Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History Malcolm Xs Views On Africa 20240713

And of course, we read a few of the letters that he sent home when he was traveling in 1959, as well as in 1964 in africa as well as the middle east. As well as a few speeches that he made. One in 1959 and another in 1965 before he was killed. That really sort of talked about his viewpoints on africa. And then also a very critical interview that he gave when he attended the organizational organization of African Unity conference in in late july of 1964. In which he sort of discussed his strategy and the reason why he came to that conference and was appealing to these african heads of state. So hopefully, everyones read and and listened to these speeches. And so we can really sort of get a sense of of malcolm xs viewpoints on africa. But really, i mean, i think in order for us to really understand why malcolm expressed some of the things he did in these in these letters. Because in many ways, we see that hes sort of arguing against particular ideas within the black community that were widespread in africa. Its its critical for us to to have a very good Vantage Point of of how americans, and more specifically black americans, were thinking about africa in the late 1950s, early 1960s. But before we talk about that, i in many ways, when i think about my own life, and even my existence itself, its its deeply tied to africa. Some of you open your eyes like what are you talking about . So my father and mother. They actually attended this concert together and they didnt they they had met before the concert a few times. But they sort of reconnected after this concert that happened in december of 1973. You smiling . I cant tell what happened. How my parents hooked up. So actually, so so my father approached my mother. They talked after the conference. My father got the digits. And and he called my mother a few days later to really ask her out. And my mother stated that she had been called to the mission field. She actually was leaving to go to liberia in a few months. And basically, told him that, i mean, you know, we can talk. But if we get close before i leave, because it was still a few months away, im still going to go to africa. And they both were sort of part of this blackpower movement. I think i had spoke about this earlier in class. And, more specifically, the black theology movement. More specifically, this notion that sort of god was black and christianity itself should be this sort of tool of liberation. And really, every sector of the blackpower movement and really black theologians were sort of one sector, were connecting to africa. In the case of of those who were inspired by black theology, many of them were returning to africa as missionaries. But in a way, a different type of missionary than many sort of europeans of previous generations. So she told him im going to africa and she ended up going. And they got close before she left. So they managed to stay in touch during the nine months that she was in liberia. She actually taught at this school in this rural sort of village outside of monrovia, which is the capital of liberia. And she was there for nine months. And so i grew up, as you would imagine, hearing about these stories. She just loved to talk about liberia. But i simultaneously grew up, as result of her, hearing very fond and positive things about africa. And and i didnt realize until later in my life that, in many ways, i was lucky. Because many sons and and daughters had not been born to people who traveled to africa or who had fond who had a fond perspective of africa. Even in the 1980s and 1990s. And certainly, that was the case in the late 1950s when when and early 1960s when malcolm was speaking out and speaking for africa. And just to sort of give us a sense of of just how much africanamericans knew so little about africa. Or when they did know, their thoughts were negative. Anybody heard of wb dubois . Three years after publishing his Landmark Book the souls of black folk which he published in 1903, he helped invite this Columbia University anthropologist by the name of france boaz who came to Atlanta University where he was teaching. Dubois was teaching at Atlanta University at the time. And he gave the commencement address. And at this commencement address, france boaz recounted the history of the glorious history of african kingdoms below the Sahara Desert for upwards of 1,000 years before the slave trade. And so he talked about these classical, precolonial african kingdoms like ghana, mali. And dubois later wrote in one of his books, quote, i was too astonished to speak. He he talked about boaz as suddenly awaking him from the paralysis of the commonly held judgment taught to me in high school and two of the worlds great universities that africa had no history. Those two great universities were Harvard University where he earned his bachelors and ph. D. And the university of berlin, which in the early 1900s, was the Preeminent University in the western world. And so he, the quite possibly the greatest and mosteducated africanamerican in the country, had no clue about africas history. And and so, for him, he viewed africa like like africanamericans generally viewed africa. As this sort of place of of of barbarism. This place of where civilization was never really