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NARRATOR: In 1959, the media discovered the Nation of Islam.
MIKE WALLACE: While city officials, state agencies, white liberals and sober minded
Negroes stand idly by, a group of *** dissenters is taking the street corner stepladders, church
pulpits, sports arenas and ballroom platforms across the United States to preach a gospel
of hate that would set off a federal investigation if it were preached by southern whites.
Louis Lomax, a reporter I'd never heard of, came to my office, told me about something
called the black Muslims. I'd never heard of them. Would we be interested in doing a
broadcast, a documentary about them? I suggested that yeah, we might. Let's learn more about
them. One of the conditions about doing the broadcast, he said, was they will not talk
to a white reporter. LOUIS LOMAX: This is the first time I think
my color's ever been in my favor rather than against me. But on the whole, I would say
that this assignment was a little rough. NARRATOR: Assigned a white camera crew, Lomax
filmed this rally in Washington, DC. The program included a performance of a play by Louis
X called "The Trial" in which whites are tried for their offenses against blacks.
SPEAKER: I charge the white man, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, with being the greatest
murderer on Earth. I charge the white man with being the greatest liar on Earth. I charge
the white man with being the greatest troublemaker on Earth. So therefore, ladies and gentlemen
of the jury, I ask you bring back a verdict of guilty as charged.
MIKE WALLACE: When Louis Lomax came back with a film of the rally, the Black Muslim rally,
I was simply stunned. I mean, here was this auditorium overflowing, thousands of people,
about an organization I knew nothing about. I found it difficult to credit when I saw
it. LOUIS LOMAX: Have you ever been accused, sir,
of preaching hate? ELIJAH MUHAMMAD: Yes.
LOUIS LOMAX: Do you think you are preaching hate?
ELIJAH MUHAMMAD: No. LOUIS LOMAX: What are you preaching, sir?
ELIJAH MUHAMMAD: The truth. MALCOLM X: They call Mr. Muhammed a hate teacher
because he makes you hate dope and alcohol. They call Mr. Muhammed a black supremacist
because he teaches you and me not only that we're as good as the white man, but better
than the white man. Yeah, better than the white man. You are better than the white man.
And that's not saying anything. That's not saying -- You ... nowhere just to be equal
with him. Who is he to be equal with? You look at your skin. You can't compare your
skin with his skin. Why, your skin looks like gold beside his skin. You find that old pale
thing laying out in the sun trying to get to look like you, that pale thing.
NARRATOR: In 1963, Malcolm X became national spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
MALCOLM X: You find him using Man Tan trying to look like me. That old pale thing.
SONIA SANCHEZ: I was standing on the island there, looking at him, and my friend said,
"I'm going back to the office, we're going back." And I said, "I'm going to stay because
I like the rain." There was this kind of quiet drizzle that was happening there.
MALCOLM X: I hope you're not getting too wet. SONIA SANCHEZ: And I looked up and looked
around determined not to look at him, determined not to listen. But he started to talk and
I found myself more and more listening to him. And I began to nod my head and say, "Yeah,
that's right, that makes sense." MALCOLM X: You don't have any boats or airplanes
bringing drugs into this country. The white man brings it in. The white man brings it
to Harlem. The white man makes you a drug addict. The white man then puts you in jail
when he catches you using drugs. We're trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty, of ignorance,
of apathy, of disease, and of death. And they have these ol' Uncle Toms, *** leaders,
coming to Harlem, telling you and me that the times are getting better. The times will
never get better until you make 'em better. SONIA SANCHEZ: When he came off the stage,
I jumped off the island, walked up to him and of course when I got to him, the bodyguards
moved in front and he just pushed them away and I went in front of him and extended my
hand and said, "I like some of what you said. I didn't agree with all that you said, but
I liked some of what you said." And he looked at me, held my hand in a very gentle fashion
and said, "One day you will, sister." NARRATOR: As his reputation grew, Malcolm
X began to write a book with Alex Haley. ALEX HALEY: When I began to interview Malcolm
for the book that would later be called "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," he would talk
about the greater glories of Mr. Elijah Mohammed, his leader, and about the Nation of Islam
and there was nothing else he would talk about. And finally, I began very delicately as I
could to say to him, "Mr. Malcolm, this book is to be about you, so I know about them,
you've told me. I've written with you about them, but we need now to go into your life."
And he would always get first testy about it, and then he got distinctly annoyed about
it, and finally he would get angry.I said, "Mr. Malcolm, could you tell me something
about your mother?" And I will never, ever forget how he stopped almost as if he was
suspended like a marionette. And he said, "I remember the kind of dresses she used to
wear. They were old and faded and gray." And then he walked some more. And he said, "I
remember how she was always bent over the stove, trying to stretch what little we had."
And that was the beginning, that night, of his walk. And he walked that floor until just
about daybreak. NARRATOR: Largely ignoring Elijah Mohammed,
the media focused on Malcolm X, contrasting him with Martin Luther King, Jr.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: And it is a message which says that I am convinced that the most
potent weapon available to oppressed people as they struggle for freedom and justice,
is the weapon of nonviolence. MALCOLM X: We're nonviolent with people who
are nonviolent with us. But we are not nonviolent with anyone who is violent with us.
JOHN LEWIS: Malcolm X represented a different brand of leadership. Many of us that grew
up in the South had been deeply influenced by the church, by the preaching of black ministers,
but also by the message, the philosophy, the teaching of Martin Luther King, Jr., the philosophy
and discipline of nonviolence. We saw Malcolm as someone, in a sense, from the outside,
coming from the North to tell us there was a different way, a different approach. And
I think many of us in the South had some reservations about it.
OSSIE DAVIS: Martin and the regular civil rights leaders were presenting to America
our best face, our nonviolent face, our desire to be included into American society and we
wanted to show the world that we had no evil intentions against anybody, we just wanted
to be included. But they also understood that America, in spite of our reassurances, would
be frightened and hesitant to open the door to black folks. So Malcolm as the outsider,
as the man they thought represented the possibilities of violence was the counter that they could
use. They would say to the powers that be, "Look, here's Martin Luther King and all these
guys, we are nonviolent. Now, outside the door, if you don't deal with us, is the other
brother, and he ain't like us." MALCOLM X: One white man named Lincoln supposedly
fought the Civil War to solve the race problem and the problem is still here. And then another
white man named Kennedy came along running for president and told Negroes what all he
was going to do for them if they voted for him, and they voted for him, 80 percent, and
he's been in office now for three years and the problem is still here. When police dogs
were biting black women and black children and black babies in Birmingham, Alabama, that
Kennedy talked about what he couldn't do because no federal law had been violated. And as soon
as the Negroes exploded and began to protect themselves and got the best of the crackers
in Birmingham, then Kennedy sent for the troops and there was no -- He didn't have any new
law when he sent for the troops when the Negroes erupted than he had at the time when whites
were erupting. NARRATOR: In November, 1963, John F. Kennedy
was assassinated. In the midst of national mourning, Elijah Mohammed suspended Malcolm
X for his comments on the president's death.