Original subtitles

Minister Malcolm X!

[Herb Boyd] The ascendance that Malcolm had is, like, phenomenal.

I mean, 1952 he was in prison,

and then several years later,

he's the national spokesperson for the Nation of Islam.

We who have had our eyes opened

by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad...

[Shaun King] Malcolm was becoming, in a way,

a figure that transcended the Nation of Islam.

Everybody in Harlem is a Muslim!

[King] But there were people who struggled

with this meteoric rise of Malcolm X.

Malcolm lusts for power.

And he lusts for television, and the press.

I think he's trying to use the Messenger

as a stepping stone to gain fame for himself.

[Q. Amin Nathari] There were people had to start wondering

if something happens to Elijah Muhammad

and Malcolm becomes the leader, it's over for all of us.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Over the years, I realized

I couldn't understand Malcolm's murder

without understanding his rise and fall in the Nation of Islam

and his complex relationship

with their Messenger, Elijah Muhammad.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught me everything I know

and made me everything I am.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] At first it was like a father and a son,

but there were some people who thought Malcolm

was becoming too powerful, and getting in the way.

The most Honorable and humble Elijah Muhammad...

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The question is, who were they?

And were they given an order to kill him?

[Jelani Cobb] It's all kind of like a Rorschach test

when you look at Malcolm's assassination,

all these contributing factors and it's a kind of blur.

And people look at it and say, "What do you see?"

And I see a lot of people who wanted Malcolm dead.

I'm real thankful of my brother...

- Malcolm Shabazz here... - [man] Yes, sir!

who has...

Why, this is a real disciple.

You'll have to kill this one to take him away.

[theme music playing]

[reporter] It is known as the Fruit of Islam.

The Muslims consider themselves

the fruit or product of American slavery.

A fruit that contains the seed of a future black nation.

The Muslims say that this elite secret army

is to be used for defensive purposes.

These are scenes of the Fruit of Islam...

[Lance Shabazz] We were Muslims.

We had a flag, the sun, the moon, the stars.

We had a fight song,

"We are fighting for Islam And we shall surely win

With our savior Allah The universal king

We are united by his nation And called by his name."

We would drill.

We were able to do all of these things to inspire us.

This is what the teachings

of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad did for us.

[reporter] The military unit meets every Sunday morning,

the national meeting time at Muslim Mosque #29.

It undergoes intensive military training,

including judo and karate.

The Fruit is your manhood, and we was taught to fight now.

There wasn't no doubt about that.

We didn't take no stuff from nobody.

We didn't carry no weapons, but we were taught to fight.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] All three of the accused assassins

were members of the FOI, or the Fruit of Islam,

and that whole paramilitary structure.

According to the government, there were two basic elements

to the theory of the assassination of Malcolm X.

Number one, there were three assassins,

and number two,

that the epicenter of the plot was Mosque #7 in Harlem.

Talmadge Hayer was the only one that was captured at the scene.

And when he took the stand, he told them that there were

actually four other accomplices, plus himself.

He said very clearly that the two other men being tried

had nothing to do with it.

He made that clear, but he wasn't believed.

[archivist] So this is the 1964 to '65 DA homicide book

and you see that they've entered the name of defendants.

- Talmadge Hayer. - Talmadge Hayer.

[archivist] And then added in Butler and Johnson.

- Okay. - And then here's photographs

of Hayer in his hospital bed.

"Prisoner could not be photographed standing up

- by order of his doctor." - Mmm-hmm.

Because he's been shot in the leg.

- A very defiant look. - [Muhammad] Yeah, he is.

He knows what kind of trouble he's in, too.

[archivist] Yeah.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Hayer saw himself as a loyal soldier,

who wanted to protect the Nation of Islam

even as he watched two apparently innocent brothers

get convicted and sentenced to life.

And he knows he just threw his life away.

For twelve long years,

Talmadge Hayer never revealed the identity

of the four men who participated

in the assassination of Malcolm X with him.

In 1977, after Elijah Muhammad died

and the pressures of the old NOI had lifted,

he finally filed an affidavit in which he, for the first time,

named the men he said were his actual accomplices.

"Benjamin Thomas, Leon Davis, William X,

and someone named Wilbur or Kinly."

[William Kunstler] He finally gave me, and I have the affidavit here,

he gave me a sworn affidavit

giving the identities of the four men,

who with Hayer, uh, had done the job.

