Malcolm X Radio Documentary (1991)

No Negro leaders have fought for civil rights. They have begged the white man for civil rights. They have begged the white man for freedom. And every time you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. El Hodge, Malik, El Shabaz, Malcolm X. With his uncompromising ideologies, Malcolm X born on May 19th, 1925, has been dubbed as one of America's most outspoken critics. From a life of hustling and crime on the streets of Harlem and Boston, not quite 21, Malcolm Little found himself in prison. It was during his 10 years in prison that Malcolm became a black Muslim and was introduced to the nation of Islam and the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Don't be shocked when I say I was in prison. You're still in prison. That's what America means, prison.

Having renamed himself Malcolm X and becoming assistant minister of the nation of Islam's Temple No. 1 in Detroit, Malcolm X's revolutionary ideas added a new dimension to the civil rights movement. No Negro leaders have fought for civil rights. They have begged the white man for civil rights. They have begged the white man for freedom. And every time you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something that you have to do for yourselves. And until the American Negro lets the white man know that we are really ready and willing to pay the price that is necessary for freedom, our people will always be walking around here, second class citizens or what you call 20th century slaves. What price are you talking about, sir? The price of freedom is death. With his urgent militancy, Malcolm X quickly rose to national attention. Many people accused him of being no better than the whites he condemned. We have a common enemy. We have this in common. We have a common oppressor, a common explorer, and a common discriminator.

So once we all realize that we have a this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy, the white man, he's an enemy to all of us. I know some of you all think that some of them aren't enemies. Time will tell. In 1964, after building up the nation of Islam for 10 years, Malcolm X was silenced from public speaking. He was silenced by Elijah Muhammad for his unauthorized remarks on the assassination of President Kennedy. Malcolm referred to the assassination as a case of the chickens coming home to roost. Several months later, Malcolm was banned from the nation permanently. Outstead from the movement, Malcolm journeyed to Mecca for the Holy Pilgrimage. Back in the United States, Malcolm X

had new ideas on how to deal with America's race problem. He urged the need for international unity among the colored countries of the world. However, he also received much resistance from the nation of Islam for his comments on the alleged adultery of Elijah Muhammad. We have to have the type of understanding of Africa and the type of understanding of our people here in order to build a line of communication between the two. And once the lines of communication have been established, and our African brothers can stretch forth their hands and reach us, and we can stretch forth our hands and reach them while there's nothing that this blue-eyed man in this country will be able to do to you and me successfully from that day onward. On February 14, 1965, Malcolm X accused the nation of Islam a fire bombing his house while his wife and children slept. I think that people saw him as becoming truly dangerous after his trip to Mecca. There's no such thing as a Negro revolution. There's a black revolution, but not a Negro revolution. Whoever heard of a non-violent revolution,

whoever heard of a peaceful revolution, whoever heard of revolutionary standing up like chumps with locked arms singing, we shall overcome. Whoever heard of a revolution based on a desegregated lunch counter and a desegregated theater and a desegregated public park and a desegregated toilet, which they call public accommodation. Alex Haley on Malcolm X. And worked with him on a hotel and he went across from first page to last, making this event editing change with his favorite ballpoint pen and at the bottom of each page putting his MX. And then he said to me, I don't think I'm going to live to read this in print. Malcolm proved to be very prophetic because it was less than two weeks later

he was shot to death in the Audubon Ballroom. On February 21, 1965, while addressing an audience in the Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X was assassinated. We declared our own reign on his work to be a media, to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being, in this society, on this earth, in this state, where we intend to bring into existence by any means. Three Muslims were arrested in sentence for the assassination. However, Malcolm himself expressed a few days before his death that he felt what was happening to him was bigger than the Black Muslim movement. Malcolm had gone international. He was a pan-Africanist. He had stopped focusing on the United States and the Black White thing and began to understand that this struggle had much broader. He also considered moving closer to Martin Luther King and, in vice versa, they were moving closer to each other

and had, he not been assassinated, they would, to definitely have meant, I think, and have begun to see how they were put against each other and were used. El-Haj Malik, El-Shabaz, Malcolm X. His legacy continues to live in America.