Eleanor Fischer interviews Malcolm X (1961)
Eleanor Fischer : Malcolm X, the minister of the Black Muslim community in New York City and national representative of Elijah Muhammad, the spiritual leader of the Black Muslim movement. Mr. Malcolm, may I ask you to tell us something about the Black Muslim movement in America? What is it? What does it stand for? Malcolm X : Well, it’s a—number one, it primarily is a religious movement here in America that’s designed to reform the black man or the so-called Negroes, reform us—reform us morally and enable us to stand on our own two feet and do something for ourselves. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, our religious leader, teaches us the importance of doing something for ourselves now, rather than trying to continue to force ourselves into the white community or upon the white man. He teaches us that if we would do something for ourselves, clean up ourselves, morally, intellectually and otherwise, and then try and do something for ourselves economically, we would be recognized and ac