And they were all identified in great detail,

where they worked, what they looked like,

where they lived, and so on.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] William Kunstler, the famous defense lawyer,

tried to get the case reopened to clear the names

of the men sitting in jail, but the judge refused.

No one went in search of any of these other men.

And gradually, their names were forgotten.

And if those names had been real names to begin with,

everyone knew that they would've been changed

long ago to Muslim names,

and those brothers would've disappeared

into the larger Nation of Islam.

But Hayer's affidavit held a solid lead.

Hayer said that all of the assassins

came from the same mosque,

and it wasn't the Harlem Mosque as the police claimed.

[Kunstler] Everybody in the group of assassins

came from the Newark Mosque.

They all were Jersey people.

If these had been people from the Fruit of Islam in New York,

everybody would've known them.

But they were not.

And that's why they got away with it

because they were people nobody knew.

[train horn blaring]

[sirens wailing]

Hey, salaam alaikum, good to see you, bro!

[Mustafa El-Amin] People used to call Newark the Mecca.

This is the Mecca of the community.

There's something special here about Newark.

It was the conviction, the fervor, the thunder,

the demand for strength and love

for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

was overwhelming here in Newark.

Be thankful and grateful you're a Muslim and you're a believer.

That Allah have allowed us to hear his call to el-Islam.

Back in the early days,

the Nation in Newark and other places,

they were recruiting brothers from prison.

So a lot of them came from the street.

And the Nation was cleaning them up now.

I've never seen so many men lined up in military formation.

They had discipline and camaraderie.

It just blew your mind, you know?

I mean, it's no way you wasn't gonna be attracted to that.

IN THE NAME OF GOD THE MOST MERCIFUL, THE MOST COMPASSIONATE

[praying in Arabic]

[Qasim Nathari] Elijah Muhammad,

he was talking to a people who were friendless.

This man gave us dignity.

You understand what I'm saying? You know. He gave us dignity.

I saw you, you was praying, man. I was trying to get to you, man.

[man] How are you?

[Qasim Nathari] All of us were around the same age: 18, 19, 20.

All of us used to be in the pool room together.

All of us used to hustle together, you know,

and then hearing that message turned our life around

and we all met back up in the temple.

The Nation blew up.

It was just a dynamic time for us.

We would start opening up businesses.

You know, steak-and-takes, clothing businesses.

You know, everywhere you look.

Especially in Newark, on every main thoroughfare,

Clinton Avenue, Springfield Avenue,

Hawthorne Avenue, Chancellor Avenue.

There were Muslim establishments.

- Newark belonged to us. - [Q. Amin Nathari] Right.

[Qasim Nathari] And what Elijah Muhammad taught us, you know,

it was the right time,

in the right place, with the right people.

You know? And we took it and we ran with it.

[Elijah Muhammad] The so-called American Negro

has to be re-educated.

He has to be completely made over again.

And Islam gives him that qualification

that he can feel proud.

[applause]

[Shabazz] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us to stand up straight, you know?

We were mighty, we were strong.

He was the closest thing to God to me.

From a little boy up until this day, in my wallet,

I carry a photo of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad every day.

I always have and, uh,

probably will until the day I die.

[Elijah Muhammad] You have been misled by your slave master,

but you are a member of a powerful nation of people.

[cheering]

[Shabazz] We was taught that we were building a nation,

that being black was something of pride.

We were taught that Jesus was black,

that the black man was the original man,

original meaning, "the origin of all."

From the black man came all other individuals.

[reporter] They call him the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

prophet of the Black Muslims.

His movement comprises over 100,000 members,

owning newspapers, offices, and temples all over America.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Elijah Muhammad was

one of the southern migrants,

during the period of what's called the Great Migration,

very poor,

and he raises himself up out of the muck and the mire,

and he builds a movement

that preaches this message of black empowerment.

Stop waiting for white people to do something for you,

better your condition yourself.

Muhammad speaks, worldwide news. Muhammad speaks!

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Elijah Muhammad focused on

the brothers and sisters on the margins of society.

Let Dr. King have those bougie Negroes in the church.

We have a meeting tomorrow night at 8:00.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] And he painted a vision that,

"We know we're catching this hell by this white devil now,

but it's going to change.

You follow me and you follow the teachings of Allah,

and it's going to change and this devil,

he's going to get his. Trust me on that."