known. And he also wrote in his reflection that i came then and afterwards to realize how the silence and neglect of science can let truth utterly disappear. So essentially, that truth about africa. And so then he took it upon himself. And really, from that point forward, he started to write more and more and speak more and more about africa. But unfortunately, by 1912, dubois was was battling a novel that was first sort of published in this periodical named all stories magazine written by edgar rice boroughs. It became an instant sensation and this novel locked the concept of the animal african into the american mind. The main character in this novel was tarzan. And so the plot was this this this orphan, infant of white parents, is abandoned in Central Africa and is raised by this sort of ape named kayla and this tribe of apes. And john clayton is then named after named tarzan, meaning white skin in apes language. He grows up. He becomes the ape tribes most skilled hunter and warrior. He he somehow finds his his parents cabin and teaches himself to read while his body is being chiseled away from this sort of savage upbringing. He he, quote, his straight and perfect figure im narrating the book muscled as the best of the ancient roman gladiators must have been muscled. So this is how hes sort of being narrated in this text. And so essentially, this plot is somewhat similar to a recent film. The name of it is escaping me with the blue people. Avatar. Its basically the same plot. He becomes the greatest of the warriors, right . He becomes the greatest of this sort of ape tribe. So really, hes relating to the apes. But then he also comes across and has to relate to who else . Africans. And so its basically tarzan, apes, and africans. And of course, tarzan becomes the superior warrior and becomes the most superior sort of being in that sort of area. And of course, tarzan inspired this novel, inspired comic strips, merchandise, 27 sequels, and 45 motion pictures. The first occurring in 1918. And i dont know if theres a more famous fictional character in the 20th century than tarzan. And quite possibly no more racist plot than the plot that boroughs wrote up and continued to write up until his death in 1950. And just to give you a sense of how salient and pervasive tarzan was, because for many americans, tarzan was africa. They were witnessing and viewing africa and understanding and learning africa through tarzan. To the point in which, in 1966 at howard university, students there elected the first black woman homecoming queen with natural hair. It was like the start of black power at howard. And as well as around the country. And and so it led to this massive student march around campus. And what the students chanted was, black power. Black power. What was ungawa . Ungawa was the way in which tarzan related and communicated to animals and black people in that movie. So so when people thought of how even words that africans used. Or people thought of how to communicate with africans, they thought of tarzan. So really, this this is what sort of this was the the world, the nation, the community of ideas that really raised malcolm. And that malcolm was facing in the late 1950s when he started challenging many of these ideas. And we should know that, in many ways, malcolm was lucky, too. Because his parents were raised in what movement . Who were they following . Marcus garvey, right . And so marcus garvey, in the 19 teens and in the 1920s talked fondly about africa and about African People worldwide and about africa for the africans. But for many americans, for many africanamericans, of course they werent raised to think of of africa as this equal place with the rest of the world. They they were raised to think of the dark continent. Where enlightenment had never existed. A continent that was poverished impoverished because of the poverty, the behavioral and the cultural poverty of the people. The african was synonymous with the savage. And the savage was synonymous with the animal. And the animal was synonymous with the african. And so as a result, many, as i stated, africanamericans did not want to be associated with those savages, those animals. And more so wanted to be associated with civilization, with america. And so for malcolm, you know, as we sort of read about in our text, he was quite happy in 1959 when he received the assignment from Elijah Mohammad to travel to the middle east and even to africa on behalf of Elijah Mohammad. So elijah was asked to come to egypt by the president of egypt at the time. And and Elijah Mohammad decided to send his emissary instead. So that was really malcolms. Even though he grew up having been taught about the beauties and the glories of africa and its history, this was his first trip to africa and even to the middle east. And being someone who identified as muslim, he of course was excited to visit a muslim nation. In egypt. And he also hoped and planned when he arrived, sort of when he planned his trip, to go as well. So he arrives on july 4th in egypt. But immediately, of course, falls ill. And so hes not able to to travel to mecca. But hes able to spend more time in egypt, as well as he traveled to saudi arabia. This is one of the more critical periods in malcolms life. We wouldnt necessarily see the effects of in his public rhetoric, but