A biographer is saying MLK's Playboy interview quote about Malcolm X was made up

[Paper Boi]

Jonathan Eig, a well-known journalist and biographer, accused author Alex Haley of making up quotes in a January 1965 Playboy interview attributed to Martin Luther King Jr., in which King rips into Malcolm X.

Eig spoke to The Washington Post about his discovery in an article published Monday, “I think its historic reverberations are huge. We’ve been teaching people for decades, for generations, that King had this harsh criticism of Malcolm X, and it’s just not true.”

Haley wrote in 1965 that King blasted his fellow civil rights champion, saying, “I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice. Fiery, demagogic oratory in the black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves…”

The Post’s Gillian Brockell, who spoke with Eig, offered some further background on what she calls Eig’s “alarming discovery”:

Haley’s legacy has been tarnished by accusations of plagiarism and historical inaccuracy in his most famous book, “Roots,” but this latest finding could open up more of his work to criticism, especially “The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley” — released nine months after Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965.

Eig made the discovery while researching his 2023 biography on King and Brockwell explains he how came to the conclusion that Haley made up the inflammatory quotes. Brockwell notes that Eig was digging through the archives at Duke, looking for supporting material from Haley’s lengthy interview with King – the longest published interview he did – when he found a transcript.

“He did not find a recording of Haley’s interview with King in the Haley archives at Duke, but he did find what appears to be an unedited transcript of the full interview, likely typed by a secretary straight from a recording, Eig said. Eig provided The Post with a copy of the transcript,” Brockwell explains, adding:

On page 60 of the 84-page document, Haley asks, “Dr. King, would you care to comment upon the articulate former Black Muslim, Malcolm X?”
King responds: “I have met Malcolm X, but circumstances didn’t enable me to talk with him for more than a minute. I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views, as I understand them. He is very articulate, as you say. I don’t want to seem to sound as if I feel so self-righteous, or absolutist, that I think I have the only truth, the only way. Maybe he does have some of the answer. But I know that I have so often felt that I wished that he would talk less of violence, because I don’t think that violence can solve our problem. And in his litany of expressing the despair of the Negro, without offering a positive, creative approach, I think that he falls into a rut sometimes.”
That is not how King’s response appeared in the published interview. While the top part is nearly identical with the transcript, it ended in Playboy like this: “And in his litany of articulating the despair of the Negro without offering any positive, creative alternative, I feel that Malcolm has done himself and our people a great disservice. Fiery, demagogic oratory in the black ghettos, urging Negroes to arm themselves and prepare to engage in violence, as he has done, can reap nothing but grief.”

Eig told the Post that Haley’s additions to King’s quotes amount to “journalistic malpractice.”

“We should remember that King was always more radical than we like to imagine or talk about,” Eig added, concluding:

He was a Christian radical, and his radicalism came from a different place than Malcolm’s did, but they always had a lot in common. They always believed that you had to take radical steps to change America, to end racism, to create a country that lived up to the words of its promises.

MLK Jr.’s Infamous Criticism of Malcolm X in Playboy Interview Was a Fabrication, Author Claims in Explosive Report

“I think its historic reverberations are huge. We’ve been teaching people for decades, for generations, that King had this harsh criticism of Malcolm X, and it’s just not true.”

www.mediaite.com

 

[get these nets]

Thanks. Do you know if Dr. King made public comments/criticism of the interview after it hit the newsstands?

 

[jwinfield]

Wow

 

[Paper Boi]

Thanks. Do you if Dr. King made public comments/criticism of the interview after it hit the newsstands?

King never commented on the interview, and it is not known whether he was even aware of the changed quotes, Eig said. “He was extremely busy, he had a lot of other problems going on, and in general, he never complained about any media coverage,” Eig said. “He had bigger fish to fry.”

that is from the Washington Post article which is worth a read

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/05/10/mlk-malcolm-x-playboy-alex-haley/

 

[Luke Cage]

people believe too much of what white conservatives and black grifters tell us about MLK.
You investigate every negative rumor about him and its source is either some Tariq type breh or a right wing cac

 

[Bigblackted4]

Makes sense

 

[NoGutsNoGLory]

Sounds like speculation. Nobody knows in the end.

 

[CHICAGO]

HALEY IS THE SAME PIECE OF shyt
WHO CREATED THE GAY shyt ABOUT MALCOLM AS WELL.

BURN IN HELL.


​

 

[Paper Boi]

Sounds like speculation. Nobody knows in the end.

I mean they found different parts of the quote throughout the interview that were in a transcript and then they ended up merged together to make it seem much harsher on Malcolm, that doesn't really sound too much like speculation unless they transcript they found at Duke was fake.

 

[CHICAGO]

Sounds like speculation. Nobody knows in the end.

NOT SPECULATION.

“He did not find a recording of Haley’s interview with King in the Haley archives at Duke, but he did find what appears to be an unedited transcript of the full interview"



​

 

[MasterThought]

I've learned not to fully believe a damn thing unless I've witnessed it with my own 2 eyes, especially when it comes to past history.

Shoot, with AI/ CGI I can't even fully trust my own eyes and ears anymore

 

[Neo. The Only. The One.]

The most amazing part of this is that at one time, Playboy was considered hard hitting journalism and they were actually conducting interviews with figures like MLK.

 

[get these nets]

that is from the Washington Post article which is worth a read

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/05/10/mlk-malcolm-x-playboy-alex-haley/

Thanks

 

[invalid]

in another part of the transcript, Haley asks King about critics labeling him an “extremist,” to which King responded: “At first, it disturbed me. Then I began to consider that, yes, I would like to think myself an extremist — in the light of Christ-like spirit which made Jesus an extremist for love.”

This is the crux of the issue and the ideological divergence of King and X. It also shows the the incongruent nature of Islam and Christianity. As I've said in another post..

I use to think that there was space to be pro-black and Christian. As I get older, I'm starting to realize that the ideas that came forth from Christ are so revolutionary, that there really isn't any space for "blackness" or "whiteness". And yes, it's puts black people who consider themselves Christian between a rock and a hard place because white people have so weaponized Christianity with whiteness, black people have no recourse but to fight back with blackness. But it's incongruent with the Sermon on the Mount. I think MLK realized this which is why at the tail end of his life, he was trying to unite and galvanize all people who were victims of capitalism, hence the Poor People's Campaign, which I think embodied Christian ideas the most, and why he really became a threat. True Christians ideas are a threat to mainstream societies which is why Christ proclaimed that his kingdom isn't of this world. The Black Panthers, who, I don't think were religiously affiliated, appeared to be moving in this direction as well.

Malcolm X was operating in the real world. King was operating according to his faith which is incongruent with the world we live in today.

And I don't know if the two ideologies can be reconciled but we need both.

As a Christian, I view King's approach as the right and ultimate approach. But we also need an approach that is more in touch with society, with the people which X had.

I think King and other Civil Rights leaders understood this which is why they wouldn't have completely discredited X nor any other militant leaders but also didn't know how to reconcile the opposing ideologies.

 

[@OffHalsted]

dikk Gregory been said he was CIA