[applauding]

[Al Sharpton] It became a strong, awesome movement,

but it was strict.

You had to study certain lessons.

You had dietary laws.

They tell you what to eat, how much you should sleep.

...to be physically fit and healthy...

Some people needed that structure,

they needed that supervision in their life,

and the Nation was that.

[reporter] A mild-mannered, asthmatic old man,

he leads between 100 and 300 thousand

fanatically devoted Muslims.

[Khalilah Ali] Elijah Muhammad didn't have any arrogance.

No ego. He was humble and very serene.

[praying]

That was our royalty in Islam, the royal family.

Like people have the Queen of England,

it's their royal family.

That's the British royal family. We have our own.

I would stand in front and take a bullet for him.

That's the way we were trained!

It is because by nature they are Islamic people!

[newscaster] Elijah Muhammad's word is law in 47 Muslim mosques

in major cities across the United States.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] They had to basically cut themself off

from all avenues of the white man's world

and his system,

and their whole world became the Nation.

And it was a structure based solely on, "Hear and obey."

And it had a very rigid enforcement structure in place

for those who got out of line.

Elijah Muhammad,

the people saw him almost as a God-type figure himself.

The devotion they had towards him was absolute.

They would die for him and they would kill you for him.

[Malcolm X] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches

you and me the religion that God has given to him

as the only cure for the evil

the white man has brought here among us.

And all of this teaching that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

is doing among the black people in this country

has been instrumental in producing a new type of people.

- A new thinking... - [Q. Amin Nathari] For 12 years,

nobody represented the Nation in the way that Malcolm X did.

He was able to use his own

life experience as a case study,

and it was that kind of life,

where he was able to be a walking, living embodiment

of what Islam could do.

The white man is tricking you!

[Q. Amin Nathari] Malcolm felt that the Nation saved his life.

To have once been a criminal is no disgrace.

To remain a criminal is the disgrace.

I formerly was a criminal, I formerly was in prison,

but since I've been following the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

I have been reformed and that's more, please...

[Zaheer Ali] The relationship between Malcolm X

and Elijah Muhammad was complicated.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us...

I think on a personal level,

Malcolm, of course, lost his father at a very young age.

Malcolm's father was a target of white supremacists.

He was found killed, run over by a street car.

And Malcolm and his family believed it was the Ku Klux Klan

and they certainly had good reason to believe that.

And so Malcolm grew up without a father,

and his family kind of disintegrated.

His mother was overwhelmed and was institutionalized.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Malcolm was sent to a number of foster homes,

and he went to an all-white school.

In his 8th grade class,

he's the only African American in the picture.

He was very smart

and he felt that he would make a great lawyer,

but he had a teacher who told him,

"White people are not going to hire you as a lawyer."

He said, "But you know what, Malcolm?

You're good with your hands. Why don't you become a carpenter?

That's a good job for... for a nigger."

And something in Malcolm died at that point.

He got into crime, selling drugs.

He steered women for pimps.

[Akbar Muhammad] He was a thug,

what the brothers call a hood rat.

He was using drugs, running prostitutes,

breaking into people's houses.

That's what he was doing

because there was nothing that gave him

purpose in life that he could do something better.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] He went to prison right before his 21st birthday.

That's where he first heard about the teachings

of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

[Malcolm X] Yes, well, I was in prison

and I was an atheist. I didn't believe in anything.

And one of my brothers told me about Islam,

and one of the main things that I read about it

that appealed to me was, in Islam,

a man is regarded as a human being.

He's not measured by the color of his skin.

[Zaheer Ali] When he encountered Elijah Muhammad in prison,

this clicked for him.

[Malcolm X] I studied Islam as a religion

in its connection with the plight

or problem of Negroes in this country.

This theology made complete sense to Malcolm,

and he dove right in.

He became a complete true believer.

[Peniel Joseph] Malcolm is paroled from prison

August 7th, 1952.

He goes to Chicago very early on

and he meets up with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

That's their first meeting.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Initially, it was the relationship

of a father to a son.

Elijah Muhammad represented salvation for him.

We have come to hear and to see the greatest and the wisest

and most fearless black man in America today.

[applauding]

[Zaheer Ali] Elijah Muhammad saw in Malcolm

this level of enthusiasm

in his embrace of the teachings of the Nation of Islam.

[Malcolm X] In the name of Allah, the Beneficent,

the Merciful, to whom all praise is due...

