It's a real privilege to be with you today. in marketing the life of one of the most important single figures in African American and indeed American political and social history. Brother Malcolm X is more than simply. a name and a history text he's more than simply. The most articulate spokesperson for black empowerment and for the humanity of African American people in the mid-twentieth century. He represents. A model not only for his time but for our time. In the past four years the militant figure of Malcolm X's become rediscovered in the United States and signs of that rediscovery of that Renaissance of interest in Malcolm or everywhere. Deleting black nationalist political radical of the 1960s Malcolm's image and words have been popularized in films and music videos and posters and poetry and political literature students on University campuses are now wearing as we see in the audience today. Caps and t-shirts and other paraphernalia of Malcolm X and his uncompromising slogan by any means necessary. For many African American communities college campuses. There are now hundreds of public forums and cultural events on May 19th to commemorate Malcolm X's birthday by the interest in Malcolm X Some of the answers to the question come from Ron Daniels the former director of Jesse Jackson's National Rainbow Coalition who explains the interest in Malcolm this way. Malcolm X Ron says Was in excruciating critic of America system of Maryland racism oppression and domination and class exploitation of Africa and the third world his voice is claiming renewed expression it a new generation that finds the continuing reality of racism poverty violence and oppression of African people in America intolerable, especially among young African-Americans. There is an increased militancy is Ron puts it to fight the power Malcolm's living symbol his fighting Spirit. Therefore has become symbolic of a new degree of militancy and commitment and empowerment within the African-American community. the much of the Acclaim around the figure of Malcolm X has assumed a kind of cultural and uncritically cultural character a tendency to turn a dynamic living activist into an abstract icon. But this is something that we as activists have to discuss and take seriously as a real problem inside of our movement and in our community. The same tendency has already happened to a much greater degree with Martin Luther King jr. His ideological and political development Frozen as it were on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on that Hot August afternoon in 1963 at the March on Washington DC have forgotten and deliberately obscure today when we think about Martin are the last five years of his life. We praise and honor Martin Luther King Junior for his I Have a Dream speech, but how many people who Mark Martin's birthday in January also recall that Martin Luther King jr. Was one of the most trenchant critics against the Johnson Administration pursuit of the war in Vietnam. How many people forget the fact that when Martin died he was organizing black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. How many people forget that when Martin Luther King jr. Died he was charting a program that is a precursor to Jesse's vision of the rainbow when Martin talked about the need for a Poor People's March on Washington DC. And so there is a tendency there is a regrettable tendency to turn our heroes into icons and to take away some of their legitimate activities that were a part of their personal and political biography to freeze them at a stage of their development. Let us not do the same thing to brother Malcolm X Part of the difficulty in refocusing the actual political contributions Legacy and evolution of Malcolm X and relating brother Malcolm to contemporary struggles is the confusion generated by much of the literature written about him since 1965. There is a massive and very eclectic body of contemporary and historical writing about Martin Luther King jr. Progressive historian Clayborne Carson Carson, the author of The excellent study of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee is in the process currently of organizing Martin Luther King Junior's personal archives at Stanford University King was also a frequent contributor to periodicals. He had authored several books before his death by contrast the great bulk of primary literature on Malcolm X is extremely fragmented only a portion of the literally thousands of speeches and interviews and public statements he gave in his life have been reproduced and printed. Many people have asked me over the last five years that I've been working on brother Malcolm. How did you go about reconstructing his life and trying to develop a perspective on what he did politically day by day. The answer is in part. The difficulty in working on Malcolm is because there is no Consolidated Archive of Malcolm X. There is a plethora of funds for the Reconstruction of the life of someone who was a mainstream leader or even an African American leader whose development can be distorted in a way so that you Lop off the more radical aspects of his development or her development. So like with mouth would like Martin Luther King Junior he's acceptable up until the time he gives the I Have a Dream speech but the last two years of his life will let's let's forget about that. But with Malcolm you can't forget about any of his development. And so what I found was that indeed the