Malcolm X - Letter to Jackie Robinson ( Amsterdam News) lyrics

November 30, 1963 Dear Good Friend, Jackie Roosevelt Robinson: You became a great baseball player after your White Boss (Mr. Rickey) lifted you to the Major Leagues. You proved that your White Boss had chosen the “right” Negro by getting plenty of hits, stealing plenty of bases, winning many games and bringing much money through the gates and into the pockets of your White Boss. In those days I was one of your many ardent fans; your speed and shifty base running used to hold me spellbound . . . and, according to the attack you leveled against me and Congressman Powell in your recent column, I must confess that even today you still display the same old “speed,” the same “cunning,” and “shiftiness” . . . and you are still trying to win “The Big Game” for your White Boss. Shortly after the White Man lifted you from poverty and obscurity to the Major Leagues, Paul Robeson was condemning America for her injustices against American Negroes. Mr. Robeson questioned the intelligence of Negroes fighting to defend a country that treated them with such open contempt and bestial brutality. Robeson's Stand Robeson's brilliant stand in behalf of our people left the guilty American whites speechless: they had no defense. They sought desperately to find another Negro who would be dumb enough to champion their bankrupt “white” cause against Paul Robeson. It was you who let yourself be used by the whites even in those days against your own kind. You let them sic you on Paul Robeson. You let them use you to destroy Paul Robeson. You let your White Boss send you before a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. (the capitol of Segregationville) to dispute and condemn Paul Robeson, because he had these guilty American whites frightened silly. Your White Boss sent you to Washington to a**ure all the worried white folks that Negroes were still thankful to the Great White Father for bringing us to America, that Negroes were grateful to America (despite our not being treated as full citizens), and that Negroes would still lay down our lives to defend this white country (though this same white government wasn't ready nor willing to defend Negroes) . . . even in those days, Jackie! Jackie's Column In this same recent column you also accused me and Dr. Powell of misleading our people. Aren't you the same ex ­baseball player who tried to “MISLEAD” Negroes into Nixon's camp during the last presidential election? Evidently you were the only Negro who voted for Nixon, because according to the polls taken afterward, very few Negroes were dumb enough to follow your “MISLEAD.” Today you confess to our people that you now think Nixon would have been the wrong man. Aren't you also confessing that if Negroes had been dumb enough to follow you three years ago that you would have been guilty of MISLEADING them? Rocke­fel­ler You never gave up. You are now trying to lead Negroes into Nelson Rockefeller's political camp. If you admit that you were wrong about Richard Nixon three years ago, how are we to be sure that you've become so politically mature in the meantime to be right in your choice today? Your “shiftiness” is confusing and very misleading. We hear that you are about to be appointed Boxing Commissioner of New York State by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Does this have any bearing on your efforts to get Negroes into Rockefeller's camp? Just who are you playing ball for today, good Friend? Our people followed you on the football field and the baseball field, but we are cautious and doubtful about your shifty position in this political field. When Mr. Rickey picked you up from obscurity and made you a Big Leaguer, you never let Mr. Rickey down; and since Mr. Black has given you a well­paying position with Chock-Full-O-Nuts, you have never let Mr. Black down . . . and now with Mr. Rockefeller promising to make you the Boxing Commissioner of New York State, we know that you can't afford to let Ole Rocky down. You have never shown appreciation for the support given you by the Negro ma**es, but you have a record of being very faithful to your White Benefactors. Perhaps, if Nixon had not been such a relatively poorer man, he too would have fared much better with your support. Your column also accused me of attacking Dr. Ralph Bunche. This is untrue. I have never attacked Ralph Bunche. No m**m ever initiates an attack on anyone. Dr. Bunche had attacked the m**ms in general and me in particular from a college campus in the state of Mississippi, and his venomous poison was carried by all the major networks. My reply to Dr. Bunche's unwarranted attack was made strictly in self­ defense (as is this present letter an answer to your unjust attack). If Dr. Bunche's UN position is supposed to confine him to matters “above and beyond” America's race problems, whenever he does escape the confines of UN protocol, why does he always attack our m**m religious group? This is the third time he has attacked our religion. Is he anti Islam? Mississippi Since he was in Mississippi while making his recent speech, he would have shown more intelligence had he directed his full attention toward the whites in that area who are bombing Negro churches and murdering innocent little Negro girls. Why waste precious time and energy on us? m**ms don't bomb churches. m**ms don't shoot Medgar Evers in the back. m**ms have never lynched anyone. Dr. Bunche should realize he can't fight an effective battle on two different fronts at the same time. He can't fight the m**ms and at the same time be effective against the lynchers of Negroes. But Dr. Bunche seems more anxious to discredit and destroy the m**m religious group than he does the white lynchers of Negroes. Whenever I read the speeches he makes for American consumption, I often wonder if his scriptwriter isn't some anti-m**m Israeli? You also quoted the comedian, Dick Gregory, whose scriptwriter has him saying that most Negroes never knew the m**ms existed until the white man put the m**ms on television. I must confess that this is part ­true.