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Captain Green: [Witnessing Malcolm's control over a mob] That's too much power for one man to have.
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Ossie Davis: [delivering Malcolm's eulogy] Here, at this final hour, in this quiet place, Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes. Extinguished now, and gone from us forever. It is not in the memory of man that this beleaguered, unfortunate, but nonetheless proud community, has found a braver, more gallant young champion than this Afro-American who lies before us - unconquered still. I say the word again, as he would want me to: Afro-American. Afro-American Malcolm. Malcolm had stopped being Negro years ago. It had become too small, too puny, too weak a word for him. Malcolm was bigger than that. Malcolm had become an Afro-American, and he wanted so desperately that we, that all his people, would become Afro-Americans, too.There are those who still consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. And we will smile. They will say that he is of hate, a fanatic, a racist who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say unto them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did, you would know him. And if you knew him, you would know why we must honor him: Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves.However much we may have differed with him or with each other about him and his value as a man, let his going from us serve only to bring us together now. Consigning these mortal remains to earth, the common mother of all, secure in the knowledge that what we place in the ground is no more now a man, but a seed which, after the winter of our discontent, will come forth again to meet us. And we shall know him then for what he was, and is: a prince! Our own black shining prince who didn’t hesitate to die, because he loved us so.
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Coed: Mr. X, I've read some of your speeches and I honestly believe a lot of what you say has truth to it. I have a good heart. I'm a good person despite my whiteness. What can the good white people like myself, who are not prejudiced, or racist, what can we do to help the cause?
Malcolm X: Nothing.
Malcolm X: Nothing.
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Malcolm X: [about the disciples of Christ] What color were they?
Chaplain Gill: Well, I don't think we know that for certain.
Malcolm X: But they were Hebrews, were they not?
Chaplain Gill: That's right.
Malcolm X: As was Jesus. Jesus was also a Hebrew.
Chaplain Gill: Why don't you just ask your question.
Malcolm X: What color were the original Hebrews?
Chaplain Gill: I have told you that we don't know that for certain.
Malcolm X: Then you can't believe for certain that Jesus was white.
Chaplain Gill: Just... Just a moment. Just a moment. God is white. [pointing to a painting of a white Jesus hanging on the wall] Isn't it obvious?
Malcolm X: Well, that [nodding to the painting] is obvious, but we don't know if it's obvious that God is white. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that Jesus did not have blond hair and blue eyes. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the images of Jesus that are on prison walls and churches throughout the world are not historically correct because history teaches us that Jesus was born in a region where the people had color. There's proof in the very Bible you ask us to read, in Revelations, first chapter, verse fourteen and fifteen, that Jesus had hair like wool and feet the color of brass.
Chaplain Gill: Now just... just what are you saying?
Malcolm X: I'm not saying anything; I'm proving to you that Jesus was not, and I might quote one of my Indian brothers, he was not a pale-face.
Chaplain Gill: [pensively] Uh-huh.
Malcom X: Amen.
Chaplain Gill: Isn't that interesting.
Chaplain Gill: Well, I don't think we know that for certain.
Malcolm X: But they were Hebrews, were they not?
Chaplain Gill: That's right.
Malcolm X: As was Jesus. Jesus was also a Hebrew.
Chaplain Gill: Why don't you just ask your question.
Malcolm X: What color were the original Hebrews?
Chaplain Gill: I have told you that we don't know that for certain.
Malcolm X: Then you can't believe for certain that Jesus was white.
Chaplain Gill: Just... Just a moment. Just a moment. God is white. [pointing to a painting of a white Jesus hanging on the wall] Isn't it obvious?
Malcolm X: Well, that [nodding to the painting] is obvious, but we don't know if it's obvious that God is white. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that Jesus did not have blond hair and blue eyes. The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the images of Jesus that are on prison walls and churches throughout the world are not historically correct because history teaches us that Jesus was born in a region where the people had color. There's proof in the very Bible you ask us to read, in Revelations, first chapter, verse fourteen and fifteen, that Jesus had hair like wool and feet the color of brass.
Chaplain Gill: Now just... just what are you saying?
