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 a nation 128 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 independent of white society. 129 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 With memberships in the hundreds of thousands Garvey's "Universal Negro Improvement 130 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Association" sought closer ties with african countries. 131 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The UNIA had its own flag, its own National Anthem and and african legioun pledged to 132 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 defend black people at home and abroad. 133 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The US Bureau of Investigation labeled Garvey one of the prominent Negro agitators. 134 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The federal government deported him in 1927 but Malcolm's parents remained Garvey-ans. 135 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Earl recruited new members, Louise wrote for the Garvey newspaper. 136 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My mother was the one who would read to us the Garvey paper which was called "The Negro world". 137 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And she also would talk to us about ourselves being independent ???. 138 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We shouldn't be calling ourselves Negros or Niggers and that we were black people. 139 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That we should be proud to call ourselves black people. 140 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What is your real name? - Maclolm X. Is that your legal name? - As far as I'm 141 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 concerned it is my legal name. 142 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Would you mind telling me what your fathers last name was= 143 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My father didn't know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather and his 144 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 grandfather got it from his grandfather who got it from the slave master. 145 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery - Was there any line, any point 146 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the genealogy of your family when you did have to use the last name, and if so, what was it? 147 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America 148 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and made slaves and then the name of their slavemaster was given which we refuse. We reject 149 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that name today... - You mean you won't even tell me what your fathers 150 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 supposed last name was or gifted last name was? 151 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I never acknowledge it whatsoever. 152 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 September 1931. Malcolm was six years old when his mother had a premonition. 153 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were all in the house and had dinner, supper together. 154 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And my mother was holding Wesley, who was my youngest brother. 155 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And she ??? nursing him 'cause when she fell asleep nursing, holding the baby ??? 156 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My father had gotten up and went into the bedroom ??? to clean up and to go down 157 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and collect money. 158 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And she woke up and she said: "Earl, don't go downtown! If you go you won't come back." 159 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That night around 11 o'clock Earl Little was found in an isolated area outside Lansing. 160 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His body almost cut in to by the wheels of a streetcar. 161 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The police reported Earl Littles death an accident. 162 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was a cloud over that whole issue, because at that time there was perceive that rather 163 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 than an accident with a streetcar that Rev. Little had really been pushed under the wheels of 164 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the streetcar. As a matter of fact I remember hearing just that language, that he was probably pushed. 165 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 under the wheels of that street car. 166 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My fathers death caused great, great shock in the family, because he was the power. He was the strenght. 167 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were an organized and structured family. When we got out of school, me and my brothers 168 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and sisters we'd come right home and go to work. 169 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the garden, clean the chicken shed and get ready for the night. 170 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And get up in the morning and all of this. We'd pump the water and bring in the house. 171 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This was ??? dad was alive. Because to not do this brought the consequences of a whipping. 172 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So we were disciplined. 173 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And than after my father got killed and my mothers inability to run as fast as I could run 174 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or Malcolm enabled us to get away with a lot of things we wouldn't even have tried get away with. 175 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So we got looser and looser. 176 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Louise Little struggled to raise her seven children through the years of gread depression. 177 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She was reduced to where shehad no income. She tried get jobs ??? 178 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She was a proud lady. She had a lot of pride. 179 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She sold. She ?? people. She did alot of things not to be dependent sorely on welfare. 180 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She didn't like them telling her but she could ??? 181 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this is one of the main things that devestated her more than anything else. 182 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As time whent by you could see she was wearing down. 183 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 For seven years as Malcolm grew into adolescents his mother slowly withdrew from her family. 184 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Two days vefore christmas 1938, Louise Little was diagonosed as paranoid and was sent to 185 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Kalamazoo State Hospital. 186 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I came home from school one day and she wasn't there. I can remember feeling empty 187 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 'cause my mother would never left us. ??? 188 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I felt the pain of her being gone everyday and it was only gonna be a couple of weeks. 189 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 She was gonna get better and come right back home. And it turned into years. 190 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Louise Little would remain in Kalamazoo for the next 26 years. 191 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The 13 year old Malcolm watched as the court split up his family. 192 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Assigning the younger children to foster homes in Lansing and sending him to a white community 193 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ten miles away. 194 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the past the greatest weapon the white man has had has been his ability to devide and 195 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 conquer. 196 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I take my hand and slap you, you don't even feel it. It might sting you because this digits are seperated. 197 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But all I have to do to put you back in your place is bring those digits together. 