best single Source the best single repository of material on Malcolm X was actually accumulated by the FBI. We have over 2,200 pages of documents of letters. I want you to understand for the conservatives in the audience that how would you feel how would you feel if you wrote a letter and you seal it and put it in an envelope and mail it and somebody at the post office intercepted it transcribed Xerox your letter and mail it on without your permission and without your knowledge without a court order or a warrant. That's what they did to Malcolm X. We have dozens of species that have never been published or printed by Malcolm X that the FBI recorded we've checked out their transcripts with those speeches that were recorded by the activist to a with Malcolm. Hey their transcripts a better. They had better equipment. And the sad thing is that you paid for it. In reconstructing the life of an activist as we go over the FBI material as we look at the Legacy. It allows us to see some of the damage that has been done in the deliberate efforts to minimize the legacy of Malcolm X Some officers who popularized Malcolm X but wanted to freeze his development at a certain stage of his life have argued that his ideology really doesn't Advanced Beyond his relationship with Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam misinterpretation ignores. The fact that black nationalism is not a monolithic political ideology, but a spectrum of cultural economic and political positions with your grounded and the Dynamics of black resistance to race and class domination in the United States and indeed throughout the African diaspora. the basis of African American nationalism is the I'd is the national identity and Collective Consciousness and experience of people of African descent in the United States a consciousness of nationality, which is at odds with the mainstream culture ideology society and political values which Rahel by this system the roots of this alternative National Consciousness that we described as black nationalism were established the foundations of them during slavery under very difficult conditions were African Americans were able to construct their own worldview their own sense of family their own culture and their own rituals of dignity and pride and who they summary black nationalism as a political and social tradition would include certain characteristics first the advocacy of black cultural pride and the Integrity of the group which implicitly rejects racial integration second and identification with the image of Africa which includes the advocacy by many of immigration or at least extensive contacts between Africans abroad and it home There must be an interaction black nationalist would Advocate between African-Americans people of African descent in the Caribbean and Africa is on the continent of Africa itself. Black nationalism mean the construction of all black social institutions such as self-help agencies schools and religious organizations and the support for group economic advancement such as black cooperatives by black campaigns and efforts to promote Capital formation within the African-American Community. Finally black nationalism has also met historically political independence from the white dominated political system and support for the creation of all black political organizations and protest formations. Black nationalism has a very rich tradition and Heritage in the black Freedom struggle and indeed. If one opens a book on the history of black people in the United States. There is a great deal of information about integrationism. There's a great deal of information about the tradition which is still a very viable tradition of the n-double-acp of the Urban League of civil rights work. But we miss is the truth about the black experience because the truth about the black experiences as the boys want to put it. The people of African descent in this country are indeed Americans in the sense that we were born here in a sense that we fight for full democracy and civil rights here in the sense that we fight against any barrier that defines us as second-class human being and that since yes, we are indeed involved in a fight for civil rights and social justice, but we are also people of African descent. We are also people who have a cultural aesthetic and social and political connection with the broader African world and what Malcolm stood for was that tradition of black nationalism and anyone who interprets Malcolm and says that he repudiated that tradition anyone who says that Malcolm turn his back to black nationalism by the end of his life that is simply incorrect is wrong. It's not supported by the evidence Malcolm X was a black nationalist first last and all That was the legacy of Malcolm. Now it's crucial to know if there was always an internal audiological split and tension within this black nationalist tradition that I just outlined for you. There were always from all the way back to the middle of nineteenth-century conservative black nationalist who tended to emphasize certain kinds of political positions such a strict racial separatism a distrust of dialogue or alliances with Progressive white formations. They emphasized African cultural values and supported frequently private market economic mechanisms for group advancement. In other words. They advocated a kind of black capitalism these with a more conservative black nationalists. Now, there was also a more radical black nationalist tradition the Revolutionary black nationalists were inclined to be very critical of capitalism and said that capitalism as an economic system coming out of Europe and economic system becoming a sconce in the United States and its 10 Do Corporate America going across the world strangle the possibility of Black Liberation and black development? And so they tended to be very critical of capitalism. Secondly more revolutionary black nationalist tended to Advocate a more radical version of pan-africanism. They said yes, we are an African people and we can unite culturally with our sisters and brothers abroad but we should also unite politically with them in overthrowing imperialism overthrowing Western colonialism. So they interpreted black nationalism in a more radical way. Both are parts of black nationalism, but they are two different kinds of sub Traditions within 1 overall movement. finally radical black nationalist recognized That institutional racism has evolved in indirect conjunction with the development and maturation of capitalism in the Western Hemisphere over the last four centuries that it provides the ideological and cultural justification for the continued exploitation and oppression of black people wherever they may be. So therefore the Revolutionary nationalist said it is not enough to Fight Against Racism. You also had to denounce capitalism as well. Now that I've given you this background to black nationalism, we understand the tradition. We understand the tensions within that tradition between conservative and more revolutionary black nationalism. Now, let's discuss the evolution of Malcolm X and Malcolm's trajectory will begin to become clear to you. The Nation of Islam was the dominant black Nationals formation during the. After the Garvey black nationalist movement of the 1920s through the black power upsurgence of the 1960s. So the begin talking about now, can we got to talk about the Nation of Islam? Born in Detroit African American neighborhoods during the Great Depression its creator and first prophet was an obscure salesman. The Honorable w d fard after preaching for 4 years and ideology which was a mixture of Sunni Islam and black nationalism Bart succeeded in recruiting to his cause about 8,000 Converse by the middle of the 1930s the established the fruit of Islam a paramilitary organization, the Muslim girls training class a school specifically for women members of the nation and the University of Islam. After farts disappearance or death his chief lieutenants Elijah Muhammad became the leader of this religious and black nationalist movement during the 1930s or number of people in the nation fought for leadership with the honorable Elijah Muhammad. And so Elijah Muhammad moved his organization in the basis of his support from Detroit to Chicago by the early 1940s. Now at this point in event took place, the greatly accelerated the development of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad was convicted and imprisoned unjustly during World War II for resisting the draft while he was a federal prisoner in a federal penitentiary Elijah Muhammad looked around him and began to realize that African-American churches the NAACP and Urban League the other civil rights organizations made no efforts to recruit the most oppressed the most victimized all African American people and these are the black prisoners. It's all it was Elijah Muhammad in his genius that he recognized that there was no program to recruit and to transform the most oppressed of his race. Those who are addicted to narcotics pimps convicts young delinquents prostitutes the permanently unemployed in the undereducated. During this postwar. The Nation of Islam began to focus on the most oppressed African American group and the results were astonishing by 1960. The Nations membership was between 65 to 100,000 Nationwide during Elijah. Muhammad's tight discipline and his Pro black nationalist read thousands of people addicted to drugs quit their so-called quit their dependence on narcotics. People who had been oppressed people outside of jobs people outside of Hope found a sense of humanity a sense of human dignity by joining the Nation of Islam. Over three-fourths of the nation's members by 1960 were young African Americans between the ages of about 18 to 35 members donated a significant portion of their personal income as much as one-third of their annual income to the nation, which was used to construct Islamic schools temples and businesses in Chicago Alone by 1960. The Nation of Islam on 1/2 million dollars worth of real estate the nation's expansion during the 50s was also largely attributable to Elijah Muhammad's recruitment of the most gifted and very charismatic spokesperson named Malcolm little Malcolm little was converted to the Nation of Islam while he was in prison. He had been a petty Hustler a criminal in Boston and New York's ghettos leaving prison in 1952. Malcolm little was renamed Malcolm X the X symbolically repudiating the white man's name, which he had carried Elijah Muhammad carefully nurtured Malcolm X's career into the organization's hierarchy by 1955 Malcolm and become the minister of Harlem Temple number seven increasingly in the late 50s began to travel throughout the country an articulate spokesperson an orator as Aaron was to Moses in a sense and delivering what he believed to be the truth to liberate his people. Political leaders began to relate to the Nation of Islam recognizing that Elijah Muhammad absolute control over so many. Thousands and thousands of potential voters represented an important political power block. So Adam Clayton Powell Junior the most prominent black elected official during this. Attended a leadership conference date by Malcolm X in Harlem in 1960. Did El Castro the same you met with Malcolm for private political discussions. simultaneously unknown fully to Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X the Federal Bureau of Investigation made the decision to thoroughly infiltrate the Nation of Islam. They had already had agents in the organization since the 1940s. What is very clear is that as the nation began to grow as it began to assume a great deal of leadership? Not just over a hundred thousand people but over several million African-Americans who look to the nation with respect that is when the FBI made the decision to infiltrate in a very sophisticated manner. The Nation of Islam temples were wiretapped. They were wiretapped. Illegally, no court orders. The FBI doesn't worry about legality. The Nation of Islam members began to be watch the taxes began to be looked at. Malcolm's letters in 55 and 56 Where are seeds in the mail transcribed and sent on by the FBI all illegal? This is all illegal. By 1960 the surveillance pecan Malcolm began to accelerate dramatically it so you have a number of agents who are just specifically charged in various headquarters to follow and document the movements and statements of Malcolm X. Does a Nation of Islam prospered white liberals and black integrationist became fearful of the movement stunning success and attracting working-class African Americans in low-income people scholar study the nation and Drew parallels. They said between the Nation of Islam and the rise of fascism in Europe by sociologist Gordon outboard describe the nation as quote the hate that hate produced a racial Colt similar. He argued to quote Hitler and the white citizens councils of the South A black sociologist and Rider C. Eric Lincoln in Black Muslims in America this social philosophy expressed a concern that quote the black Muslims Barrel attacks on the white man might threaten the security of the white majority and leave those in power to tighten the barriers which already divided America unquote civil rights leaders began to speak out against the Nation of Islam in August 1959. Roy Wilkins, then the head of the n-double-acp declared that the Nation of Islam had a quote white hate Doctrine which was as dangerous as any group of white racists the Nation of Islam clearly quote furnishes ammunition for the use of white supremacists. James Farmer Accord announced the nation is quote orderly impractical and dangerous farmer argued and I quote after the Black Culture was taken from us during slavery. We had to adopt to the culture here and adapt to it. So farmer by rejecting integration farmer reason the Muslims were in effect aiding and abetting the dynamic of racial segregation, but wasn't sure grasp of African American history Malcolm X respond to the farmer this way. He said quote we who are Muslims followers of Elijah Muhammad do not think that the integrated cup of coffee is sufficient payment for 310 years of slave labor in America. Malcolm understood that there was something fundamentally flawed with the philosophy of liberal integrationism if being an immigration is med you wanted to integrate with the mainstream, but the mainstream was racism if the mainstream was capitalist exploitation if the mainstream was all kinds of ideologies, which were backward and anti-human. Why would you want to integrate with a sewer? This is what Malcolm argue. Malcolm argued it is not a case of dark mankind wanting either integration with separation. It is a case of wanting freedom justice and equality is not an equation that most Negroes in America want it is human dignity. It is human dignity. What accounts for Malcolm X's meteoric rise in popularity among millions of African American people most of whom were not members of the Nation of Islam? Most of whom did not hear him preach in the temples of the nation. I heard him and other venues outside of the Dynamics of his religious organization what accounts for his attractiveness First it is difficult for historians is difficult for me. That's the day to capture the vibrant essence of Malcolm X is earthy and human character his position as a revolutionary teacher for whole generation of young black militants is total love for the dispossessed part of his greatness that he assumes as a social figure in history is derived from his own oppressed sorted personal Evolution. It is in fact an example of the worst of us becoming the best of us. What accounts for his influence is let his rhetoric more than Martin Luther King. Junior's was almost hypnotic among black audiences as the chief spokesman for the Nation of Islam Malcolm preached a militant message, which has changed and challenged the lives of millions of poor and oppressed African American people in the typical sermon Malcolm might speak words such as these and I'll quote from one of his speeches. My beautiful black brothers and sisters. Look at your Skin's wear all black to the white man, but we're Thousand and One different colors turn around look at each other during slavery. It was rare one of our black grandmothers who escaped the white rapist slave master that rapist slave master who emasculated the black man with threats with fear until even today the black man lives with fear the white man in his heart think of it. Thank of the black slave man filled with fear and dread hearing the screams of his wife his mother his daughter being taken in the barn in the kitchen in the bushes and you were too filled with fear of the rapist to do anything about it. Every white man in America when he looks into the black man's I should fall on his knees and say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. My kind is committed History's Greatest crime against your kind. Will you give me a chance to atone? But do you brothers and sisters expect the white man to do that? No, you do not, you know better every time you see this person. Think about what you were seeing think about how it was on your slave for mothers and for parents bloody sweaty backs that he built this Empire. That's today. The richest of the nation's on the Earth where is evil in his greed caused him to be hated around the world. Malcolm X would speak this way hundreds and hundreds of times too small groups into large groups in the cities and in the rural areas. Speak for hours on end working with people talking with people talking to individual families in the children. Malcolm said he would become so choked up after the hours of work every day the quote. Sometimes I would walk in the streets until late into the night. I would speak to no one for our thinking to myself about what terrible things that have been done to our people here in the United States. Malcolm's Evolution accelerates by 62 and 63 for several reasons first my 1962 Malcolm's personal prominence begins to create tensions in organizational rivalries inside of the Nation of Islam Malcolm began to speak out less on religious issues and increasingly started to assert himself on contemporary political issues. We've tracked his speech is very carefully and it is very true that there is a shift in the speeches he gives and in the content of his analysis between 60 to 63 The Islamic newspaper. He had founded Muhammad speaks was ordered to print less and less about Malcolm Williams charted this to in 1962. There were virtually no articles published on Malcolm X by 63 nothing. He is the main spokesperson of this organization in the nation of Islam's newspaper carries Berkeley not a word about him. This is well before he leaves the nation. So clearly something is occurring inside of the organization Muhammad spite authoritarianism prohibited Malcolm another more activist oriented ministers from becoming more involved in African American political struggles. Finally two events Force Malcolm to make a fundamental question a decision about his relationship with the Nation of Islam on July 3rd, 1963 to former secretaries of Elijah Muhammad filed paternity suits against him claiming that the 67 year old patriarch at bothered there for children any other Muslim any other Muslim member of the Nation of Islam would have been propped would have been promptly expelled for the crime of adultery. You had Muhammad maintained by post 11 after admitting to Malcolm personally and two other members and leaders of the nation that the charges were true. Malcolm interview the two women. He learned that Muhammad had described him privately is Pope a dangerous threat to his own position and it cut Mark Malcolm in the Heart Like a Knife. What President Kennedy was assassinated? Malcolm, to the press that his death was a case of quote the chickens coming home to roost that the hate and white men had not stopped with the killing of defenseless black people, but that hate allowed to spread unchecked and finally struck down. This country's chief of state unquote. If one takes the whole quote in context. It makes a heck of a lot of sense the chickens have come home to roost. That's what all of a sudden would say. That's what Malcolm X had said yet the Nation of Islam and Elijah Muhammad use the statements which was only common sense as a pretext for new shoe a lot neutralizing their Chief spokesperson. Malcolm was awarded into silence for 90 days not allowed to teach in his own mosque nor speak with the media returning to New York from his meeting with Elijah Muhammad in Chicago Malcolm X with shattered to discover that the word had been given on the street to several Muslims to assassinate him. By March 1964. It was apparent that the Nation of Islam after the. Of 90 days of waiting had no desire to reinstate Malcolm X under any conditions of submission. So Malcolm made a basic decision. He left the Nation of Islam. He announced first the creation of a new organization on March 8th, 1964 Muslim Mosque Incorporated Malcolm inform the press that he was now prepared to concentrate in local civil rights actions in the South and quote and elsewhere and she'll do so because every campaign for specific objective can only heighten the political consciousness of the Negroes and intensify their identification against White Society unquote. Malcolm had less than one year to live, but during this year. He lived at least 20 years. Malcolm was attempting to develop a revolutionary perspective rooted in the tradition of black nationalism. Malcolm was attempting to build upon a political tradition. That was a critique of racism. But that would go further in understanding the relationship between race and class depression in the United States Malcolm. Put it this way in his discussions with Alex Haley. He said quote I was trying to turn a corner into a new regard by the public especially Negroes. I was no less angry than I had been but at the same time the true brother would he had seen in his 1964 Journey to the Middle East and Africa had quote influence me to recognize that anger can blind human Vision on quote. After his Hajj to Mecca Malcolm was renamed El Hajj Malik, El Shabazz and Malcolm adopted Sunni Islam as his personal faith, but he carefully I like the Nation of Islam carefully separated his personal faith from his political work in which she was engaged. This is another sign of change in his development in the summer of 1964 Malcolm took the next step of development. He created a a organization called the organization of Afro-American Unity the oaau a militant black nationalist organization based primarily in New York during these years Malcolm restructured many of his older ideas into a clearly uncompromising program, which was both anti-racist and Auntie capitalist. Like web the boys before him Malcolm in the oia you plan to submit a list of human rights violations and acts of genocide against the United States. They were in other words. They said the question of fighting against racism is not one of Simply appealing to those who have acted in a criminal way against you in their courts of law. You take is Malcolm put it you take the criminal to courts you use the United Nations as the Forum to raise questions of Human Rights inside of the United States. Malcolm broke with a logical political reform ISM criticized African Americans for endorsing Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential candidacy predicted with grim accuracy that the Johnson Administration would stop far short of providing a meaningful economic and social program, which would benefit the masses of African American people criticizing the Negro middle classes commitment to private Enterprise Malcolm also have learned in his trip to Africa that black revolutionaries Abra had broken with their commitment to corporate capitalism and Define the economics of Liberation with the term socialism Malcolm said this quote you can't have you can't have racism without capitalism and if you finance your races Usually they're socialists or their political philosophy is that of socialism unquote the OAA you've developed a program that would build the resistance movement in the United States the election of independent black candidates to public office voter registration drive for loading rent strikes to build to create better housing conditions African Americans the building of all black Community Schools, the creation of cultural centers the initiation of black committees for community and neighborhood self defense against racist attack. By early 1965 Malcolm began to realize that his older Messianic vision of an inevitable race war was also incorrect. Listen carefully what Malcolm put the way he argued this Malcolm insisted that America quote is the first country that may that may actually have a blood less Revolution. What would depend upon a bloodless Revolution independent Malcolm argued upon the ability of African American people to develop a strategy of fundamental economic and political and social change and to act in concert with other elements of the oppressed in this country Malcolm began to see that there was a linkage between racial oppression and class exploitation, which was a fundamental which was fundamental. Malcolm began to attract supporters from all across the Civil Rights Movement people in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee people in the organization called the Congress of racial equality people even inside of the n-double-acp began to attend Malcolm X speeches Malcolm travel South to work with the members of Snick in Selma, Alabama Malcolm. Spoke at Tuskegee Institute. He began to become a voice for the most Progressive African Americans involved in the freedom struggle throughout the United States. Most black nationalist today who look back at Malcolm X with pride see the legacy of Malcolm but must not make the mistake. We have made around Martin Luther King jr. We must assume the mantle of Mark of Malcolm X by understanding his Evolution over time and seeing how his wisdom and his insight into the problem of racial inequality in this country became far more specific clear and much more analytical by the end of his life. The best way to weaken document this development is through one single speech. It was in Selma Alabama only weeks before Malcolm was killed that he gave perhaps his greatest address Malcolm gives his I am a field negro speech is most effective presentation of the class contradictions within the African-American community and a necessity for the masses of African American people to recognize the desesa T4, uncompromising radical truck struggle here Malcolm X observe critically quotes. There were is Black History two kinds of negro. There was the old house negro in the old field negro and the house negro always looked out for his master. When the field Negroes got too much out of line. He held them back and check he put them back on the plantation if the master got Hertz, he'd say, what's the matter boss we see. However, there was a field Negroes who lived in the hearts who had nothing to lose. They were the worst kind of clothes. They ate the worst food. They caught hell they felt the sting of the Lash and they hated this land. No, I have to listen storical analysis of slavery in the class divisions in the African American community that go all the way back in our development in our people's development in this country Malcolm observe that a progressive and a revolutionary position on Black Liberation had to make a choice just like they were two traditions and black nationalism or conservative tradition that said don't get involved in political struggle where Elijah Muhammad said that if there is police brutality, we should not mobilize against it publicly. Malcolm said there is another alternative. There is an alternative that says yes, if we are indeed like nationalist, we must struggle to empower Our People by any means necessary. So Malcolm said I am a field negro. If I can't live in the house as a human being I'm praying for that house to blow down and I'm praying for strong wind to come along. If the master won't treat me right and he's sick. I'll tell the doctor to go the other way. But if we are all of us going to live as human beings, then I'm poor society in which human beings can practice brother and Sisterhood. What analyzes the late Malcolm X you see a deepening of a radical in Revolutionary Vision he moves away from the blatant sexism of the Nation of Islam in his later development. He recognizes from his experiences in Africa that all Progressive nationalist movements have recognized the fundamental equality of women of color. This is what he recognized. Malcolm says listen to Summer 1964 quote. It's noticeable that in the third world societies where they have put women in the closet and discouraged her from getting sufficient education and don't give her the incentive by allowing her maximum participation in whatever area of the society in which she's qualified. They kill her incentive and kill her spirits Malcolm realized by the end of his life. And again, we've got to understand that that development was cut short by his assassination, but now come against the recognized at the end of his life that it's not just racism and it's not just corporate capitalism. There are other forms of domination that must be addressed by people who really believe in full democracy and equality and that means struggling against women's oppression Malcolm begins to realize this you finally there are many sad attempts to minimize The Life and Legacy of Malcolm, but these will be unsuccessful because Malcolm's influence only grows with time since his assassination was killed third world newspapers held Malcolm is quote the militant and most popular African-American Auntie segregationists liter. People began to realize the truth of Malcolm and what he stood for both politically and Also spiritually to a whole generation of people. Ossie Davis said it Malcolm X's funeral. Many of you will ask why Harlem fines to honor this stormy controversial and bold young captain and we will smile. They will say he is one of hate up in Natick a racist. We will answer. Did you ever talk to brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch you or having smile at you? Did he did he ever did you ever really listened to what he said did he ever do a mean thing was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did know him the way we did you would understand that Malcolm as Davis Foot. It was our manhood or shining black manhood. This was the meaning to his people in an otter in him. We honor the best in ourselves and we will know him then for what he was and is a prince our own shining black prince didn't hesitate to die because he loved us so Today we would only modify Ossie Davis's Insight with one modification that Malcolm was not simply our manhood. He was our Humanity for men and women alike. The Malcolm represented the best within ourselves. He represented the courage in the search for truth and freedom and dignity for African-American women and men the Malcolm was courageous enough to say yes, I made mistakes. Yes. I was wrong a certain times. And yes, I have learned that the search for truth means many false pass but the courage of leadership in the price of vision. Is in admitting those weaknesses and overcoming them Malcolm's greatness is it is found not in placing him as a frozen icon on a manta ray, please Malcolm's greatness is found in realizing a simple basic truth Malcolm is great because we African-American people are great at the greatness and Malcolm is the brightness in ourselves. Goodwin young boys and girls look at Malcolm on a mantelpiece high above them far beyond reach. They cannot reach or obtain what he achieved bring Malcolm down to the people. Honor Malcolm by honoring ourselves our capacity for struggle our search for truth and human dignity not enough. When was right and everything. If not them was here. He said don't freeze me and turn me into a statue understand me as a person who struggle for dignity who fought for freedom and who tried and died trying to live in a way that could bring honor to ourselves. We need to understand the mail comes greatness Malcolm's courage and that is dignity is best served by living his Creed by living his legacy by challenging the power by fighting for Freedom by linking up with a press people no matter where they may be by fighting all systems of domination and exploitation. Whatever their names are in this way. We not only on Earth Life and Legacy of Malcolm X we honor the best Democratic and Liberation is traditions in ourselves. Thank you.