Indianapolis Recorder, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 May 2000 — Page 6

PAGE A6

THE INDIANAPOLIS RECORDER

FRIDAY, MAY 26,2000

Farrakhan’s 60 Minutes interview stirs debate

By MICHAEL J. ROCHON Philadelphia Tribune Staff Writer In the wake of Louis Farrakhan admitting Wednesday that his incendiary rhetoric played a part in the 1965 murder of Malcolm X, some who have closely followed the Nation of Islam leader wonder if he’s finally coming clean due to a recent brush with his own mortality. However, others say that Farrakhan's confession is nothing more than an “old story being retold to a new audience.” Farrakhan, who is reportedly battling prostate cancer and other health problems, told the slain civil rights leader’s oldest daughter, Attallah Shabazz, that he “truly loved” Malcolm X, but stated that he “helped create the atmosphere” that led to his assassination. “I may have been complicit in words that I spoke leading up to [the killing]...! acknowledge that and regret that any words that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being,” Farrakhan told Shabazz. These statements were made during an interview with “60 Minutes,” which aired earlier this month. “It seems that Minister Farrakhan is trying to make amends before he dies,” said Peter Noel of the Village Voice, who was among the first to report last year that Farrakhan had been diagnosed with cancer. “It’s like if the prostate cancer doesn’t kill him, his conscious will.” During the four-hour meeting between Shabazz and CBS corre- ; spondent Mike Wallace, Farrakhan • recalled that he once called ’ Malcolm X “a traitor” for his criticism of Nation of Islam founder • Elijah Muhammad, and wrote, two months before the killing, that IS “such a man is worthy of death.” Farrakhan was still speaking l negatively of Malcolm X just seven years ago, but he has struck a more t VI if .‘•mH *- >■ * *»»»

conciliatory tone over the past two years. During the “60 Minutes” interview, Farrakhan implied that the federal government may have played a part in Malcolm X’s assassination, saying the FBI was concerned about a “Black messiah” who could unite AfricanAmericans. “This was biggerthan the Nation of Islam,” he said. Shabazz, who was 6 when she saw her father gunned down in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem on Feb. 21, 1965, was visibly emotional at the revelation by Farrakhan. Folding her arms across her chest, she took umbrage at him deflecting blame from the Muslim organization. “You can’t keep pointing fingers,” Shabazz said. “My father was not killed from a grassy knoll.” Wallace said that since being stricken with prostate cancer, Farrakhan has taken a much softer stance on several topics deemed as sacred to the once fiery rabblerousing leader. Earlier this year, Farrakhan publicly embraced W. Deen Mohammed, son of Elijah Muhammad, in an attempt to heal wounds that split the Nation of Islam into two separate groups. Also, Farrakhan has ceased referring to whites as “devils" as had long been the Nation of Islam custom. “I think that he has thought seriously about the people he has disaffected,” Wallace said after the interview. Noel, believing Farrakhan is closer to death than he has let be publicly known, said the minister is attempting to clear his conscious before dying. “The man is tom over this issue. He wants to say something in his last days,” Noel said. “To me, Farrakhan is trying to get to the point where he can say - ‘I did nothing to stop the killing of Malcolm X.’ He knew Malcolm was going to die and he knows he

did nothing to stop it.” Meanwhile, several Farrakhan supporters said that he has privately professed many times to taking part in the assassination, and that Shabazz didn’t know of the previous confessions because she has not paid close attention to the legacy her father left behind. “She doesn’t know,” said Na-

tional Black United Front executive director Dr. Conrad Worrill, who credits himself as a friend of Farrakhan and as a “colleague in the Black movement.” “I heard him say this several years ago, and what Minister Farrakhan said to Mike Wallace was consistent to what he has said in the past,” Worrill said.

