The Black Muslims had a multiple choice at Birmingham: They could have joined us in the demonstrations; they could have kept quiet; they could have denounced us. I was there and watched the Black Muslim position take shape. Minister James X of the Birmingham temple wanted Malcolm to come and make a major speech during the turmoil; Minister Jeremiah X, minister to the Atlanta temple and roving southern bishop for the movement, was of much the same mind. Knowing the Black Muslim line of authority as I do, I am certain that James and Jeremiah reflected not only Malcolm’s desire to come but Elijah Muhammad’s decision to let the Big X fly to Birmingham if the proper stage were set. The matter was debated by Negro non-Muslims who could have set just such a stage. Some felt it would be a good thing to have Malcolm speak in Birmingham, since the Klan held a rally there at the peak of the crisis. Others felt the Black Muslims should stay out of the picture. There was a standoff on the question, and silence prevailed. Non-Muslim Negroes knew Malcolm X could not speak in favor of integration. And they prayed--both to Jehovah and Allah--that Big Red would take advantage of that excellent opportunity to keep quiet. Malcolm elected to speak against us. We were all pained by his outburst, but now--after several weeks of reflection--it is clear that Malcolm did precisely what he had to do. For the Negro revolt had caught up with the Black Muslims. The Black Muslims came to power during a moral interregnum, at a time when it seemed certain that this nation would refuse to obey its own desegregation laws. But the sudden new militancy of the Negro has forced an unscheduled confrontation between the Muslims and this republic: America must prove that it is not a nation of white devils or perish. The Black Muslims, on the other hand, must face the reality of change in the American way of life. The Negro has always privately talked loud and bitterly about the American white man. The Black Muslims brought that talk into the open, on television and radio, and made it plain for all to see and hear. This was good for both the Negro and the white man: it shocked and frightened white people to hear what we have been thinking and saying about them for five hundred years; the Black Muslims were a catharsis for us, purging our innards of the bile brought on by slavery and segregation. Released from consuming anger we dropped the façade of puritan legalism and went racing into the streets screaming that defiance which is endemic to the tribe of restless natives we American Negroes most certainly are. Thus the inspired Negro students who took our fight into the streets, who shouted “now or never,” have challenged the Black Muslims by interposing the theology of desegregation. In _The Negro Revolt_ I described that theology in these words: