WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose? And the shape of your lips? 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? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate your own kind? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Who taught you to hate the race you belong to? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So much so that you don't want to be around each other. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Most of us blacks, or negroes as they call us really thought we were free. 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. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Malcolm meant to ??? that sense of inferiority. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He knew it would be painful. He knew that people would kill you because of it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But he dared to take that risk. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was saying something over and above than of any other leader of that day, 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. 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." 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "But I will not speak it for the masses of people." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But he said it in a very strong fashion. ??? 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." 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's why we loved him. He said it out loud. Not behind closed doors. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He took on America for us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And I, for one, as a muslim belief the white man is intelligent enough. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ??? you the one that makes it hard for himself. 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ever since he brought you here. Stop sweet talking. 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 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On these harlem street corners, for most of the century, black people had celebrated their culture 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and argued the question of race in america. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I fought ???. And that means that I ?? this white man's country, because integration 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 will never happen. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You'll never as long as you live integrate into the white man's system. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 125th Str. and 7th Ave. was the center of activity among the black street artists ??. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When Malcolm arrived, technically he had no corner. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So he established his base you might say in front of ??? bookstore. 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. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And then he would open his mouth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They call Mr. Muhammed a hate teacher. Because he makes you hate dope and alcohol. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 They call Mr. Muhammed a black surpremacist, because he teaches you and me not only that 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we are as good as the white man, but better than the white man. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You are better than the white man. 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? 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There was a time when we used to drool in the mouth over white people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We thought that they ??? and that we were ??? We were dumb. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We couldn't see them as they are. 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 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nothing but an old pale thing/face ?? 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 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. 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 ??? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was speaking for a silent mass of black people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And saying it out front on the devils own airwaves. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that was an acto of war. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 When he came off the stage I jumped off the ???, walked up to him 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and of course when I got to him the Bodyguards moved in front. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And he just pushed them away and I went in front of him, extended my hand 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I liked some of what you said." 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. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He preched it in fables and parables. And later in writing his autobiography with Alex Haley, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he sought some control in how his life would be interpreted in the future. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I would be rather ??? taken by a statement that he made of himself. 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 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 ??? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ...all of which had synthesized ??? into the Malcolm who became the spokesman for the 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nation of Islam. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 You were born in Omaha, is that right? - Yes sir. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And your family left Omaha when you were about one year old? ??? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I imagine about a year old. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 This made your family very unhappy I'm sure. - Well, insecure if not unhappy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So you must have a somewhat prejudiced POV, a personally prejudiced POV. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Because despite the fact that that happened in Ohama and then when we moved to 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And despite all of that no one was more thoroughly integrated with whites than I. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 No one had lived more so in the society with whites than I. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We were the only black children in the neighbourhood. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On the back of our property we had a wooded area. 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. 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Robin Hood and Robin Hood was Malcolm. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And these white kids ???. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A reminder, he said, of the white man who had raped his mothers mother. 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to Lansing Michigan. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Malcolm and his family lived outside of the city. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And they had a four acre parcel with a small house on it. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 So they were sort of considered as farmers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Three months after the Littles moved in white neighbours took legal action to evict them. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A county judge ruled that the farm property was restricted to whites only. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But Earl Little refused to move. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Here in Michigan, Klu Klux Klan Membership was at least 7.000. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Five times more than in Mississippi. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For Malcolms family white hostility was a fact of life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Everybody was asleep in our house and all of a sudden we heard a big boom. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And when we woke up fire was everywhere. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And everybody was running into the walls and into each other, you know? 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!" 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That's what I actually recall. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I could hear my mother yelling, I could hear my father yelling. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And so they made sure they got us all rounded up and got us out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The house burned down to the ground. No fire wagon came. Nothing. We were burned out. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Malcolms father Earl Little accused local whites of setting the fire. The police accuse Earl and 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 arrested him on suspicion on arson. The charges were later dropped. 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "Those smart Niggers who live outside of town." 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 of saying a "Nigger you have to watch" because he's not dumb. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 My father was independent. He didn't want anybody to feed him. 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. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He wanted to exercise the authority and he did. 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 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 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 toward improving their conditions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in those days if you did that you were still considered a trouble maker. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the 1920's Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist preached that black americans should build