Temple University political science professor Thad Mathis also claims to have heard the confession before and doesn’t believe Farrakhan’s reported failing health has anything to do with him admitting it to Shabazz. “This isn’t the first time he made [the confession], and he was not sick the first time he did,” Mathis

said. Shabazz later issued a statement thanking Farrakhan for acknowledging his role and said: “I wish him peace.” However, Shabazz has yet to say if she will ever forgive him. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Farrakhan responds

The following is part of the interview with Minister Louis Farrakhan conducted by The Final Call newspaper on May 15, 2000. Final Call Newspaper (FCN): What is your reaction to the 12minute CBS, 60 Minutes program taken from a nearly 4-hour interview? The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan (MLF): It appears that the &im of 60 Minutes, CBS and Mike Wallace was to make the American public believe that I, Louis Farrakhan, ordered the assassination of Malcolm X. It in no way reflected the spirit of Miss Shabazz and myself and our attempt to continue the path of reconciliation started by ~Dr. ’Betty Shabazz and me in 1994 and 1995. FCN: How did the interview come about and did you have any hesitancy about doing it, considering Mike Wallace’s history with the Nation of Islam? MLF: Yes, I had reservations about doing it. It came about after Miss Shabazz and I had started a dialogue when brother Abdul Aziz, who was one of those accused, tried and found guilty of the assassination of Malcolm X, was made the Captain of the Fruit of Islam (F.O.I.) at Mosque#? in New York. There was an outcry from some members of the Nationalist community and from Miss Shabazz over

my apparent insensitivity in putting this brother in the position of Captain over the Mosque in New York eight months after the passing of Dr. Betty Shabazz, in spite of the fact that it is well known that Brother Aziz was an innocent victim of the conspiracy of the United States Government and others to name members of the Harlem Mosque as participants in the murder of Malcolm X. Because of Miss Shabazz’s pain, she wanted to meet with me. We met at the school of Haki Madhubuti here in Chicago. At the meeting were former Supreme Captain Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad, Haki Madhubuti, Miss Shabazz, and myself. She expressed her pain at my decision, and she expressed anguish at our calling for the government’s opening of the files on Malcolm X so that the whole truth might be made known. Her concern was that we would call for such an opening of the files without ever consulting the Shabazz family. I listened carefully to her and expressed to her our sincere regret at having caused her and her family further pain, but since we have had no real dialogue in 30 years or more, we made a decision that we thought was in the best interest of our national development. FCN: What was your objective in agreeing to a televised discussion of this subject with Miss Shabazz at this time? MLF: I knew that the most we

& V W&it

I I I I I I I L

ABW Auto Sales & Service 3020 N. Sherman Dr. - 541-8000 jpuri: fipgciAi.fi $49-95

We do Radiator Repairs, Towing & Engine Exchange (26 2j

frllUHBOTISn WEB: http://hohnetown.aol.com//thierrybaptiste/swingtyme.htmlj

STYLIST/LOCKTICIAN

IHIKIH

. v' JL

A ' k

SWING TYME TOTAL SALON GLENLAKE PLAZA 2439-2441 East 65th Stred INDIANAPOLIS, IN. 46220 SALON 3^7/251/5604 MESSAGE CENTER 317/465/8581 [email protected]

iConiPiinunTfWYConsuiTRTions

Health losuraucefor Marion County Kids Available for newborns through age 18 and pregnant women Eligibility Based on Family Income V Checkups V Vis ion Care V Doctor Visits m«C— V DentalCare WMO V Hospital Stays V Prescription Drugs For more information call the Hoosier Healthwise Helpline at 1-800-889-9949 or Covering Kids at 221-2041

TYREE GIVENS Tyree L. Givens, graduated from Wabash College with membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a Distinguished Senior in Psychology, initiated into Psi Chi, Magna Cum Laude. He is the son of Rolinda Evans and the grandson of John and Janet Stapleton Murphy.

Mo«ls gig Saturday. June 10. 2000 at 3:00 PM

► ♦

*"*»mm

#S6

Meet Darlene Johnson author of Dream in Color Ebony Elevations Colt oral Bookstore ft more

Lafayette Square Mall 3919 Lafayette Road

(317) 293-»^7vtoM3nO 329-6419 Email: EelevatlonOaol.com Located by Burlington Coat Factory

behind the food court

"Weprovide book club/organization discounts and special delivery services.'

