The life of Malcolm X

56 years after his assassination, it's still unclear who killed Malcolm X. This is his story.

Transcript

00:00There's no such thing as a peaceful revolution.

00:03There's no such thing as a bloodless revolution.

00:27My father didn't know his last name.

00:29My father got his last name from his grandfather,

00:31and his grandfather got it from his grandfather,

00:33who got it from the slave master.

00:35The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery.

00:54The prisons aren't set up to rehabilitate Negroes.

00:58They're set up to perpetuate the criminal tendencies of Negroes.

01:29My personal political philosophy is black nationalism,

01:33which means that the black man should control the politics of his own community

01:37and control the politicians who are in his own community.

01:43We don't advocate violence,

01:45but our people have been the constant victims of brutality on the part of America's racists,

01:50and the government has found itself either unwilling or unable to do anything about it.

01:55So out of necessity, we've reached the point now where our people must form self-defense units.

02:09I'm as much against integration as the white people in New York City are,

02:12but I am also against segregation, and I'm for separation.

02:25I'm also against segregation.

02:31You call this a nonviolent movement?

02:33Nonviolent? Nonviolent is a word that's misused today.

02:37I would call it a peaceful movement,

02:40which reserves the right to defend itself whenever it is attacked.

02:55For more UN videos visit www.un.org