according to many biographers of malcolm, this was a critical period as he lived and observed in these muslim nations because he began to see how much nation of islams theology and traditions and practices was so unorthodox. And so but of course, he couldnt necessarily publicly speak out against those traditions and policies, but he certainly saw that the distinctions when he was in saudi arabia as well as in egypt. But one thing that i think struck him about saudi arabia and of course he wrote back about this was all of the variety of skin colors that existed in saudi arabia. He almost he stated it was almost like black america, this you have the lightest of people as well as the darkest of people. In this letter home, he talked about that almost all of these saudi arabians would be, quote, jim crowed at home. And what he was seeking to do is make this sort of connection between people in the middle east with africanamericans. Just as he would try to make a similar connection to African People in with africanamericans specifically making the case that African People were concerned and were looking into and were studying what was happening to african africanamericans in the United States. He argued, of course, in his letter home from the sudan when he visited there in 1959 that he wanted africanamericans to realize that africans cared about them. And i think he talked about how he was trying to fight against this u. S. Propaganda that of course was saying, oh, dont worry about those africans because they dont care about you. Meaning thats what it was saying to africanamericans and he was saying they were saying the same thing in africa. In other words, yall shouldnt those africanamericans dont care about you either. He also sort of made very plain what people in africa thought about the condition of africanamericans. He writes that the african finds it difficult to understand why in a land that advocates equality, 20 million black americans are without equality. Why in a land classing itself as a leader of the free world, 20 million black americans are not free. Why in a land colleges and all forms of educational opportunities, 20 million negroes need army escorts to accompany them to many of these institutions. And then he ends this letter stating here in africa, the allseeing eye of the of the african masses is upon america. And this would become a theme sort of throughout his speeches over the next five years. Making this case that two africanamericans, africa cares about you. And because as i stated, he was both trying to sort of build this sense of afroasian solidarity while trying to sort of rebuild what was known as panafricanism. And the panafricanism of garvism. Why theres this collective, shared identity, this collective shared political sort of interest, this collective shared cultural similarities. And so essentially, African People worldwide need to care about each other, need to struggle for each other, and need to come together for each other. But at the same time, i think the panAfrican Unity came much easier for him in 1959 than afroasian solidarity. From the standpoint of islam and Elijah Muhammad, he was offering that the solution to the negro problem was a separate black state. So he essentially wanted complete separation of black people from everybody, not just white people, but all nonblack people. And so i think, you know, malcolm had to struggle. That certainly caused malcolm to sort of emphasize more so the panAfrican Unity than the afroasian unity in those letters. He also, of course, we also listened to this speech that he gave in 1959 for african liberation day. And so, you know, the nation of islam was not the only groups or organization in the United States that was advocating panafrican ideas. There were many groups that were doing so specifically in new york city. And malcolm, of course, was connected to many of these groups. And so he was invited as well as Elijah Muhammad to come and speak at this african liberation day. And yesterday again, in this speech as is in his letters home from africa, he continuously tried to sort of emphasize the unity of African People. And one of the ways he did this is he sounded very similar in 1964 as he did in 1959 when he would talk about the enemy, the european enemy of every single african state. So your european enemy is french. Whos the european enemy of this country, of that country is the british, is the portuguese, is the dutch. And what do they have all in common . Theyre all from europe. And what do we have all in common . Were all from africa. And he would make this case that theyre working together to oppress us. Speaking to black people. So why are we not working together . So he asked in that speech, how could so few white people rule so many black people . How could europe which, of course, from a land standpoint is much smaller than africa and africa is three times the size of the United States let alone europe. How could such a small land mass, such a Smaller Group of people rule such a massive continent . Such a Massive Group of people . Well, according to him, the disunity of those people. And so, of course, he wanted to emphasize to really encourage people of african dissent around the world to come together arguing again and again that we have a common enemy. And that common enemy is those colonial masters in europe. I should also add that this was the critical sort of period in the history of africa, right . Because what was going on in africa in 1959 . 