198 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was a man who in the eight grade in Michigan, a school where I think he was the only black 199 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in his class and one of the very few in the school have been an outstanding straight A student. 200 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You know who had been incited ??? president of his class. 201 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And all the others were white in the eight grade and obviously he had to be exceptional to 202 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 be those things. 203 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then you had the Malcolm who had left school and who had gone to Roxbury, Massachusetts 204 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where he had gotten his first exposure to what might loosely ??? be told hustling. 205 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I called myself a little Hustler up in Roxbury in those days. 206 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this particular day ??? Malcolm X had come into Buscity???, had on his zoot suit with the wide 207 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ??? had with the long 3/4 lenght coat ?? with the chain that went down to your ankles. 208 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The last time I recall, Cab Calloway used that outfit for his stage uniform. 209 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When Malcolm left Lansing he had nothing but an old square suit on. White man suit as I call it. 210 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When he came back from Boston, oh Lord, Malcolm had a zoot suit on him and a wide brim hat with 211 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a chain from his hat down to his lapel. He was the top of the town. Everybody was talking 212 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 about Malcolm. 213 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When he was dancing on the floor, and he was floating around those pants ??? like he was a floating balloon. 214 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that coat was like a wing. The way he'd be dancing ??? flying around with that big ???. 215 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And this used to really shake up the girls. 216 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In Boston they called him "New York Red" in New York they called him "Detroid Red". 217 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ????????? 218 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he had pictures of him and Billy Holiday and all these people of that time out there. 219 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Who were just being made known to the rest of the black world. 220 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm works the kitchen crew on the New Haven Railroad between Boston, New York 221 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and Washington DC. 222 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In 1942 he moved to Harlem and at age 17 began travelling in a world of ??? after hour clubs and small time hustlers. 223 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had reached a point at where he said: "You'll never make it on this janitory jobs and selling 224 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 sandwiches on these trains and shining shoes and stuff like that. You never will get anywhere." 225 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had the reputation of being a hustler. 226 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That he was a street person but he was a hustler. 227 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was a con man.???? 228 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When the white folks ??? came out at night and they wanted black women, he could arrange for 229 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 them to get them. If they wanted bootleg-whiskey he knew where to get it. If they wanted drugs he knew where to get it. 230 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He made it possilbe. He knew what they wanted and he knew where to get it and he would be 231 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the middle where he could make a profit off of it. And this is the way he started doing it. 232 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Looking back at that time, Malcolm said: "Only three things worried him. 233 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Jail, a job and the army. 234 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To avoid derving in WW2 he told his draft board that he wanted to organize black soldiers to 235 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 kill whites. 236 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was judged unfit for the military. 237 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolms gambling and drugs and Harlems night life were expensive. 238 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had already been arrested twice for petty crimes. 239 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When he moved back to Austin back in 1945 he organized a gang to burglurise homes of prominent families. 240 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The other gang members included his friend Malcolm Jarvis, his white girlfriend B. and 241 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 two other white women. 242 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This girl knew that these people were down to Florida that time of the year. There was nobody 243 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 home, so we broke into the house and we'd get some of their valuables and Malcolm would take 244 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 most of the stuff and pawn it and get money for his gambling habit. 245 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 After two weeks of doing this that's when the case broke ??? when he made the mistake of going to 246 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the pawn shop to retrieve a watch with over a thousand dollars that came out of one of 247 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the houses. That's when he was arrested by three police men. 248 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm Little, Malcolm Jarvis and the three women were charged with breaking and entering. 249 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The fact that two black men were with white women becaome an issue in the court. 250 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm was definitely involved with two white women and this is what made the case so 251 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 powerful. So outrages. 252 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The women testified that Malcolm had forced them to participate in the burglaries. 253 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The two men received the maximum sentence. 8-10 years in state prison. 254 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When they sentenced us, I went out of my mind. I reached up and grabbed the bars of the cage and 255 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I shook them, almost shook them right up off the floor, and I hollered at the judge. And I said to him, 256 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "You might as well kill me as to give me 10 years in jail." 257 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Well, I was they call a mad negro. I was one. 258 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I knew what I saw was real. I knew there wasn't anything funny about it. 259 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I knew that when they laughed all together they were laughing: "Look what we did. We doing it to the Negro." 260 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Then they had the unintimitadet gall 261 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to ask the girls, before they took them out of there, to press charges against us for rape. 262 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The girls wouldn't do it. 263 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm Little was 20 years old, facing 8-10 years in state prison. 264 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had wandered far from the Garvey pride and independence his parents had preached. 265 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was now prisoner number 22843. 266 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. 267 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To remain a criminal is the disgrace. 268 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I formerly was a criminal. I formerly was in prison. 269 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm not ashamed of that. You never can use that over my head, and he is using the wrong stick. 270 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't feel that stick. 271 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They charged Jesus with sedition. 272 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Didn't they do that? 273 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They said he was against Cesar. 274 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They said he was discriminating because he told his desciples, : 275 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Go not the way of the gentiles, but rather go to the lost sheep. 276 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Got to the people who don't know who they are. Who are lost from the knowledge of themselves. 277 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And who are strangers in a land that is not theirs. 278 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Go to those people! Go to the slaves! Go to the second class citizens! 279 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Go to the ones who are suffering the wrath of Cesars brutality! 280 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And if Jesus were here in america today he wouldn't be going to the white man. 281 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The white man is the oppressor! He would be going to the oppressed. He would be going to 282 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the humble. He would be going to the ???. He would be going to the rejected and the despised. 283 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He would be going to the so called american negro. 284 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Prison 1946 285 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Behind prison walls Malcolm hustled bets, fed his drug habit and argued against the exiscante of god. 286 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The men in his cell block called him "Satan". 287 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But at the same time encouraged by an older black inmate, Malcolm began reading and taking 288 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 english courses. 289 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm described vividly prison life. 290 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That he was in effect lonely and limited ??? 291 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 but had plans for....He was going to do a lot of reading. 292 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he certainly did a lot of writing, because I think there were times when he probably 293 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 wrote me every week. 294 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 During the second year in prison his brothers and sisters wrote to him about what they 295 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 called "The natural religion for the black man". 296 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A religion that taught that black people were the original people. 297 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That god was black and was called Allah. 298 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They told Malcolm that they were now a part of the Nation of Islam. 299 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Followers of the honorable Elijah Muhammed, the messenger of Allah. 300 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think Islam is one of the greatest religion of all time for all people of america. 301 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The so called american negro have to be completely re-educated. 302 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Islam gives him that qualification that he can feel proud and does not feel ashamed to be 303 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 called a black man. 304 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I came into the muslim movement in 1947. And then started to bring my brothers and sisters in. 305 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We already had been indoctrinated with americas ??? philosophy. 306 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So they didn't have anything to do wiht convincing us about we were black and should be proud, 307 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we were already that when we came in. 308 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I wrote to Malcolm and told him about...I said to him: "If you will believe in Allah, 309 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that he would get out of prison. 310 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that's all I wrote because I know that he had very low tolerance for religion and I didn'T 311 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 intend to use that tolerance. 312 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm's brothers and sisters wrote the young prisoner that black people in america were 313 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 part of a lost tribe. Soon to be delivered out of bondage. And that whites, according to 314 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed - were a race of devils whose domination on earth was about to end. 315 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 At first he liked every bit of it except one thing he couldn't understand. 316 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that was the part that we were teaching about the white man being the devil. 317 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammed. And Elijah Muhammed answered. 318 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And when he answered he would recite the part of ??? scripture. 319 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And then he gave him the key. He said the key the bible is this book, that everything that takes 320 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 place in this bible is on this earth. 321 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So you don't have to die to go to hell, you can catch ??? hell while you are living. 322 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And the white man is the one that is putting the hell on you. 323 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Well, that's a very convincing teaching, especiall when you use the white mans history to 324 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 coraborate this. 325 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm began reading history, philosophy and religion. The writing of D.E.B Debois, Shakespeare, Sokrates, The Fables of ???, The lives 326 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of Gandhi and Ned Turner. 327 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he finds all this history of how white christians lynched black christians. 328 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 White christians were the once who were involved in the slave trade. Those were christians. 329 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So Malcolm began to see this and then he began to study it himself and prove that if there is such 330 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a thing as a real devil on this earth it has to be the white man. 331 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed told Malcolm to submit to Allah. 332 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But for Malcolm submission would always be difficult. 333 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It took a week before he could force himself to bow in prayer. 334 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Later, to help spread the teachings of Elijah Muhammed, Malcolm joined the prison debate team. 335 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Competing about visiting college teams from harvard and MIT. 336 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That's when Malcolms name and fame started to spread amongst the prison population. 337 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And, as the population started to grow at the debating classes, most of the fellas used to 338 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 come over out of curiosity, just to hear him speak. 339 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In 1950 Malcolm wrote to the Governor demanding the right to practice the muslim religion in prison. 340 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His letters would later end up in FBI files. 341 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Bureau had been keeping a close watch on the Nation of Islam since the late 1930s. 342 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm considered a trouble maker, was denied an early parole. 343 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was not eligible to be led out at that time because he had been a threat to society. 344 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They considered him dangerous. 345 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Knowledge-wise and otherwise, religious-wise. 346 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He would have been like a rotten appel in a box full of a thousand. He was gonna spoil many. 347 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On August 7th 1952, after six and a half years in prison Malcolm was released. 348 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Within a month he was accepted into the nation of islam. 349 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm Little had become Malcolm X. 350 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How did you happen to join the muslim movement? 351 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was in prison. I was a very wayward criminal, backward, illiterate, uneducated and whatever 352 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 other negative characteristics you could think of, type of person. 353 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Until I heard the teachings of the honorable Elijah Muhammed. And because of the impact that it 354 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 had upon me, in giving me a desire to reform myself and rehabilitate myself for the first time 355 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in my life. Also to be able to see the effect that it had upon others. This is what made me accept it. 356 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I noticed that after being exposed to the religious teachings of the honorable 357 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed immediately it instilled within me such a high degree of racial pride and racial 358 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 dignity that I wanted to be somebody. 359 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I realized that I couldn't be somebody by begging the white man for what he had. 360 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But that I had to get out of here and try to do something for myself or make somethign out 361 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of myself. 362 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The first time that I recalled seeing Malcolm was at the home of my father, honorable Elijah Muhammed. 363 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I saw a thin ?? man, tall man, young man, ???. He was just meeting you, the first thing 364 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you would get from him was a smile. 365 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He said: "This is Wallace!" 366 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I smiled at him. I was happy to see him because I had heard of him too. 367 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he said: "The messengers son." And he was so excited about the messenger. 368 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Really it wasn't just seeing Wallace, it was seeing the messengers son. 369 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When Malcolm came out he was just so full of fire. He had gotten so full of fire, that he got out at the right time at 370 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the right place so could expound ???. 371 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He came to Detroit, he was surprised to find there was such few people. 372 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ??? powerful deity in his mind. 373 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he says: "I'm surprised that you are sitting here and so many empty seats. 374 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Everytime you come out here this place should be full. 375 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And that excited the honorable Elijah Muhammed. 376 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the early 1950s the Nation of Islam was unknown in most black communities. 377 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Total membership was believed to be no more than 400 people. 378 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm was sent on the road to spread the message. 379 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Within two years he helped organize temples in Boston, Hartford and Philadelphia. 380 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed then named Malcolm Minister of the most important temple on the east coast. 381 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Harlems temple number 7. 382 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mr. Muhammed knew that Malcolm had experience. That he knew New York. 383 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He also knew, that he was that kind of men - complexion, height, speech and courage - all has 384 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to be taken into consideration, when you select a man to stand before the people. 385 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Plus, this is an international city. 386 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You got to have your best in New York. And 387 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 this is why Mr. Muhammed selected him. 388 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In 1955, when Elijah Muhammed visited the New York temple it was to inspect the work of the 389 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ambitioned and outspoken minister, who had transformed tiny storefronts along the east coast 390 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 into a congregation of thousands. 391 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammeds massage made a whole lot of people feel whole again. 392 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Human being again. 393 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Some of them came out and found a new meaning to their manhood and their womanhood. 394 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Had Elijah Muhammed tried to introduced an orthodox form of ??? oriented islam, 395 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I doubt if he would've attracted 500 people. 396 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But he introduced a form of islam that could communicate with the people he had to deal with. 397 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was the king to those who had no king. 398 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was the messiah to those some people thought unworthy of a messiah. 399 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The ??? thing is that Elijah Mudammed is like nothing I have ever taken. Like some medicine. 400 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You see. A medicine that has cured me of all my ???. I was a sick man. 401 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I embraced the teachings of honorable Elijah Muhammed, these teachings cured me 402 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 of decease. I'm a well man now. I feel good. 403 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 As long as you stay with the doctor you continue to be good - Yes sir. 404 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 What about you? How do feel about the honorable Elijah Muhamed? - Honorable Elijah Muhammed 405 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 is trying to teach all of ??? people they are ???. - Go ahead brother. - Elijah Muhammed tries to wake them up. 406 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Inside muslim temples no white people were allowed. 407 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Members worked to build a self sufficiant community. 408 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thounded on strict rules and absolute obedience. 409 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The nation set up muslim schools for its children. 410 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Teaching mathematics, sciene, history and arabic. 411 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "Who is the original man?" 412 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "The original man is the ??? black man" 413 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "The makers of all?? and the king of planet earth" 414 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muslim women studied nutrition, child bearing and guidlines on how to care about their husband. 415 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muslim man studied parental responsibility, history and religion. 416 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The elite core, called "The fruit of Islam" was trained in hand to hand combat and was 417 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 expected to protect the temples and to punish any members who spoke out against the messanger. 418 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was surprised when I went to some of the muslim families. The faith that they had in the 419 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed and in Malcolm. 420 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I asked one father: "Suppose your son came home one day and told you that he renounced the muslim 421 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 religion." 422 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He said: "I would turn him from my door and I would never allow him in again." 423 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I asked Malcolm. He said: "He meant it and he would do it." 424 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I said: "Not worry about what would happen to his son?" 425 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "No, he wouldn't worry about what would happen to him. His allegiance is to Elijah Muhammed. 426 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To help expand the Nation of Islam Malcolm created a newspaper: "Muhammed speaks". 427 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And persuaded other black newspapers to carry the messengers weekly column. 428 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His strenght was, once he believed in a thing he would give anything he had to it. All of his energy. 429 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He'd become a workaholic. He'd work day and night for it. 430 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He only required around 4 hours of sleep. 431 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And many times he wouldn't even get that. 432 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Than you just kind of wonder: "How can anybody keep up that kind of ???". But he did it. 433 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Day in and day out. 434 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Plus, on top of that he's reading. He's reading papers, keeping up with what the news is. 435 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He's just a person that's too ??? to life in such a way. 436 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That he doesn't miss too much of it. 437 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 At age 32, after devoting 5 years to building the Nation, he sought the approval of Elijah Muhammed 438 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to merry sister Betty X. A college edubated member of Harlems temple number 7. 439 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the years that followed the demands of his ministry allowed little time for his growing family. 440 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He sometime, if I could catch up, he would have to read to the children. They would always want 441 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the story read again. So that they would really just wait that he was on the last page and say: "Read it again." 442 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He started giving the books different endings. 443 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had a beautiful sense of humor. Especially if he was kidding me about pork. 444 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ???? 445 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You're a decent human being, smart historian. I give you 99 as a human being and you stop eating 446 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 pork I gonna give you a hundred. 447 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A beautiful sense of humor plus the fact that when you got to know him he was kinda shy. 448 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm was now in the nation of islams inner circle. 449 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammeds most visible represantitive. 450 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He had the messengers confidence and the loyalty of thousands of muslims. 451 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In a sense Malcolm had found a father. Elijah Muhammed had found another son. 452 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 God's Angry Men tangle with police. 453 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Riot threat as cops beat moslem. 454 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On an april night in 1957 a muslim brother was beaten by New York City police. 455 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 His skull fractured, Johnson Hanton lay in a backroom of a Harlem police station. 456 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When word spread that Hanton was dying Malcolm ordered the muslims into the streets. 457 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Other Harlem residents joined them. 458 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The community had endured a long history of police brutality. 459 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Many considered the police an occupying force. 460 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 18th precinct was notorious for their prejudice. 461 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ?????? 462 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That was the first time that anyone had marched on to 28th precinct in protest to something that 463 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 they felt wasn't right. 464 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I don't know what would have happened in Harlelm that night because the atmosphere was 465 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 not... I think the word to use is charged. Well, this atmosphere was explosive. 466 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm demande medical treatment for Hinton. 467 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 After a long negotiation police agreed to send the prisoner to Harlem hospital. 468 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But even then the muslims diffused to disperse. 469 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This seargant came out and tried to chase ??? the muslims who were standing across the street. 470 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Malcolm came out and told him: "You can't do that. They're not gonna move for you. I'll send them away." 471 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He went out to the front of the station on the first step and just waved his hand and the people walked away. 472 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 A police commissioner on the scene remarked: "That's too much power for one man to have." 473 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm would later take New York city to court and win the largest police brutality settlement 474 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the cities history. 475 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They realized that anytime a person could wave his hand and have a large number of people 476 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 automatically move away without any conversation, that by the same token that same 477 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 man could wave his hand and cause those people to create some kind of disturbance if he wanted to. 478 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I believe from that point on the police department and the political people in New York City realized 479 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that they had a significant force in the city to deal with. 480 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The hate that hate produced. 481 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Good evening I'm Mike Wallace. 482 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Last week on news beat our 6:30 news program on January 13, we presented a five part series 483 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which we called the hate that hate produced. 484 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The study of the rise of black racism. 485 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Of a call for black supremacy among a small but growing segment of the american negro population. 486 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We have come to here??? and to see the greatest and wisest and most ... 487 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This 1959 documentary was the first television portrayal of the internal activities of the 488 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 nation of Islam. 489 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm saw the television program as an opportunity. Elijah Muhammed was against it. 490 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mr. Muhammed told malcolm no. It wasn't gonna do any good. 491 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All it would do is hurt us. ??? we were trying to do. 492 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm wasn't satisfied. He didn't insist but he continued to ask Mr. Muhammed, could he do it. 493 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mr. Muhammed reluctantly agreed. 494 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "The Trial," Nation of Islam Play. - I charge the white man with being the greates liar on earth. 495 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 "The Trial," Nation of Islam Play. - I charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of 496 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the jury with being the greatest murder on earth. 497 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I charge the white man of being the greatest adultere on earth, so therefor... 498 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Here was this auditorium overflowing. Thousands of people about ??? an organization 499 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I knew nothing about. I found it difficult to critic when I saw it. 500 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And of course when we put it on the air, New Yorkers - cause that's all that saw it - were stunned. 501 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was this organisation, "The Black Muslims", about which white New Yorkers simply knew nothing. 502 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Minister Malcolm X, as he addresses a non-muslim audience. 503 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How could so few white people rule so many black people? This is the thing you should wanna know. 504 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 How could so few...The white man today will tell you that thousands of years ago, the black man 505 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in africa was living in palaces. 506 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The black man in africa was wearing silk. 507 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The black man in africa was cooking and seasoning his food. 508 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The black man in africa had mastered arts and the sciences. 509 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He knew the course of the stars in the universe before the man up in Europe knew that the earth 510 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 wasn't flat. 511 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Is that right or wrong? 512 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was amazed at his ??? to communicate. And at the naked honesty with which he expressed his 513 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 feelings about black people or the white people. 514 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He scared me. I'm sure he intended to. But certainly??? after I saw him in The hat that hate produced 515 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I knew that I would never forget this man. 516 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 When I first saw Malcolm on the television, he scared me also. ??? 517 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 turn off that television. That man is saying stuff you aint supposed to hear. 518 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So of course we did. But always, you know when the sun comes into the window and you jump up 519 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to get it, to close the blinds or pull down the shades, but before you do that the sun comes in? 520 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Well, before each time we turned the televition off a little sun came in. 521 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 While the documentary helped bring in new converts, the racial views of the Naition of Islam 522 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 shocked white america and many in the black community. 523 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Preaching of racial hatred and racial advantage and the bigotry involved is a bad thing 524 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 wheter it's colored or white. For years the NAAPD has been opposed to white extremists preaching 525 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 hatred of nagro people and we are equally opposed of negro extremists preaching against 526 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 white people simple for the sake of whiteness. 527 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Most in the civil rights movement believed that integration was the way to solve americas racial problems. 528 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But Malcolm preached that black people were able to solve their own problems without the help of whites. 529 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 At a time when black americans began to identify with freedom movements in africa and latin america, 530 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm developed alliances with revolutionary leaders from around the world. 531 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He encouraged to see themselves not as a minority but as a part of a world majority. 532 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The riots ??? of african nations ??? with the spread with the nation of islam. 533 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And the civil rights movement. Gave black america a burst of pride.over and above anything we had had. 534 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 since the decline of the movement of Marcus Garvin. 535 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 will ??? wipe away our tears. That's the benifit of our unity. 536 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They are passing the basket through the crowd and I think anybody standing here should put 537 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 one dollar in that basket. Don't you think you should? Sure, this are freedom dollars, brothers. 538 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We're not asking you to give us some money to make us rich, we put up business. The honorable 539 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed had set up more business than any black man in america. 540 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Nation Of Islam with its interlocking corporations was now reputed to be the largest 541 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 black owned business empire in the united states. 542 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Nation of Islam, during the early 60s was perhaps enjoying its best days. 543 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were opening restaurants and grocery stores and seen the Muhammed speaks paper compete 544 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with other black papers. 545 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We've seen Malcolm on television kind of frequently. We were proud of him. In our opinion 546 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 he was doing an excellent job of representing the honorable Elijah Muhammed and the Nation of Islam. 547 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were seeing the Fruit of Islam not just exercising in some small facilities but seeing them 548 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 great numbers, hundreds of them, on the streets of big cities like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. 549 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 My view on the Fruit of Islam was that these were the absolute baddest, cleanest brothers 550 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that I had seen in my life. 551 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was some bad blood, you don't understand? I mean you did not mess with FOI. When they came 552 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 out in the street people would say: "Yes sir!". 553 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The growing presence of the Fruit of Islam attracted police attention. There were increasing 554 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 numbers of confrontations and arrests. 555 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm warned that members of the FOI would always obey the law, but would also defend 556 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 themselves if attacked. 557 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In cities across america police agencies were determined to contain the black muslims. 558 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was only a matter of time until the two forces would again collide. 559 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 On a spring night in 1962 another confrontation. 560 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It began as a stop and search of muslim men delivering dry cleaning. 561 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It ended with a full police assault on the muslim temple. 562 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This time 8 men were shot. 1 Police officer and 7 muslims. 563 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Temple secretary Ronald Stokes was dead at the scene. 564 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I arrived at the mosque in Los Angeles after the shootin took place. 565 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There was great sadness amongst people. 566 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm was walking back and forth shaking his head: "They're gonna pay for it." 567 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If anyone would break into our temples we would defend it with our lives. The temple was sacred. 568 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And those brothers, they acted on what they were taught. And I'm sure that anyone seeing police 569 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 break into a church would be outraged. 570 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This didn't cause us a great surprise to us, the fact that they would resist our police officers and 571 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 cause trouble because we have been watching this group for a long time and Chief Parker 572 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 warned some time ago that we might have trouble with them. 573 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muslims riot. Kultist killed, policeman shot. 574 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The Los Angeles times reported the insident as a muslim riot and a wild gun fight. 575 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Four Wounded, 26 taken into custody; two officers beaten. 576 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muslims shoot, beat police in wild gunfight. But it was never proven that any of the guns fired 577 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muslims shoot, beat police in wild gunfight. belonged to the muslims. 578 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm called for churches and civil rights organisations to form a united fund with the 579 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 muslims against police brutality. 580 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Let us remember that we are not brutalised because we are baptist. 581 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are not brutalised because we're methodists, 582 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are not brutalised because we're muslims, 583 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we are not brutalised because we're catholic. 584 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We are brutalised because we are black people in america. 585 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I'm telling you they came out of those cars and we have enough witnesses to hang them. 586 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 With their guns smoking. Chief Parker knows this, Mayor ??? knows this and every police official in the city knows that. 587 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They didn't fire no warning shots in the air. They fired warning shots point blank at innocent, 588 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 unarmed, defenseless negroes. 589 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Cause I say, two of the brothers were shot in the back. 590 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Another was shot in the shoulder. 591 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Two of them was shot - excuse the expression - through the penis. 592 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Let me tell you something. You say, we hate white people? We don't hate anybody. 593 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We love our own people so much they think we hate the ones who are inflicting injustice against them. 594 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Coroner's INquest 1962 595 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Patrolman Donald Wease, the officer who killed Ronald Stokes testified that he knew Stokes 596 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 was unarmed but that Stokes had raised his hand in a menacing way. 597 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The all white coroners jury deliberated 22 minutes and found the death a justifiable homicide. 598 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 14 muslims were then ordered to stand trial on assault charges. 599 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 11 would be found guilty and sentenced to prison. 600 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We were people that sayin ???: "Never be the aggressor but if someone attacks you, we do 601 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 not teach you to turn the other cheek." 602 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 There were muslims who were not from the east coast, but from other parts of the country, that 603 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 would actually ?? to go out there and kill those police officers even though they may have 604 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 been killed in the process of doing it. But that's how strong the attitude of muslims was 605 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 against those brothers just being shot like that. 606 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Muhammad speakes: Court sets murdere free!" 607 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The conflict of the Los Angeles mosque brought to the surface the growing differences between 608 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammed. 609 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The messenger insisted Allah would evange Stokes death, but Malcolm demanded justice 610 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in the courts. 611 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Would it have been possible for them to get a fair trial ther would be no necessity for a trial at all. 612 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 These are the victims of police bullets and you don't take the victims to court as a criminal. 613 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You take the one who shot the victim to court. And it is the police who should be on trial here in Los Angeles. 614 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm began to talk less and less about god is going to get rid of the caucasian. 615 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he began to talk about how we were gonna be able to bring him to justice. 616 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And make them guilty and that they are not guilty according to the law of the land. ??? 617 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That was not our argument at all. Our argument was that we were devine people and that 618 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we would be protected and finally delivered. Put into the seat of authority by Allah. 619 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That was our teaching at that time. 620 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 To avoid further confrontations with city authorities, Elijah Muhammed summoned 621 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm to a meeting at the messengers home. 622 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed told him very definitely: "If you had reacted the way you should have reacted, 623 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 have had more faith in Allah, Ronald Stokes would be alive." 624 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 That was it. ??? 625 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Malcolm said ???? 626 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He just listened. 627 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Mr. Muhammed told him: "That's one man that we lost. I never did tell you that we were going to 628 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 lose anyone. But that's the way it is when you build an alligience??? 629 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He said: "They were wrong. But if I send my followers out there to do battle with those people 630 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 in an alley??, undercover or on top of the cover, they will get slaughtered and I'm not gonna do that. 631 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And Malcolm didn't like that. 632 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm had always said: "Muslims don't back down." In Harlem he had now to explain 633 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 what happened in Los Angeles. 634 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Ronald Stokes was not the least ??? among the followers of the honorable Elijah Muhammed. 635 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was one of the highest. 636 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was the secretary of our Los Angeles mosque. 637 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And as we explained ??? on me, many of you thought that we should go right on out then, 638 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and make war on the white man. 639 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You wanted to do it yourself didn't you? 640 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Didn't you? 641 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You wanted some action then, didn't you? 642 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Cause you don't like the idea of white people shooting black people down, do you? 643 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And you're ready to do something about it? Aren't you? 644 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 We know you are and the white man should be thankful that god has given the honorable 645 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed the control over his followers that he has. 646 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Told him to play it ??? cool, calm and collected. 647 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And leave it in the hands of god. 648 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the months following the Los Angeles insident, Malcolms faiths in the messenger were further 649 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 tested by rumors about Elijah Muhammed private life. 650 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Once a months he would go to Chicago to take money to Elijah Mohammed. 651 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And he would always go to the side door. 652 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And on this particular day, when he got to the side door there were three young ladies and they were 653 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 knocking and banging on the door: "Open the doodr, open the door! We need money for food, 654 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 our children don't have this or the other." 655 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He immediately felt that, number one he didn't belong there. 656 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm had long dismissed stories that Elijah Muhammed had fathered eight children with 657 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 six of his secretaries. Now he approached the messengers son Wallace to confirm what he had 658 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 seen. 659 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So I told him: "Yes, I know about that. You can see things but you don't wanna see it, so you just 660 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 block it out of your mind. I'm aware of secretaries having some kind of reletiaonship with my 661 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 father. ??? with their children. I've seen him take that children and somewhere in my consciousness 662 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was sure I was ??? that that was his family, but I never accepted it to deal with it in my mind. 663 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Never did I accept it to deal with it in my mind. 664 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Officials in the nation accused Wallace Muhammed of starting rumors and 665 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 conspiring against his father. 666 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The charge that I gave Malcolm information on my fathers domestic situation is true but only after 667 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm had already told me that he witnessed that sitiuation. 668 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It gives me great pleasure and an honor and ??? at this time to introduce to you and present to you 669 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 the messenger of Allah, your admired and beloved ??? teacher, the most honorable and humble 670 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Elijah Muhammed. 671 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm had submitted himself to Elijah Muhammed as his spiritual leader. 672 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He never tried to see anything else. 673 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And the things that he tried to put into practice himself, he thought were also being practiced 674 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 by his leader. 675 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And when he found out differently, it just took all of the wind out of his sails. 676 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In public the two men continued to embrace. In private suspicion had replaced faith. 677 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The relationship was further complicated by Elijah Muhammeds failing health. 678 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolms popularity vastly improved. 679 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Number one, Mr. Muhammed was thinking he had bronchitis. So Mr. Muhammed went to ??? public meetings 680 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 maybe once, twice a year. That's it. And the rest of the time Malcolm was going everywhere. 681 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It was Malcolm who sparked the growth of the Nation all over the country. 682 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 He was in demand. Nobody was asking for Elijah Muhammed to speak, they were asking for 683 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Malcolm to speak. And naturally Malcolm got more involved with the civil rights struggle. 684 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And his argument became more an argument that you would expect from someone who was in the 685 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 civil rights struggle, then you would from someone who was following the honorable Elijah Muhammed. 686 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The 60s showed us the white man in an image that the Nation of Islam had cast him in. 687 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 In the image of a brutal person, you know. Turning the dogs out on the demonstrators. 688 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Using the fire hoses. All this helped the Nation of Islam charge against the white race.