In the generally accepted narrative, writers maintain that Ali severed his friendship with Malcolm the moment Elijah renamed him. These authors have relied on a quote that Ali allegedly gave Alex Haley during an interview in Harlem, one that Haley excluded from the published account in Playboy. In fact, nowhere in the Playboy interview is there any mention of Malcolm or why Ali turned his back on him in allegiance to Elijah Muhammad. In the epilogue of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, however, published seven months after Malcolm’s death, Haley recounted his memory of the interview with Ali. According to Haley, Ali said, “You just don’t buck Mr. Muhammad and get away with it. I don’t want to talk about [Malcolm] no more.” It is likely that during his research for the epilogue, Haley read a nearly identical quote Ali gave Ebony in September 1964, when he said, “You just don’t buck Mr. Muhammad and get away with it.”10
Using Haley’s quote, several accomplished biographers and historians have mistakenly suggested that Ali made this statement to Haley during the week after Elijah Muhammad renamed him on March 6, 1964. But Ali was not in Harlem at that time, and more importantly, Haley conducted the interview after the boxer returned from Africa on June 24, 1964. Accepting his chronology of events, writers have simplified the complex feelings Ali had for Malcolm. Yet in Haley’s unpublished notes from the Playboy interview, he scribbled on an index card a comment from Ali that revealed the champ’s hidden feelings, contradicting the epilogue in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Haley’s index card indicated that Ali told him that although he followed Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm was “still my brother, [and] my friend.”11
According to Haley, shortly after the interview, he mentioned his meeting with Ali to Malcolm. Curious, Malcolm asked what the champ had said about him. Haley wrote that he pulled out the index card with Ali’s comments about Malcolm and handed it to the minister. After leading readers to believe that Ali had only cross words for Malcolm, Haley wrote in the Autobiography, “Malcolm X stared at the card, then out of the window, and he got up and walked around.” It was “one of the few times I ever heard his voice betray his hurt.” Sadly, Malcolm said, “I felt like a blood big brother to him.” Taking a deep breath, he added, “I’m not against him now. He’s a fine young man. Smart. He’s just let himself be used, led astray.”12
Under great financial stress to make The Autobiography of Malcolm X a publishing success, it appears that Haley manipulated Malcolm’s broken relationship with Ali in order to present a more sensational historical account. Throughout the epilogue, Haley selected and excluded events that fit into his agenda. In some cases, he tampered with the facts. But the truth was more complex than Haley let on. Only by carefully following the day-by-day activities of Ali and Malcolm can one see how intertwined their lives became and how their brotherhood unraveled, leading inexorably to Malcolm’s assassination at the Audubon Ballroom.13
WE HAVE TRIED to rescue a story that has fallen into the hands of hagiographers. Blood Brothers explores the importance of two of the most important black men of the 1960s. By following their lives, we have discovered that Cassius Clay had begun attending meetings organized by the Nation of Islam well before any reporter caught wind of it. Even before he became a professional boxer, Clay became infatuated with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm.
What follows is the story of how Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and the central role Malcolm X played in his life. It is a tale of friendship and brotherhood, love and deep affection. It is also a story of deceit, betrayal, and violence—inside and outside the ring—during a troubled time.
When Malcolm’s life was in danger, when Elijah Muhammad threatened to cast him outside the Nation of Islam, Clay became the central figure in his world. For the first time, Blood Brothers reveals that the instant Malcolm realized he might be murdered, he tethered his future—his very survival—to the life of a boxer who most people figured would never win the heavyweight championship. Malcolm had no doubt that someone inside the Nation wanted him dead. He also knew that none of Elijah’s disciples would risk Clay’s life. As long as they were together, Malcolm figured, he was safe. Cassius was the perfect shield. However, only ten days after they celebrated the boxer’s championship victory over Sonny Liston, Cassius stopped taking Malcolm’s phone calls. Submitting to Elijah, the champ accepted a new name and the Supreme Minister’s edict that all Muslims cease contact with Malcolm. Once Muhammad Ali sided with Elijah, Malcolm knew that he could no longer hide behind him. At that moment, he recognized that losing Ali’s cover might cost him his life.