[Zaheer Ali] Elijah kind of took Malcolm under his wing.

...the most honorable and humble Elijah Muhammad.

[Shabazz] Malcolm was the only minister

that was allowed to drive the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's car.

When he came to Chicago, he allowed him to drive his car.

He gave him money.

Elijah put his wife, Sister Betty,

put her through nursing school.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad paid for that.

He had it like that, nobody else had it...

Not even Elijah Muhammad's own children had it like that.

[Louis Omar] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's son,

the one they called Captain Muhammad,

he never liked Malcolm.

I heard him say that Malcolm had more authority

in his father's house than he had,

and so he didn't like Malcolm much at all.

Malcolm was clearly everything that they were not, you know?

Articulate, brilliant, a bona fide intellectual.

You know? So they feared him from the beginning.

They resented him, and they feared him.

[praying in Arabic]

[continues praying in Arabic]

[praying in Arabic]

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Islam is a religion

that militates for justice.

[speaking Arabic]

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] And all the signs point to the fact

that regardless of who else may have been involved,

the men who carried out this crime called themselves Muslims.

That's very tough for me to accept as a Muslim, very tough.

[Hayer] I was a Muslim at that time.

Accepting the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as a Messenger of God,

I felt that as a member of the Fruit of Islam, Nation of Islam,

that for me to stand up in regards

to what was taking place was the right thing to do.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] After years behind bars,

Talmadge Hayer started to openly regret

his role in killing Malcolm.

I can't change what has been done.

I can only say that I am deeply sorry

for my participation in this.

And I know there'll be people who can never forgive me.

But I pray, and in my prayers, and I pray five times a day,

and I ask almighty God, Allah, to forgive me.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] And not only did he come clean about his own role,

he continued to agitate for the release

of the two brothers who were serving time with him,

who he said were innocent.

[Hayer] And even during the trial I had stated myself

that Norman Butler and Thomas Johnson

were not involved in the killing of Malcolm X.

And I would like to see the brothers exonerated.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Thomas Johnson and Norman Butler

always maintained their innocence.

They said their status

as well known adversaries of Malcolm

would've made it impossible for them

to get inside the Audubon Ballroom that day.

So all of those people knew me. And if nothing else,

they would've stopped me or searched me or...

In any event, they would've known that I was there.

[interviewer] What would've happened had you tried to get

into the Audubon Ballroom?

At that time?

Well, I would probably have to have at least two machine guns.

I wasn't on trial. The Nation of Islam was on trial.

I was just a piece, a piece that no one cared about.

- [Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Salaam alaikum. - [Muhammad A. Aziz] Walaikum-saalam.

- How you doing? - How are you?

I have been reading about you for about 40 years, man,

believe it or not.

And it's, uh... I know it's been a long journey

but you, you look well, brother.

Praise be to Allah.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] So when you was incarcerated,

how did the general prison population react to you?

Because people love Malcolm!

If they thought I was guilty, I'd been dead!

[laughs] This is prison.

You can't live in prison for 20 years

if people don't want you to.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] And I can imagine the streets were probably...

The streets knew that you weren't guilty of that.

[Muhammad A. Aziz] Oh, yeah. Everybody in Harlem know.

Everybody in the neighborhood know that I didn't do it.

Because if something had to be

handled or dealt with or whatever,

it was never done by the people

from the place that it happened in.

If this was going to happen in New York,

the people wouldn't come from New York.

In this case, you know they came from Newark, New Jersey.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] So, you know, let me...

I always wanted to ask you, man, you know, because you was a Fruit.

I mean, you was a soldier and, you know,

the devotion that you had

and all the brothers had to the Nation, right?

When you got convicted,

did you feel like the Nation abandoned you?

Well, my children had to go to school.

My wife at the time needed work, or a job,

or needed someone to look out for her financially.

But they didn't look out for her.

They didn't look out for the children.

They should've took care of all that stuff,

and they... You know.

Things just didn't happen

the way that I think it should've happened

if we were supposed to be all that we were espousing

or saying that we were about.

Part of the ballad of the FOI is,

"We are the Fruit, the FOI,

in honor we stand in honor we die."

So, where's the honor?

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] No honor.

You let two innocent men go to jail.

[Muhammad A. Aziz] Yeah. Well, there it is.

Well, let me ask you this.

When did you learn the truth about who actually

- was involved in that assassination? - Oh, when we went to court.