1960. Yes . Decolonizization. All over the continent, right . And of course these decolonizization movements were inspiring africanamericans. And of course inspiring people of african dissent around the world. He didnt just want people to become inspired, he wanted people to become connected. He wanted this to become a global struggle against white supremacy. And he felt it was critical to emphasize that unity in order to make that struggle happen. Of course malcolms probably his most critical sort of trip throughout his life is when he went back to africa and the middle east in 1964. And this was after, of course, he left the nation of islam. Or pushed out of the nation of islam. And he in 1964 would go on two extended trips to africa. The first of course left on april 13th, 1964. And on this trip he would travel throughout the middle east and africa. Traveling to egypt, lebanon, saudi arabia, ghana, morocco, and algeria. But of course, what was the most critical aspect of this trip . What city, what town was most important to malcolms development . Yes. Mecca, without question. Right . And of course, as weve talked about in previous classes, being raise raised in nation of islam theology, he was raised to think that white people were fundamentally evil. And in many ways, his own experiences, his own Life Experiences with white people reinforced that. So when he was told that, while he was in prison, you know, by his brothers and sisters who had converted to the nation, it didnt spraz him. It actually clicked for him because according to him, it made sense in terms of the way his parents had been treated. Of course he was the son of a father who most likely was lynched. Some of his uncles were lynched in georgia. He, of course, experienced and watched his own family broken up and not supported by authorities. He saw his mother instead of being supported by other people because she had so many children to take care of on her own after her husband was assassinated, he saw her thrown into what . An insane asylum, right . And so then of course, the way in which he was treated in high school and when he spoke about being a lawyer apparently and his teacher said thats not the type of job for a negro. You should think about being a carpenter. Or when he felt he was being a mascot, you know, in other times or even when he started robbing houses in boston. And as part of his robbery crew, he had two white women. And of course he felt when he was arrested and found out that these two white women were assisting him, he felt he got a much harsher sentence because of his affiliation with these women. So of course, you know, up to that point, malcolms life he had experience sod many negative things at the hands of white people. But it wasnt until he went to mecca and he for the first time had not just positive experiences, but he was in a space where there were people of all different hair textures, tremendous amounts of diversity in mecca when he visited. Racial diversity. But he simultaneously saw all of these people were essentially doing the same thing. They were all engaged in the same rituals. They were all according to him treating each other as if they were brothers. He writes in his first letter home in which he has to tell people back home you may be shocked that i may say this, but he says there were tens of thousands of pilgrims from all over the world. They were of all colors from blueeyed blonds to africans. But all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in america had led me to believe could never exist between the white and nonwhite. But whats interesting about this first letter home, and really his first trip was what did he assign as the cause of essentially witnessing this antiracist sort of space and behavior among white people and even nonwhite people. What did he consider to be the fundamental cause . Of what he was experiencing . Yes . They were all what . Yeah, so they were all muslim. So what did he think was really causing it . Yeah . Islam. And so he didnt just sort of write about the unity and the brotherhood as he called it. And these experiences. And he also stated, you know what . What could be the cure for racism in america . He made the case that islam could be the cure for racism. Many black people and multiracial muslim nation would probably have had issues with that type of statement. But he of course offered that as a solution. To the racial problem in america. And as you would imagine, if you go on ahaj and have that religious experience thats supposed to be for muslims. He just experienced. And i think that was the way in which he was sort of able to do so. Yet again, when he of course ve ventures to some of the african nations, he again pushes back against what he calls this propaganda that africans are not interested in the plight of africans. He writes back home, our African Brothers and sisters love us and are happy to learn that we are also awakening from our long sleep and developing strong love for them. I dont know if yall noticed from these specifically these readings for this week. You know, we like to talk about people being woke today. Well, malcolm was talking about that 60 years