1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose? And the shape of your lips? 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate your own kind? 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who taught you to hate the race you belong to? 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So much so that you don't want to be around each other. 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Befor you come asking Mr. Muhammed, does he teach hate you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what god made you. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Most of us blacks, or negroes as they call us really thought we were free. 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Without being aware that in our subconscious all those change we thought we had ??? was still there. 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And there were many ways where what really motivated us was our desire to be loved by the white man. 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm meant to ??? that sense of inferiority. 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He knew it would be painful. He knew that people would kill you because of it. 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But he dared to take that risk. 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was saying something over and above than of any other leader of that day, 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 While the other leaders were begging for entry into the house of their oppressor he was telling you to build your own house. 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He expelled fear for african americans. He said: "I'll speak out loud what you've been thinking." 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he said: "You'll see. People will hear and they won't do anything to us necessarily. Okay. 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "But I will not speak it for the masses of people." 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But he said it in a very strong fashion. ??? 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in a fashion that said: "I am not afraid to say what you've been thinking all these years." 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That's why we loved him. He said it out loud. Not behind closed doors. 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He took on America for us. 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I, for one, as a muslim belief the white man is intelligent enough. 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If he were made to realize how black people really feel and how fed up we are without all that compromising sweet-talk. 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ??? you the one that makes it hard for himself. 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The white man beliefs you when you go to him with all that sweet talk, because you've been sweet talking 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ever since he brought you here. Stop sweet talking. 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Tell him how you feel. Tell him how what kind of hell you been catching ??? and let him know that if he's not ready 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to clean his house up. He shouldn't have a house. It should catch ??? on fire and burn down. 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On these harlem street corners, for most of the century, black people had celebrated their culture 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and argued the question of race in america. 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was here that Malcolm first joined the street orders who gave voice to harlems hope and its anger. 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I fought ???. And that means that I ?? this white man's country, because integration 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will never happen. 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You'll never as long as you live integrate into the white man's system. 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 125th Str. and 7th Ave. was the center of activity among the black street artists ??. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When Malcolm arrived, technically he had no corner. 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So he established his base you might say in front of ??? bookstore. 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When Malcolm would ascend the little platform he couldn't talk for the first four or five minutes. 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The people would be making such a ??? shout to him. And he was standing, taking his due. 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then he would open his mouth. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They call Mr. Muhammed a hate teacher. Because he makes you hate dope and alcohol. 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They call Mr. Muhammed a black surpremacist, because he teaches you and me not only that 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we are as good as the white man, but better than the white man. 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You are better than the white man. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that's not saying anything. You don't ?? to be equal to him. Who is he to be equal with? 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Look as his skin. You can't compare your skin with his skin, while your skin looks like gold beside his skin. 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was a time when we used to drool in the mouth over white people. 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We thought that they ??? and that we were ??? We were dumb. 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We couldn't see them as they are. 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Since the honorable Elijah Muhammed has come and taught us the religion of islam ?? clean us up 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and ?? so we can see for ourselves. Now we can see ?? pale things to look exactly as we look. 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Nothing but an old pale thing/face ?? 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I came away from that rally feeling that with him, once you heard him speak you never went back 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to where you were before. Even if you kept your position you had to re-think it. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We weren't accustomed of being told that we were devils and that we were oppressors up here in our northern ??? 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was speaking for a silent mass of black people. 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And saying it out front on the devils own airwaves. 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that was an acto of war. 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When he came off the stage I jumped off the ???, walked up to him 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and of course when I got to him the Bodyguards moved in front. 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he just pushed them away and I went in front of him, extended my hand 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and said: "I like some of what you said. I didn't agree with all what you said, but 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I liked some of what you said." 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He looked at me, held my hand in a very gentle fasion and said: "One day you will, siter". And he smiled. 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To make his message clear, Malcolm used his own life as a lesson to all black americans. 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He preched it in fables and parables. And later in writing his autobiography with Alex Haley, 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 he sought some control in how his life would be interpreted in the future. 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I would be rather ??? taken by a statement that he made of himself. 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He would say: "I am a part of all I admit." And by that he meant that all the things 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 he had done in his earlier life had exposed him to things, that taught him skills of ??? 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ...all of which had synthesized ??? into the Malcolm who became the spokesman for the 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Nation of Islam. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You were born in Omaha, is that right? - Yes sir. 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And your family left Omaha when you were about one year old? ??? 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I imagine about a year old. 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Why did they leave Omaha? - To my understanding the Ku Klux Klan burned down one of their homes in Omaha. 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This made your family very unhappy I'm sure. - Well, insecure if not unhappy. 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So you must have a somewhat prejudiced POV, a personally prejudiced POV. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You cannot look at this in a broad academic sort of way. - I think this ain't correct. 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Because despite the fact that that happened in Ohama and then when we moved to 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Lansing, Michigan our home was burned down again. My father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And despite all of that no one was more thoroughly integrated with whites than I. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 No one had lived more so in the society with whites than I. 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were the only black children in the neighbourhood. 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On the back of our property we had a wooded area. 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So the white kids would all come to our house and they'd go back and play in the woods. 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So Malcolm would say: "Let's go play Robin Hood." So we would go back there and play 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Robin Hood and Robin Hood was Malcolm. 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And these white kids ???. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm said he was the lightest skinned of the seven children born to Earl and Louis Little. 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A reminder, he said, of the white man who had raped his mothers mother. 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In 1929, when Malcolm was 4 years old his father, a carpenter and preacher moved the family 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to Lansing Michigan. 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Lansing was a small town and the west side was the side of town the blacks lived on. 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm and his family lived outside of the city. 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And they had a four acre parcel with a small house on it. 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So they were sort of considered as farmers. 100 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Three months after the Littles moved in white neighbours took legal action to evict them. 101 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A county judge ruled that the farm property was restricted to whites only. 102 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But Earl Little refused to move. 103 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Here in Michigan, Klu Klux Klan Membership was at least 7.000. 104 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Five times more than in Mississippi. 105 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 For Malcolms family white hostility was a fact of life. 106 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Everybody was asleep in our house and all of a sudden we heard a big boom. 107 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And when we woke up fire was everywhere. 108 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And everybody was running into the walls and into each other, you know? 109 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What I recall about that was my mother telling us: "Get up, get up, get up! The house is on fire! Get out!" 110 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That's what I actually recall. 111 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I could hear my mother yelling, I could hear my father yelling. 112 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And so they made sure they got us all rounded up and got us out. 113 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The house burned down to the ground. No fire wagon came. Nothing. We were burned out. 114 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolms father Earl Little accused local whites of setting the fire. The police accuse Earl and 115 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 arrested him on suspicion on arson. The charges were later dropped. 116 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the city where we grew up whites would refer to us as "Those uppity Niggers" or 117 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Those smart Niggers who live outside of town." 118 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In those days whenever a white person refered to you as a "Smart Nigger" that was their way 119 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of saying a "Nigger you have to watch" because he's not dumb. 120 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My father was independent. He didn't want anybody to feed him. 121 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He wanted to raise his own food. He didn't want anybody to exercise authority over his children. 122 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He wanted to exercise the authority and he did. 123 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was always speaking in terms of Marcus Garvey's way of thinking and trying to get black 124 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 people to organize themselves. Not to cause any trouble but just to work in unity with each other 125 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 toward improving their conditions. 126 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But in those days if you did that you were still considered a trouble maker. 127 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the 1920's Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist preached that black americans should build