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Malcolm X Signed 1964 Organization of Afro-American Unity Membership Card

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Malcolm X Signed 1964 Organization of Afro-American Unity Membership Card

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Auction Date:2021 Jan 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Exceedingly rare Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) membership card issued to Earl Grant, 4 x 2.25, dated June 1964, signed below in ballpoint, “Malcolm X,” as chairman. Reverse of card is identified as “No. 1625,” and bears a “Self Defense” statement: “We assert and affirm the right of self-defense, which is one of the most basic human rights known to mankind.” In fine condition.

The OAAU was founded by Malcolm X, John Henrik Clarke, and other black nationalist leaders on June 24, 1964 in Harlem, New York. Formed shortly after his break with the Nation of Islam, the OAAU was a secular institution that sought to unify 22 million non-Muslim African Americans with the people of the African Continent. The OAAU was modeled after the Organization of African Unity (OAU), a coalition of 53 African nations working to provide a unified political voice for the continent. In the coalition spirit of the OAU, Malcolm X sought to reconnect African Americans with their African heritage, establish economic independence, and promote African American self-determination.

Earl Grant was a close friend of Malcolm X and one of the founding members of the OAAU. A brilliant mathematician and staunch champion of the Civil Rights cause, Grant also served as the personal photographer of Malcolm X, and was present at his assassination when he was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Grant’s photos from the shooting were later published in Life Magazine.

Their friendship can be readily discerned from a letter that Malcolm X wrote during his third and most significant pilgrimage to Africa. The letter, written from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 26, 1964, in full: ‘Your letter was awaiting me upon my return to Addis two days ago, and I was very pleased to hear from you, especially to learn that you are expecting a new addition to your family. This is a real blessing, and proves that what we ofttimes are told by others is impossible is actually made very easy as long as we donʼt become discouraged and give up. No one knows what can or cannot be accomplished until all effort toward that end has been expended.

Experience has taught me never to let my aims and efforts be determined by what people say canʼt be done. I pray Allah will bless you and your wife with a very healthy child that may bring much-deserved added happiness into your lives.

It hurt me to think that you feel you have outlived your usefulness to me. 'Usefulness' is not the yardstick I use to measure what I feel has always been a warm personal friendship between us. Ours has never been a minister-to-Muslim relationship. It has always been brother-to-brother, and on this basis you have confided many of your personal feelings and problems to me, and in turn I have done likewise to you. As for my part, that warm brotherly relationship has never faded.

Just before I left the States you were working nites, my wife had just given birth, there were a variety of factions trying to get a shot at me so they could blame it on someone else, I was busily trying to lay the foundation for OAAU while still preparing to leave…and mainly, I was trying to stay healthy and alive. Right during all of that, it seemed that Charlesʼ car and working-hours made him the most available.

Thanks for your frank letter. Real brothers always do feel free to be frank with each other. Frankness eliminates misunderstandings. Nothing that has developed there since my departure has caught me unaware. You have a good knowledge of the history of revolutionary movements, and ours is that. They all go through growing pains, especially in the absence of strong personal leadership. Everything that has happened, and is happening, among us is all part of our ultimate development.

You should be the happiest of those whom I left behind, because you have the most mature outlook on things, especially in the 'international context.' Everything that I came here to do has been done with maximum success, and I'm putting the 'finishing touch' on the cake right now.

We are now more firmly fitted into and supported by 'world-forces' than we could ever imagine previously, and I have had to remain here this long to rightly lay the foundation.

It has been a great personal sacrifice for my family, because I left them at a time when they actually needed me most. But the potential gain has been worth the risk. You and many others have made great sacrifices. But I believe no one will regret it in the long run.

This trip has changed me tremendously. When I return and express my personal out-look on life, there are many who may want someone else to lead them. My best to Haggins & also to your family.’