- When you guys went you court. - Yeah.

- You guys could talk and stuff like-- - In the pen, yeah.

In the pen. So you guys were in the pen.

And Talmadge Hayer, he told you in the pen? Their names?

He didn't tell us the other people's names.

- Okay. - He just told us it was

four other people beside him.

But these guys, these...

[scoffs] Maybe I should say that!

These guys who masqueraded as brothers. You know?

Two other brothers were in prison for what they did,

and they did nothing.

If they say that they believe what they say they believe

and blah, blah, blah,

why did they sit back quietly, and let us do the time?

[David Garrow] Among historians, it is universally accepted

that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Butler

had no role in Malcolm's killing.

But the question is not simply

the other four men who did kill Malcolm.

The more historically crucial questions

are who else in Newark, in New York,

and most essentially in Chicago,

were active participants in arranging Malcolm's murder?

[reporter] The speaker here is an avowed criminal,

now reformed.

A 36-year-old Negro who refuses to use his last name.

Instead, he calls himself Malcolm X.

Don't make jobs for anybody but preachers.

[Len O'Connor] What is your real name?

- Malcolm X. Uh... - Is that your legal name?

As far as I'm concerned, it's my legal name.

Have you been to court to establish this?

I didn't have to go to court

to be called Murphy, or Jones, or Smith.

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 got it from his grandfather,

who got it from the slave master.

[Shabazz] You never heard a man speak to the white man

the way... As strong and forceful as Malcolm did.

You mean you won't even tell me

what your father's supposed last name was,

or gifted last name was?

I never acknowledge it whatsoever.

Malcolm was like the guy

who took on the bully, you know, in the school.

The man taught you to hate your hair!

He taught you to hate your nose!

He taught you to hate your mouth!

He taught you to hate your skin!

[Baraka] He was the guy that would say

what needed to be said, whether you liked it or not.

The white man is the greatest hate teacher

that ever walked the Earth!

[Omar] It was probably the first time

that a message was given to black people like that,

especially black men.

You can think for yourself...

His message made men out of boys,

really what happened was.

They call Mr. Muhammad a black supremist,

because he teaches you and me

not only that we're as good as the white man,

but better than the white man.

Why, your skin looks like gold beside his skin.

[Zaheer Ali] For most of their lives,

many black people had been taught to genuflect

and demonstrate deference and almost worship

and wanting to lighten their skin,

people wanting to straighten their hair.

Malcolm came in there with a baseball bat.

It's the white man!

He don't have to worry about us integrating with him!

We don't want to be around that old pale thing!

[laughs]

[reporter] These homegrown Negro-American Muslims

are the strongest of the black supremacist groups.

Their ideology is being taught

in dozens of cities across the nation.

[Peniel Joseph] When Malcolm comes out of prison in 1952,

there's probably no more than several hundred people,

nationally, who could really be counted on

as active members of the Nation of Islam.

Through Malcolm's participation and leadership in the group,

that group grows into over 25,000 committed members.

Everybody in Harlem is a Muslim!

He helps found temples in Los Angeles, in Atlanta,

Boston, Philadelphia, all over the place.

We who have had our eyes opened

by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad...

[Shabazz] I can remember the mosque

just steady getting bigger, larger,

all the chairs would fill up and around the wall,

down the steps.

Then, they later on put closed-circuit.

I mean, they would have speakers outside.

[Malcolm X] I'm telling the truth, just like it is.

[Shabazz] It just grew and grew and grew.

[Malcolm X] You don't see Muslims accused of brutality!

It's the white man that's lynching people.

It's the white man that's cracking skulls.

It's the white man that's been heaping violence

upon top of violence on the Negro.

[Zaheer Ali] Even before he becomes a public figure,

he registers on the radar of the FBI.

No dropouts in our schools.

[Zaheer Ali] There was this intense fear and paranoia

of what a singular, charismatic,

influential black leader

could do if given a chance.

[reporter] Malcolm X became a Black Muslim

while serving a six-year prison term.

Over the next 11 years,

he rose in the ranks of Elijah Muhammad's movement.

Many saw him as the logical successor

to Elijah Muhammad himself.

[Q. Amin Nathari] Elijah Muhammad, he was a brilliant spiritual man

but he wasn't a gifted orator,

he didn't have the compelling delivery as a Malcolm did.

[Malcolm X] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad

encourages us towards righteousness.

[Joseph] So, when we think about the Nation of Islam,

the person who brands the Nation of Islam,

it's not the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

It's not. It's Malcolm X!

[Malcolm X] It's the devil who leads you toward evil!

[Joseph] And Elijah Muhammad realizes both the benefits and dangers of this.

And for a while they coexist uneasily,

but it's gonna have to break apart.

This was never gonna have a happy ending.

[praying in Arabic]

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Newark was such a stronghold

of the Nation of Islam

back in the late '50s and early '60s,

so much so that now you'll find that in the city of Newark,

almost every black family has

at least one Muslim in their family

if not, you know the entire family being Muslim.

It's really amazing.

[man] I'm talking about what we got to hold onto.

We're begging you, don't turn away from your legacy

of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

But Newark, to me, has been for many, many years

just an abstraction.

[man continues] We have a plan to build masjids, schools,

in Newark, New Jersey!

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Of all the great things that Newark is known for,

its arts, its cultural life, you know,

the idea that Newark is actually a real city with real people.

I mean, I hate to say it, but from my vantage point,

the way I've read about Newark,

it's where those killers came from.

It's come off to me as a sort of, like,

"heart of darkness" situation.

Because you know, these brutal killers

may have come out of this city.

[Q. Amin Nathari] Even to this day, our city, Newark,

has always lived under a certain stigma

because of people's perceptions

that Newark was involved in that.

So the less people that know about it,

and the more that we can keep it and isolate it,

quarantine like you would do a virus.

We're going to keep it contained among these people that know.

Now if it get out, it's nothing we can do about that.

But we're not going to be the ones that are going to be,

you know, going around advertising that,

yeah, you know, the people came out of Newark.

[Baraka] I've heard that.

Even as young boys growing up,

people would say that on the streets,

people identifying folks from Newark

who participated in it, these are things that you hear.

But you know...

Like my father would say,

it doesn't benefit any of us to push that narrative.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Well, let me ask you this.

How do you think Malcolm is remembered in Newark today?

You're talking about Newark, you're talking about

where culture and politics come together.

And Malcolm's impact on the culture,

on our people culturally,

Newark is a case study.

Uh, of course we got Shabazz High School, right?

There's a couple of institutions in the country

named after Malcolm,

but Shabazz High School was the first.

You know, so young folks are looking at who they need to study.

Who they need to look up to.

And Malcolm is as vibrant as anyone else

that they're looking at, you know?

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Brother, maybe you can help me understand this.

'Cause, I mean, you're from here. All right.

You're from Newark. You're from this area.

On the one hand, they pay homage and tribute to Malcolm.

You see his image all over the place.

You know what I mean?

A high school is named after him.

But there's definitely a sense that you get

that this whole Malcolm thing is better left, uh, undiscussed.

Folks knew that the hit came out of Newark.

That's very clear, that the hit did come out of Newark.

But in terms of who the actual players were,

with names and faces that they could put that to,

I don't... I wouldn't dare assume that that was that well known.

Were you here in 1977, '78,

when Hayer signed the affidavit where he named the killers?

Yeah, I was just coming into Islam myself.

Okay.

Most folks did not know who these folks were

who were still living, or where they were.

But that man laid out all of his accomplices.

If any of them are alive,

they should be put through the process.

Yeah so, how do we hold people accountable?

Listen to me, I'm gonna make it plain.

There should have been outrage

when Hayer first dropped that affidavit.

There wasn't.

Locally, there's been a divide.

Yeah, talk to me about that.

There's been a divide within the Muslim community.

You know, I remember when I first started

doing work around Malcolm

I couldn't understand, at that point,

why I got a chilly response.

It took me years to really figure out

just how deep the residual hostility was

with some of the old heads,

that they had for him back then.

And even within their generation, there's a divide.

Because he was loved and he was hated in Newark.

You know? And that's just real stuff.

[James Shabazz] Malcolm X was taught

by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

and he rose to world fame through the teachings

and guidance of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The minister of the Newark Mosque at that time,

his name was James Shabazz.

He really had a visceral hatred for Malcolm X.

A lot of his hostility with Malcolm

stemmed from the fact that he was jealous of Malcolm.

The prominence he was receiving in the media,

the fact that Malcolm X was flying on planes,

and taking trains, all over the country.

And, you know, he was labeled something

of a, like, Mister Big Shot.