would have gotten from 60 Minutes was one or two segments and FCN: The media constantly rethat one or two segments could fers to your “change” in light of never say what she and I wanted to your “coming to grips with your contribute to the process of heal- mortality. “Are you concerned ing, but, I thought that if we could about your mortality, in light of put on the record the truth as we your near-death experience and understood it, and, if Mike Wallace y° ur legacy? had the chance to ask me all of the hard questions that he could, then, MLF: I would not give two secthose who are scientists could use onds of my time to think about my a voice stress analyzer or other legacy or my mortality. I am deeply methods and it would bear witness concerned about healing the that everything that I said was the woundsthatexistintheBlackcomtmth, and, that this might be a balm munity over the assassination of in the process of healing not only in Malcolm X. I am concerned about our personal families, but, it might healing the wounds of the Shabazz, heal a nation of Black people in Muhammad and Farrakhan famiAmerica and throughout the world lies, and healing the wounds of that have been wounded by the thousands of other families that untimely death and tragic assassi- have been so affected by the tragnation of Malcolm X edy of the assassination of Malcolm

X.

FCN: There were many glaring My legacy will be whatever it omissions in the 60 Minutes pro- will be when a period is put to my gram? For example, was there any testament. I do not waste my time discussion of your 1994 defense of thinking about how history will Qubilah Shabazz, who the govern- v 'ew me, that is in the hands of ment accused of hiring a hit man to Allah (God), assassinate you? If so, what was the discussion? FCN: What can Blacks do to force the government to do so, and MLF: The process of healing why is the government so relucand atonement toward reconcilia- tant to do so? tion was not the aim of 60 Minutes. Therefore, my discussion with Dr. MLF: We must remember that Shabazz, her standing with me at the brother who was caught at the the Apollo Theatre, where Mike scene of the assassination of Wallace and his wife were present; Malcolm X, exonerated the two her presence and speech at the members of the Harlem Mosque Million Man March with two of during the trial. When he was asked her daughters present, and the con- to name those who were with him tinuing effort on the part of Dr. in the murder of Malcolm X, he Betty Shabazz with members of declined to do so. Thus, two brothmy family and staff to foster the ers who were innocent were sent reconciliation wereTEti omitted, ^prison. Later, Talmadge Hayer This bears witness tofhe evil inten-^ 6 to Attorney William tion of Mr. Wallace and 60 Min- Kunstler the names of four or five utes. They did not want the Ameri- men from the Newark Mosque who can public to see us in the process were involved in the assassinaof healing. They wanted the Ameri- tion. Mr. Kunstler tried to get the can public to see me as a murderer, government to re-open the case and in so doing, they wanted to anc l the government refused, contribute to my murder by first. Why did the government refuse? assassinating my character and also Were all of those five men Muslim creating an atmosphere of contro- zealots or were any of them agents versy around Miss Shabazz and of the United States government? myself that might lead to a repeat I desired the files to be opened so of the tragic events of 1965. For that the full truth would be made Mr. Wallace, in his commentaiy, known. Surely, if I were guilty, I to say that Dr. Betty Shabazz be- would not want the government to lieved that I was responsible for openthefiles. I will not call for the the murder ofher husband and that opening of the files unless Miss Miss Shabazz and all of the Shabazz Shabazz, the Shabazz family, and children believed the same was a I agree that this is the best way to very wicked and malicious thing settle all of the questions surroundfor him to say, especially when in mg to® assassination of Malcolm the four-hour interview Miss X. We, the entire Black nation, Shabazz said that she knew 35 years have a vested interest in knowing ago, that as the local Minister of toe truth because the troth is ultiBoston, I was nowhere to be found mately the only balm that can heal in the hierarchy of the Nation of the wounds that all of us are sufferIslam, nor did I have any national mg from, power to call for the death of her

father.

Big Sisters Making Friends, Making a Difference

(317)634-6102 * www.bigsistersindiana.com

♦AAAAAAA^AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAt 1

FOREVER YOUR'S WEDDING CHAPEL

)• >•

Don’t settle for the Justice of the Peace. Have the j. wedding you’ve always dreamed about. At a fraction of ) • the cost. Call for an appointment. 920-1075 j ’ j ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥y¥¥¥¥<

- ATTENTION - Saint Andrew the Apostle School is now enrolling for the Fall of 2000. Preschool for ages 3 & 4 year olds - operating hours 6:30am - 5:30pm. All day kindergarten and grades 1-8. For information call 549-6305.

» i