A Smithsonian documentary on “The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X.”
More than 50 years after his death, the impassioned speeches of human rights activist Malcolm X will mesmerize new and old students of history, Islam, race and rhetoric.
“The Lost Tapes: Malcolm X,” which airs at 8 p.m. Monday on the Smithsonian Channel, immerses viewers in the black nationalist movement of the 1950s and 1960s, a time when many African-Americans were denied basic accommodations, lived in ghettos and attended segregated schools.
“We are brutalized because we are black people living in America,” Malcolm X said, urging his followers to reject Christianity, educate themselves and separate from white people.
“Lost Tapes,” a series on Smithsonian Channel, has covered Pearl Harbor, the Los Angeles riots of April 29, 1992, the Son of Sam murders in New York and Patricia Hearst’s life in the Symbionese Liberation Army. In each of these, series producer Tom Jennings seeks out forgotten or rare footage — some never seen by the public — to tell the stories through film, photos and other media.
His absorbing, fast-paced documentary shows how Malcolm X rose to prominence as a minister in the Nation of Islam and the evolution of his views, particularly after a trip to Mecca. The 51-minute film also introduces this controversial, influential figure to a new generation of younger viewers who will see and hear him in his own words.
Americans saw television footage of the protests led by civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who partnered with white church leaders to fight for integration of schools, public facilities and better jobs. Many people, however, were unaware of the Nation of Islam or the black nationalist movement until 1959. That’s when television journalist Mike Wallace reported a documentary called “The Hate That Hate Produced.”
Later criticized for being one-sided, “The Hate That Hate Produced” attracted tens of thousands of new followers to the Nation of Islam and turned Malcolm X into its public spokesman. By 1961, the Nation of Islam had 75,000 followers and two years later, it counted 150,000 members. Headed by Elijah Muhammad for 40 years, the Nation of Islam had its own banks, businesses, mosques, schoolsand newspaper.
But it was Malcolm X whose uncompromising candor and charisma captivated audiences. Film from a stodgy Chicago television show called “City Desk” shows four white middleaged men interviewing MalcolmX on March 17, 1963.
“I was a very wayward, backward criminal,” he says, adding that he became a Muslim when he discovered Islam in prison and that the religion taught him not to be ashamed of being black.
In public, the Muslim minister was fiery, but he could also be funny. An overly earnest television reporter asked, “Do you consider yourself militant?” Grinning broadly, the young activist replied, “I consider myself Malcolm.”
Mr. Jennings, the Los Angeles-based executive producer, effectively weaves together film that shows Nation of Islam gatherings during the 1950s in Chicago. That film was shot by Abdul Salaam, a dentist who treated Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad and who was fascinated by the camera. Dozens of telephone calls were placed before Mr. Jennings’ production staff located the dentist’s son, who has the same name and lives in the family’s Chicago home. Ultimately, the production team reviewed 15 cans of 8 mm color film stored in a Chicago garage, Mr. Jennings said in a telephone interview.
There’s also film of a young Dan Rather asking James Howard Meredith in 1962 why he wants to attend the University of Mississippi. Intensive media coverage accompanied Mr. Meredith’s attempt to become the first black student at Ole Miss. Malcolm X saw Mr. Meredith’s enrollment at the segregated college as symbolic, noting that 20 million blacks needed an education, too. Forty years later, the school erected a statue to Mr. Meredith, an Air Force veteran who became lawyer.
For the documentary’s final portion, Mr. Jennings and his staff tracked down New York radio reporter Gene Simpson, who kept his tapes and lives in Hawaii. On his day off, Mr. Simpson went to hear Malcolm X speak at New York’s Audubon Ballroom and wound up witnessing the activist’s assassination on Feb. 21, 1965. After describing the pandemonium that ensued, Mr. Simpson spent hours interviewing stunned witnesses, who recount what they saw and heard.