Malcolm X: I'm not saying anything; I'm proving to you that Jesus was not, and I might quote one of my Indian brothers, he was not a pale-face.
Chaplain Gill: [pensively] Uh-huh.
Malcom X: Amen.
Chaplain Gill: Isn't that interesting.
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Report #1: Malcolm, you said on your trip abroad you sensed a feeling of great brotherhood.
Malcolm X: As I recall, I pointed out that while I was in Mecca making the pilgrimage, I spoke about the brotherhood that existed at all levels among all people, all colors who had accepted the religion of Islam. I pointed out that what it had done, Islam, for those people despite their complexion differences, that it would probably do America well to study the religion of Islam and perhaps it could drive some of the racism from this society. Muslims look upon themselves as human beings, as part of the human family and therefore look upon all other segments of the human family as part of that same family. Today my friends are black, brown, red, yellow and white.
Reporter #8: Malcolm, are you prepared to go to the United Nations at this point and ask that charges be brought against the United States for its treatment of the American Negroes?
Malcolm X: Oh yes. [the audience applauds] The audience will have to be quiet. Yes, as I pointed out that during my trip that nations, African nations, Asian, Latin nations look very hypocritical when they stand up in the UN condemning South Africa and saying nothing about the racist practices that are manifested everyday against Negroes in this society. I would be not a man if I didn't do so. I wouldn't be a man.
...
Reporter #2: One of your more controversial remarks was a call for black people to get rifles and form rifle clubs sometime back. Do you still favor that for self-defense?
Malcolm X: I don't see why that should be controversial. I think that if white people found themselves victim of the same kind of brutality that black people in this country face, and they saw that the government was either unwilling or unable to protect them, that the intelligence on the part of the whites would make them get some rifles and protect themselves.
Reporter #2: What about the guns, Malcolm?
Malcolm X: Has the white man changed since I went away? Have you put up your guns? The day you stop being violent against my people will be the day I tell folks to put away their guns.
Malcolm X: As I recall, I pointed out that while I was in Mecca making the pilgrimage, I spoke about the brotherhood that existed at all levels among all people, all colors who had accepted the religion of Islam. I pointed out that what it had done, Islam, for those people despite their complexion differences, that it would probably do America well to study the religion of Islam and perhaps it could drive some of the racism from this society. Muslims look upon themselves as human beings, as part of the human family and therefore look upon all other segments of the human family as part of that same family. Today my friends are black, brown, red, yellow and white.
Reporter #8: Malcolm, are you prepared to go to the United Nations at this point and ask that charges be brought against the United States for its treatment of the American Negroes?
Malcolm X: Oh yes. [the audience applauds] The audience will have to be quiet. Yes, as I pointed out that during my trip that nations, African nations, Asian, Latin nations look very hypocritical when they stand up in the UN condemning South Africa and saying nothing about the racist practices that are manifested everyday against Negroes in this society. I would be not a man if I didn't do so. I wouldn't be a man.
...
Reporter #2: One of your more controversial remarks was a call for black people to get rifles and form rifle clubs sometime back. Do you still favor that for self-defense?
Malcolm X: I don't see why that should be controversial. I think that if white people found themselves victim of the same kind of brutality that black people in this country face, and they saw that the government was either unwilling or unable to protect them, that the intelligence on the part of the whites would make them get some rifles and protect themselves.
Reporter #2: What about the guns, Malcolm?
Malcolm X: Has the white man changed since I went away? Have you put up your guns? The day you stop being violent against my people will be the day I tell folks to put away their guns.
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A man curses because he doesn't have the words to say what's on his mind.
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A Muslim must be strikingly upright; an outstanding example so that those in the darkness can see the power of the light.
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Like every hustler I was trapped. Cats that hung out together trying to find a solution found nothing. Cats that might have proved space or cured cancer, West Indian Archie might have been a mathematical genius... but we were all victims of the American social order.
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The only thing I like integrated is my coffee.
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We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us!
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We had the best organization a black man's ever had. ****s ruined it.
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You will be on the public eye. Beware on them cameras. Oh, them cameras are bad as any narcotic.