Malcolm lusts for power.

And he lusts for television and the press.

And he would do anything to get himself out in the open.

[Q. Amin Nathari] Minister James Shabazz was not a fan of Malcolm.

He was one of those people that ultimately became a detractor

because he also had fierce loyalty

to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

But not only in Jersey, but throughout the hills in North America,

if they would listen to his teaching, they can benefit from it...

[El-Amin] Minister James Shabazz,

him and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

they did time in prison together,

so they developed a personal relationship.

And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad

sent Minister James to Newark,

where they established the first temple.

Number 25, right?

Then Islam spread here in Newark because of Minister James,

the unyielding love for the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

the unyielding respect for our community,

and the word went out was,

"We're going to defend ourselves

against anyone that comes against our community."

That came from Minister James.

[James Shabazz] Malcolm X is going a little far, now,

by trying to use the Messenger as a stepping stone

in order to gain a following.

Or anything he can to gain fame for himself.

They're passing the basket through the crowd,

and I don't... I think everybody standing here

should put one dollar in that basket.

Sure, these are freedom dollars, brother.

We're not asking you give us some money to make us rich.

We put up businesses.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has set up

more businesses than any black man in America.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The Nation of Islam, at this time,

was making an incredible amount of money,

selling newspapers, selling bean pies, restaurants,

whatever their businesses, their business empire.

[reporter] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

His empire encompasses clothing stores, barber shops,

apartment houses, and dry-cleaning facilities.

With homes in Chicago and Arizona,

Muhammad is reported to be a multimillionaire.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] The so-called "royal family,"

or children of Elijah Muhammad,

they were becoming wealthy off the Nation.

And while Malcolm was a true believer,

it's very doubtful that Elijah Muhammad's children

believed that he was some prophet sent by God.

They saw it as a good racket.

[reporter] The Muslim rank and file is a low-income group.

They give a generous amount of their salary to the movement.

The money goes to Muslim headquarters in Illinois.

[Joseph] They're making millions of dollars, right?

And they're also paying no taxes on this

because they're a religious organization.

Sometimes they are taking in, in Chicago and New York,

envelopes just full of cash

and no one is doing a real proper accounting of this.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] Elijah Muhammad's children saw the Nation of Islam

as their own personal cash cow.

[Malcolm X] The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has eliminated laziness.

He teaches us to be thrifty,

channel our money that we earn in an intelligent direction.

[Abdur Rahman Muhammad] They knew Malcolm was honest.

And they knew that if Malcolm ever saw

the corruption that was taking place,

that he would have done away with it.

[Malcolm X] We don't stand on the corner now without a job.

[Q. Amin Nathari] Malcolm never grabbed for money.

I mean, even his honorarium,

he would donate it back to the Nation.

So Malcolm wasn't about himself.

He's trying to be, you know,

as correct and upright as possible,

but everything that's happening around him

is just going every other direction

other than the path that he wanted to take.

Malcolm was a straight man in a crooked game.

[reporter] Muslim leaders answer directly

to headquarters in Chicago,

where the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,

a frail man of 68, runs the organization.

Last year, the Muslims invested about six million dollars

in businesses and real estate, mostly in Illinois.

[Q. Amin Nathari] With people benefiting from the structure in Chicago,

combined with Elijah Muhammad's health challenges at the time,

they had to start wondering,

"If something happens to Elijah Muhammad

and Malcolm becomes the leader, it's over for all of us."

[Garrow] For months preceding the assassination,

the resentment that the top leadership

of the Nation of Islam had towards Malcolm

was explicitly broadcast.

The signals, the public signals,

were visible to anyone

who was paying the slightest bit of attention.

The FBI was listening

to Elijah Muhammad and his top aides

24 hours a day prior to the killing.

My belief is that the FBI should have known

that the Nation of Islam was going to kill Malcolm.

[Zak A. Kondo] Keep this in mind.

The FBI has studied the Nation of Islam for decades.

They know the mentality of the men of the FOI in particular,

and they know that certain things

that you say or do can lead to brutality,

and sometimes even death.

They know this,

and so what the Bureau will basically do

is, knowing this, they're going to incorporate

various counterintelligence techniques

that will help to facilitate

the Nation doing for the FBI

what the FBI couldn't do for itself.

You know, they thought,

"Hey, if we keep pushing this thing,

the Nation will take out Malcolm X."