> Eight months before their brief meeting on Capitol Hill, Malcolm X sent a letter to King, requesting a meeting. The letter was dated July 31, 1963. The return address was “MUHAMMAD’S MOSQUE NO. 7, 113 Lenox Avenue, New York 26, New York.”
>
>Malcolm X opened the letter with the greeting “Dear Sir.” He called for a united front against racial oppression in the country.
>
>“The present racial crisis in this country carries within it powerful destructive ingredients that may soon erupt into an uncontrollable explosion,” Malcolm X wrote. “The seriousness of this situation demands that immediate steps must be taken to solve this crucial problem, by those who have genuine concern before the racial powder keg explodes. A United Front involving all Negro factions, elements and their leaders is absolutely necessary.”
>
>Malcolm X warned that a “racial explosion is more destructive than a nuclear explosion,” citing a recent meeting between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
>
>“Despite their tremendous ideological differences,” Malcolm X wrote, “it is a disgrace for Negro leaders not to be able to submerge our ‘minor’ differences in order to seek a common solution to a common problem posed by a Common Enemy.”
>
>[<em>‘I have all the guns and money’: When a woman led the Black Panther Party</em>]
>
>Malcolm X invited King to a rally that August in Harlem to analyze the race problem and a solution. He promised to moderate the meeting and guarantee courtesy for each speaker. He requested that if King could not attend to send a representative, closing the letter with an endearment: “Your Brother, Malcolm X.”
>
>King declined the invitation and did not send a representative, according to the book, “Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity,” by Louis A. DeCaro Jr.
​
> Eight months before their brief meeting on Capitol Hill, Malcolm X sent a letter to King, requesting a meeting. The letter was dated July 31, 1963. The return address was “MUHAMMAD’S MOSQUE NO. 7, 113 Lenox Avenue, New York 26, New York.”
>
>Malcolm X opened the letter with the greeting “Dear Sir.” He called for a united front against racial oppression in the country.
>
>“The present racial crisis in this country carries within it powerful destructive ingredients that may soon erupt into an uncontrollable explosion,” Malcolm X wrote. “The seriousness of this situation demands that immediate steps must be taken to solve this crucial problem, by those who have genuine concern before the racial powder keg explodes. A United Front involving all Negro factions, elements and their leaders is absolutely necessary.”
>
>Malcolm X warned that a “racial explosion is more destructive than a nuclear explosion,” citing a recent meeting between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
>
>“Despite their tremendous ideological differences,” Malcolm X wrote, “it is a disgrace for Negro leaders not to be able to submerge our ‘minor’ differences in order to seek a common solution to a common problem posed by a Common Enemy.”
>
>[<em>‘I have all the guns and money’: When a woman led the Black Panther Party</em>]
>
>Malcolm X invited King to a rally that August in Harlem to analyze the race problem and a solution. He promised to moderate the meeting and guarantee courtesy for each speaker. He requested that if King could not attend to send a representative, closing the letter with an endearment: “Your Brother, Malcolm X.”
>
>King declined the invitation and did not send a representative, according to the book, “Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity,” by Louis A. DeCaro Jr.
​