Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations
Organization of Afro-American Unity
The first black militant nationalist organization to unite against black oppression and discrimination in the United States, the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) became Malcolm X’s main organizational base from its founding on June 28, 1964, until his death on February 21, 1965. The OAAU was modeled on the Organization of African Unity, which Malcolm X had founded in May of 1963 in an effort to unite Africans around the world and to demand protection of their human rights. The OAAU strived to create a sense of common cause between African nations, the African diaspora, and African Americans. The organization followed a nationalist agenda, yet it engaged in various reform and social activities that appealed to many segments of the black community.
Malcolm X established the black nonsectarian nationalist organization after he left the Nation of Islam, disillusioned with its leader Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. Malcolm X had already established the Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization; he then established the OAAU for expressly political purposes. In 1964, Malcolm
X announced the founding of the organization at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, an event that signaled his willingness to work more directly with the civil rights struggle. It also indicated Malcolm X’s increased interest in human rights. The organization would go on to establish a working relationship with various elements of the civil rights movement.
The OAAU had strong community roots. Based in Harlem, it was active in working to improve conditions in the black ghetto. It was an advocate of black empowerment and sought to combat blacks’ internalization of oppression. For this purpose, the organization mobilized communities, using voting as a tool to gain social and political power. It promoted voter registration in an effort to elect black leaders to office and to expand black political influence, and fought economic oppression by promoting rent strikes and supporting tenant organizations in their demands for better living conditions.
The OAAU also created self-defense, educational, and cultural institutions in black communities. Malcolm X and the OAAU advocated the formation of rifle clubs as part of self-defense structures for the black community, a position that distanced them from other Black Muslims. The OAAU also fought for better education for blacks. It organized school boycotts to push for quality education and created alternative schools that served not only as educational institutions but also as community cultural centers. For example, the OAAU Liberation School, modeled on southern freedom schools, taught African and African American history, political education, consumer information, and other practical skills. Both children and adults were able to enroll in classes. But even though the OAAU utilized black resources, it did not believe such measures meant the loss or renunciation of the community’s right to government services and entitlements. As part of its community service, the OAAU sought to ensure that blacks received what they were entitled to from the government as citizens of the United States.
Malcolm X hoped that the OAAU would be instrumental in bringing together the diverse elements of the African unity movements. The OAAU continually struggled to gain recognition from Africans, the United Nations, and other members of the international community. International recognition, the OAAU hoped, would enable it to expose United States human rights violations to a global audience.
The OAAU also worked to unite all Africans and African Americans through information. To this end, it established an Information Bureau in Ghana, which was designed to keep Africans informed about the African American struggle against white oppression. Moreover, the Information Bureau supplied information about events and issues in African states to the African American press.
The OAAU worked to show that there was a common cause in the struggles and lives of Africans and African Americans. Despite the OAAU’s efforts to foster a pan-African alliance, however, the group failed to gain international recognition and did not succeed in pressuring the United States to deal with its racial problems.
From the start, the organization suffered from internal dissensions, and it was strongly dependent on Malcolm X’s leadership and charisma. Its wide-ranging goals appealed to black militants, but they alienated more traditional Muslims. As Malcolm X increasingly adopted an anticapitalist philosophy, he garnered the support of white radicals, but many African Americans were critical of him and his organization for their failure to lead a forceful attack against racial oppression. And, while the organization attempted to unite middle- and working-class blacks to work for civil and human rights without gender bias, it was unable to bring these diverse groups together; instead, it attracted the fear of the upper classes. Thus, the organization came under attack.
Its most visible target was Malcolm X, who was assassinated in 1965. Although three Black Muslims were convicted of the killings, suspicion arose that a government conspiracy existed to destroy militant black organizations. Malcolm X’s death effectively ended the OAAU, since members quickly became demoralized. Ella Mae Collins, Malcolm X’s sister, assumed the group’s leadership after a conflict with Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz. Collins, however, was unable to keep the organization alive, as members quietly left, many unwilling to work with a female leader.
The OAAU was the only group operating within the black community that sought to unite the working- and middle-class of both genders (though imperfectly), to work for human rights. Malcolm X was a strong advocate of women’s involvement and he recruited Lynn Shifflet, a black producer at NBC television, to work for the OAAU. Shifflet had chaired OAAU meetings in 1964 and helped to unify the group. While the OAAU had strong pan-African links, it remained based in Harlem fighting for reform and civil rights at home and abroad until it disbanded soon after Malcom X’s death.
FURTHER READINGS
Sales, William W., Jr. From Civil Rights to Black Liberation. Boston: South End Press, 1994.
Williams, Michael W., ed. The African American Encyclopedia. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1997.
Angel R.Rivera
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