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Who taught you to hate the color of your skin?

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Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair?

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Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose

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and the shape of your lips?

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Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head

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to the soles of your feet?

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Who taught you to hate your own kind?

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Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to

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so much so that you don't want to be around each other?

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You know. Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate,

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you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what God made you.

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Most of us blacks -- or Negroes, as he called us --

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really thought we were free without being aware that in our subconscious

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all those chains we thought had been struck off were still there,

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and there were many ways where what really motivated us

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was our desire to be loved by the white man.

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Malcolm meant to lance that sense of inferiority.

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He knew it would be painful.

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He knew that people could kill you because of it,

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but he dared to take that risk.

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He was saying something over and above

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that of any other leader of that day.

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While the other leaders were begging for entry

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into the house of their oppressor,

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he was telling you to build your own house.

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He expelled fear for African Americans.

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He said, "I will speak out loud what we've been thinking,"

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and he said, "You'll see. People will hear it and

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they will not do anything to us necessarily, OK,

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but I will now speak it for the masses of people."

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When he said it in a very strong fashion,

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in this very manly fashion, in this fashion that says,

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"I am not afraid to say what you've been thinking all these years,"

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that's why we loved him.

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He said it out loud, not behind closed doors.

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He took on America for us.

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And I, for one, as a Muslim believe that the white man is intelligent enough.

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If he were made to realize how black people really feel

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and how fed up we are without that old compromising sweet talk

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why you're the one who make it hard for yourself.

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The white man believes you when you go to him with that old sweet talk,

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'cause you've been sweet-talking him ever since he brought you here.

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Stop sweet-talking him. Tell him how you feel.

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Tell him how -- what kind of hell you've been catching

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and let him know that if he's not ready to clean his house up,

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if he's not ready to clean his house up, he shouldn't have a house.

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It should catch on fire and burn down.

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On these Harlem street corners for most of this century,

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black people had celebrated their culture

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and argued the question of race in America.

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It was here that Malcolm first joined the street orators

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who gave voice to Harlem's hope and its anger.

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I've taught nationalism

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and that means that I want to go out of this white man's country

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because integration will never happen.

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You'll never, as long as you live, integrate into the white man's system.

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A hundred and twenty-fifth street and Seventh Avenue was

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the center of activity among the black street orators.

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When Malcolm arrived, technically, he had no corner,

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so he established his base, you might say,

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in front of Elder Michaux's bookstore.

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When Malcolm would ascent the little platform,

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he didn't -- he couldn't talk for the first four of five minutes

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the people would be making such a praise-shout to him

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and he would stand there, taking his due.

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And then he would open his mouth.

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They call Mr. Muhammad a hate-teacher

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because he makes you hate dope and alcohol.

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They call Mr. Muhammad a black supremacist

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because he teaches you and menot only that

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we're as good as the white man, but better than the white man,

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yes, better than the white man.

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You are better than the white man and that's not saying anything.

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That's not saying -- you know we're just as equal with him.

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Who is he to be equal with? You look at his skin.

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Why your skin look like gold beside his skin.

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There was s time when we used to drool in the mouth over white people.

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We thought they were pretty 'cause we were blind, we were dumb.

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We couldn't see them as they are.

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But since the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has come

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and taught us the religion of Islam,

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who have cleaned us up and made us so we can see for ourselves,

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now we can see that old pale thing to look exactly as he look

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nothing but a old, pale thing.

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I came away from that rally feeling that with him, once you heard him speak,

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you never went back to where you were before.

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You had to -- even if you kept your position, you had to rethink it.

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We weren't accustomed to being told that we were devils and that

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we were oppressors up here in our wonderful northern cities.

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He was speaking for a silent mass of black people

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and sang it out front on the devil's own airwaves,

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and that was an act of war.

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When he came off the stage, I jumped off the island,

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walked up to him and of course, when I got to him, the bodyguards,

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you know, moved in front, and he just pushed them away.

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And I went in front of them and extended my hand and said,

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"I like some of what you said.I didn't agree with what

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all that you said, but I liked some of what you said."

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And he looked at me, held me hand in a very gentle fashion and says,

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"One day you will, Sister. One day you will, Sister." And he smiled.

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To make his message clear,

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Malcolm used his own life as a lesson for all black Americans.

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He preached it in fables and parables and later,

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in writing his autobiography with Alex Haley,

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he sought some control over how his life would be interpreted in the future.

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I would be rather taken by a statement he would make of himself.

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He would say, "I am a part of all I have met,"

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and by that he meant that all the things he had done

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in his earlier life had exposed him to things,

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and taught him skill of one or another sort,

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all of which had synthesized into the Malcolm,

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who became the spokesman for the Nation of Islam.

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You were born in Omaha, is that right?Yes, sir.

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And you left -- your family left Omaha when you were about one year old?

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I imagine about a year old.

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And why did they leave Omaha?

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Well, to my understanding the Ku Klux Klan

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burned one of their homes in Omaha.

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There's a lot of Ku Klux Klan--

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They made your family feel very unhappy, I'm sure.

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Well, insecure, if not unhappy.

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So you must have a somewhat prejudiced point of view --

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a personally prejudiced point of view.

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In other words, you cannot look at this in a broad,

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academic sort of way, really, can you?

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I think that's incorrect, because despite the fact that

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that happened in Omaha and then when moved to Lansing,Michigan

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our home was burned down again -- in fact,

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my father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, and despite all of that,

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no one was more thoroughly integrated with whites than I.

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No one has lived more so in the society of whites than I.

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We was the only black children in the neighborhood,

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but on the back of our property, we had a wooded area,

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so the white kids would all come over to our house

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and they'd go back and play in the woods.

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So Malcolm would say, "Well, let's go play Robin Hood."

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Well -- so we'd go back there to play Robin Hood.

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Robin Hood was Malcolm, and these white kids would go along with it.

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Malcolm said he was the lightest skinned of the seven children

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born to Earl and Louise Little, a reminder, he said,

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of the white man who hade raped his mother's mother.

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In 1929, when Malcolm was four years old, his father,

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a carpenter and preacher, moved the family to Lansing, Michigan.

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Lansing was a small town

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and the west side was the side of town that blacks lived on.

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Malcolm and his family lived outside of the city

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and they had a four-acre parcel with a small house on it,

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so they were sort of considered as farmers.

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Three months after the Littles moved in,

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white neighbors took legal action to evict them.

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A county judge ruled that the farm property was restricted to whites only.

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But Earl Little refused to move.

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Here in Michigan, Ku Klux Klan membership was at least 70,000,

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five times more than in Mississippi.

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For Malcolm's family, white hostility was a fact of life.

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Everybody was asleep in our house

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and all of a sudden, we heard a big boom.

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And when we woke up, fire was everywhere

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and everybody was running into walls and into each other, you know.

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Well, what I recall about that was my mother telling us to,

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"Get up, get up, get up, the house is on fire,"

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and to get out. That's what I actually recall.

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I could hear my mother yelling, I hear my father yelling.

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And so they made sure they got us all rounded up and got us out.

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The house burned down to the ground.

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No firewagon came, nothing, and we were burned out.

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Malcolm's father, Earl Little, accused local whites of setting the fire.

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The police accused Earl and arrested him on suspicion of arson.

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The charges were later dropped.

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In the city where we grew up, whites could refer to us as

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"those uppity niggers,"

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or "those smart niggers that live out south of town."

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In those days, whenever a white person referred to you as

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a "smart nigger,"that was their way of saying,

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"This is a nigger you have to watch because he's not dumb."

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My father was independent.

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He didn't want anybody to feed him. He wanted to raise his own food.

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He didn't want anybody to exercise authority over his children.

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He wanted to exercise the authority, and he did.

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He was always speaking in terms of Marcus Garvey's way of thinking

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and trying to get black people to organize themselves,

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not to cause any trouble, but just to do

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to work in unity with each other toward improving their conditions.

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But in those days if you did that, you were still considered a troublemaker.

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In the 1920's Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist, preached that

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black Americans should build a nation independent of white society.

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With membership in the hundreds of thousands,

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Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association

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sought closer ties with African countries.

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The UNIA had its own flag, its own national anthem

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and an African legion pledged to defend black people at home and abroad.

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The U.S. Bureau of Investigation labeled Garvey,

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"one of the prominent Negro agitators."

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The federal government deported him in 1927,

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but Malcolm's parents remained Garveyites.

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Earl recruited new members. Louise wrote for the Garvey newspaper.

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My mother is the one who would read to us the Garvey paper,

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which was called The Negro World.

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She also would talk to us about ourself as being independent.

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We shouldn't be calling ourself "Negroes," or "niggers"

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and that we were black people

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and that we should be proud to call ourself black people.

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What is your real name?

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Malcolm. Malcolm X.

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Is that your legal name?

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As far as I'm concerned, it's my legal name.

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Well, would you mind telling me what your father's last name was?

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My father didn't know his last name.

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My father got his last name from his grandfather and his grandfather

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got it from his grandfather who got it from the slavemaster.

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The real names of our people were destroyed

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Well, was there any-during slavery.

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Was there any line, any point in the geneology of your family

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when you did have to use a last name and if so, what was it?

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The last name of my forefathers-- Yes?

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was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves,

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and then the name of the slavemaster was given,

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which we refuse,we reject that name today and refuse to--

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You mean, you won't even tell me what your father's

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supposed last name was or gifted last name was?

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I never acknowledge it whatsoever.

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September 1931.

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Malcolm was six years old when his mother had a premonition.

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We were all at the house and we had dinner -- supper together.

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And my mother was holding Wesley, who was my youngest brother.

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And she may have been nursing him, 'cause she was at the table,

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and she fell asleep nursing, holding the baby.

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And my father had gotten up and went in the bedroom

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to clean up and to go down and collect money.

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And she woke up and she said, "Earl, Earl, don't go downtown."

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She says, "If you go, you won't come back."

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That night around 11 o'clock, Earl Little was found

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in an isolated area outside of Lansing,

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his body almost cut in two by the wheels of a streetcar.

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The police reported Earl Little's death an accident.

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There was a cloud over that whole issue because, at the time,

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it was perceived that rather than an accident with a streetcar

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that Earl Little had really been pushed under the wheels of the streetcar.

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As a matter of fact, I remember hearing just that language,

242
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that he was probably pushed under the wheels of that streetcar.

243
00:17:28,201 --> 00:17:33,620
And my father's death caused a great, great shock in the family,

244
00:17:33,655 --> 00:17:36,878
because he was the power. He was the strength.

245
00:17:36,913 --> 00:17:39,635
We were organized, we were a structured family.

246
00:17:39,670 --> 00:17:41,956
when I'd get out of school, when we got out of school,

247
00:17:41,991 --> 00:17:45,096
me and my brothers and sisters, we'd come right home and go to work

248
00:17:45,131 --> 00:17:48,118
in the garden, clean up the chicken shed and get ready for the night,

249
00:17:48,153 --> 00:17:50,004
and get up in the morning and all this.

250
00:17:50,039 --> 00:17:51,995
We'd pump the water and bring it in the house and all this.

251
00:17:52,030 --> 00:17:53,339
This was while Dad was alive,

252
00:17:53,374 --> 00:17:57,640
because to not do this brought the consequences of a whipping.

253
00:17:57,675 --> 00:18:04,691
So we were disciplined.And then after my father got killed

254
00:18:04,726 --> 00:18:08,516
and my mother's inability to run as fast as I could run

255
00:18:08,551 --> 00:18:12,441
or Malcolm enabled us to get away with a lot of things

256
00:18:12,476 --> 00:18:14,207
we wouldn't have tried to get away with.

257
00:18:14,242 --> 00:18:16,406
So we got looser and looser.

258
00:18:19,686 --> 00:18:22,796
Louise Little struggled to raise her seven children

259
00:18:22,831 --> 00:18:24,902
through the years of the Great Depression.

260
00:18:24,937 --> 00:18:29,801
She's reduced to where she has no income.

261
00:18:29,836 --> 00:18:33,369
She'd try to get -- she got jobs. She was a proud lady.

262
00:18:33,404 --> 00:18:39,566
She had a lot of pride. She sold. She crocheted gloves for people.

263
00:18:39,601 --> 00:18:43,979
She did a lot of things not to be dependent solely on welfare.

264
00:18:44,014 --> 00:18:47,413
She didn't like them telling her what she could do and what she couldn't do.

265
00:18:47,448 --> 00:18:50,084
And this is one of the main things

266
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:52,255
that devastated her more than anything else.

267
00:18:52,290 --> 00:18:55,691
As time went by, you could see she was wearing down.

268
00:19:02,375 --> 00:19:06,737
For seven years, as Malcolm grew into adolescence,

269
00:19:06,772 --> 00:19:10,376
his mother slowly withdrew from her family.

270
00:19:10,411 --> 00:19:16,401
Two days before Christmas, 1938, Louise Little

271
00:19:16,436 --> 00:19:22,136
was diagnosed as paranoid and was sent to Kalamazoo State Hospital.

272
00:19:24,176 --> 00:19:28,235
And when I came home from school one day and she wasn't there,

273
00:19:31,080 --> 00:19:34,866
I can remember being empty 'cause my mother had never left us.

274
00:19:34,901 --> 00:19:37,632
And I felt, you know, the pain of her being gone every day,

275
00:19:37,667 --> 00:19:41,315
and it was only going to be a couple of weeks, you know.

276
00:19:41,350 --> 00:19:43,408
She was going to get better and come right back home.

277
00:19:43,443 --> 00:19:46,613
And it turned into years.

278
00:19:48,891 --> 00:19:53,848
Louise Little would remain at Kalamazoo for the next 26 years.

279
00:19:57,003 --> 00:20:01,606
The 13-year-old Malcolm watched as the court split up his family,

280
00:20:01,641 --> 00:20:05,594
assigning the younger children to foster homes in Lansing

281
00:20:05,629 --> 00:20:10,363
and sending him to a white community 10 miles away.

282
00:20:13,792 --> 00:20:18,565
In the past, the greatest weapon the white man has had

283
00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,879
has been his ability to divide and conquer.

284
00:20:21,914 --> 00:20:27,347
If I take my hand and slap you, you don't even feel it.

285
00:20:27,382 --> 00:20:31,120
It might sting you because these digits are separated.

286
00:20:31,155 --> 00:20:34,400
But all I have to do to put you back in your place

287
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:36,593
is bring those digits together.

288
00:20:38,877 --> 00:20:43,814
He was a man who, in the eighth grade in Michigan

289
00:20:43,849 --> 00:20:47,344
a school where I think he was the only black in his class

290
00:20:47,379 --> 00:20:49,101
and one of the very few in the school

291
00:20:49,136 --> 00:20:53,710
had been an outstanding straight-A student, you know,

292
00:20:53,745 --> 00:20:55,919
who had been in fact the president of his class,

293
00:20:55,954 --> 00:20:59,088
and all the others were white in the eighth grade.

294
00:20:59,123 --> 00:21:02,552
Obviously, he had to be exceptional to be those things.

295
00:21:02,587 --> 00:21:06,592
And then you had the Malcolm who had left school

296
00:21:06,627 --> 00:21:10,777
and who had gone to Roxbury, Massachusetts where he had gotten

297
00:21:10,812 --> 00:21:14,235
his first exposure to what might loosely be called "hustling."

298
00:21:40,004 --> 00:21:44,786
I called myself little hustler up in Roxbury in those days.

299
00:21:44,821 --> 00:21:50,127
And this particular day, you know, Malcolm X had come into Boston

300
00:21:50,162 --> 00:21:54,719
and he had on his zoot suit with the wide-brim hat with the long,

301
00:21:54,754 --> 00:21:58,674
three-quarter-length coat with the chain that went down to your ankles.

302
00:21:58,709 --> 00:22:00,251
I don't know, the last time I recall,

303
00:22:00,286 --> 00:22:05,532
Cab Callowy used that outfit for his stage uniform.

304
00:22:08,406 --> 00:22:10,715
Now, when Malcolm left Lansing, he had nothing

305
00:22:10,750 --> 00:22:14,568
but a old square suit on --"white man's suit," as I call it.

306
00:22:14,603 --> 00:22:19,286
When he came back from Boston, oh Lord, Malcolm had a zoot suit on

307
00:22:19,321 --> 00:22:24,078
and a wide-brim hat and a chain from his hat down onto his lapel

308
00:22:24,113 --> 00:22:25,790
and he was the talk of the town.

309
00:22:25,825 --> 00:22:27,735
Everybody was talking about Malcolm.

310
00:22:33,157 --> 00:22:37,818
And then when he was dancing on the floor and he was floating around,

311
00:22:37,853 --> 00:22:40,362
those pants were like he was a floating balloon,

312
00:22:40,397 --> 00:22:43,024
with -- that coat was like a wing.

313
00:22:43,059 --> 00:22:46,317
The way he'd be dancing and flying around with the big,

314
00:22:46,352 --> 00:22:48,395
10-gallon hat on and the chain flinging.

315
00:22:48,430 --> 00:22:50,935
And this used to really shake up the girls.

316
00:23:03,642 --> 00:23:06,180
In Boston, they called him "New York Red."

317
00:23:06,215 --> 00:23:07,955
In New York, they called him "Detroit Red."

318
00:23:07,990 --> 00:23:10,640
He had his hair crockonoed, "conked," you know.

319
00:23:10,675 --> 00:23:14,874
It was red and he had pictures of him and Billie Holiday

320
00:23:14,909 --> 00:23:17,270
and all these people at the time out there

321
00:23:17,305 --> 00:23:20,972
who were just being made known to the rest of the black world.

322
00:23:21,007 --> 00:23:26,070
Malcolm worked the kitchen crew on the New Haven Railroad

323
00:23:26,105 --> 00:23:29,648
between Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C.

324
00:23:29,683 --> 00:23:37,397
In 1942, he moved to Harlem and at age 17 began traveling

325
00:23:37,432 --> 00:23:41,246
in a world of after-hour clubs and small-time hustlers.

326
00:23:41,281 --> 00:23:45,197
He reached a point where he said,

327
00:23:45,232 --> 00:23:48,083
"You'll never make it on these janitor jobs and

328
00:23:48,118 --> 00:23:52,395
selling sandwiches on these trains and shining shoes and stuff like."

329
00:23:52,430 --> 00:23:54,287
He says, "You never will get anywhere."

330
00:23:54,322 --> 00:23:57,573
Well, he had the reputation as being a hustler

331
00:23:57,608 --> 00:24:00,455
and he was a street person, but he wasn't a hustler.

332
00:24:00,490 --> 00:24:05,870
He was a con man, yeah, a con artist. They called him an artist.

333
00:24:05,905 --> 00:24:10,813
When the white folks came out at night and they wanted black women,

334
00:24:10,848 --> 00:24:12,253
he could arrange for them to get them.

335
00:24:12,288 --> 00:24:14,868
If they wanted bootleg whiskey, he knew where to get it.

336
00:24:14,903 --> 00:24:17,178
If they wanted drugs, he knew where to get it.

337
00:24:17,213 --> 00:24:20,934
He made it possible that he knew what they wanted

338
00:24:20,969 --> 00:24:22,550
and he knew where to get it

339
00:24:22,585 --> 00:24:25,699
and he would be in the middle where he could make a profit off of it.

340
00:24:25,734 --> 00:24:27,932
And this is the way he started doing.

341
00:24:27,967 --> 00:24:34,598
Looking back at that time, Malcolm said only three things worried him:

342
00:24:34,633 --> 00:24:37,695
jail, a job and the Army.

343
00:24:37,730 --> 00:24:42,979
To avoid serving in World War II, he told his draft board

344
00:24:43,014 --> 00:24:46,801
that he wanted to organize black soldiers to kill whites.

345
00:24:46,836 --> 00:24:49,774
He was judged unfit for the military.

346
00:24:53,341 --> 00:24:58,090
Malcolm's gambling and drugs and Harlem nightlife were expensive.

347
00:24:58,125 --> 00:25:02,040
He had already been arrested twice for petty crimes.

348
00:25:02,075 --> 00:25:05,889
When he moved back to Boston in 1945,

349
00:25:05,924 --> 00:25:10,650
he organized a gang to burglarize homes of prominent families.

350
00:25:10,685 --> 00:25:14,699
The other gang members included his friend Malcolm Jarvis,

351
00:25:14,734 --> 00:25:18,634
his white girlfriend, Bea, and two other white women.

352
00:25:18,669 --> 00:25:22,518
This girl knew that these people were down in Florida

353
00:25:22,553 --> 00:25:24,797
at that time of the year, there was nobody home.

354
00:25:24,832 --> 00:25:28,014
So we broke into the house and we'd get some of their valuables

355
00:25:28,049 --> 00:25:30,853
and Malcolm would take most of the stuff and pawn it

356
00:25:30,888 --> 00:25:33,309
and get money for his gambling habit.

357
00:25:33,344 --> 00:25:37,970
After two weeks of doing this, that's when the case broke

358
00:25:38,005 --> 00:25:40,747
when he made the mistake of going to the pawn shop

359
00:25:40,782 --> 00:25:43,756
to retrieve a watch worth over a thousand dollars

360
00:25:43,791 --> 00:25:45,055
that came out of one of the houses.

