I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.

Another reason for the separation was growing resentment by people within the Nation. Kennedy the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba Congo leader of Medgar Evers civil rights leader and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. Malcolm X later said that violence by whites killed three of his father's brothers including one who was lynched.

For a dozen years Malcolm X was the public face of the controversial group but disillusionment with Nation of Islam head Elijah Muhammad led him to leave the Nation in March 1964. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and advocated separation of black and white Americans—in contrast to the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration.