Malcolm X's Legacy and Slavery

Let's draw a counter. What is your real name? Malcolm. Malcolm X. Is that your legal name? As far as I'm concerned, it's my legal name. Have you been to court to establish? I don't. I didn't have to go to court to be called Murphy or Jones or Smith. Excuse me and France and you this way. That's right. So the Chinese person who had to say his name was Patrick Murphy. You would look at him like he's insane because Murphy is an Irish name. A European name or the name that has a Caucasian or a white background. And a yellow person, Chinese is a yellow man and he has nothing to do. A no connection whatsoever with the name Murphy. And if it doesn't look proper for a person who is yellow or Chinese to be walking around named Murphy or Jones or Johnson or Bunch or Powell, I think it would be just as improper for a black person or the so-called Negro in this country. As we're taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to walk around with these names. And therefore he teaches us that during slavery, the same slave master who owned us put his last name on us to denote that we were his property. So that when you see a Negro today whose name Johnson, if you go back in his history, you'll find that he was once his grandfather or one of his four fathers was owned by a white man who was named Johnson. His name is Bunch, his grandfather was owned by a white man. That was named Bunch. Would you mind telling me what your father's last name was? My father didn't know his last name. My father got his last name from his grandfather and his grandfather, his grandfather, who got it from the slave master. The real names of our people were destroyed. Was there any line, any point in the genealogy of your family, when you did have to use the last name and if so what was the last name of my four fathers? Yes. Was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves. And then the name of the slave master was given which we refused. We rejected that name today. You mean you won't even tell me what your father's supposed last name was or gifted last name was? I never acknowledged it whatsoever. Let me ask you about the status of Elijah Mohamed. First of all, let's heal. I spoke to him today. He's in better health than he has been. He's something from Asmatic Brown, Kitis. Is that why he didn't attend to you a rally in the last two days? The only reason that he didn't attend was his ill condition. And the weather here, especially on that particular day, was of such nature that it would have been almost insane for him to come. Well, now, did you hold that meeting last Tuesday because it coincided with the general election, the primary election? I think if you study the history of Mr. Mohamed's work and religious work in this country, he's been, we've had our convention on February 26 every year for that. I think the past 33 years. Well, now, well, well, you don't care to discuss your former name or the name that the slave master gave to your other students. It is a matter of record that Mohamed's last name was Poole. Elijah Poole. No, that's the name that his slave master gave to his grandfather or great grandfather. But that's not his name. Well, his mother and father thought when they called him Elijah Poole, that was his name. They didn't know anybody. Well, if they didn't know anybody or not, they thought that was his name. Yes, sir, but sir. But what I'm trying to find out is when did he cease to be Elijah Poole and get to be Elijah Mohamed? In 1931, I think it was, indeed, right. He was taught the true history of our people and made aware at that time that he was wearing an English name. And by not being an Englishman, he looked out of place. And his teacher gave him the name that he's wearing today. Mohamed, Elijah Mohamed. Now, when did he become what he purports to be in your literature? They son of Allah. I've never heard the honorable Elijah Mohamed referred to as the son of Allah. The prophet of Allah. I've never heard him referred to as the prophet of Allah. What do you refer to as messenger of Allah? The messenger of Allah, and I appreciate the correction. Yes, I mean he says that a prophet is somebody who predicts the future and he's not predicting the future. Whereas a messenger is someone who cares a message that has been given to him by one who authors that message. Why now, who gave him the message into whom is it supposed to be delivered? Master W. F. Muhammad, the one who taught him is the author of the message. He gave it to the honorable Elijah Muhammad, which makes him the messenger. And he's to deliver that message of truth and righteousness to the 20 million Americans so-called Negroes. Which means he's to teach us the truth, which will awaken us. And then show us how to deliver life of righteousness, which will automatically qualify us for recognition as human beings by all other human beings here on this earth. Well, now one other question. With reference to what Mr. Hurl, but I asked you a little bit ago, you took a very moderate position of wanting independence without having any hatred for the whites. Is that, do I understand that correctly? Heightly, it is not involved in it whatsoever. Well, I recall in the recent Plain Crash, I mean two or three years ago, or less than that, a charter flight on air France in which group of people from Atlanta, Georgia, were, as they say, in the business, as they took off from Marley Field. And you were quoted at that time and as expressing great gratification that this tragedy had occurred. Do you recall that? I recall it. What did you say? The press interpreted it, and the misrepresented it. They said that it was made at a Muslim meeting. It wasn't. It was made at a rally of Negroes, Baptist Methodist Catholic, and otherwise in Los Angeles, who were rallying to protest the brutal shooting of seven unarmed Negroes. And what did you say? Heavily armed, white policemen in the city of Los Angeles. And because we are people who have been taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to never carry weapons of any kind, but to get on God's side and rely on God to find our bellspores. At the time that these brothers were shot down so brutally, I pointed out at the general of the brother who died that God would step in and take a hand in giving us some form of justice for the brutal killing of our brother. And when the plain crashed in France, I pointed out to the crowd at this rally that this was an act of God, showing his wrath or complete resentment over the brutal form of injustice that had been inflicted upon our poor unarmed brothers. Well, you said that at that time, Dr. Billy Graham was in a crusade in Chicago. And the press, your papers here in this city, quoted Billy Graham, of also saying that that plain crash was an act of God. And if you take time to check the newspapers, I think that you find that this is correct, but no one thought that Billy Graham was so wrong when he attributed the crash of this plain to his God. But when we say that it come from our God, then we'll look upon his being out of the ring. I know, but you took the position that this was a matter of satisfaction to you for anything that's just done against you. And I think that that's a trance of severe. We did not think that it was a coincidence that 120 of the whites on this plain came from the state of Georgia. A state that has the worst record in history in the history of America for the mistreatment of black people in this country. Worst in Mississippi? Well, they may be our little less. Mississippi is a little less hypocritical today than Georgia, but both of them are still practicing the same thing. Now the whites and Georgia, the white Negroes with a smile, whereas they used to bite them with a growl, but they're still being bitten. And we don't think that it is any worse to be bitten with a smile than just to be bitten with a growl. Mr. Calber. Well, we're on the subject of Mississippi. What is your organization's position of what happened in Mississippi in the past? Such as James Meredith, incident in the enrollment of him in the university? Well, the Honorable at IZU Muhammad wants justice for it. Every one of the 20 million so-called Negroes into just take one Negro and stick him in college with the aid of the six, I think, the 15,000 troops. And at a cost of $6,000, there's a disgrace. This is a waste of taxpayers' money. It's a farce. It's hypocrisy. Because if it's right for one Negro to be forced into that university, then every Negro in the state of Mississippi who is qualified has the same right to go to that university. And if the government is not ready and willing to enforce the right of every Negro in the state of Mississippi, then, in my opinion, sir, it's only hypocrisy to pretend that they are for justice by pushing one Negro in and blowing it up all over the world to make it look like they're solving the problem. I mean, millions of black people in that state are still going to segregate the schools and getting an inferior education. As your organization encourage members to attempt to enter schools that have been known as all white women's. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad doesn't discourage us from attending white schools. But he does say that it is better for us to go to our own schools. And after we have a thorough knowledge of ourselves of our own kind, and racial dignity has been instilled within us. Then we can go to anyone's school and we'll still retain our race pride, our racial dignity, and we will be able to avoid the sub-servient in very already complex that most Negroes have or are that is instilled within most Negroes who receive this sort of integrated education.