361
00:25:45,090 --> 00:25:48,018
That's when he was arrested by three policemen.

362
00:25:48,053 --> 00:25:53,045
Malcolm Little, Malcolm Jarvis and the three women

363
00:25:53,046 --> 00:25:54,830
were charged with breaking and entering.

364
00:25:54,865 --> 00:25:58,673
The fact that two black men were with white women

365
00:25:58,708 --> 00:26:00,629
became an issue in the court.

366
00:26:00,664 --> 00:26:05,277
Malcolm was definitely involved with two white women,

367
00:26:05,312 --> 00:26:11,704
and this is what made the case so powerful, so outrageous.

368
00:26:12,827 --> 00:26:16,523
The women testified that Malcolm had forced them

369
00:26:16,558 --> 00:26:18,532
to participate in the burglaries.

370
00:26:18,567 --> 00:26:22,020
The two men received a maximum sentence:

371
00:26:22,055 --> 00:26:24,577
eight to 10 years in state prison.

372
00:26:24,612 --> 00:26:29,676
When they sentenced us, I went out of my mind.

373
00:26:29,711 --> 00:26:33,293
I reached up and grabbed the bars of the cage and I shook them,

374
00:26:33,328 --> 00:26:36,130
almost shook them right up off the floor, and I hollered at the judge.

375
00:26:36,165 --> 00:26:36,975
And I said to him,

376
00:26:40,030 --> 00:26:44,855
Well, I was what they call, "a mad Negro" -- I was --

377
00:26:44,890 --> 00:26:47,797
and I knew what I was real.

378
00:26:47,832 --> 00:26:49,885
I knew there wasn't anything funny about it.

379
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:53,377
I knew that when they laughed all together,

380
00:26:53,412 --> 00:26:59,162
they were laughing at, "Look what we did. We doing it to the Negro."

381
00:26:59,197 --> 00:27:04,473
Then they had the unintimidated [sic] gall to ask the girls,

382
00:27:04,508 --> 00:27:06,092
before they took them out of there,

383
00:27:06,127 --> 00:27:10,044
to press charges against us for rape. The girls wouldn't do it.

384
00:27:12,820 --> 00:27:15,078
Malcolm Little was 20 years old,

385
00:27:15,113 --> 00:27:18,052
facing eight to 10 years in state prison.

386
00:27:18,087 --> 00:27:21,144
He had wandered far from the Garvey pride

387
00:27:21,179 --> 00:27:23,465
and independence his parents had preached.

388
00:27:23,500 --> 00:27:28,203
He was prisoner number 22843.

389
00:27:32,434 --> 00:27:36,953
To have once been a criminal is no disgrace.

390
00:27:36,988 --> 00:27:44,622
To remain a criminal is the disgrace. I formerly was a criminal.

391
00:27:44,657 --> 00:27:48,881
I formerly was in prison.I'm not ashamed of that.

392
00:27:48,916 --> 00:27:51,444
You never can use that over my head,

393
00:27:51,444 --> 00:27:54,132
and he is using the wrong stick.

394
00:27:54,167 --> 00:27:55,909
I don't feel that stick.

395
00:28:02,122 --> 00:28:05,878
They charged Jesus with sedition.

396
00:28:05,913 --> 00:28:11,267
Didn't they do that? They said he was against Caesar.

397
00:28:11,302 --> 00:28:17,632
They said he was discriminating because he told his disciples,

398
00:28:17,667 --> 00:28:22,412
"Go not the way of the gentiles, but rather go to the lost sheep."

399
00:28:22,447 --> 00:28:25,293
Go to the people who don't know who they are,

400
00:28:25,328 --> 00:28:28,155
who are lost from the knowledge of themselves

401
00:28:28,190 --> 00:28:31,249
and who are strangers in a land that is not theirs.

402
00:28:31,284 --> 00:28:34,351
Go to these people. Go to the slaves.

403
00:28:34,351 --> 00:28:36,609
Go to the second-class citizens.

404
00:28:36,644 --> 00:28:41,438
Go to the ones who are suffering the brunt of Caesar's brutality.

405
00:28:41,473 --> 00:28:44,051
And if Jesus were here in America today,

406
00:28:44,086 --> 00:28:45,753
he wouldn't be going to the white man.

407
00:28:45,788 --> 00:28:48,098
The white man is the oppressor.

408
00:28:48,098 --> 00:28:50,139
He would be going to the oppressed.

409
00:28:50,174 --> 00:28:52,152
He would be going to the humble.

410
00:28:52,152 --> 00:28:54,083
He would be going to the lowly.

411
00:28:54,118 --> 00:28:56,948
He would be going to the rejected and the despised.

412
00:28:56,983 --> 00:29:00,074
He would be going to the so-called American negro.

413
00:29:10,700 --> 00:29:14,695
Behind prison walls, Malcolm hustled bets,

414
00:29:14,730 --> 00:29:18,772
fed his drug habit and argued against the existence of God.

415
00:29:18,807 --> 00:29:22,669
The men in the cellblock called him "Satan."

416
00:29:22,704 --> 00:29:27,675
But at the same time, encouraged by an older black inmate,

417
00:29:27,710 --> 00:29:31,243
Malcolm began reading and taking English courses.

418
00:29:31,278 --> 00:29:36,764
Malcolm described vividly prison life,

419
00:29:36,799 --> 00:29:41,477
that he was in effect lonely and limited,

420
00:29:41,512 --> 00:29:47,801
but had plans for -- he was going to do a lot of reading,

421
00:29:47,836 --> 00:29:51,702
and he certainly did a lot of writing, because I think

422
00:29:51,737 --> 00:29:55,599
there were times when he probably wrote to me every week.

423
00:29:57,665 --> 00:30:01,857
During the second year in prison, his brothers and sisters wrote to him

424
00:30:01,892 --> 00:30:05,438
about what they called "the natural religion for the black man,"

425
00:30:05,473 --> 00:30:10,415
a religion that taught that black people were the original people,

426
00:30:10,450 --> 00:30:13,994
that God was black and was called Allah.

427
00:30:14,029 --> 00:30:18,556
They told Malcolm they were now a part of the Nation of Islam,

428
00:30:18,591 --> 00:30:23,595
followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah.

429
00:30:23,596 --> 00:30:30,752
I think Islam is one of the greatest religions

430
00:30:30,787 --> 00:30:33,981
of all time for our people in America.

431
00:30:33,981 --> 00:30:41,798
The so-called American Negro have to be completely re-educated

432
00:30:41,833 --> 00:30:48,820
and Islam gives him that qualification that he can feel proud

433
00:30:48,855 --> 00:30:55,134
and does not feel ashamed to be called a black man.

434
00:30:56,779 --> 00:31:00,738
I came into the Muslim movement in 1947

435
00:31:00,773 --> 00:31:05,351
and then started bringing my brothers and sisters in.

436
00:31:05,386 --> 00:31:10,957
And we already had been indoctrinated with the Marcus Garvey's philosophy,

437
00:31:10,992 --> 00:31:14,054
so they didn't have anything to do with convincing us

438
00:31:14,089 --> 00:31:17,180
about we were black and should be proud.

439
00:31:17,215 --> 00:31:19,331
We were already that when we came in.

440
00:31:19,366 --> 00:31:23,906
So I wrote to Malcolm and told him about

441
00:31:23,941 --> 00:31:26,302
I said to him if he would believe in Allah

442
00:31:26,337 --> 00:31:28,233
that he would get out of prison.

443
00:31:28,268 --> 00:31:30,921
And that's all I wrote because I know--

444
00:31:30,956 --> 00:31:33,897
he had very low tolerance for religion

445
00:31:33,932 --> 00:31:36,476
and I didn't intend to lose that tolerance.

446
00:31:36,511 --> 00:31:40,953
Malcolm's brothers and sisters wrote the young prisoner

447
00:31:40,988 --> 00:31:45,068
that black people in America were part of a lost tribe

448
00:31:45,068 --> 00:31:47,718
soon to be delivered out of bondage

449
00:31:47,718 --> 00:31:50,810
and that whites, according to Elijah Muhammad,

450
00:31:50,916 --> 00:31:55,684
were a race of devils whose domination on earth was about to end.

451
00:31:57,261 --> 00:32:03,085
At first he liked every bit of it except one thing he couldn't understand

452
00:32:03,120 --> 00:32:04,885
and that was the part they were teaching about

453
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,378
the white man being the devil.

454
00:32:06,413 --> 00:32:09,577
Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammad.

455
00:32:09,612 --> 00:32:12,918
Elijah Muhammad answered and when he answered,

456
00:32:12,953 --> 00:32:15,600
he would cite a part of the portion of the scripture.

457
00:32:15,635 --> 00:32:18,088
And then he gave him the key.

458
00:32:18,123 --> 00:32:20,592
He said the key-- the Bible is a book

459
00:32:20,627 --> 00:32:24,415
that everything takes place in that Bible is on this earth.

460
00:32:24,450 --> 00:32:26,469
So you don't have to die to go to hell.

461
00:32:26,504 --> 00:32:29,097
You can catch hell while you're living.

462
00:32:29,132 --> 00:32:32,293
And the white man is the one that's putting that hell on you.

463
00:32:32,328 --> 00:32:36,984
Well, that's a very convincing teaching, especially

464
00:32:37,019 --> 00:32:40,568
when you're using the white man's history to corroborate this.

465
00:32:42,915 --> 00:32:47,648
Malcolm began reading history, philosophy and religion,

466
00:32:47,683 --> 00:32:53,035
the writings of W.E.B. Dubois, Shakespeare, Socrates,

467
00:32:53,070 --> 00:32:57,763
the fables of Aesop, the lives of Gandhi and Nat Turner.

468
00:32:57,798 --> 00:33:03,976
And he finds all this history of how white Christians lynch black Christians.

469
00:33:04,011 --> 00:33:08,113
White Christians were the ones who were involved in the slave trade

470
00:33:08,148 --> 00:33:09,416
those were Christians.

471
00:33:09,451 --> 00:33:13,146
So Malcolm began to see this and then he began to study it himself

472
00:33:13,181 --> 00:33:17,646
and prove if there is such a thing as a real devil on this earth,

473
00:33:17,681 --> 00:33:19,134
it has to be the white man.

474
00:33:26,118 --> 00:33:30,828
Elijah Muhammad told Malcolm to submit to Allah,

475
00:33:30,863 --> 00:33:35,528
but for Malcolm, submission would always be difficult.

476
00:33:35,563 --> 00:33:41,486
It took a week before he could force himself to bow in prayer.

477
00:33:47,290 --> 00:33:51,388
Later, to help spread the teaching of Elijah Muhammad,

478
00:33:51,423 --> 00:33:53,717
Malcolm joined the prison debate team,

479
00:33:53,752 --> 00:33:57,867
competing against visiting college teams from Harvard and MIT.

480
00:33:57,902 --> 00:34:02,110
That's where Malcolm's name and fame started spreading ,

481
00:34:02,145 --> 00:34:03,648
amongst the prison population,

482
00:34:03,683 --> 00:34:08,353
and that's when the population started to draw at the debating classes.

483
00:34:08,388 --> 00:34:09,981
Most of the fellows used to come over

484
00:34:10,016 --> 00:34:12,541
out of curiosity just to hear him speak.

485
00:34:12,576 --> 00:34:16,804
In 1950, Malcolm wrote to the governor,

486
00:34:16,839 --> 00:34:20,201
demanding the right to practice the Muslim religion in prison.

487
00:34:20,236 --> 00:34:25,565
His letters would later end up in FBI files.

488
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:28,917
The Bureau had been keeping a close watch

489
00:34:28,952 --> 00:34:32,546
on the Nation of Islam since the late 1930's.

490
00:34:32,581 --> 00:34:39,173
Malcolm, considered a troublemaker, was denied an early parole.

491
00:34:39,208 --> 00:34:43,098
He was not eligible to be let out at that time

492
00:34:43,133 --> 00:34:44,996
because he'd be a threat to society.

493
00:34:45,031 --> 00:34:49,608
They considered him dangerous, knowledge-wise

494
00:34:49,643 --> 00:34:51,989
and otherwise and religious-wise.

495
00:34:52,024 --> 00:34:55,601
He would have been like a rotten apple in a barrel of a thousand

496
00:34:55,636 --> 00:34:56,974
he was going to spoil many.

497
00:34:58,485 --> 00:35:05,782
On August 7, 1952, after six and a half years in prison,

498
00:35:05,817 --> 00:35:07,398
Malcolm was released.

499
00:35:07,433 --> 00:35:12,117
Within a month, he was accepted into the Nation of Islam.

500
00:35:12,152 --> 00:35:16,996
Malcolm Little had become Malcolm X.

501
00:35:17,031 --> 00:35:21,829
How did you happen to join the Muslim movement?

502
00:35:21,864 --> 00:35:23,006
I was in prison.

503
00:35:23,041 --> 00:35:27,953
I was a very wayward, criminal, backward, illiterate, uneducated

504
00:35:27,988 --> 00:35:32,282
and whatever other negative characteristics you can think of type of person

505
00:35:32,317 --> 00:35:35,382
until I heard the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

506
00:35:35,417 --> 00:35:39,864
And because of the impact that it had upon me in giving me a desire

507
00:35:39,899 --> 00:35:43,716
to reform myself and rehabilitate myself for the first time in my life

508
00:35:43,751 --> 00:35:47,696
and also being able to see the effect that it had upon others,

509
00:35:47,731 --> 00:35:49,314
this is what made me accept it.

510
00:35:49,349 --> 00:35:53,934
And I noticed that after being exposed to the religion teachings of

511
00:35:53,969 --> 00:35:55,716
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad immediately

512
00:35:55,751 --> 00:35:59,968
it instilled with me such a high degree of racial pride and racial dignity

513
00:36:00,003 --> 00:36:02,195
that I wanted to be somebody and I realized

514
00:36:02,230 --> 00:36:05,814
that I couldn't be anybody by begging the white man for what he had,

515
00:36:05,849 --> 00:36:08,459
but that I had to get out here and try and do something for myself

516
00:36:08,494 --> 00:36:10,360
or make something out of myself.

517
00:36:15,652 --> 00:36:20,282
The first time I recall seeing Malcolm was at the home of my father,

518
00:36:20,317 --> 00:36:21,374
the Honorable Elijiah Muhammad.

519
00:36:21,409 --> 00:36:26,980
And I saw a thin man, tall man, young man with a reddish face.

520
00:36:27,015 --> 00:36:28,524
If he was just meeting you,

521
00:36:28,559 --> 00:36:30,554
the first thing you would get from him is a smile.

522
00:36:30,589 --> 00:36:35,120
He said, "This is Wallace," and I smiled with him.

523
00:36:35,155 --> 00:36:37,524
I was happy to see him, because I had heard about him, too.

524
00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:41,808
And he said, "the Messenger's son, the Messenger's son,"

525
00:36:41,843 --> 00:36:44,360
and he was just so excited about the Messenger.

526
00:36:44,395 --> 00:36:47,698
And really, it wasn't just seeing Wallace,

527
00:36:47,733 --> 00:36:49,944
it was seeing the Messenger's son.

528
00:36:49,979 --> 00:36:53,209
Where Malcolm came out, he was full of fire.

529
00:36:53,244 --> 00:36:56,548
He'd gotten so full of fire that he got out at the right time

530
00:36:56,583 --> 00:36:58,778
and the right place so he could expound.

531
00:36:58,813 --> 00:37:01,871
He came to Detroit, he was surprised to find

532
00:37:01,906 --> 00:37:04,870
there were such few people in this powerful teaching in his mind.

533
00:37:04,905 --> 00:37:06,987
And he says, "I'm surprised

534
00:37:07,022 --> 00:37:10,572
that you are sitting here and so-- many empty seats."

535
00:37:10,607 --> 00:37:11,774
He said, "Every time you come out here,"

536
00:37:11,809 --> 00:37:13,131
he said, "This place should be full."

537
00:37:13,166 --> 00:37:15,948
And that excited the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

538
00:37:15,983 --> 00:37:19,139
In the early 1950's,

539
00:37:19,174 --> 00:37:23,046
the Nation of Islam was unknown in most black communities.

540
00:37:23,081 --> 00:37:27,640
Total membership was believed to be no more than 400 people.

541
00:37:27,675 --> 00:37:32,754
Malcolm was sent on the road to spread the message.

542
00:37:32,789 --> 00:37:35,475
Within two years,

543
00:37:35,510 --> 00:37:39,768
he helped organize temples in Boston, Hartford and Philadelphia.

544
00:37:39,803 --> 00:37:45,710
Elijah Muhammad then named Malcolm minister of the most important

545
00:37:45,745 --> 00:37:50,097
temple on the East Coast, Harlem's Temple Number 7.

546
00:37:51,433 --> 00:37:55,234
Mr. Muhammad knew that Malcolm had the experience,

547
00:37:55,269 --> 00:38:00,407
that he knew New York and he also knew that he was the kind of man

548
00:38:00,442 --> 00:38:06,890
complexion, heighth [sic], speech and carriage.

549
00:38:06,925 --> 00:38:09,093
All that has to be taken in consideration

550
00:38:09,128 --> 00:38:11,563
when you select a man to send before the people.

551
00:38:11,598 --> 00:38:14,312
Plus this is an international city.

552
00:38:14,313 --> 00:38:18,308
You got to have your best in New York

553
00:38:18,309 --> 00:38:20,701
and this is why Mr. Muhammad selected him.

554
00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:31,233
In 1955 when Elijah Muhammad visited the New York temple,

555
00:38:31,268 --> 00:38:35,883
it was to inspect the work of the ambitious and outspoken young minister

556
00:38:35,918 --> 00:38:39,654
who had transformed tiny storefronts along the East Coast

557
00:38:39,689 --> 00:38:43,134
into a congregation of thousands.

558
00:38:44,961 --> 00:38:48,550
Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad's message

559
00:38:48,585 --> 00:38:55,360
made a whole lot of people feel whole again, human being again.

560
00:38:55,395 --> 00:38:59,572
Some of them came out and found a new meaning

561
00:38:59,607 --> 00:39:01,842
to their manhood and their womanhood.

562
00:39:01,877 --> 00:39:09,221
Had Elijah Muhammad tried to introduce and orthodox form

563
00:39:09,256 --> 00:39:16,276
Arab-oriented Islam, I doubt if he would have attracted 500 people,

564
00:39:16,311 --> 00:39:20,677
but he introduced a form of Islam

565
00:39:20,712 --> 00:39:27,232
that would communicate with the people he had to deal with.

566
00:39:27,267 --> 00:39:33,845
He was the king to those who had no king and he was the messiah

567
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:40,999
to those some people thought unworthy of a messiah.

568
00:39:44,151 --> 00:39:50,265
The teachings in Harlem Elijah Muhammed is like nothing I had ever taken.

569
00:39:50,300 --> 00:39:52,468
It's a medicine.Right. That's right.

570
00:39:52,849 --> 00:39:55,022
You see, it's the medicine that has cured me of all my ills--

571
00:39:55,057 --> 00:39:57,283
Yes, sir, surely.--'cause I was a sick man, That right.

572
00:39:57,318 --> 00:40:00,642
And when I embraces the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

573
00:40:00,677 --> 00:40:03,386
these teachings cured me of these ills. Right.

574
00:40:03,421 --> 00:40:06,997
I'm a well man now. And I feel good. That's right.

575
00:40:09,426 --> 00:40:11,619
What about you, Brother?

576
00:40:11,654 --> 00:40:12,991
How do you feel about the Honorable Elijah Muhammad?

577
00:40:13,026 --> 00:40:14,863
The Honorable Elijiah Muhammad is trying to teach

578
00:40:14,898 --> 00:40:18,801
all our original people they are in bad shape.

579
00:40:18,836 --> 00:40:20,358
Yes, Go ahead, Brother.

580
00:40:20,393 --> 00:40:22,727
Elijah Muhammad trying to wake 'em up.

581
00:40:26,009 --> 00:40:30,430
Inside Muslim temples no white people were allowed.

582
00:40:30,465 --> 00:40:35,133
Members worked to build a self-sufficient community

583
00:40:35,168 --> 00:40:39,847
founded on strict rules and absolute obedience.

584
00:40:42,740 --> 00:40:46,053
The Nation set up Muslim schools for its children,

585
00:40:46,088 --> 00:40:50,556
teaching mathematics, science, history, and Arabic.

586
00:40:50,591 --> 00:40:52,838
Who is the original man?

587
00:40:52,873 --> 00:40:56,645
The original man is the Asiatic black man,

588
00:40:56,680 --> 00:41:00,722
the makers of all the kings of the planet Earth.

589
00:41:03,204 --> 00:41:08,808
Muslim women studied nutrition, child-rearing and guidelines on

590
00:41:08,843 --> 00:41:10,679
how to care for their husbands.

591
00:41:16,923 --> 00:41:22,350
Muslim men studied parental responsibility, history, and religion.

592
00:41:23,681 --> 00:41:28,146
The elite corps called the Fruit of Islam was trained in

593
00:41:28,181 --> 00:41:31,977
hand-to-hand combat and was expected to protect the temples

594
00:41:32,012 --> 00:41:35,811
and to punish any members who spoke out against the Messenger.

595
00:41:38,620 --> 00:41:42,932
I was surprised, when I went into some of the Muslim families,

596
00:41:42,967 --> 00:41:47,586
the faith that they had in Elijah Muhammad and in Malcolm.

597
00:41:47,621 --> 00:41:53,203
I asked one father-- I said, "Suppose your son came home one day

598
00:41:53,238 --> 00:41:56,968
and told you that he was renouncing the Muslim religion."

599
00:41:57,003 --> 00:41:59,693
He said, "I would turn him from my door

600
00:41:59,728 --> 00:42:01,472
and would never allow him in again."

601
00:42:01,507 --> 00:42:04,430
So I asked Malcolm about that.

602
00:42:04,465 --> 00:42:07,698
He says. "He meant it and he would do that."

603
00:42:07,733 --> 00:42:11,568
And I says, "Not worry about what happened to his son?"

604
00:42:11,603 --> 00:42:15,770
"No, he wouldn't worry about what happened to him.

605
00:42:15,805 --> 00:42:18,278
His allegiance is with Elijah Muhammad.

606
00:42:20,889 --> 00:42:26,003
To help expand the Nation of Islam, Malcolm created a newspaper,

607
00:42:26,038 --> 00:42:30,292
Muhammad Speaks, and persuaded other black newspapers

608
00:42:30,327 --> 00:42:32,657
to carry the Messenger's weekly column.

609
00:42:32,692 --> 00:42:37,455
His strength was once he believed in a thing,

610
00:42:37,490 --> 00:42:41,102
he would give everything he had to it, all of his energies.

611
00:42:41,137 --> 00:42:43,443
He'd work-- he'd become a workaholic.

612
00:42:43,478 --> 00:42:45,237
He worked day and night for it.

613
00:42:45,272 --> 00:42:48,448
He only required around four hours' sleep

614
00:42:48,483 --> 00:42:51,148
and many times he wouldn't get that.

615
00:42:51,183 --> 00:42:53,097
And you just kind of wonder

616
00:42:53,132 --> 00:42:55,687
how can anybody keep up that kind of pace,

617
00:42:55,722 --> 00:42:58,129
but he did it day in and day out.

618
00:42:58,164 --> 00:43:01,042
Plus, on top of that, he's reading.

619
00:43:01,077 --> 00:43:03,982
He's reading papers, keeping up what the news is.

620
00:43:04,017 --> 00:43:10,823
He's just a person that's tuned into life in such a way

621
00:43:10,858 --> 00:43:12,766
that he doesn't miss too much of it.

622
00:43:14,846 --> 00:43:20,097
At age 32, after devoting five years to building The Nation,

623
00:43:20,132 --> 00:43:25,148
he sought approval of Elijah Muhammad to marry Sister Betty X,

624
00:43:25,183 --> 00:43:29,444
a college-educated member of Harlem's Temple Number 7.

625
00:43:29,479 --> 00:43:33,967
In the years that followed, the demands of his ministry

626
00:43:34,002 --> 00:43:37,041
allowed little time for his growing family.

627
00:43:39,035 --> 00:43:44,792
He sometime, if I could catch him, would have to read to the children.

628
00:43:44,827 --> 00:43:50,701
They would always want the story read again,

629
00:43:50,736 --> 00:43:53,953
so that they would really just wait

630
00:43:53,988 --> 00:43:56,833
until he was on the last page and said,

631
00:43:56,868 --> 00:44:00,528
"Read it again, read it again, read it again," you know.

632
00:44:00,563 --> 00:44:05,276
And so that he started giving the books different endings.

633
00:44:05,311 --> 00:44:08,234
He had a beautiful sense of humor,

634
00:44:08,269 --> 00:44:12,207
especially when he was kidding me about pork

635
00:44:12,242 --> 00:44:16,085
and whacking me on the back and saying that,

636
00:44:18,194 --> 00:44:21,256
"You're a decent human being, smart historian.

637
00:44:21,291 --> 00:44:26,888
I'm going to give you a 99 as a human being and you stop eating pork,

638
00:44:26,923 --> 00:44:28,393
I'm going to give you 100."

639
00:44:30,077 --> 00:44:34,002
Had a beautiful sense of humor,plus the fact

640
00:44:34,037 --> 00:44:38,401
that when you got to know him, he was kind of shy.

641
00:44:43,166 --> 00:44:47,106
Malcolm was now in the Nation of Islam's inner circle,

642
00:44:47,141 --> 00:44:50,820
Elijah Muhammad's most visible representative.

643
00:44:50,855 --> 00:44:57,223
He had the Messenger's confidence and the loyalty of thousands of Muslims.

644
00:44:57,258 --> 00:45:00,550
In a sense, Malcolm had found a father.

645
00:45:00,585 --> 00:45:03,882
Elijah Muhammad had found another son.

646
00:45:09,274 --> 00:45:12,962
On an April night in 1957,

647
00:45:12,997 --> 00:45:17,135
a Muslim brother was beaten by New York City police.

648
00:45:17,170 --> 00:45:19,195
His skull fractured,

649
00:45:19,230 --> 00:45:23,502
Johnson Hinton lay in a back room of a Harlem police station.

650
00:45:23,537 --> 00:45:27,173
When work spread that Hinton was dying,

651
00:45:27,208 --> 00:45:30,332
Malcolm ordered the Muslims into the streets.

652
00:45:30,367 --> 00:45:33,061
Other Harlem residents joined them.

653
00:45:37,869 --> 00:45:41,718
The community had endured a long history of police brutality.

654
00:45:41,753 --> 00:45:45,580
Many considered the police an occupying force.

655
00:45:49,038 --> 00:45:52,412
The 28th Precinct was notorious for their prejudice.

656
00:45:52,447 --> 00:45:55,388
Naturally, when the people saw us come out there,

657
00:45:55,423 --> 00:46:01,518
that was the first time that anyone had marched on the 28th Precinct

658
00:46:01,553 --> 00:46:04,473
and protested something that they felt that wasn't right.

659
00:46:04,508 --> 00:46:09,613
I don't know what would have happened in Harlem that night,

660
00:46:09,648 --> 00:46:15,805
because the atmosphere-- it was-- I think the word they used is "charged."

661
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,625
Well, this atmosphere was explosive.

662
00:46:18,660 --> 00:46:22,602
Malcolm demanded medical treatment for Hinton.

663
00:46:22,637 --> 00:46:25,063
After a long negotiation,

664
00:46:25,098 --> 00:46:28,473
police agreed to send the prisoner to Harlem Hospital,

665
00:46:28,508 --> 00:46:33,414
but even then the Muslims refused to disperse.

666
00:46:33,449 --> 00:46:39,583
This sergeant, he came out and tried to chase the Muslims

667
00:46:39,618 --> 00:46:41,105
who were standing across the street,

668
00:46:41,140 --> 00:46:43,851
and Malcolm came out and told him, "You can't do that."

669
00:46:43,886 --> 00:46:45,642
He said, "They're not going to move for you."

670
00:46:45,677 --> 00:46:48,667
Malcolm said, "I'll get rid of-- I'll send them away."

671
00:46:48,702 --> 00:46:52,511
He went out to the front of the station, on the first step,

672
00:46:52,546 --> 00:46:57,078
and just waved his hand, and the people walked away.

673
00:46:57,113 --> 00:47:01,168
A police commissioner on the scene remarked,

674
00:47:01,203 --> 00:47:05,137
"That's too much power for one man to have."

675
00:47:05,172 --> 00:47:09,585
Malcolm would later take New York City to court

676
00:47:09,620 --> 00:47:13,429
and win the largest police brutality settlement in the city's history.

677
00:47:14,364 --> 00:47:19,739
And they realized that any time a person could wave his hand

678
00:47:19,774 --> 00:47:23,007
and have a large number of people

679
00:47:23,042 --> 00:47:26,798
automatically move away without any conversation,

680
00:47:26,833 --> 00:47:30,986
that by the same token that same man could wave his hand

681
00:47:31,021 --> 00:47:35,869
and cause those people to create some kind of disturbance if he wanted to.

682
00:47:35,904 --> 00:47:38,655
I believe from that point on the police dpartment

683
00:47:38,690 --> 00:47:43,564
and the political people in New York City began to realize

684
00:47:43,599 --> 00:47:46,732
they had a significant force in the city to deal with.

685
00:47:53,232 --> 00:47:54,834
Good evening, I'm Mike Wallace.

686
00:47:54,869 --> 00:47:59,607
Last week on Newsbeat, our 6:30 news program here on Channel 13,

687
00:47:59,642 --> 00:48:01,995
we presented a five-part series which we called

688
00:48:02,030 --> 00:48:04,024
"The Hate That Hate Produced,"

689
00:48:04,059 --> 00:48:06,629
a study of the rise of black racism,

690
00:48:06,664 --> 00:48:09,971
of a call for black supremacy among a small

691
00:48:10,006 --> 00:48:13,191
but growing segment of the American Negro population.

692
00:48:19,144 --> 00:48:23,630
This 1959 documentary was the first television portrayal

693
00:48:23,665 --> 00:48:26,233
of the internal activities of the Nation of Islam.

694
00:48:26,268 --> 00:48:30,146
Malcolm saw the television program as an opportunity.

695
00:48:30,181 --> 00:48:32,841
Elijah Muhammad was against it.

696
00:48:32,876 --> 00:48:37,653
Mr. Muhammad told Malcolm no, it wasn't going to do any good.

697
00:48:37,688 --> 00:48:42,409
All it would do is hurt us in our work, in what we were trying to do.

698
00:48:42,444 --> 00:48:45,001
Malcolm wasn't satisfied.

699
00:48:45,036 --> 00:48:53,290
He didn't insist, but he continued to ask Mr. Muhammad could he do it.

700
00:48:53,325 --> 00:48:56,598
Mr. Muhammad reluctantly agreed.

701
00:48:56,633 --> 00:49:03,017
I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on earth.

702
00:49:03,052 --> 00:49:06,387
I charge the white man, ladies and gentleman of the jury,

703
00:49:06,422 --> 00:49:09,055
with being the greatest murderer on  earth.

704
00:49:09,090 --> 00:49:13,177
I have charged the white man with being the greatest adulterer on earth.

705
00:49:13,212 --> 00:49:17,878
Here was the auditorium overflowing -- thousands of people --

706
00:49:17,913 --> 00:49:21,412
about an organization I knew nothing about?

707
00:49:23,156 --> 00:49:25,425
I found it difficult to credit when I saw it.

708
00:49:25,460 --> 00:49:29,549
And of course, when we put it on the air,

709
00:49:29,584 --> 00:49:35,176
New Yorkers -- 'cause that's all who saw it -- were stunned that this --

710
00:49:35,211 --> 00:49:37,297
there was this organization, the Black Muslims,

711
00:49:37,332 --> 00:49:40,552
about which white New Yorkers simply knew nothing.

712
00:49:40,587 --> 00:49:45,902
Minister Malcolm X as he addressed a non-Muslim audience.

713
00:49:45,937 --> 00:49:54,889
How could so few white people rule so many black people?

714
00:49:54,924 --> 00:49:57,664
This is the thing you should want to know.

715
00:49:57,699 --> 00:50:01,684
How could so few -- the white man today will tell you

716
00:50:01,719 --> 00:50:07,248
that thousands of years ago, the black man in Africa was living in palaces,

717
00:50:07,283 --> 00:50:10,322
the black man in Africa was wearing silk,

718
00:50:10,357 --> 00:50:14,550
the black man in Africa was cooking and seasoning his food.

719
00:50:14,585 --> 00:50:18,662
The black man in Africa had mastered the arts and sciences.

720
00:50:18,697 --> 00:50:22,381
He knew the course of the stars in the universe

721
00:50:22,382 --> 00:50:25,457
before the man up in Europe knew that the earth wasn't flat.

722
00:50:25,458 --> 00:50:27,213
Is that right or wrong?

723
00:50:27,214 --> 00:50:31,835
I was amazed at his capacity to communicate

724
00:50:31,835 --> 00:50:35,807
and at the naked honesty with which

725
00:50:35,842 --> 00:50:39,016
he expressed his feelings about black people, about white people.

726
00:50:39,051 --> 00:50:43,001
He scared me -- I'm sure he intended to --

727
00:50:43,036 --> 00:50:46,871
but certainly after I saw him in The Hate That Hate Produced,

728
00:50:46,906 --> 00:50:50,454
I know that-- I knew that I would never forget this man.

729
00:50:50,489 --> 00:50:56,673
When I first saw Malcolm on a television, he scared me also.

730
00:50:56,708 --> 00:50:59,924
Immediately the family said, "Turn off that television.

731
00:50:59,959 --> 00:51:03,218
That man is saying stuff you ain't supposed to hear,"

732
00:51:03,253 --> 00:51:05,565
so of course we did.

733
00:51:05,600 --> 00:51:08,866
But always-- you know when the sun comes in the window

734
00:51:08,901 --> 00:51:12,251
and you kind of jump up to get it,

735
00:51:12,286 --> 00:51:14,821
to close the blinds or pull down the shade,

736
00:51:14,856 --> 00:51:17,272
but before you do that, the sun comes in?

737
00:51:17,307 --> 00:51:21,688
Well, before each time we'd turn the television off,a little sun came in.

738
00:51:23,460 --> 00:51:27,319
While the documentary helped bring in new converts,

739
00:51:27,354 --> 00:51:32,380
the racial views of the Nation of Islam shocked white America

740
00:51:32,415 --> 00:51:34,097
and many in the black community.

741
00:51:34,132 --> 00:51:39,571
Preaching of racial hatred and racial advantage

742
00:51:39,606 --> 00:51:46,322
and the bigotry involvedis a bad thing whether it's colored or white.

743
00:51:46,357 --> 00:51:50,830
For years, the NAACP has been opposed to white extremists

744
00:51:50,865 --> 00:51:53,567
preaching hatred of Negro people

745
00:51:53,602 --> 00:51:57,502
and we are equally opposed to Negro extremists

746
00:51:57,537 --> 00:52:02,360
preaching against white people simply for the sake of whiteness.

747
00:52:02,395 --> 00:52:06,093
Most in the civil rights movement believed

748
00:52:06,128 --> 00:52:10,266
that integration was the way to solve America's racial problems,

749
00:52:10,301 --> 00:52:14,462
but Malcolm preached that black people were able to

750
00:52:14,497 --> 00:52:18,165
solve their own problems without the help of whites.

751
00:52:18,200 --> 00:52:22,727
At a time when black Americans began identifying with

752
00:52:22,762 --> 00:52:25,907
freedom movements in Africa and Latin America,

753
00:52:25,942 --> 00:52:29,468
Malcom developed allicances with revolutionary leaders

754
00:52:29,503 --> 00:52:30,929
from around the world.

755
00:52:30,964 --> 00:52:36,828
He encouraged black Americans to see themselves not as a minority

756
00:52:36,863 --> 00:52:44,455
but as a part of a world majority.The rise of African nations

757
00:52:44,490 --> 00:52:48,984
concurrent with the spread of the Nation of Islam

758
00:52:49,019 --> 00:52:56,753
and the civil rights movement gave black America

759
00:52:56,788 --> 00:53:03,208
a burst of pride over and above anything they had had

760
00:53:03,243 --> 00:53:07,833
since the decline of the movement of Marcus Garvey.

761
00:53:38,761 --> 00:53:42,942
They're passing the basket through the crowd and I think

762
00:53:42,977 --> 00:53:46,231
everybody standing here should put one dollar in that basket.

763
00:53:46,266 --> 00:53:48,601
Don't you think you should? Sure.

764
00:53:48,636 --> 00:53:50,382
These are freedom dollars, Brother.

765
00:53:50,417 --> 00:53:52,915
We're not asking you to give us some money to make us rich.

766
00:53:52,950 --> 00:53:55,543
We put our businesses-- the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

767
00:53:55,578 --> 00:53:58,655
has set up more businesses than any black man in America.

768
00:54:00,067 --> 00:54:03,997
The Nation of Islam, with its interlocking corporations,

769
00:54:04,032 --> 00:54:05,610
was now reputed to be

770
00:54:05,645 --> 00:54:09,881
the largest black-owned business empire in the United States.

771
00:54:09,916 --> 00:54:14,531
The Nation of Islam, during the early '60s,

772
00:54:14,566 --> 00:54:18,851
was perhaps enjoying its best days.

773
00:54:18,886 --> 00:54:22,560
We were opening restaurants and grocery stores

774
00:54:22,595 --> 00:54:27,117
and seeing Muhammad Speaks paper compete with other black papers.

775
00:54:27,152 --> 00:54:31,633
We were seeing Malcolm on television kind of frequently.

776
00:54:31,668 --> 00:54:33,242
We were proud of him.

777
00:54:33,277 --> 00:54:37,265
In our opinion, he was doing an excellent job of representing

778
00:54:37,300 --> 00:54:39,060
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

779
00:54:39,095 --> 00:54:43,779
We were seeing the Fruit of Islam now not just

780
00:54:43,814 --> 00:54:47,679
going through exercises in some small facilities,

781
00:54:47,714 --> 00:54:51,312
but we were seeing them in great numbers, hundreds of them

782
00:54:51,347 --> 00:54:56,018
on the streets of big cities like Chicago and New York and Los Angeles.

783
00:54:56,053 --> 00:55:03,355
My view of the Fruit of Islam was that these were the absolute baddest,

784
00:55:03,390 --> 00:55:06,287
cleanest brothers I had ever seen in my life.

785
00:55:06,322 --> 00:55:08,853
There was some bad blood, you know what I'm saying?

786
00:55:08,888 --> 00:55:10,786
I mean, you did not mess with the FOI.

787
00:55:10,821 --> 00:55:12,304
When they came out on the street,

788
00:55:12,339 --> 00:55:14,726
people would say, "Uh, er, yes, sir, uh-huh."

789
00:55:14,761 --> 00:55:19,868
The growing presence of the Fruit of Islam attracted police attention.

790
00:55:19,903 --> 00:55:24,375
There were increasing numbers of confrontations and arrests.

791
00:55:24,410 --> 00:55:30,173
Malcolm warned that members of the FOI would always obey the law,

792
00:55:30,208 --> 00:55:33,396
but would also defend themselves if attacked.

793
00:55:33,431 --> 00:55:36,471
In cities across America,

794
00:55:36,506 --> 00:55:40,739
police agencies were determined to contain the Black Muslims.

795
00:55:40,774 --> 00:55:47,427
It was only a matter of time before the two forces would again collide.

796
00:56:02,004 --> 00:56:07,107
On a spring night in 1962, another confrontation.

797
00:56:07,142 --> 00:56:12,795
It began as a stop-and-search of Muslim men delivering dry cleaning.

798
00:56:12,830 --> 00:56:18,095
It ended with a full police assault on the Muslim temple.

799
00:56:18,797 --> 00:56:25,862
This time eight men were shot, one police officer and seven Muslims.

800
00:56:25,897 --> 00:56:30,864
Temple secretary Ronald Stokes was dead at the scene.

801
00:56:33,091 --> 00:56:37,872
I arrived at the mosque in Los Angeles after the shooting took place,

802
00:56:39,138 --> 00:56:43,420
and there was great sadness amongst the people, you know.

803
00:56:43,455 --> 00:56:47,791
Malcolm was walking back and forth, shaking his head saying,

804
00:56:47,826 --> 00:56:49,529
"They're going to pay for it, they're going to pay for it,

805
00:56:49,564 --> 00:56:52,039
they're going to pay for it, they're going to pay for it."

806
00:56:54,365 --> 00:56:56,804
If anyone breaks into our temples,

807
00:56:56,804 --> 00:56:58,472
we were to defend the temple with our life.

808
00:56:58,507 --> 00:57:01,383
The temple is sacred and those brothers,

809
00:57:01,418 --> 00:57:02,812
they acted on what they were taught.

810
00:57:02,847 --> 00:57:07,172
And I'm sure that anyone seeing

811
00:57:07,207 --> 00:57:10,247
police break into a church would be outraged.

812
00:57:10,282 --> 00:57:13,831
This didn't come as a great surprise to us,

813
00:57:13,866 --> 00:57:17,486
the fact that they would resist our police officers and cause trouble

814
00:57:17,521 --> 00:57:21,070
because we have been watching this group for a long time

815
00:57:21,105 --> 00:57:23,929
and I think Chief Parker warned some time ago

816
00:57:23,964 --> 00:57:25,665
that we might have trouble with them.

817
00:57:26,661 --> 00:57:29,849
The Los Angeles Times reported the incident

818
00:57:29,884 --> 00:57:34,754
as a Muslim riot and "a wild gunfight,"

819
00:57:34,789 --> 00:57:40,406
but it was never proven that any of the guns fired belonged to the Muslims.

820
00:57:41,736 --> 00:57:46,640
Malcolm called for churches and civil rights organizations to form

821
00:57:46,675 --> 00:57:50,631
a united front with the Muslims against police brutality.

822
00:57:53,341 --> 00:57:58,714
Let us remember that we are not brutalized because we are Baptists.

823
00:57:58,749 --> 00:58:01,944
We're not brutalized because we are Methodists.

824
00:58:01,979 --> 00:58:05,367
We're not brutalized because we're Muslims.

825
00:58:05,402 --> 00:58:08,377
We're not brutalized because we are Catholics.

826
00:58:08,412 --> 00:58:12,435
We're brutalized because we are black people in America.

827
00:58:17,117 --> 00:58:20,413
I'm telling you they came out of those cars

828
00:58:20,448 --> 00:58:25,390
and we have enough witnesses to hang them--with their guns smoking.

829
00:58:25,425 --> 00:58:28,940
Chief Parker knows this, Mayor Yorty knows this

830
00:58:28,975 --> 00:58:31,676
and every police official in the city knows that.

831
00:58:31,711 --> 00:58:35,099
They didn't fire now warning shots in the air.

832
00:58:35,134 --> 00:58:39,175
They fired warning shots point-blank at innocent,

833
00:58:39,210 --> 00:58:41,829
unarmed defenseless Negroes.

834
00:58:46,031 --> 00:58:49,768
As I say two of the brothers were shot in the back.

835
00:58:52,533 --> 00:58:55,465
Another was shot in the shoulder.

836
00:58:58,457 --> 00:59:01,248
Another was shot-- two of them were shot --

837
00:59:01,283 --> 00:59:05,366
excuse the expression -- through the penis.

838
00:59:08,301 --> 00:59:11,018
Let me tell you something and I'll tell you

839
00:59:11,053 --> 00:59:12,989
why you say we hate white people.

840
00:59:13,024 --> 00:59:14,565
We don't hate anybody.

841
00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:18,601
We love our people so much they think we hate the ones

842
00:59:18,636 --> 00:59:21,667
who are inflicting injustice against them.

843
00:59:34,898 --> 00:59:39,129
Patrolman Donald Weese, the officer who killed Ronald Stokes,

844
00:59:39,164 --> 00:59:41,904
testified that he knew Stokes was unarmed,

845
00:59:41,939 --> 00:59:45,381
but that Stokes had raised his hands in a menacing way.

846
00:59:47,619 --> 00:59:51,069
The all-white coroner's jury deliberated 23 minutes

847
00:59:51,104 --> 00:59:54,846
and found the death a justifiable homicide.

848
00:59:54,881 --> 01:00:00,866
Fourteen Muslims were then ordered to stand trial on assault charges.

849
01:00:00,901 --> 01:00:05,628
Eleven would be found guilty and sentenced to prison.

850
01:00:05,663 --> 01:00:09,743
We were people that said, "Never be the aggressor,

851
01:00:09,778 --> 01:00:13,881
but if someone attack you, we do not teach you to turn the other cheek."

852
01:00:13,916 --> 01:00:18,228
There were Muslims who were not from the East Coast,

853
01:00:18,263 --> 01:00:20,854
but from other parts of the country

854
01:00:20,889 --> 01:00:28,821
that was actually ready to go out there and kill those police officers,

855
01:00:28,856 --> 01:00:33,915
even though they may have been killed in the process of doing it.

856
01:00:33,950 --> 01:00:38,551
But that's how strong the attitude of Muslims

857
01:00:38,586 --> 01:00:42,881
was against those brothers just being shot like that.

858
01:00:51,749 --> 01:00:56,133
The conflict at the Los Angeles mosque brought to the surface

859
01:00:56,168 --> 01:01:00,175
the growing differences between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad.

860
01:01:00,210 --> 01:01:05,168
The Messenger insisted Allah would avenge Stokes' death,

861
01:01:05,203 --> 01:01:08,706
but Malcolm demanded justice in the courts.

862
01:01:08,741 --> 01:01:12,227
If it were possible for them to get a fair trial,

863
01:01:12,262 --> 01:01:14,893
there would be no necessity for trial at all.

864
01:01:14,928 --> 01:01:16,662
These are the victims of police bullets,

865
01:01:16,697 --> 01:01:19,799
and you don't take the victim in court as a criminal.

866
01:01:19,834 --> 01:01:22,314
You take the one shot the victim in court.

867
01:01:22,349 --> 01:01:25,197
And it is the police who should be on trial here in Los Angeles.

868
01:01:25,232 --> 01:01:28,896
Malcolm began to talk less and less about

869
01:01:28,931 --> 01:01:30,872
God was going to get rid of the Caucasians

870
01:01:30,907 --> 01:01:33,823
and he began to talk about how we was going to be able to

871
01:01:33,858 --> 01:01:37,402
bring them to justice and make them guilty and that,

872
01:01:37,437 --> 01:01:39,376
"They are guilty according to the law of the land,"

873
01:01:39,411 --> 01:01:41,268
which was not our argument at all.

874
01:01:41,269 --> 01:01:44,137
Our argument was that we were a divine people

875
01:01:44,172 --> 01:01:46,751
and that we would be protected and finally delivered,

876
01:01:46,786 --> 01:01:48,679
put in the seat of authority by Allah.

877
01:01:48,714 --> 01:01:50,175
That was our teaching at that time.

878
01:01:50,210 --> 01:01:56,239
To avoid further confrontations with city authorities, Elijah Muhammad

879
01:01:56,274 --> 01:01:59,457
summoned Malcolm to a meeting at the Messenger's home.

880
01:01:59,492 --> 01:02:03,149
And Elijah Muhammad told him very definitely,

881
01:02:03,184 --> 01:02:10,006
"If you had reacted the way you should have reacted,

882
01:02:10,041 --> 01:02:15,844
if you had more faith in Allah, Ronald Stokes would be alive."

883
01:02:15,879 --> 01:02:20,077
And that was it. He really gave him an upbraiding.

884
01:02:20,112 --> 01:02:23,211
And Malcolm said nothing about it,

885
01:02:23,246 --> 01:02:25,427
"Well, there was nothing we could do," or anything of that sort.

886
01:02:25,462 --> 01:02:26,845
He just listened.

887
01:02:27,936 --> 01:02:32,907
Mr. Muhammad told him-- he said, "That's one man that we lost.

888
01:02:32,942 --> 01:02:36,437
I never did tell you that we weren't going to lose anyone,

889
01:02:36,472 --> 01:02:39,941
but that's the way it is when you're building a nation."

890
01:02:39,976 --> 01:02:45,682
He said, "They were wrong, but if I send my followers

891
01:02:45,717 --> 01:02:50,737
out there to do battle with those people in L.A.,

892
01:02:50,772 --> 01:02:53,260
either undercover or on top of the cover,

893
01:02:53,295 --> 01:02:56,263
they will get slaughtered,and I'm not going to do that."

894
01:02:58,348 --> 01:03:00,362
And Malcolm didn't like that.

895
01:03:00,397 --> 01:03:05,683
Malcolm had always said, "Muslims don't back down."

896
01:03:05,718 --> 01:03:11,000
In Harlem, he now had to explain what happened in Los Angeles.

897
01:03:11,035 --> 01:03:15,916
Ronald Stokes was not the least among the followers

898
01:03:15,951 --> 01:03:19,165
of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, he was one of the highest.

899
01:03:19,200 --> 01:03:22,461
He was the secretary of our Los Angeles mosque,

900
01:03:22,496 --> 01:03:26,503
and as we explained in that rally on May, many of you thought

901
01:03:26,538 --> 01:03:30,364
that we should go right on out then and make war on the white man.

902
01:03:30,399 --> 01:03:33,993
You wanted to do it yourself, didn't you? Yes!

903
01:03:34,028 --> 01:03:35,183
Didn't you?Yes!

904
01:03:35,218 --> 01:03:37,763
You wanted some action then, didn't you?Yes!

905
01:03:37,798 --> 01:03:40,933
'Cause you don't like the idea of white people shooting black people down,

906
01:03:40,968 --> 01:03:41,983
do you?No!

907
01:03:42,018 --> 01:03:44,949
And you're ready to do something about it, aren't you?Yes!

908
01:03:44,984 --> 01:03:48,320
We know you are, and the white man should be thankful

909
01:03:48,355 --> 01:03:51,670
that God has given the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

910
01:03:51,705 --> 01:03:55,098
the control over his followers that he has

911
01:03:55,133 --> 01:03:59,595
so that they can play it cool, calm and collected

912
01:03:59,630 --> 01:04:01,891
and leave it in the hands of God.

913
01:04:03,360 --> 01:04:06,826
In the months following the Los Angeles incident,

914
01:04:06,861 --> 01:04:10,707
Malcolm's faith in the Messenger was further tested

915
01:04:10,742 --> 01:04:14,449
by rumors about Elijah Muhammad's private life.

916
01:04:16,171 --> 01:04:21,747
Once a month, he would go to Chicago to take the money to Elijah Muhammad,

917
01:04:21,782 --> 01:04:27,377
and he would always go to the side door.

918
01:04:27,412 --> 01:04:32,477
And this particular day, when he got to the side door,

919
01:04:32,512 --> 01:04:35,281
there were three young ladies where they were knocking

920
01:04:35,316 --> 01:04:38,462
and bamming on the door -- "Open the door, open the door.

921
01:04:38,497 --> 01:04:39,788
We need money for food.

922
01:04:39,823 --> 01:04:42,695
Our children don't have have this or that or the other."

923
01:04:42,730 --> 01:04:49,613
He immediately felt that, number one, he didn't belong there.

924
01:04:49,648 --> 01:04:54,380
Malcolm had long dismissed stories that Elijah Muhammad

925
01:04:54,415 --> 01:04:57,980
had fathered eight children with six of his secretaries.

926
01:04:58,015 --> 01:05:01,262
Now he approached the Messenger's son Wallace

927
01:05:01,297 --> 01:05:03,767
to confirm what he had seen.

928
01:05:03,802 --> 01:05:07,985
So I told him yes. I say, "I know of-- I know about that."

929
01:05:08,020 --> 01:05:11,311
I say, "You can see things, but you don't want to see it,

930
01:05:11,346 --> 01:05:14,426
so you just blot it out in your mind."

931
01:05:14,461 --> 01:05:18,309
I say, "I'm aware of secretaries having that kind of relationship

932
01:05:18,344 --> 01:05:20,512
with my father, being there with their children."

933
01:05:20,547 --> 01:05:24,516
I say, "I've seen him take their children and somewhere in my conscience

934
01:05:24,551 --> 01:05:27,405
I'm sure it was registering that that was his family,

935
01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:31,080
but I never accepted it to deal with it in my mind.

936
01:05:31,115 --> 01:05:33,625
Never did I accept to deal with it in my mind."

937
01:05:33,660 --> 01:05:38,557
Officials in the nation accused Wallace Muhammad of

938
01:05:38,592 --> 01:05:42,053
starting rumors and conspiring against his father.

939
01:05:42,088 --> 01:05:46,832
The charge that I gave Malcolm information

940
01:05:46,867 --> 01:05:50,565
on my father's domestic situation is true,

941
01:05:50,600 --> 01:05:56,562
but only after Malcolm had already told me that he witnessed that situation.

942
01:05:56,597 --> 01:06:00,434
It gives me great pleasure and an honor and a privilege at this time

943
01:06:00,469 --> 01:06:04,377
to introduce to you and present to you the Messenger of Allah,

944
01:06:04,412 --> 01:06:06,567
your and my beloved leader and teacher,

945
01:06:06,602 --> 01:06:09,419
the Most Honorable and Humble Elijah Muhammad.

946
01:06:09,454 --> 01:06:14,140
Malcolm had submitted himself to Elijah Muhammad

947
01:06:14,175 --> 01:06:18,985
as his spiritual leaderand never tried to see anything else.

948
01:06:19,020 --> 01:06:22,627
And the things that he tried to put into practice himself

949
01:06:22,662 --> 01:06:27,084
he thought were being also being practiced by his leader.

950
01:06:27,119 --> 01:06:30,992
And when he found it differently,

951
01:06:30,992 --> 01:06:34,129
it just took all the wind out his sails.

952
01:06:34,302 --> 01:06:39,457
In public, the two men continued to embrace.

953
01:06:39,492 --> 01:06:43,452
In private, suspicion had replaced faith.

954
01:06:43,487 --> 01:06:49,394
Their relationship was further complicated by Elijah Muhammad's failing health.

955
01:06:49,429 --> 01:06:53,024
Malcolm's popularity naturally grew.

956
01:06:53,059 --> 01:06:58,154
Number one, Mr. Muhammad was sick he had bronchitis,

957
01:06:58,189 --> 01:07:03,847
so Mr. Muhammad, he only went to large public meetings

958
01:07:03,882 --> 01:07:08,003
maybe once a year, twice a year. That was it.

959
01:07:08,038 --> 01:07:10,915
All the rest of the time, Malcolm was going everywhere.

960
01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:16,451
It was Malcolm who sparked the growth of the Nation all over the country.

961
01:07:16,486 --> 01:07:18,206
He was in demand.

962
01:07:18,241 --> 01:07:20,481
Nobody was asking for Elijah Muhammad to speak,

963
01:07:20,516 --> 01:07:22,541
they were asking for Malcolm to speak.

964
01:07:22,576 --> 01:07:28,232
And naturally, Malcolm got more involved with civil rights struggle

965
01:07:28,267 --> 01:07:31,373
and his argument became more an argument

966
01:07:31,408 --> 01:07:34,513
that you would expect from someone who was in the civil rights struggle

967
01:07:34,548 --> 01:07:38,770
than you would for someone who was following the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

968
01:07:53,320 --> 01:07:58,687
The '60s showed us the white man in the image that

969
01:07:58,722 --> 01:08:02,887
the Nation of Islam had cast him in, in the image of brutal person,

970
01:08:02,922 --> 01:08:06,173
you know, turning the dogs out on demonstrators,

971
01:08:06,208 --> 01:08:08,197
using the fire hoses.

972
01:08:08,232 --> 01:08:12,634
So all this helped the Nation of Islam's charge against the white race

973
01:08:18,366 --> 01:08:22,647
and made it possible for the Nation of Islam's spokesman

974
01:08:22,682 --> 01:08:30,381
Muhammed, Malcolm X, to get the press,to get the camera on him

975
01:08:30,416 --> 01:08:35,988
and to state what he had confidence in that was an alternative,

976
01:08:36,023 --> 01:08:37,774
and that was seperation.

977
01:08:39,608 --> 01:08:43,354
As Muslims, we believe

978
01:08:43,389 --> 01:08:47,446
that separation is the best way and the only sensible way,

979
01:08:47,481 --> 01:08:50,646
not integration and-- but on the other hand,

980
01:08:50,681 --> 01:08:56,819
when we see our people being brutalized by white bigots, white racists,

981
01:08:56,854 --> 01:09:03,988
we think that they are foolish to allow themselves to be beaten

982
01:09:04,023 --> 01:09:08,145
and brutalized and do nothing whatsoever to protect themselves.

983
01:09:08,180 --> 01:09:12,085
If a dog is biting a black man, the black man should kill the dog,

984
01:09:12,120 --> 01:09:17,249
whether the dog is a police dog or a hound dog or any kind of dog.

985
01:09:17,284 --> 01:09:21,809
If a dog is fixed on a black man when that black man is doing nothing

986
01:09:21,844 --> 01:09:25,639
but trying to take advantage of what the government says

987
01:09:25,674 --> 01:09:28,654
is supposed to be his, then that black man should kill that dog

988
01:09:28,689 --> 01:09:32,874
or any two-legged dog who sicks the dog on him.

989
01:09:34,612 --> 01:09:38,433
When Malcolm talks all the Muslim ministers talk,

990
01:09:38,468 --> 01:09:42,470
they articulate for all the Negro people who hear them,

991
01:09:42,505 --> 01:09:47,311
who listen to them, they articulate their suffering,

992
01:09:47,346 --> 01:09:50,937
the suffering which has been in this country so long denied.

993
01:09:50,972 --> 01:09:54,617
That's Malcolm's great authority over any of his audiences.

994
01:09:54,652 --> 01:09:56,976
He corroborates their reality.

995
01:09:57,011 --> 01:10:01,499
I was probably about 14 years old

996
01:10:01,534 --> 01:10:08,849
and I was involved in demonstrations at this construction site.

997
01:10:08,884 --> 01:10:14,687
The community was demanding integration of the workforce.

998
01:10:14,722 --> 01:10:21,170
We realized that Malcolm had come to watch the demonstration.

999
01:10:21,205 --> 01:10:26,597
When my shift changed, I went across the street to talk to Malcolm.

1000
01:10:26,632 --> 01:10:31,072
We had quite an argument that morning,

1001
01:10:31,107 --> 01:10:35,549
and he tried to explain to me what was wrong with me

1002
01:10:35,584 --> 01:10:38,630
laying down on the ground in front of a cement truck.

1003
01:10:38,665 --> 01:10:45,466
And Malcolm said if these are people who could lynch black people,

1004
01:10:45,501 --> 01:10:49,559
murder black children, enslave people,

1005
01:10:49,594 --> 01:10:53,430
why couldn't they run over somebody with a truck?

1006
01:10:53,465 --> 01:10:56,973
And he said, "Oh, they'd say it was an accident.

1007
01:10:57,008 --> 01:11:02,157
He'd say, 'Oops, my foot slipped,' but you'd be just as dead."

1008
01:11:02,192 --> 01:11:07,819
And when he left and I turned around to go back across the street,

1009
01:11:07,854 --> 01:11:10,574
I went back and I got on the picket line,

1010
01:11:10,609 --> 01:11:13,452
but I never laid down in the street in front of a truck again.

1011
01:11:16,275 --> 01:11:20,274
We were sitting across the street at the Shabazz Frosti Kreem

1012
01:11:20,309 --> 01:11:24,453
and talking about race relations in America,

1013
01:11:24,488 --> 01:11:28,616
and Malcolm at one point said, "OK, what's your solution?"

1014
01:11:28,651 --> 01:11:31,489
And I don't-- he was not asking me for advice, he was--

1015
01:11:31,524 --> 01:11:35,175
he just wanted to sort of put me on the spot for a moment, I think.

1016
01:11:35,210 --> 01:11:40,248
And I was, at the time, under the spell of Dr. King

1017
01:11:40,283 --> 01:11:43,939
and his notion of the beloved society which would be colorblind,

1018
01:11:43,974 --> 01:11:47,674
in which color would not be a disability for anybody

1019
01:11:47,709 --> 01:11:51,034
it wouldn't disappear, but it wouldn't be a disability

1020
01:11:51,141 --> 01:11:56,028
and Malcolm just kind of looked back at me and said,

1021
01:11:56,063 --> 01:11:58,942
"You're dreaming. I haven't got time for dreams."

1022
01:11:58,977 --> 01:12:05,113
The goal of Dr. King is full equality --No --

1023
01:12:05,148 --> 01:12:08,259
-- and full rights of citizenship for Negroes.

1024
01:12:08,294 --> 01:12:11,215
The goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to give Negroes a chance

1025
01:12:11,250 --> 01:12:14,407
to sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white man

1026
01:12:14,407 --> 01:12:16,836
who had brutalized them for 400 years.

1027
01:12:16,871 --> 01:12:19,544
The goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to get Negroes

1028
01:12:19,579 --> 01:12:23,334
to forgive the people who have brutalized them for 400 years

1029
01:12:23,369 --> 01:12:26,163
by lulling them to sleep and making them forgetting

1030
01:12:26,198 --> 01:12:27,695
what those whites have done to them.

1031
01:12:27,730 --> 01:12:29,710
But the masses of black people in America today

1032
01:12:29,745 --> 01:12:32,288
don't go for what Martin Luther King is putting down.

1033
01:12:32,323 --> 01:12:33,793
As you said in one of your articles,

1034
01:12:33,828 --> 01:12:36,046
it's psychologically insecure or something of that sort,

1035
01:12:36,081 --> 01:12:36,963
I forget how you put it.

1036
01:12:36,998 --> 01:12:39,802
But you didn't endorse what Martin Luther King was doing yourself.

1037
01:12:39,837 --> 01:12:43,142
I do not reject his goals of full integration

1038
01:12:43,177 --> 01:12:45,627
and full equality rights of American citizens.

1039
01:12:45,662 --> 01:12:47,027
Do you reject these goals?

1040
01:12:47,062 --> 01:12:48,725
If you don't think that he's walking on the right road,

1041
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:51,523
I'm quite sure you don't agree that he'll get to the right place.

1042
01:12:51,558 --> 01:12:55,441
We were aware or felt that it was somewhat dangerous

1043
01:12:55,476 --> 01:12:58,701
to be too closely associated to Malcolm.

1044
01:12:58,736 --> 01:13:02,688
He was saying some pretty rough things, particularly about whites,

1045
01:13:02,723 --> 01:13:07,236
and those of us who wanted to keep peace with the white world

1046
01:13:07,271 --> 01:13:10,195
some of us, you know, had our jobs out in the community

1047
01:13:10,230 --> 01:13:13,684
we didn't really want to get too close to Malcolm.

1048
01:13:13,719 --> 01:13:15,836
It has been suggested also that

1049
01:13:15,871 --> 01:13:20,532
this movement preaches a gospel of violence, that

1050
01:13:20,567 --> 01:13:23,636
No, the black people in this country have been the victims of violence

1051
01:13:23,671 --> 01:13:26,143
at the hands of the white man for 400 years,

1052
01:13:26,178 --> 01:13:29,551
and following the ignorant Negro preachers,

1053
01:13:29,586 --> 01:13:32,366
we have thought that it was godlike to turn the other cheek

1054
01:13:32,401 --> 01:13:34,384
to the brute that was brutalizing us.

1055
01:13:34,419 --> 01:13:36,302
And today, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

1056
01:13:36,337 --> 01:13:39,457
is showing black people in this country that just as the white man

1057
01:13:39,492 --> 01:13:42,450
and every other person on this earth has god-given rights

1058
01:13:42,485 --> 01:13:45,114
natural rights, civil rights, any kind of rights

1059
01:13:45,149 --> 01:13:47,289
that you can think of when it comes to defending himself

1060
01:13:47,324 --> 01:13:50,378
black people should have ,we should have the right to defend ourselves also.

1061
01:13:56,879 --> 01:14:04,775
In August 1963, 250,000 Americans gathered for the march on Washington.

1062
01:14:07,467 --> 01:14:09,610
Malcolm came to us.

1063
01:14:09,645 --> 01:14:14,163
He told us the story about the march on Washington.

1064
01:14:14,198 --> 01:14:16,743
And one thing I can say about Malcolm,

1065
01:14:16,778 --> 01:14:19,972
anytime he told us something, he could back it up.

1066
01:14:20,007 --> 01:14:23,252
He had a article and he brought the-- he said,

1067
01:14:23,287 --> 01:14:25,738
"I'm going to tell you. I know what I'm talking about."

1068
01:14:25,773 --> 01:14:28,751
He says, "Who pays the bills for civil rights?"

1069
01:14:28,786 --> 01:14:31,519
And he said, "The angels are white."

1070
01:14:31,554 --> 01:14:34,093
And what he went on to say was,

1071
01:14:34,128 --> 01:14:38,378
"You have to fight your battles, and it started in the street.

1072
01:14:38,413 --> 01:14:43,496
But once you let them become integrated, it gets cool."

1073
01:14:43,531 --> 01:14:47,396
And then he relates it to a cup of coffee that is hot

1074
01:14:47,431 --> 01:14:50,218
and as soon as you water it-- put the milk in it, it cools down.

1075
01:14:50,253 --> 01:14:54,460
And these analogies Malcolm used sometimes were funny,

1076
01:14:54,495 --> 01:14:56,397
but they got home, they hit home.

1077
01:15:13,883 --> 01:15:19,993
Most of the people that we were organizing had heard also of Malcolm

1078
01:15:20,028 --> 01:15:24,195
and that-- and respected him and listened to him.

1079
01:15:24,230 --> 01:15:27,057
And, you know, any time that he was going to be on,

1080
01:15:27,092 --> 01:15:30,763
they made a effort to hear those speeches

1081
01:15:30,798 --> 01:15:34,982
and felt that they indeed understood what the problem was

1082
01:15:35,017 --> 01:15:37,565
they needed to be fought against

1083
01:15:37,600 --> 01:15:40,903
and, I suppose, not always nonviolently.

1084
01:15:43,438 --> 01:15:47,328
Nineteen days after the march on Washington,

1085
01:15:47,328 --> 01:15:52,025
a bomb blew apart the Sunday school of the 16th Street Baptist Church

1086
01:15:52,060 --> 01:15:53,605
in Birmingham, Alabama.

1087
01:15:53,606 --> 01:15:59,248
Twenty people were injured. Four little girls were killed.

1088
01:16:04,517 --> 01:16:09,605
Here you're talking about bombing a church and killing four little girls,

1089
01:16:09,640 --> 01:16:16,412
and the feeling of anger and not being able to do something

1090
01:16:16,447 --> 01:16:19,656
or not do something was-- I remember was tremendous.

1091
01:16:19,691 --> 01:16:23,718
A lot of us sort of became dissatisfied, because

1092
01:16:23,753 --> 01:16:26,066
and Malcolm really became somewhat dissatisfied

1093
01:16:26,101 --> 01:16:32,632
-- he never spoke of it -- that we weren't doing anything to help the--

1094
01:16:32,667 --> 01:16:39,779
our people who were being brutalized by the whites

1095
01:16:39,814 --> 01:16:43,104
and the police during the civil rights movement.

1096
01:16:43,139 --> 01:16:46,502
We felt that we should have gotten involved.

1097
01:17:04,779 --> 01:17:09,355
One white man named Lincoln supposedly fought the civil war

1098
01:17:09,390 --> 01:17:11,883
to solve the race problem and the problem is still here.

1099
01:17:11,918 --> 01:17:14,015
And then another white man named Kennedy came along,

1100
01:17:14,050 --> 01:17:15,832
running for president, and told Negroes

1101
01:17:15,867 --> 01:17:18,088
what all he was going to do for them if they voted for him,

1102
01:17:18,123 --> 01:17:19,879
and they voted for him 80 percent,

1103
01:17:19,914 --> 01:17:21,380
and he's been in office now for three years

1104
01:17:21,415 --> 01:17:22,879
and the problem is still here.

1105
01:17:22,914 --> 01:17:26,068
When police dogs were biting black women and black children

1106
01:17:26,103 --> 01:17:28,199
and black babies in Birmingham, Alabama,

1107
01:17:28,234 --> 01:17:30,382
that Kennedy talked about what he couldn't do

1108
01:17:30,417 --> 01:17:33,281
because no federal law had been violated,

1109
01:17:33,316 --> 01:17:36,717
and as soon as the Negroes exploded and began to protect themselves

1110
01:17:36,752 --> 01:17:38,832
and got the best of the crackers in Birmingham,

1111
01:17:38,867 --> 01:17:40,355
then Kennedy sent for the troops.

1112
01:17:40,390 --> 01:17:43,705
And there was no-- he used -- he didn't have any new law

1113
01:17:43,740 --> 01:17:46,498
when he sent for the troops when the Negroes erupted

1114
01:17:46,533 --> 01:17:49,006
than he had at the time when whites were erupting.

1115
01:17:49,041 --> 01:17:52,668
So we are within our rights and with justice

1116
01:17:52,703 --> 01:17:58,284
with justification when we express doubt concerning the ability

1117
01:17:58,319 --> 01:18:00,207
of the white man to solve our problem

1118
01:18:00,242 --> 01:18:03,839
and also when we express doubt concerning his integrity,

1119
01:18:03,874 --> 01:18:07,207
concerning his sincerity, because you will have to confess

1120
01:18:07,242 --> 01:18:09,308
that the problem has been around here for a long time and

1121
01:18:09,343 --> 01:18:12,289
whites have been saying the same thing about it for the past 100 years

1122
01:18:12,324 --> 01:18:15,321
and it's no nearer a solution today than it was a hundred years ago.

1123
01:18:15,356 --> 01:18:21,438
Well, he was changed, changed from religious talks to nationalistic talk

1124
01:18:21,473 --> 01:18:28,425
to the point where I told him -- meaning Malcolm --

1125
01:18:28,460 --> 01:18:32,001
that I listened to him when he first started

1126
01:18:32,036 --> 01:18:37,476
and I listened to him now and that I hear a change.

1127
01:18:37,511 --> 01:18:39,894
He said, "What kind of change you mean?"

1128
01:18:39,929 --> 01:18:45,616
I said, "Well, your talks when you first started out, you know,

1129
01:18:45,651 --> 01:18:48,452
caused me to have chills when you speak

1130
01:18:48,487 --> 01:18:50,817
because of the truth that you were saying.

1131
01:18:50,852 --> 01:18:53,179
But now I don't feel that anymore."

1132
01:18:53,214 --> 01:18:56,304
He told his answer to me, he said, "Well,"

1133
01:18:56,339 --> 01:19:00,596
he said, "maybe you have lost your religious or your spirit."

1134
01:19:00,631 --> 01:19:05,775
I say, "Well, maybe I have, but I'm just letting you know what I feel."

1135
01:19:05,810 --> 01:19:09,988
After a while, we began to notice that there were some rumblings

1136
01:19:10,023 --> 01:19:14,767
from the family, from Elijah Muhammad's family.

1137
01:19:14,802 --> 01:19:18,412
Every now and then there'd be little things they would say

1138
01:19:18,447 --> 01:19:22,078
that let you know that they got a problem with Malcolm

1139
01:19:22,113 --> 01:19:25,034
rising up before the public like he's doing,

1140
01:19:25,069 --> 01:19:28,763
because everybody's beginning to recognize him now as the spokesman.

1141
01:19:28,798 --> 01:19:33,795
All right, the spokesman might be all right,

1142
01:19:33,830 --> 01:19:36,918
but at the same time he's getting the publicity this

1143
01:19:36,953 --> 01:19:38,673
and the media's got him.

1144
01:19:38,708 --> 01:19:42,075
Everybody is Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm X, Malcolm X,

1145
01:19:42,110 --> 01:19:43,752
and you only hear

1146
01:19:43,787 --> 01:19:47,087
you starting to hear Elijah Muhammed's name less and less.

1147
01:19:47,122 --> 01:19:52,326
Malcolm believed he could handle the jealousies within the Nation of Islam,

1148
01:19:54,674 --> 01:19:57,431
but tensions between him and the Messenger

1149
01:19:57,466 --> 01:20:01,701
would come to a head in late November 1963.

1150
01:20:04,054 --> 01:20:07,549
So we were sitting in the restaurant drinking coffee,

1151
01:20:07,584 --> 01:20:12,549
having this meeting and the captain of the mosque, Joseph,

1152
01:20:12,584 --> 01:20:15,532
got a telephone call from his wife.

1153
01:20:15,567 --> 01:20:19,993
And Joseph got up and went to a phone booth, took the call,

1154
01:20:19,993 --> 01:20:23,632
and he came back to the table looking visibly shocked.

1155
01:20:23,667 --> 01:20:31,599
And he said that his wife had just told him that Kennedy had been shot.

1156
01:20:31,634 --> 01:20:36,470
Malcolm sent somebody to get a radio out of the back

1157
01:20:36,505 --> 01:20:38,699
and we plugged in the radio and listened and

1158
01:20:38,699 --> 01:20:44,608
the announcer was saying, "To repeat,

1159
01:20:44,643 --> 01:20:50,069
we're confirming  that the President has been shot in Dallas, Texas

1160
01:20:50,104 --> 01:20:53,422
and at this point, we don't know how serious it is."

1161
01:20:53,457 --> 01:21:00,090
And Malcolm said-- immediately, he said, "That devil is dead."

1162
01:21:01,986 --> 01:21:06,655
John F. Kennedy had been assassinated.

1163
01:21:06,690 --> 01:21:10,511
Mr. Muhammad had his son call Malcolm.

1164
01:21:10,546 --> 01:21:17,191
He said, "Brother Minister Malcolm, my father told me to tell you

1165
01:21:17,226 --> 01:21:18,730
-- and we're calling all over the country --

1166
01:21:18,765 --> 01:21:22,872
that John F. Kennedy was assassinated

1167
01:21:22,907 --> 01:21:29,530
and that we should not say anything in a derogatory way whatsoever

1168
01:21:29,565 --> 01:21:33,289
because the man is the President of the United States

1169
01:21:33,289 --> 01:21:35,161
and that people love him."

1170
01:21:35,196 --> 01:21:41,308
The Muslims had scheduled a rally at the Manhattan Center in New York City.

1171
01:21:41,343 --> 01:21:44,866
The day of the rally, the Messenger called Malcolm

1172
01:21:44,901 --> 01:21:47,637
to remind him to teach the spiritual side

1173
01:21:47,672 --> 01:21:51,116
and avoid saying anything about the President's death.

1174
01:21:51,151 --> 01:21:55,347
But he was clearly nervous about what he might say.

1175
01:21:55,382 --> 01:22:02,456
He spoke from a prepared speech,never specifically mention Kennedy.

1176
01:22:19,646 --> 01:22:29,086
And he went in this litany, comparing other leaders around the world

1177
01:22:29,121 --> 01:22:35,597
who had somehow suffered at the hands of the United States government

1178
01:22:35,597 --> 01:22:38,063
or its agents

1179
01:22:38,098 --> 01:22:42,542
and how that compared to what had just happened to Kennedy.

1180
01:22:42,577 --> 01:22:52,693
And he said, "Patrice Lumumba died and his wife became a widow.

1181
01:22:52,728 --> 01:22:57,482
His people had their leader cut down,"

1182
01:22:57,517 --> 01:23:01,816
and the U.S. government had been involved in doing that.

1183
01:23:01,851 --> 01:23:04,966
And he went through a string of these,

1184
01:23:05,001 --> 01:23:09,723
always winding up with the involvement of the United States government.

1185
01:23:09,758 --> 01:23:13,243
So that the final point that

1186
01:23:13,278 --> 01:23:17,972
when you do those kinds of things all around the world,

1187
01:23:18,007 --> 01:23:24,530
you set up a situation, an atmosphere, an environment in the world

1188
01:23:24,565 --> 01:23:28,621
and sooner or later those chickens come home to roost.

1189
01:23:28,656 --> 01:23:33,517
When he answered, I was really-- I was really took back.

1190
01:23:33,552 --> 01:23:34,906
I didn't understand that.

1191
01:23:34,941 --> 01:23:37,513
And he answered the question.

1192
01:23:37,548 --> 01:23:38,380
He just said, "Well,"

1193
01:23:38,415 --> 01:23:41,022
he said, "I know I'm going to get in trouble for this,

1194
01:23:41,057 --> 01:23:43,080
but as far as I'm concerned,

1195
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:45,175
it's a case of the chickens coming home to roost."

1196
01:23:45,258 --> 01:23:49,468
And actually, John Ali, the national secretary, was there

1197
01:23:49,503 --> 01:23:53,953
and that's how Mr. Muhammad got the news so fast.

1198
01:23:53,988 --> 01:23:56,451
This statement is from Messenger Elijah Muhammad

1199
01:23:56,486 --> 01:23:57,817
the leader of the Muslims in America.

1200
01:23:57,852 --> 01:24:01,626
Minister Malcolm Shabazz, addressing a public meeting

1201
01:24:01,661 --> 01:24:05,327
at Manhattan Center in New York on Sunday, December 1st,

1202
01:24:05,362 --> 01:24:08,120
did not speak for the Muslims when he made comments

1203
01:24:08,155 --> 01:24:09,982
on the death of the President, John F. Kennedy.

1204
01:24:10,017 --> 01:24:13,777
He was speaking for himself and not Muslims in general.

1205
01:24:13,812 --> 01:24:16,549
And Minister Malcolm has been suspended

1206
01:24:16,584 --> 01:24:18,858
from public speaking for the time being.

1207
01:24:21,129 --> 01:24:25,785
While the Nation of Islam publicly grieved for the slain president,

1208
01:24:25,820 --> 01:24:31,204
the leadership announced the silencing of Malcolm X for 90 days.

1209
01:24:31,239 --> 01:24:36,185
He was to give no speeches and to have no contact with the press.

1210
01:24:36,220 --> 01:24:39,842
Well, we were doing a lot of Kennedy stories

1211
01:24:39,877 --> 01:24:41,358
and there was going to be a little one talking

1212
01:24:41,393 --> 01:24:44,128
about Malcolm having been suspended.

1213
01:24:44,163 --> 01:24:47,066
And I was expecting to pick up the phone,

1214
01:24:47,101 --> 01:24:48,739
I'd get a quote and that would be it.

1215
01:24:48,774 --> 01:24:52,526
In this case, he held me on the phone for longer than I had expected,

1216
01:24:52,561 --> 01:24:58,153
and he sounded upset, he sounded worried,

1217
01:24:58,188 --> 01:25:00,703
and it was the first time I had ever sensed vulnerability

1218
01:25:00,738 --> 01:25:03,408
in this guy who I had always been accustomed to

1219
01:25:03,443 --> 01:25:06,687
thinking of as an extremely strong man.

1220
01:25:06,722 --> 01:25:12,021
Newspapers predicted a power struggle within the Nation of Islam.

1221
01:25:12,056 --> 01:25:17,241
It was later learned the FBI fed stories to local reporters in an attempt

1222
01:25:17,276 --> 01:25:21,113
to deepen the rift between Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad.

1223
01:25:21,148 --> 01:25:27,671
Malcolm, isolated and exhausted, accepted an invitation to Miami

1224
01:25:27,706 --> 01:25:30,515
where young heavyweight contender Cassius Clay

1225
01:25:30,550 --> 01:25:34,513
was training for his championship bout against Sonny Liston.

1226
01:25:43,161 --> 01:25:45,444
Though not a member of the nation,

1227
01:25:45,479 --> 01:25:48,669
Clay had been visiting Muslim temples for two years

1228
01:25:48,704 --> 01:25:51,318
and had asked Malcolm to help him mentally

1229
01:25:51,353 --> 01:25:53,667
prepare for the fight against Liston.

1230
01:25:53,702 --> 01:25:59,605
Well, going to Florida for my family was a honeymoon,

1231
01:25:59,640 --> 01:26:01,500
my parents referred to it as a honeymoon.

1232
01:26:01,535 --> 01:26:04,824
Of course, its significance of us going as a family

1233
01:26:04,859 --> 01:26:09,100
was much stronger and meaningful for them.

1234
01:26:09,135 --> 01:26:13,723
For us, it was just an opportunity to be with each other,

1235
01:26:13,758 --> 01:26:18,579
but as my mother talked about it, as my father talked about it,

1236
01:26:18,614 --> 01:26:23,180
it was the first time in their real life as a marital union

1237
01:26:23,215 --> 01:26:25,935
that they had time for themselves.

1238
01:26:28,899 --> 01:26:33,498
Malcolm offered to bring Cassius Clay into the Nation of Islam

1239
01:26:33,533 --> 01:26:36,174
in exchange for his own reinstatement,

1240
01:26:36,209 --> 01:26:40,070
but the Nation's hierarchy ignored Malcolm's offer.

1241
01:26:40,105 --> 01:26:43,963
Like most of America, they saw the young boxer

1242
01:26:43,998 --> 01:26:47,268
as a loudmouth with little chance of beating Liston.

1243
01:26:51,172 --> 01:26:53,869
As Malcolm watched from the ringside,

1244
01:26:53,904 --> 01:26:57,378
the young Clay wore down the older champion.

1245
01:26:59,532 --> 01:27:01,833
At the beginning of the seventh round,

1246
01:27:01,868 --> 01:27:04,835
a battered Liston could not come out of his corner.

1247
01:27:04,870 --> 01:27:10,873
Clay had become the new heavyweight champion of the world.

1248
01:27:11,629 --> 01:27:15,552
OK, give us the poetry on number seven.

1249
01:27:15,587 --> 01:27:18,448
He wanted to go to heaven/ So I took him in seven.

1250
01:27:18,483 --> 01:27:19,528
You took him in seven.

1251
01:27:19,563 --> 01:27:20,960
I am the king of the world!

1252
01:27:20,995 --> 01:27:22,305
Hold it, hold it, hold it.I'm prettier.

1253
01:27:22,340 --> 01:27:24,389
Hold it, you're not that pretty.I'm a bad man.

1254
01:27:24,424 --> 01:27:28,037
Wait, wait--I shook up the world! I shook up the world!

1255
01:27:28,072 --> 01:27:30,968
What do you think of Cassius's victory in Miami?

1256
01:27:31,003 --> 01:27:33,301
I think it was a great victory. He proved he was the best man.

1257
01:27:33,336 --> 01:27:35,110
And where were you during the fight?

1258
01:27:35,145 --> 01:27:37,092
I was in the auditorium, watching the fight.

1259
01:27:37,127 --> 01:27:38,526
Right at ringside?

1260
01:27:38,561 --> 01:27:40,290
Right at ringside. I was in seat seven.

1261
01:27:40,325 --> 01:27:46,802
The Nation's leadership bypassed Malcolm and called Clay directly.

1262
01:27:46,837 --> 01:27:51,171
They accepted the young champion into the Nation of Islam

1263
01:27:51,206 --> 01:27:54,469
and announced his new name, Muhammad Ali,

1264
01:27:54,504 --> 01:27:57,627
at their annual convention on Savior's Day.

1265
01:27:57,662 --> 01:28:00,764
Malcolm was not invited.

1266
01:28:00,799 --> 01:28:04,445
In his place, introducing Elijah Muhammad,

1267
01:28:04,480 --> 01:28:09,984
was Malcolm's former protege, the minister from Boston, Louis X.

1268
01:28:10,019 --> 01:28:13,409
And I would meet the man that I had lived for and fought for

1269
01:28:13,444 --> 01:28:16,977
and longed for all the days of my life.

1270
01:28:19,614 --> 01:28:23,913
Minister Malcolm was honest. He was sincere.

1271
01:28:23,948 --> 01:28:28,306
He was dedicated to the uplifting of African-American people.

1272
01:28:28,341 --> 01:28:33,890
Then you had another group of people who were officials there in Chicago

1273
01:28:33,925 --> 01:28:39,333
who were-- who were dedicated to the uplifting of themselves.

1274
01:28:39,368 --> 01:28:41,546
He accused them of taking money,

1275
01:28:41,581 --> 01:28:46,875
of buying expensive jewelry, of buying furs.

1276
01:28:46,910 --> 01:28:49,719
He accused them of converting

1277
01:28:49,719 --> 01:28:53,870
the Nation of Islam into a criminal organization.

1278
01:28:53,932 --> 01:29:02,759
A lot of the well-placed people in Islam had been trained by Malcolm.

1279
01:29:02,794 --> 01:29:08,002
Some of them had been reformed by Malcolm.

1280
01:29:08,037 --> 01:29:15,553
They liked their little petty power positions,

1281
01:29:15,553 --> 01:29:18,973
and there were other people in the Nation

1282
01:29:19,008 --> 01:29:23,776
with aspiration toward that number one slot.

1283
01:29:23,811 --> 01:29:29,310
And if Elijah Muhammad died and if Malcolm X took over the Nation,

1284
01:29:29,345 --> 01:29:33,972
the first thing he might do was some serious housecleaning.

1285
01:29:34,007 --> 01:29:37,873
He would move the money-changers out of the temple.

1286
01:29:37,908 --> 01:29:42,016
So the idea was to get rid of him

1287
01:29:42,016 --> 01:29:47,228
before the event of the passing of the old man.

1288
01:29:52,461 --> 01:29:57,531
On March 8, 1964, Malcolm announced

1289
01:29:57,566 --> 01:29:59,990
that he was leaving the Nation of Islam.

1290
01:29:59,990 --> 01:30:05,627
He formed the new religious organization called the Muslim Mosque,

1291
01:30:05,690 --> 01:30:09,489
Incorporated for those who followed him out of the Nation,

1292
01:30:11,829 --> 01:30:15,729
but Malcolm knew that a rival mosque

1293
01:30:15,764 --> 01:30:19,709
would be seen as a direct challenge to Elijah Muhammad.

1294
01:30:23,809 --> 01:30:28,559
And he comes into this very room and he sits there and we talk to him.

1295
01:30:28,594 --> 01:30:31,971
He says, first of all, that he had arrived early,

1296
01:30:32,006 --> 01:30:35,016
but because he was ahead of time,

1297
01:30:35,051 --> 01:30:37,805
he'd driven around the block a couple of times.

1298
01:30:37,840 --> 01:30:41,304
He wanted to be exactly on time and he was.

1299
01:30:41,339 --> 01:30:46,385
We sat and listened. We didn't have any questions.

1300
01:30:46,420 --> 01:30:49,814
We knew what the anguish was. We knew what was happening.

1301
01:30:49,849 --> 01:30:55,726
And he just seemed to need a friendly ear, so we let him talk.

1302
01:30:55,761 --> 01:30:58,662
And he talked about his time in prison.

1303
01:30:58,697 --> 01:31:03,961
He talked about the times when he first heard of Elijah Muhammad

1304
01:31:03,996 --> 01:31:07,054
and the change it made in his life.

1305
01:31:07,089 --> 01:31:15,480
He expressed that deep hurt with him that his father had rejected him.

1306
01:31:16,433 --> 01:31:20,649
And as he sat there, it was evident

1307
01:31:20,684 --> 01:31:24,478
that if Elijah Muhammad had just done that at that moment,

1308
01:31:24,513 --> 01:31:26,707
whatever the differences were between them,

1309
01:31:26,742 --> 01:31:29,126
Malcolm would have been off and running.

1310
01:31:29,161 --> 01:31:35,473
Malcolm was certainly a beloved son of the Harlem community

1311
01:31:35,508 --> 01:31:40,643
and people were interested in his side of the story.

1312
01:31:40,678 --> 01:31:45,800
Elijah Muhammad was somebody in a picture on the wall,

1313
01:31:45,835 --> 01:31:50,283
someone whose name was mentioned, but Harlem didn't know him.

1314
01:31:50,318 --> 01:31:52,586
They knew Malcolm and loved Malcolm

1315
01:31:52,621 --> 01:31:57,156
and remained loyal to Malcolm long after that split.

1316
01:31:57,191 --> 01:31:59,740
So what you and I have got to do is get involved.

1317
01:31:59,775 --> 01:32:02,858
You and I have to be right there, breathing down their throat.

1318
01:32:02,893 --> 01:32:06,599
Every time they look over their shoulder, we want them to see us.

1319
01:32:06,634 --> 01:32:11,909
We want to make them-- we want to make them

1320
01:32:11,944 --> 01:32:16,073
pass the strongest civil rights bill they've ever passed,

1321
01:32:16,108 --> 01:32:19,687
because we know even after they pass it they can't enforce it.

1322
01:32:22,599 --> 01:32:27,513
In order to do this, we're starting a voters registration drive,

1323
01:32:27,548 --> 01:32:42,363
not as Democrats or Republicans, but registered as Independents.

1324
01:32:42,398 --> 01:32:48,890
If you don't have the sense of responsibility to get registered,

1325
01:32:48,925 --> 01:32:50,285
we'll move you out of town.

1326
01:32:52,656 --> 01:32:57,746
Malcolm called for an aggressive plan not only to gain political power

1327
01:32:57,781 --> 01:33:02,129
but to move black people towards total control of their community.

1328
01:33:04,232 --> 01:33:08,429
It's going to be the ballot or the bullet.

1329
01:33:08,464 --> 01:33:11,188
Other ethnic groups-- other ethnic and racial groups

1330
01:33:11,223 --> 01:33:12,918
came into our community and own the stores.

1331
01:33:12,953 --> 01:33:17,195
They run the schools. They run the supermarkets.

1332
01:33:17,230 --> 01:33:18,801
They own the movie theaters.

1333
01:33:18,836 --> 01:33:23,565
They own the-- you know, the-- almost anything in the community

1334
01:33:23,600 --> 01:33:27,372
that is generating income is owned by the outsiders.

1335
01:33:27,407 --> 01:33:30,617
My personal economic philosophy is also black nationalism,

1336
01:33:30,652 --> 01:33:33,542
which means that the black man should have a hand in controlling

1337
01:33:33,577 --> 01:33:36,036
the economy of the so-called Negro community,

1338
01:33:36,071 --> 01:33:38,632
he should be developing the type of knowledge

1339
01:33:38,667 --> 01:33:41,168
that will enable him to own and operate the businesses

1340
01:33:41,203 --> 01:33:43,759
and thereby be able to create employment

1341
01:33:43,794 --> 01:33:45,840
for his own people, for his own kind.

1342
01:33:45,875 --> 01:33:49,833
And the social philosophy also is black nationalism,

1343
01:33:49,868 --> 01:33:52,045
which means that instead of the black man trying to

1344
01:33:52,080 --> 01:33:54,127
force himself into the society of the white man,

1345
01:33:54,162 --> 01:33:58,160
we should be trying to eliminate from our own society the ills and

1346
01:33:58,195 --> 01:34:03,230
the defects and make ourselves likable and sociable among our own kind.

1347
01:34:03,265 --> 01:34:06,947
Malcolm's whole agenda was different.

1348
01:34:06,982 --> 01:34:09,578
He was about total independence,

1349
01:34:09,613 --> 01:34:14,721
he was about self-determination, self-reliance, self-defense when necessary,

1350
01:34:14,756 --> 01:34:18,149
and of course, he was still fighting for the same thing

1351
01:34:18,184 --> 01:34:21,090
that the others were-- for justice.

1352
01:34:21,125 --> 01:34:24,635
And so I felt that Malcolm is the person I want to follow.

1353
01:34:24,670 --> 01:34:29,382
The growing popularity of Malcolm's new movement

1354
01:34:29,417 --> 01:34:32,989
challenged those who remained loyal to Elijah Muhammad.

1355
01:34:33,024 --> 01:34:37,621
I didn't feel that I would have been a very good believer in Islam

1356
01:34:37,656 --> 01:34:41,826
if I had just-- because my own brother had left

1357
01:34:41,861 --> 01:34:44,066
or whatever he had done, that I would leave.

1358
01:34:44,101 --> 01:34:47,513
I wasn't that kind of a follower. Yeah.

1359
01:34:47,548 --> 01:34:50,123
I would never have tried to coax Malcolm back,

1360
01:34:50,158 --> 01:34:53,242
but at the same time, I would have gone on teaching

1361
01:34:53,277 --> 01:34:55,164
because I was cleaning people up

1362
01:34:55,199 --> 01:34:59,152
and I was making people that were indecent decent, and I liked that.

1363
01:34:59,187 --> 01:35:02,993
Now, at this time, Minister Philbert.

1364
01:35:03,028 --> 01:35:08,026
Ordinarily, I would not suggest the airing of differences

1365
01:35:08,061 --> 01:35:12,248
between brothers to outsiders and especially over a news media,

1366
01:35:12,283 --> 01:35:16,730
but because of the grave consequences of recent events,

1367
01:35:16,765 --> 01:35:18,561
I submit to this medium.

1368
01:35:18,596 --> 01:35:23,301
Because I, Philbert X, a minister of Muhammad's Mosque of Lansing,

1369
01:35:23,336 --> 01:35:27,486
Grand Rapids, Flint and Muskegon, Michigan love Islam,

1370
01:35:27,521 --> 01:35:31,861
our teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and all of his followers,

1371
01:35:31,896 --> 01:35:34,936
I think someone should say something to speak out against

1372
01:35:34,971 --> 01:35:36,714
the acts of my blood brother Malcolm.

1373
01:35:36,749 --> 01:35:40,760
The purpose of making that statement was to fortify the Muslims,

1374
01:35:40,795 --> 01:35:43,718
so I wanted to talk to the Muslim for the point

1375
01:35:43,753 --> 01:35:44,955
and that's why I was brought to Chicago

1376
01:35:44,990 --> 01:35:47,552
to make a statement that would strengthen the Muslims.

1377
01:35:47,587 --> 01:35:53,109
So I went forth to talk about Islam and how it is-- my regular teaching.

1378
01:35:53,144 --> 01:35:55,199
But when I got ready to make my statement,

1379
01:35:55,234 --> 01:35:57,820
John Ali put a paper in front of me and told me I should read that,

1380
01:35:57,820 --> 01:35:59,709
that it had been prepared for me to make.

1381
01:35:59,744 --> 01:36:04,151
Because I have seen and bear witness as to how Malcolm was raised

1382
01:36:04,186 --> 01:36:07,443
from a level of nothing to a place of honor and respect

1383
01:36:07,478 --> 01:36:11,143
throughout the world as a result of Mr. Muhammad's direction;

1384
01:36:11,178 --> 01:36:14,972
and because now I see my brother pursue a dangerous course

1385
01:36:15,007 --> 01:36:19,942
which parallels that of the precedent set by Judas, Brutus

1386
01:36:19,977 --> 01:36:23,185
and Benedict Arnold and others who betrayed the honor and trust

1387
01:36:23,220 --> 01:36:25,748
relationship between them and their leaders;

1388
01:36:25,783 --> 01:36:28,614
because I am aware of the great mental illness

1389
01:36:28,649 --> 01:36:30,789
which besets, unfortunately, many in America

1390
01:36:30,824 --> 01:36:32,975
and which besetted [sic] my mother, whom I love,

1391
01:36:33,010 --> 01:36:34,811
and many of my other brothers

1392
01:36:34,846 --> 01:36:38,600
and which now may have taken another victim, my brother Malcolm--

1393
01:36:38,635 --> 01:36:42,246
And if I had read it, I wouldn't have read it over the air, you see.

1394
01:36:42,281 --> 01:36:44,533
If I had looked at it, I wouldn't have read it over the air.

1395
01:36:44,568 --> 01:36:46,239
And I asked John Ali about it.

1396
01:36:46,274 --> 01:36:47,426
And he says, "Oh,"

1397
01:36:47,461 --> 01:36:50,373
he says, "that's just a statement that was prepared for you to read."

1398
01:36:50,408 --> 01:36:53,102
He said, "I know the Messenger will be very pleased

1399
01:36:53,137 --> 01:36:55,260
with the way you read it,"  and that was it.

1400
01:36:57,300 --> 01:37:02,276
I talked to Malcolm about what Philbert had said,

1401
01:37:02,311 --> 01:37:05,747
and Malcolm said he wasn't surprised.

1402
01:37:05,782 --> 01:37:10,088
He said he knew that they were going to use everybody they could

1403
01:37:10,123 --> 01:37:15,240
and they could see that they could use Philbert

1404
01:37:15,275 --> 01:37:16,400
and that they were going to do it.

1405
01:37:16,435 --> 01:37:19,106
He said he wasn't surprised at the things that

1406
01:37:19,141 --> 01:37:21,117
Philbert had said in the paper and all,

1407
01:37:21,152 --> 01:37:31,665
and that he was angry that Philbert would do that,

1408
01:37:31,700 --> 01:37:34,029
but he wasn't surprised at it.

1409
01:37:36,928 --> 01:37:41,869
See, in Islam, when you are considered a hypocrite,

1410
01:37:41,904 --> 01:37:46,354
it's quite different than saying a hypocrite in Christianity

1411
01:37:46,389 --> 01:37:50,146
or just a hypocrite who posed as a friend.

1412
01:37:50,181 --> 01:37:55,735
In Islam, when you are accused of being a hypocrite,

1413
01:37:55,770 --> 01:37:59,511
there are times when your life can be put on the line.

1414
01:38:01,819 --> 01:38:06,896
I recall getting some of those papers and one I remember

1415
01:38:06,931 --> 01:38:13,811
that stays in my mind is a picture that had Malcolm with horns on his head

1416
01:38:13,846 --> 01:38:17,473
and his head had been severed and they were calling him a Judas.

1417
01:38:17,508 --> 01:38:24,282
And I recall reading the language of ministers in the paper.

1418
01:38:24,317 --> 01:38:28,277
I won't say Farrakhan, but I know he was one of them,

1419
01:38:28,312 --> 01:38:29,642
but there were other ministers, too.

1420
01:38:29,677 --> 01:38:35,621
And I recall reading their language and I said to myself,

1421
01:38:35,656 --> 01:38:38,389
"They're trying to get him killed. They want him dead."

1422
01:38:48,847 --> 01:38:53,991
In April 1964, Malcolm traveled to Saudi Arabia.

1423
01:38:54,026 --> 01:38:58,229
For some time, he had been studying orthodox Islam.

1424
01:38:58,264 --> 01:39:03,069
Now he arrived in Jedda [sp?], on his way to perform the Haj,

1425
01:39:03,104 --> 01:39:06,482
a pilgrimage required of all Muslims.

1426
01:39:06,517 --> 01:39:10,700
Members of the Saudi royal family helped him

1427
01:39:10,735 --> 01:39:13,582
gain entry to the holy city of Mecca.

1428
01:39:13,617 --> 01:39:18,540
My first impression of him was an eye-opener,

1429
01:39:18,575 --> 01:39:22,008
because I saw a different person totally.

1430
01:39:22,043 --> 01:39:27,464
I didn't see the fiery-- fire-breather.

1431
01:39:27,499 --> 01:39:35,337
I saw a very timid, almost shy man.

1432
01:39:40,258 --> 01:39:42,954
When a person performs a Haj,

1433
01:39:42,989 --> 01:39:46,220
there are certain rituals through which he has to go.

1434
01:39:46,255 --> 01:39:53,521
All people have to dress in the same simple way and as such,

1435
01:39:53,556 --> 01:39:58,519
you cannot distinguish during the Haj any people

1436
01:39:58,554 --> 01:40:05,136
on account of their status, on account of their national origin.

1437
01:40:05,171 --> 01:40:09,732
It is a demonstration of human brotherhood.

1438
01:40:13,945 --> 01:40:17,740
Because everybody was in this white garb

1439
01:40:17,775 --> 01:40:22,359
the rich, the poor, the powerful, the weak, the sick, everybody,

1440
01:40:22,394 --> 01:40:25,702
and they were all intermingled.

1441
01:40:25,737 --> 01:40:34,867
And I think that had such a profound impact on Malcolm.

1442
01:40:43,347 --> 01:40:47,463
"Greeting from the holiest and most sacred city on earth.

1443
01:40:47,498 --> 01:40:51,388
I often think of the warm friendliness of your wonderful family.

1444
01:40:51,423 --> 01:40:53,051
Brother Malcolm."

1445
01:40:53,086 --> 01:40:55,613
"Greeting from the ancient land of Arabia.

1446
01:40:55,648 --> 01:40:58,670
Allah has blessed me to visit the holy city of Mecca

1447
01:40:58,705 --> 01:41:01,143
where I witnessed pilgrims of all colors"

1448
01:41:01,178 --> 01:41:02,942
and "all colors" is underlined

1449
01:41:02,977 --> 01:41:07,409
"from all parts of this earth displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood

1450
01:41:07,444 --> 01:41:09,210
like I've never seen before.

1451
01:41:09,245 --> 01:41:13,572
It is truly a sight to behold. El Haj Malik El Shabazz."

1452
01:41:13,607 --> 01:41:16,508
And I guess maybe he thought I wouldn't know who it was,

1453
01:41:16,543 --> 01:41:18,705
so in parentheses, he has "Malcolm X."

1454
01:41:21,699 --> 01:41:26,163
Malcolm's letters to his followers made news back in America

1455
01:41:26,198 --> 01:41:31,172
and raised the question: had he changed his position on race?

1456
01:41:31,207 --> 01:41:36,421
He does speak of brotherhood, the brotherhood of all races, colors

1457
01:41:36,456 --> 01:41:38,613
and so on in the holy land.

1458
01:41:38,648 --> 01:41:42,310
He says, "There were tens of thousands of pilgrims all over the world.

1459
01:41:42,345 --> 01:41:46,988
They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black skinned Africans,

1460
01:41:47,023 --> 01:41:49,761
but were all participating in the same ritual,

1461
01:41:49,796 --> 01:41:52,355
displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood

1462
01:41:52,390 --> 01:41:55,831
that my experiences in America had led me to believe

1463
01:41:55,866 --> 01:41:59,476
could never exist between the white and the non-white."

1464
01:41:59,511 --> 01:42:02,631
But he has backtracked a little from the position

1465
01:42:02,666 --> 01:42:04,495
that all white men are devils if he's saying that--

1466
01:42:04,530 --> 01:42:05,399
I wouldn't say that he is -in respect that --

1467
01:42:05,434 --> 01:42:07,793
I wouldn't say that he has backtracked.

1468
01:42:07,828 --> 01:42:16,888
One can make an adjustment in one's direction without it being backwards.

1469
01:42:16,923 --> 01:42:18,809
When you say that he has backtracked,

1470
01:42:18,844 --> 01:42:21,418
it seems as though that you imply you would prefer

1471
01:42:21,453 --> 01:42:24,341
that he call white people devils and not to call them devils,

1472
01:42:24,376 --> 01:42:26,581
that he's going in the wrong direction.

1473
01:42:26,616 --> 01:42:28,081
Nobody likes to be called a devil.

1474
01:42:28,116 --> 01:42:30,926
So, well then I -- then you wouldn't considered it a backtrack

1475
01:42:30,961 --> 01:42:34,138
if he stopped calling white people devils, then, would you?No.

1476
01:42:34,173 --> 01:42:39,065
After his pilgrimage, Malcolm spent three weeks in Africa.

1477
01:42:39,100 --> 01:42:46,733
On May 21st, two day after his 39th birthday, he returned to New York.

1478
01:42:46,768 --> 01:42:54,695
Malcolm, have your experiences with white-skinned Muslims in Africa

1479
01:42:54,730 --> 01:42:56,932
and the Middle East made you feel that

1480
01:42:56,967 --> 01:43:02,897
relations between Negroes and whites who are not Muslims

1481
01:43:02,932 --> 01:43:04,155
is any more possible?

1482
01:43:04,190 --> 01:43:11,254
When I was on the pilgrimage, I had close contact with Muslims

1483
01:43:11,289 --> 01:43:14,462
whose skin would in America be classified as white

1484
01:43:14,497 --> 01:43:18,902
and with Muslims who would themselves be classified as white in America,

1485
01:43:18,937 --> 01:43:21,841
but these particular Muslims didn't call themselves white.

1486
01:43:21,876 --> 01:43:24,315
They looked upon themselves as human beings,

1487
01:43:24,350 --> 01:43:26,975
as part of the human family and therefore

1488
01:43:26,975 --> 01:43:29,499
they looked upon all other segments of the human family

1489
01:43:29,534 --> 01:43:31,316
as part of that same family.

1490
01:43:31,351 --> 01:43:32,975
Well, has this--

1491
01:43:33,010 --> 01:43:36,253
Now, they had a different look or a different air or a different attitude

1492
01:43:36,288 --> 01:43:41,576
than that which is reflected in the attitude of the man in America

1493
01:43:41,611 --> 01:43:43,046
who calls himself white.

1494
01:43:43,081 --> 01:43:48,003
So I said that if Islam had done this-- done that for them,

1495
01:43:48,038 --> 01:43:51,564
perhaps if the white men in America would study Islam,

1496
01:43:51,599 --> 01:43:54,275
perhaps it could do the same thing for him.

1497
01:43:54,310 --> 01:43:58,217
Are you prepared to go into the United Nations at this point

1498
01:43:58,252 --> 01:44:00,855
and ask that charges be brought against the United States

1499
01:44:00,890 --> 01:44:02,691
for its treatment of American Negroes.

1500
01:44:02,726 --> 01:44:04,487
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

1501
01:44:06,691 --> 01:44:08,411
The audience will have to be quiet.

1502
01:44:08,446 --> 01:44:15,566
Yes, the-- as I pointed out when I was in-- during my traveling,

1503
01:44:15,601 --> 01:44:19,154
that nations look-- African nations and Asian nations

1504
01:44:19,189 --> 01:44:22,371
and Latin American nations look very hypocritical

1505
01:44:22,406 --> 01:44:25,456
when they stand up in the United Nations,

1506
01:44:25,491 --> 01:44:28,394
condemning the racist practices of South Africa

1507
01:44:28,429 --> 01:44:31,640
and that which is practiced by Portugal and Angola,

1508
01:44:31,675 --> 01:44:35,519
and saying nothing in the U.N. about the racist practices

1509
01:44:35,554 --> 01:44:41,287
that are manifest every day against Negroes in this society.

1510
01:44:41,322 --> 01:44:45,936
As media attention increasingly focused on Malcolm,

1511
01:44:45,971 --> 01:44:49,020
the Nation of Islam stepped up its attacks

1512
01:44:49,055 --> 01:44:52,329
and filed eviction papers to force him from his home.

1513
01:44:52,364 --> 01:44:58,571
Well, Malcolm, in the spring and early summer of 1964,

1514
01:44:58,606 --> 01:45:01,420
was in a desperate situation with Nation of Islam

1515
01:45:01,455 --> 01:45:07,530
and the one weapon he had left was his knowledge of the Messenger's

1516
01:45:07,565 --> 01:45:12,714
indiscretions with various women who were working for him as secretaries.

1517
01:45:12,749 --> 01:45:15,868
He called one guy at The New York Herald Tribune

1518
01:45:15,903 --> 01:45:17,795
and tried to interest him in the story.

1519
01:45:17,830 --> 01:45:20,854
It was considered libelous, so they wouldn't do it.

1520
01:45:20,889 --> 01:45:25,507
When Malcolm appeared in court to challenge the eviction proceedings,

1521
01:45:25,542 --> 01:45:29,938
he used the trial to reveal the private affairs of Elijah Muhammad.

1522
01:45:29,973 --> 01:45:32,629
Why are they threatening your life?

1523
01:45:32,664 --> 01:45:36,524
Well, primarily because they're afraid that

1524
01:45:36,559 --> 01:45:39,497
I will tell the real reason that they've been

1525
01:45:39,532 --> 01:45:41,466
that I'm our of the Black Muslim movement,

1526
01:45:41,501 --> 01:45:43,288
which I never told, I kept to myself.

1527
01:45:43,323 --> 01:45:48,007
But the real reason is that Elijah Muhammad, the head of the movement,

1528
01:45:48,042 --> 01:45:52,370
is the father of eight children by six different teenaged girls,

1529
01:45:52,405 --> 01:45:57,164
six different teenaged girls who were his private personal secretary.

1530
01:45:57,199 --> 01:46:01,655
That was a serious thing, the most serious thing,

1531
01:46:01,690 --> 01:46:04,262
and to charge the Honorable Elijah Muhammad with such

1532
01:46:04,297 --> 01:46:07,476
would be really to take your own life

1533
01:46:07,511 --> 01:46:09,307
take your life in your own hands, you know.

1534
01:46:09,342 --> 01:46:11,856
You would be risking your life. I'm just being plain.

1535
01:46:11,891 --> 01:46:13,311
I'm being open and plain with you.

1536
01:46:13,346 --> 01:46:15,195
It would really mean that you

1537
01:46:15,230 --> 01:46:17,523
somebody might kill you in the Nation of Islam.

1538
01:46:17,558 --> 01:46:21,770
Are you not perhaps afraid of what might happen to you

1539
01:46:21,805 --> 01:46:23,583
as a result of making these revelations?

1540
01:46:23,618 --> 01:46:25,848
Oh, yes. I probably am a dead man already.

1541
01:46:25,883 --> 01:46:27,090
What do you mean?

1542
01:46:27,125 --> 01:46:31,676
Well, when you understand the makeup of the Muslim movement

1543
01:46:31,711 --> 01:46:35,806
and the psychology of the Muslim movement, as long as they

1544
01:46:35,841 --> 01:46:40,734
I myself by having confidence in the leader of the Muslim movement,

1545
01:46:40,769 --> 01:46:44,260
if someone came to me and I had no knowledge whatsoever

1546
01:46:44,295 --> 01:46:46,784
of what had taken place and they told me what I'm saying,

1547
01:46:46,819 --> 01:46:49,329
I would kill them myself.

1548
01:46:49,364 --> 01:46:51,743
The only thing that would prevent me from killing

1549
01:46:51,778 --> 01:46:53,610
someone who made a statement like this,

1550
01:46:53,645 --> 01:46:56,066
they would have to be able to let me know that it's true.

1551
01:46:56,101 --> 01:46:59,403
Now, if anyone had come to me other than Mr. Muhammad's son,

1552
01:46:59,438 --> 01:47:02,633
I never would have believed it even enough to look into it,

1553
01:47:02,668 --> 01:47:05,684
but I had been around him so closely I had seen indications of it

1554
01:47:05,719 --> 01:47:08,340
of the reality of it,

1555
01:47:08,375 --> 01:47:11,348
but my religious sincerity made me block it out of my mind.

1556
01:47:11,383 --> 01:47:16,167
At the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem,

1557
01:47:16,202 --> 01:47:19,149
Malcolm announced the formation of a political group

1558
01:47:19,184 --> 01:47:23,548
modeled after the Organization of African Unity overseas.

1559
01:47:23,583 --> 01:47:28,573
Brother Malcolm formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity

1560
01:47:28,608 --> 01:47:32,201
for those of us who were interested in his political, economic

1561
01:47:32,236 --> 01:47:33,702
and cultural programs.

1562
01:47:33,737 --> 01:47:37,390
I think he was aware that there were people out there

1563
01:47:37,425 --> 01:47:39,436
you know, from his travels around

1564
01:47:39,471 --> 01:47:42,919
that were people out there who wanted to work with him

1565
01:47:42,954 --> 01:47:46,977
but who were not prepared to become Muslims in order to do so.

1566
01:47:47,012 --> 01:47:50,391
One of the first things that the independent African nations did

1567
01:47:50,426 --> 01:47:54,672
was to form an organization called the Organization of African Unity.

1568
01:47:54,707 --> 01:47:58,119
This Organization of Afro-American Unity,

1569
01:47:58,154 --> 01:48:00,445
which has the same aim and objectives

1570
01:48:00,480 --> 01:48:02,431
to fight whoever gets in our way,

1571
01:48:10,120 --> 01:48:17,820
to bring about the complete independence of people of African decent

1572
01:48:17,855 --> 01:48:22,987
here in the western and first here in the United States:

1573
01:48:22,987 --> 01:48:29,770
and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary.

1574
01:48:34,845 --> 01:48:39,153
In July 1964, Malcolm was invited to join

1575
01:48:39,188 --> 01:48:41,657
heads of state from Africa and the Middle East

1576
01:48:41,692 --> 01:48:46,341
at the Organization of African Unity conference in Cairo, Egypt.

1577
01:48:50,622 --> 01:48:57,494
Malcolm X saw no contradiction between the African fight

1578
01:48:57,529 --> 01:49:01,734
and the black American fight in the United States.

1579
01:49:01,769 --> 01:49:04,628
He thought one was an extension of the other,

1580
01:49:04,663 --> 01:49:11,185
that he can draw support from one to enhance the other.

1581
01:49:11,220 --> 01:49:18,287
In the 1960s, Africans had a lot of misgivings

1582
01:49:18,322 --> 01:49:21,780
about American foreign policy in Africa,

1583
01:49:21,815 --> 01:49:26,154
because unfortunately at that time the American foreign policy

1584
01:49:26,189 --> 01:49:31,292
was supportive of the colonial policies of countries like Belgium.

1585
01:49:31,327 --> 01:49:37,305
And the only voice which was echoing the aspirations of Africans

1586
01:49:37,340 --> 01:49:40,080
in the United States was that of Malcolm.

1587
01:49:40,115 --> 01:49:43,205
And there were many Americans who came, but non, non

1588
01:49:43,240 --> 01:49:50,835
-- without exception -- who had the impact that Malcolm had:

1589
01:49:50,870 --> 01:49:59,487
the man of a message and the message was not to America only.

1590
01:49:59,522 --> 01:50:03,396
Malcolm what is your purpose here?

1591
01:50:03,431 --> 01:50:07,678
Well, my purpose here is to remind the African heads of state

1592
01:50:07,713 --> 01:50:12,381
that there are 22 million of us in America who are also of African descent

1593
01:50:12,416 --> 01:50:15,095
and to remind them also that we are the victims

1594
01:50:15,130 --> 01:50:19,065
of America's colonialism or American imperialism,

1595
01:50:19,100 --> 01:50:22,953
and that our problem is not an American problem, it's a human problem.

1596
01:50:22,988 --> 01:50:26,243
It's not a Negro problem, it's a problem of humanity.

1597
01:50:26,278 --> 01:50:29,037
It's not a problem of civil rights, but a problem of human right.

1598
01:50:31,707 --> 01:50:37,393
Malcolm traveled into 14 African nations and met with 11 heads of state.

1599
01:50:37,428 --> 01:50:43,009
U.S. intelligence agencies followed him from country to country.

1600
01:50:43,009 --> 01:50:49,949
In Nigeria, he was given the name Omowale, "the son returns."

1601
01:50:53,233 --> 01:50:57,823
When my father was abroad, we had a world map on the living room wall

1602
01:50:57,858 --> 01:51:01,848
and any time you got a little lonesome and wondered where Daddy was,

1603
01:51:01,883 --> 01:51:05,225
we'd run over to that map, and "Where is he now?"

1604
01:51:05,260 --> 01:51:09,374
And he's in Cairo, which is the capital of Egypt,

1605
01:51:09,409 --> 01:51:12,015
and he's over here with Nkrumah and he's over

1606
01:51:12,050 --> 01:51:14,665
so there was a different kind of passage

1607
01:51:14,700 --> 01:51:17,399
that we maintained when he was abroad.

1608
01:51:20,220 --> 01:51:24,368
Malcolm returned in late November 1964.

1609
01:51:24,403 --> 01:51:29,474
He resumed the weekly OAAU rallies at the Audubon Ballroom

1610
01:51:29,509 --> 01:51:33,692
and continued his collaboration with Alex Haley on his autobiography.

1611
01:51:36,628 --> 01:51:38,050
He said, "You know, I'm writing this book

1612
01:51:38,085 --> 01:51:41,302
and I don't really know about doing this book."

1613
01:51:41,337 --> 01:51:45,849
He had some problems with the family having to be subjected to

1614
01:51:45,849 --> 01:51:47,439
what the things that he would say.

1615
01:51:47,474 --> 01:51:49,660
I said, "Malcolm, you know what?

1616
01:51:49,695 --> 01:51:53,369
None of us are ever going to amount to anything

1617
01:51:53,404 --> 01:51:56,070
until we get our mother out of Kalamazoo."

1618
01:51:56,105 --> 01:51:58,617
I had preyed on my mind for years,

1619
01:51:58,652 --> 01:52:00,738
and I didn't talk about it, but it was eating away.

1620
01:52:00,773 --> 01:52:02,913
And he looked at me like,

1621
01:52:02,948 --> 01:52:08,235
"I'm glad you said that 'cause it's been bothering me, too."

1622
01:52:08,270 --> 01:52:13,449
And he said, "Vonnie. Promise. I'll do something."

1623
01:52:13,484 --> 01:52:16,837
And the next thing -- Malcolm never got back to me.

1624
01:52:16,872 --> 01:52:19,368
The next thing I knew, I got a call.

1625
01:52:19,403 --> 01:52:23,290
My mother was in Lansing at my brother Philbert's.

1626
01:52:23,325 --> 01:52:29,683
Then he later told me that it had been pent up in him all these years.

1627
01:52:29,718 --> 01:52:31,291
He didn't want to think about it.

1628
01:52:31,326 --> 01:52:32,992
He certainly didn't want to talk about it,

1629
01:52:33,027 --> 01:52:35,578
because he did not feel good about it.

1630
01:52:35,613 --> 01:52:39,887
But he felt so great when he and his brother came together

1631
01:52:39,922 --> 01:52:41,733
to have their mother released.

1632
01:52:47,310 --> 01:52:53,377
In December 1964, Malcolm debated at the Oxford Union in England.

1633
01:52:53,662 --> 01:53:00,316
I read once, passingly, about a man named Shakespeare.

1634
01:53:00,351 --> 01:53:02,308
I only read about him passingly,

1635
01:53:02,343 --> 01:53:05,169
but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me.

1636
01:53:05,204 --> 01:53:09,690
He put it in the mouth of Hamlet, I think, it was, who said,

1637
01:53:09,725 --> 01:53:11,136
"To be or not to be."

1638
01:53:11,171 --> 01:53:13,687
He was in doubt about something --

1639
01:53:13,722 --> 01:53:17,936
whether it was nobler in the mind of man

1640
01:53:17,971 --> 01:53:23,821
to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune -- moderation --

1641
01:53:23,856 --> 01:53:30,857
or to take up arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.

1642
01:53:30,892 --> 01:53:32,565
And I go for that.

1643
01:53:32,600 --> 01:53:34,785
If you take up arms, you'll end it,

1644
01:53:34,820 --> 01:53:37,545
but if you sit around and wait for the one who's in power

1645
01:53:37,580 --> 01:53:40,665
to make up his mind that he should end it, you'll be waiting a long time.

1646
01:53:40,700 --> 01:53:45,642
And in my opinion,the young generation of whites, blacks, browns,

1647
01:53:45,642 --> 01:53:48,861
whatever else there is, you're living at a time of extremism,

1648
01:53:48,896 --> 01:53:52,292
a time of revolution, a time when there's got to be a change.

1649
01:53:52,327 --> 01:53:55,988
People in power have misused it and now there has to be a change

1650
01:53:56,023 --> 01:53:57,827
and a better world has to be built

1651
01:53:57,862 --> 01:54:02,664
and the only way it's going to be built with-- is with extreme methods.

1652
01:54:02,699 --> 01:54:04,483
And I, for one, will join in with anyone

1653
01:54:04,518 --> 01:54:07,215
-- I don't care what color you are -- as long as you want to

1654
01:54:07,215 --> 01:54:10,534
change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.

1655
01:54:10,569 --> 01:54:12,332
Thank you.

1656
01:54:12,367 --> 01:54:21,597
Malcolm was always involved somewhere in the struggle, and I remember,

1657
01:54:21,597 --> 01:54:30,195
in January of 1965, Juanita Poitier set up a meeting at her house

1658
01:54:30,230 --> 01:54:35,905
for the regular civil rights leaders to meet with Malcolm X

1659
01:54:35,940 --> 01:54:39,653
to work out the differences between us

1660
01:54:39,688 --> 01:54:43,251
so we could come from that meeting with a common platform.

1661
01:54:43,286 --> 01:54:46,114
Once again, A. Phillip Randolph were there,

1662
01:54:46,149 --> 01:54:48,490
Whitney Young was there, Dorothy Hieght was there.

1663
01:54:48,525 --> 01:54:52,055
Malcolm X was there. Several others were there.

1664
01:54:52,090 --> 01:54:55,098
Martin Luther King couldn't make it, but he sent a representative.

1665
01:54:55,133 --> 01:55:00,404
And we spent that day discussing Malcolm's philosophy,

1666
01:55:00,439 --> 01:55:03,623
the mistakes he made, what he wanted to do now

1667
01:55:03,658 --> 01:55:09,623
and how he could get on board the people's struggle

1668
01:55:09,658 --> 01:55:10,966
that was taking place.

1669
01:55:13,152 --> 01:55:16,330
In his effort to support a black united front,

1670
01:55:16,365 --> 01:55:19,120
Malcolm accepted an invitation from SNCC,

1671
01:55:19,155 --> 01:55:21,609
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee,

1672
01:55:21,644 --> 01:55:25,144
to speak in Selma, Alabama.It was the first time

1673
01:55:25,179 --> 01:55:28,525
he had traveled south to work with the civil rights movement.

1674
01:55:28,560 --> 01:55:33,108
And I think that the people in this part of the world

1675
01:55:33,143 --> 01:55:38,107
would do well to listen to Dr. Martin Luther King

1676
01:55:38,142 --> 01:55:42,079
and give him what he's asking for and give to him fast

1677
01:55:42,114 --> 01:55:47,360
before some other factions come along and try to do it another way.

1678
01:55:47,395 --> 01:55:53,288
The next week, Malcolm was denied entry into France on the grounds

1679
01:55:53,323 --> 01:55:58,009
that his presence would disturb public order.

1680
01:55:58,044 --> 01:56:01,062
By this time, Malcolm began to believe that the forces

1681
01:56:01,097 --> 01:56:04,623
arrayed against him were bigger than the Nation of Islam,

1682
01:56:04,658 --> 01:56:09,584
but he maintained his relentless pace.

1683
01:56:12,725 --> 01:56:15,482
Whenever I saw my father out publicly

1684
01:56:15,517 --> 01:56:19,285
you know, from a child's perspective, you know, at an airport

1685
01:56:19,285 --> 01:56:20,030
it was an invasion.

1686
01:56:20,065 --> 01:56:22,270
You know, you're going to pick up Daddy from the airport

1687
01:56:22,305 --> 01:56:25,073
and there's a slew of photographers and other people

1688
01:56:25,108 --> 01:56:27,050
you haven't seen him in two or three weeks

1689
01:56:27,085 --> 01:56:29,325
and all you want is that hug.

1690
01:56:31,212 --> 01:56:34,676
I was certainly privy to the fact that we were being stalked as a family,

1691
01:56:34,711 --> 01:56:36,520
that the atmosphere surrounding the house,

1692
01:56:36,555 --> 01:56:38,297
the cars that would be parked,

1693
01:56:38,332 --> 01:56:41,552
faces that were familiar to me once upon a time

1694
01:56:41,587 --> 01:56:44,216
their attitudes had changed.

1695
01:56:46,853 --> 01:56:52,344
The night Malcolm returned from Europe, his family's home was firebombed.

1696
01:56:52,344 --> 01:56:58,383
Asleep in the house were Malcolm, his pregnant wife, his four children.

1697
01:56:58,418 --> 01:57:01,250
They escaped unharmed.

1698
01:57:01,285 --> 01:57:07,544
And this was probably the thing that surfacely [sic] upset him most

1699
01:57:07,579 --> 01:57:13,216
because this go underneath the image of Malcolm,

1700
01:57:13,251 --> 01:57:16,916
the fearsome, the indomitable Malcolm X.

1701
01:57:16,951 --> 01:57:24,257
This got to the father and the husband of Sister Betty and their daughters.

1702
01:57:25,566 --> 01:57:30,280
He has told me in the past that he has been having some harassment.

1703
01:57:30,315 --> 01:57:32,865
Could you give us an idea of some of the things that have happened?

1704
01:57:32,900 --> 01:57:36,154
Well, in July when I was in the hospital having my last baby,

1705
01:57:36,189 --> 01:57:41,840
my three small daughters saw my husband almost killed across the street.

1706
01:57:41,875 --> 01:57:45,172
How was he almost killed?

1707
01:57:45,207 --> 01:57:51,185
Well, some -- he was in his car and some men

1708
01:57:51,220 --> 01:57:55,294
were rushing to the side of his car, on both sides of it.

1709
01:57:55,329 --> 01:57:56,477
And he managed to get away.

1710
01:57:56,512 --> 01:57:59,903
Had you had any threats -- anything like this?

1711
01:57:59,938 --> 01:58:03,373
Had any threats? That's all I get is threats.

1712
01:58:03,408 --> 01:58:10,725
I get not less than six or seven threatening phone calls everyday.

1713
01:58:12,850 --> 01:58:15,730
I was surprised to hear that the house had been bombed,

1714
01:58:15,765 --> 01:58:23,768
but I was not surprised to know or -- that it had been done by Muslims,

1715
01:58:23,803 --> 01:58:26,899
because I know that's the way they fight.

1716
01:58:26,934 --> 01:58:30,312
I know -- be that the case,

1717
01:58:30,347 --> 01:58:34,225
it could not have happened without Yusuf Shah, could not have happened.

1718
01:58:34,260 --> 01:58:35,776
It could not have happened

1719
01:58:35,811 --> 01:58:39,876
except by the Muslims that are there in New York.

1720
01:58:39,911 --> 01:58:45,675
The Nation of Islam accused Malcolm of setting fire to his own home,

1721
01:58:45,710 --> 01:58:48,267
rather than vacating, as ordered by the court.

1722
01:58:48,302 --> 01:58:52,178
Later that day, the Nation's representative, Captain Joseph,

1723
01:58:52,213 --> 01:58:53,834
inspected the scene.

1724
01:58:55,830 --> 01:58:57,290
Who bombed his house?

1725
01:58:57,325 --> 01:59:00,926
I don't know. All we know, it just got on fire.

1726
01:59:00,961 --> 01:59:03,127
Does Malcolm know who bombed his house?

1727
01:59:03,162 --> 01:59:06,309
I don't know. He never said, and if he did, you know,

1728
01:59:06,309 --> 01:59:08,453
he should --should have brought them to justice.

1729
01:59:12,326 --> 01:59:15,595
There were news reports of threats against his life.

1730
01:59:15,630 --> 01:59:18,014
Was his life really in danger?

1731
01:59:18,049 --> 01:59:21,962
Maybe it was. He said it was. He said it was.

1732
01:59:21,997 --> 01:59:26,709
Do you feel now that there was a climate within the Nation itself

1733
01:59:26,744 --> 01:59:28,088
that put his life in danger?

1734
01:59:28,123 --> 01:59:32,774
Well, as you know, in the Nation, you have all kinds of people,

1735
01:59:32,809 --> 01:59:38,569
and they have different thoughts. You have sympathizers.

1736
01:59:38,604 --> 01:59:43,027
They'd have different thoughts, you know.

1737
01:59:43,062 --> 01:59:47,451
And you have people, they're not even attached to the community

1738
01:59:47,486 --> 01:59:51,313
that like what they hear but they just can't live the life.

1739
01:59:51,348 --> 01:59:53,679
Anything might happen. That scare you.

1740
01:59:53,714 --> 02:00:00,065
So anything could happen. The atmosphere was there.

1741
02:00:00,100 --> 02:00:02,214
What was being said was there.

1742
02:00:02,249 --> 02:00:04,845
You see, you got to understand,

1743
02:00:04,880 --> 02:00:07,503
you know, Mr. Muhammad and what he represented.

1744
02:00:07,538 --> 02:00:10,640
That's what the people don't understand.

1745
02:00:10,675 --> 02:00:14,894
I wanted you to know that my house was bombed.

1746
02:00:14,929 --> 02:00:17,770
It was bombed by the Black Muslim movement

1747
02:00:17,805 --> 02:00:20,055
upon the orders of Elijah Muhammad.

1748
02:00:20,090 --> 02:00:23,853
Now, they had come around to -- they had planned to do it

1749
02:00:23,888 --> 02:00:26,355
from the front and the back so that I couldn't get out.

1750
02:00:26,390 --> 02:00:30,812
And the fire hit the window and it woke up my second oldest baby.

1751
02:00:30,847 --> 02:00:34,684
And then it -- but the fire burned on the outside of the house.

1752
02:00:34,719 --> 02:00:37,518
But had that fire -- had that one gone through the window,

1753
02:00:37,553 --> 02:00:39,701
it would have fallen on a six-year-old girl,

1754
02:00:39,736 --> 02:00:41,757
a four-year-old girl and a two-year-old girl.

1755
02:00:41,792 --> 02:00:43,852
And I'm going to tell you, if it had done it,

1756
02:00:43,887 --> 02:00:46,965
I'd taken my rifle and gone after anybody in sight.

1757
02:00:47,000 --> 02:00:50,785
I would not wait, 'cause in -- and I said it because of this.

1758
02:00:50,820 --> 02:00:56,364
The police know the criminal operation of the Black Muslim movement

1759
02:00:56,399 --> 02:00:59,202
because they have thoroughly infiltrated.

1760
02:00:59,237 --> 02:01:05,328
The only thing that I regret in all of this is that

1761
02:01:05,363 --> 02:01:07,883
two black groups have to fight and kill each other off.

1762
02:01:09,864 --> 02:01:13,305
Elijah Muhammad could stop the whole thing tomorrow

1763
02:01:13,340 --> 02:01:16,090
just by raising his hand.Really he could.

1764
02:01:16,125 --> 02:01:20,027
He could stop the whole thing by raising his hand, but he won't.

1765
02:01:20,062 --> 02:01:22,084
He doesn't love black people.

1766
02:01:22,119 --> 02:01:24,050
He doesn't even love his own followers,

1767
02:01:24,085 --> 02:01:25,991
proof of which, they're killing each other.

1768
02:01:26,026 --> 02:01:27,640
They killed one in the Bronx.

1769
02:01:27,675 --> 02:01:29,640
They shot another one in the Bronx.

1770
02:01:29,675 --> 02:01:33,004
They tried to get six of us Sunday morning

1771
02:01:33,039 --> 02:01:37,160
and the pattern has developed across the country.

1772
02:01:37,195 --> 02:01:40,689
The man has gone insane, absolutely out of his mind.

1773
02:01:40,724 --> 02:01:44,677
Besides, you can't be 70 years old and surround yourself

1774
02:01:44,712 --> 02:01:48,852
by a handful of 16-, 17-, 18-year-old girls

1775
02:01:48,887 --> 02:01:51,833
and keep your right mind. You can't do it.

1776
02:01:53,260 --> 02:01:56,431
My name is Gene Roberts

1777
02:01:56,864 --> 02:02:00,086
and I was assigned by the New York City Police Department

1778
02:02:00,121 --> 02:02:03,342
to infiltrate Malcolm's organization,

1779
02:02:03,377 --> 02:02:12,039
report back membership,names, weapons, if any.

1780
02:02:12,074 --> 02:02:21,416
And I attended meetings and was part of the security on occasion.

1781
02:02:24,208 --> 02:02:27,142
And at this particular meeting,

1782
02:02:27,177 --> 02:02:32,471
I was standing up front along with about four or five others guys,

1783
02:02:32,506 --> 02:02:44,064
other members, and I heard a commotion in the middle to my right.

1784
02:02:44,099 --> 02:02:47,401
I started for the commotion

1785
02:02:47,436 --> 02:02:50,569
and I see this young fellow come down the middle aisle

1786
02:02:50,604 --> 02:02:58,917
and then slip into about the second or third row and take a seat.

1787
02:02:58,952 --> 02:03:05,442
And he was wearing a blue suit, a white shirt and red tie,

1788
02:03:05,477 --> 02:03:11,724
which is basically the uniform for the members of the Nation of Islam.

1789
02:03:11,759 --> 02:03:17,357
So after the meeting, I reported back to the department

1790
02:03:17,392 --> 02:03:22,051
that I felt I had just saw [sic] a dry run on Malcolm's life

1791
02:03:22,086 --> 02:03:25,906
and when that was going to go down I wasn't sure.

1792
02:03:25,941 --> 02:03:31,500
Malcolm did not expect to live another week.

1793
02:03:31,535 --> 02:03:35,644
He promised to reveal the names of those plotting his death

1794
02:03:35,679 --> 02:03:39,123
at next Sunday's meeting at the Audubon Ballroom.

1795
02:03:39,158 --> 02:03:43,720
The night before, he had said he didn't think

1796
02:03:43,755 --> 02:03:48,852
it would be a good idea for us to come to the Audubon,

1797
02:03:48,887 --> 02:03:58,423
and then the next day, he called and said that we could come.

1798
02:03:58,458 --> 02:04:03,127
And I was very happy, you know,

1799
02:04:03,162 --> 02:04:06,672
that I could go because I had not seen him in 24 hours.

1800
02:04:06,707 --> 02:04:13,130
When my mother received the call from my father

1801
02:04:13,165 --> 02:04:17,117
for us to all get together and come down to the Audubon,

1802
02:04:17,152 --> 02:04:18,778
I knew that was different.

1803
02:04:18,813 --> 02:04:22,002
That was a rhythm change by that time,

1804
02:04:22,037 --> 02:04:24,245
with all of the things that were going on.

1805
02:04:24,280 --> 02:04:34,188
And all the while, it was still an exciting venture

1806
02:04:34,223 --> 02:04:35,615
to get ready and go see Daddy.

1807
02:04:35,650 --> 02:04:39,357
And we go there -- he was late,

1808
02:04:39,392 --> 02:04:45,775
and we sat at a booth stage right, downstage right.

1809
02:04:47,785 --> 02:04:52,047
Malcolm came in and I escorted him from

1810
02:04:52,082 --> 02:04:57,985
about the middle of the ballroom to the wings backstage.

1811
02:05:00,767 --> 02:05:07,221
When I got there, I had noticed there were some people already present,

1812
02:05:10,459 --> 02:05:13,569
and there was three people sitting on the first row.

1813
02:05:13,604 --> 02:05:16,401
They were sitting there, reading newspapers.

1814
02:05:16,436 --> 02:05:21,941
Nobody's paying them any mind. And Malcolm was still in the back.

1815
02:05:21,976 --> 02:05:26,792
Benjamin Goodman came out and opened up the meeting.

1816
02:05:28,960 --> 02:05:30,988
I opened up for him,

1817
02:05:31,023 --> 02:05:35,606
and he had set down behind me and he said, "Make it plain."

1818
02:05:35,641 --> 02:05:43,393
"Make it plain" is the code word that he used for us to bring him forward.

1819
02:05:43,428 --> 02:05:47,052
So, anyway, I did. I brought Minister Malcolm forward.

1820
02:05:47,087 --> 02:05:48,963
He didn't like a lot of icing -- you know,

1821
02:05:48,998 --> 02:05:51,177
"Here's Minister Malcolm, the great" and all that.

1822
02:05:51,212 --> 02:05:54,352
He didn't like that -- just plain, you know.

1823
02:05:54,387 --> 02:06:03,056
Then I heard a lot of shots and I looked up,

1824
02:06:03,091 --> 02:06:09,844
and these three that was sitting across the front  are now working

1825
02:06:09,879 --> 02:06:14,547
their way from Malcolm's right to Malcolm's left, shooting at him.

1826
02:06:19,419 --> 02:06:27,082
I saw my husband falling back -- falling back.

1827
02:06:27,117 --> 02:06:31,254
He didn't bend. He just fell straight back.

1828
02:06:31,289 --> 02:06:38,904
And then I tried to -- I forgot my children. I tried to get to him.

1829
02:06:38,939 --> 02:06:44,003
I was facing the assassins, so I saw them stand up

1830
02:06:44,038 --> 02:06:47,513
and take my father's life -- an image that --

1831
02:06:47,548 --> 02:06:51,209
I wondered if I could have prevented it.

1832
02:07:29,736 --> 02:07:36,475
I was going to the Audubon that day, had gotten lazy and had said,

1833
02:07:36,510 --> 02:07:39,077
simply, "Ah, I'll go next week,"

1834
02:07:39,112 --> 02:07:42,154
and so proceeded to go into the kitchen,

1835
02:07:42,189 --> 02:07:44,444
put some coffee on, turn on the radio.

1836
02:07:44,479 --> 02:07:46,603
In my little apartment there,

1837
02:07:46,638 --> 02:07:51,922
I had a little black-and-white kitchen table with these little black chairs

1838
02:07:51,957 --> 02:07:54,802
and had this little black radio on that table.

1839
02:07:54,837 --> 02:07:58,230
And I clicked the radio on, as I stood there,

1840
02:07:58,265 --> 02:08:02,041
thinking about what had happened the night before.

1841
02:08:02,076 --> 02:08:05,701
Turned towards the stove to pick up my coffee

1842
02:08:05,736 --> 02:08:10,919
and a flash came through on this station

1843
02:08:10,954 --> 02:08:14,800
and said Malcolm had been assassinated.

1844
02:08:26,209 --> 02:08:37,012
And I froze. I remember turning in that kitchen and screaming.

1845
02:08:37,047 --> 02:08:46,763
I was in the home of a Jewish family, and they said very casually that,

1846
02:08:46,798 --> 02:08:49,914
"Malcolm X has been assassinated."

1847
02:08:49,949 --> 02:08:56,250
Then someone said, "After all he was anti-Semitic,"

1848
02:08:56,285 --> 02:09:03,054
and I took exception to this, knowing full well he was not.

1849
02:09:06,567 --> 02:09:10,409
Then I excused myself and I went into the bathroom

1850
02:09:10,444 --> 02:09:15,906
and cried for about 15 minutes.

1851
02:09:21,031 --> 02:09:26,711
There nothing on earth would make me accept assassination, nothing.

1852
02:09:26,746 --> 02:09:30,817
As far as I'm concerned, it may sound a bit weird,

1853
02:09:30,852 --> 02:09:34,862
but he's alive, very much, and one day I'll get even.

1854
02:09:34,897 --> 02:09:37,938
That's the way I go to bed every night.

1855
02:09:42,708 --> 02:09:44,830
Three members of the Nation of Islam

1856
02:09:44,865 --> 02:09:47,033
were arrested and convicted of the murder,

1857
02:09:47,068 --> 02:09:49,884
but the question of a larger conspiracy

1858
02:09:49,919 --> 02:09:53,437
to silence Malcolm X was never explored.

1859
02:09:55,276 --> 02:09:59,664
Well, Malcolm X said that the Black Muslims were trying to kill him

1860
02:09:59,699 --> 02:10:01,704
and he was going to name those he thought

1861
02:10:01,704 --> 02:10:04,222
would commit the crime yesterday before he was shot.

1862
02:10:04,257 --> 02:10:05,663
Could you comment on that?

1863
02:10:05,698 --> 02:10:11,005
I don't know--I don't have any knowledge of anyone trying to kill Malcolm.

1864
02:10:11,040 --> 02:10:17,206
I wasn't remorseful, I wasn't sorry. For what?

1865
02:10:17,241 --> 02:10:25,290
And as Mr. Muhammad said, he taught violence and died violently.

1866
02:10:25,325 --> 02:10:32,390
And he was a hypocrite. And I say that he was a Benedict Arnold.

1867
02:10:38,974 --> 02:10:42,092
The night before the funeral, the Nation of Islam

1868
02:10:42,127 --> 02:10:45,485
held its annual Savior's Day convention in Chicago.

1869
02:10:45,520 --> 02:10:52,103
Well, I got the news that my brother Malcolm had been shot dead

1870
02:10:52,138 --> 02:10:57,749
and I was shocked, but I know that

1871
02:10:57,784 --> 02:11:02,660
he was traveling on a very reckless and dangerous course

1872
02:11:02,695 --> 02:11:07,934
and if I was able to say I was not shocked, I would be telling a lie.

1873
02:11:07,969 --> 02:11:11,970
But, brothers and sisters,

1874
02:11:12,005 --> 02:11:15,919
I appreciate these few minutes of speaking to you.

1875
02:11:15,954 --> 02:11:22,655
Brother Malcolm is dead and there's nothing we can do to bring him back.

1876
02:11:22,690 --> 02:11:24,201
Right.

1877
02:11:24,236 --> 02:11:26,240
And we would be ignorant,

1878
02:11:26,275 --> 02:11:30,834
with conditions as they are today for the so-called Negro,

1879
02:11:30,869 --> 02:11:35,083
to get confused and go to fighting and arguing among ourselves--

1880
02:11:35,118 --> 02:11:35,718
Right.

1881
02:11:35,753 --> 02:11:37,811
and forget all about the one that caused us

1882
02:11:37,846 --> 02:11:40,171
to be in this condition in the first place.

1883
02:11:43,659 --> 02:11:51,547
On the day of Malcolm's funeral,I was in the hotel room with my brother,

1884
02:11:51,582 --> 02:11:56,282
and we were watching it, Philbert and I.

1885
02:11:56,317 --> 02:12:00,540
And so we saw it on television.

1886
02:12:00,575 --> 02:12:05,152
I didn't have -- many thought I should have been there,

1887
02:12:05,187 --> 02:12:08,767
but I had no intentions of being out there.

1888
02:12:08,802 --> 02:12:12,915
When you knew the circumstances and the kind of people

1889
02:12:12,950 --> 02:12:16,193
that you were dealing with, you had to do your own thinking.

1890
02:12:16,228 --> 02:12:22,080
And there was no place for me at that time.

1891
02:12:22,115 --> 02:12:25,670
You don't know what kind of nut sitting around there,

1892
02:12:25,705 --> 02:12:28,311
thinking that they're doing God's will and all this kind of stuff,

1893
02:12:28,346 --> 02:12:30,958
and here's a member of his family.

1894
02:12:30,993 --> 02:12:33,393
You don't know what they're liable to do,

1895
02:12:33,428 --> 02:12:35,633
so for that reason, I wasn't there.

1896
02:12:35,668 --> 02:12:41,819
And that's why I'm still here, I guess.

1897
02:13:05,056 --> 02:13:10,189
Of all the leaders that I knew and loved and admired

1898
02:13:10,224 --> 02:13:12,062
and just walked with and walked behind,

1899
02:13:12,097 --> 02:13:17,238
this one, as I said before, had been closest to me.

1900
02:13:17,273 --> 02:13:20,762
I felt I was losing a son.

1901
02:13:20,797 --> 02:13:26,703
So I thought that I would like my children and generations

1902
02:13:26,738 --> 02:13:31,929
to come to know this most important aspect of Malcolm X,

1903
02:13:31,964 --> 02:13:36,200
that he was indeed our manhood, you know, our shining black prince

1904
02:13:36,235 --> 02:13:40,549
who didn't hesitate to die because he loved us so.

1905
02:13:42,330 --> 02:13:48,556
I thought that, in honoring him, we honored the best in ourselves.

1906
02:13:58,267 --> 02:14:02,410
When the funeral was over and then the Muslims

1907
02:14:02,445 --> 02:14:06,931
came and dressed him for proper Muslim burial.

1908
02:14:06,966 --> 02:14:12,248
And after that we went out to the cemetery.

1909
02:14:12,283 --> 02:14:17,523
When we got there, you know, the professional gravediggers

1910
02:14:17,558 --> 02:14:19,360
were standing there with their shovels,

1911
02:14:19,395 --> 02:14:20,691
but some of the black brothers said,

1912
02:14:20,726 --> 02:14:26,479
"No, uh-uh. We can't let you do that. We dig this grave,"

1913
02:14:26,514 --> 02:14:29,686
you know, "We cover this brother with dirt."

1914
02:14:31,851 --> 02:14:36,072
And I was proud, at that moment, to be black.

1915
02:14:49,189 --> 02:14:52,538
I don't think we ever got to be friends or ever could have.

1916
02:14:52,573 --> 02:14:55,675
I think our respective skin colors

1917
02:14:55,710 --> 02:15:00,802
and his view of this great division would have prevented that,

1918
02:15:00,837 --> 02:15:05,590
but I think we did get to a -- we moved from a relationship

1919
02:15:05,625 --> 02:15:09,523
in which these encounters were interviews to a relationship

1920
02:15:09,558 --> 02:15:11,068
in which they were conversations.

1921
02:15:11,103 --> 02:15:16,827
And even at my first encounter, I never felt

1922
02:15:16,862 --> 02:15:21,049
it's weird to say this, but I never took it personally.

1923
02:15:21,084 --> 02:15:23,174
Even with my blue eyes

1924
02:15:23,174 --> 02:15:25,621
and even with him talking about the "blue-eyed devil,"

1925
02:15:25,695 --> 02:15:27,090
I never took it personally.

1926
02:15:27,125 --> 02:15:29,699
I knew I was part of the indicted group,

1927
02:15:29,734 --> 02:15:33,056
but he had a way of making you feel comfortable,

1928
02:15:33,091 --> 02:15:36,211
feel as if you were talking man to man.

1929
02:15:36,246 --> 02:15:41,881
I look at my watch or I show up late somewhere

1930
02:15:41,916 --> 02:15:46,814
and I can hear Malcolm talking about not trusting a person

1931
02:15:46,849 --> 02:15:49,848
who doesn't wear a watch and who is careless with time.

1932
02:15:49,883 --> 02:15:55,391
And he first said that to me when I was 14 years old,

1933
02:15:55,426 --> 02:16:00,709
and I hear it in my ear today like he's still there, saying it.

1934
02:16:00,744 --> 02:16:02,438
Well, what is your ultimate aim?

1935
02:16:02,473 --> 02:16:04,546
The only way the problem can be solved

1936
02:16:04,581 --> 02:16:06,464
first, the white man and the black man

1937
02:16:06,499 --> 02:16:09,333
have to be able to sit down at the same table.

1938
02:16:09,368 --> 02:16:11,748
The white man has to feel free to speak his mind

1939
02:16:11,783 --> 02:16:13,439
without hurting the feelings of that Negro,

1940
02:16:13,474 --> 02:16:16,449
and the so-called Negro has to feel free to speak his mind

1941
02:16:16,484 --> 02:16:18,953
without hurting the feelings of the white man.

1942
02:16:18,988 --> 02:16:20,123
Then they can bring the issues

1943
02:16:20,158 --> 02:16:21,935
that are under the rug out on top of the table

1944
02:16:21,970 --> 02:16:24,845
and take an intelligent approach to get the problem solved.

1945
02:16:24,880 --> 02:16:26,879
Do you consider yourself militant?

1946
02:16:26,914 --> 02:16:29,984
I considered myself Malcolm.