What would have happened in a Malcolm-MLK meeting?

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Marcus Naylor as Malcolm X, and Isiah Whitlock, Jr. as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., arm wrestle to decide whose The Meeting, a play by Jeff Stetson, directed by Kery! E. McCord, at the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, Alice Street, Oakland, Calif.

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were among the greatest political leaders of their epoch. Both were uncompromising men of action. Each had his dream.

Malcolm X spoke to the masses in the Black ghettos of the fight for freedom "by any means necessary." King was, in contrast, the apostle of non-violent mass action.

Imagine: an electric night in Harlem, one week before THEATER REVIEW Malcolm was assassinated. Face to face in a hotel room, the two strategists attempt a reconciliation—a "unity" meeting. This hypothetical event is brought to the stage in "The Meeting," which opened last month at the Oakland Ensemble Theatre.

As much as it depicts the freedom struggle of the 1960s, "The Meeting" is concerned with the 1980s-and the future. Playwright Jeff Stetson, a university administrator, found that many of his students knew little about Martin Luther King and nothing about Malcolm X. Often, Malcolm was brushed aside as "an angry, militant, Muslim radical."

Yet, in the playwright's view, many of the gains that Black people made in the 1960s would not have come to pass without Malcolm's "radicalism." "You got some concessions," Malcolm chides King in the play, "because I was the alternative.

The civil-rights movement The Oakland Ensemble's engaging performance captures the caustic wit that was Malcolm's trademark. But a stridency lurks behind Malcolm's remarks. The production gives little inkling of the degree to which Malcolm earnestly attempted to establish friendly relations with King and other leaders of the mainstream civil-rights groups.

Especially in the final months of his life, Malcolm gave active support to the sit-ins, demonstrations, and voter-registration drives of the civil-rights movement. He continued to point out, however, that (in the face of murderous attacks by the Ku Klux Klan and other racists) civil-rights workers should be permitted to defend themselves.

In giving this warning, Malcolm was compelled to maintain his distance from King, who had notified the racists, "We will wear you down with our capacity to 1428 ideas for struggle are superior. suffer.' Unfortunately, the playwright does not consider a more fundamental political difference that separated the two Black leaders. Although personally incorruptible, King never broke his dependency on liberal allies in the church, the labor bureaucracy, and the Democratic Party.

Malcolm, on the other hand, pointed out that the Democrats, no less than the Republicans, were responsible for the racism that exists in this country. Ultimately, he said, the capitalist system needs to be replaced.

"To free America"

At one point in the play, King bursts out, "You want to free Blacks. I want to free America." Here the playwright is unfair to Malcolm X, who far more than King, expressed himself vehemently on numerous issues of American political life and foreign policy.

For example, on the evening of Feb. 14, 1965, (when the playwright imagines Malcolm in a hotel room in rred Speiser Harlem) he was actually speaking in Detroit-where he denounced America's neo-colonial policy in Africa and Vietnam.

It was to be two years before King dared to resist his Democratic Party allies and take a full public stand against the war in Vietnam. He had changed, he explained, under pressure from the militant Black youth. "The Meeting," unfortunately, gives no hint of King's future turnaround on any issue. Instead, the play's Martin Luther King states with his teeth set, "I can't change.

Despite their differences, toward the end of the play, the two men join in a warm bear hug. When I saw the performance, the overwhelmingly Black audience broke into applause at that point—in deep appreciation of the continuing need for unity in the Black liberation "The Meeting" continues at the Oakland Ensemble Theatre through Feb. 21, the anniversary of Malcolm's assassination. For more information, call (415) 8395510.

enrollment, now up to 33 percent of the