fact, Whitney Young wasn't in the leadership.

Q:

I'm sorry. Would they have been concerned about fundraising if they were publicly seen meeting with Malcolm X?

Clark:

They might have. It would be a realistic concern.

Q:

A. Philip Randolph wouldn't have that concern, particularly, because he didn't have a funding constituency to any extent.

Clark:

What he was asking for was not necessarily a public meeting, but private discussions. But they were more dependent on the white public. Malcolm, at that time, was not necessarily popular with the majority of blacks. He was more identified with the cult, the Muslim movement.

Q:

In case I didn't ask you this in a much earlier interview, did you have the impression that Roy Wilkins, and perhaps Whitney Young too, did not know of the true organizational nature of the Black Muslims, and Malcolm X's leadership capability among the Muslims? Let me put it another way. Roy Wilkins told me once when I asked him as a reporter the question (either he told me or Henry Lee Moon, his spokesman, told me), “What do you know about the Muslims?” They





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