ago, 55 years ago. The concept of being awake. That was almost in everything we read, right . This concept of African People, of africanamericans in particular waking up to reality. So i dont want yall to think you just originated woke, right . So another interesting aspect of these letters he wrote home on his first visit in 1964 was what was ironic to him about integration. You remember reading that . He talked about him coming across white people in africa and he talked about them trying to integrate into africas wealth and beauty. At the same time, they are what . Denying or spitting on africanamerican who is are trying to integrate with them. So he really beat home this competition and i think in many of his speeches on africa, he would typically come back to this point. Specifically the first sign of the point. Because when he would essentially he was an evangelist for africa. And so in his speech is when he would try to speak about the beauties of africa, he would say things like why do you think europeans are there . Why do you think they keep coming there . They keep coming there because its so beautiful. And youre the one and so and it would be a very sort of seductive and engrossing concept when he would talk about how white people are trying to integrate into africa especially when hes speaking to black people who think that white people are going to go to places that they consider to be beautiful and whats best. So it actually it meets them precisely where they are. And takes them where he wants them to go. Which is to have a better viewpoint about africa. That africa is wealthy and beautiful and that is why white people are there. Thats why theyre fighting and theyre dieing to keep their african colonies. They want to stay in africa. He kept hitting home these contradictions which i thought was critical to his philosophies on africa. But he wasnt like garvey in a very public sense. And what i mean by that is, he wasnt he didnt speak about africanamericans returning to africa physically. How did he want africanamericans to return to africa . He said not physically but in what way did he want African People africanamericans to return to africa. Yes . Yeah, mentally. He would say you left your mind in africa. You left your culture in africa. You left who you are in africa. Im trying to do i sound a little bit like malcolm . So of course if you make the case to people they have left something somewhere and culturally and philosophically, he was urging them to go back there and get what you lost. And this was critical to him. This sort of cultural and philosophical return to africa was absolutely critical to malcolm xs ideas because he felt it was critical to black people developing a strong sense of what . Yes . Not just solidarity, but he wanted each and every individual black person he felt by them developing a more positive sort of viewpoint towards africa, they would develop a more positive viewpoint to what else . Themselves. So he, of course, made that conceptual and of course that speed that we heard him give in one of his last speeches in 1964, he would make this point again and again. He of course in that speech and many speeches, he would even last week that run in which he said who taught you to hate yourself . Who taught you to hate the hair on your head . Who taught you to hate the color of your skin . Who taught you to hate your am i getting malcolm a little bit better . Do i have my denzel . No, but and so he would constantly talk about what we now call internalized racism. How black people thought there was something wrong with black people. How black people thought black people were inferior. How black people thought there was something wrong with thechlss and the way they looked and acted and they felt they needed leadership or to be led by white people. And he thought all of these ideas, all of these racist ideas that black people consumed, that black people reproduced were directly tied to their perspective on africa. He thought that that was, of course, the root of it all. He thought that that was the rug and he just swept up that rug up out from under them, then black people in america could start having a more positive conception of self. And of course theres a tremendous amount of truth to this idea. I mean, throughout africanAmerican History. We, of course, learned about dubois. What dubois thought in 1906 to give another example. In 1817, there was this group called the american coloni colonizization society that had just been formed. And this group was presided over by some of the most powerful people in the United States. Henry clay, bushrod washington, George Washingtons relative. A series of other Major Political figures. Basically what this group was seeking to do, the american colonizization society, was to essentially to take free blacks and return them to africa. That was essentially their mission. And it was the american colonizization society that was critical in the founding of liberia where of course my mother would go 150 years later. And of course in the early 1820s, a few hundred africanamericans were sort of sent to liberia, so what the american colonizization society hoped was that they could essentially get rid of the negro problem because the negro problem was the free black person, not the black person. But the black person that was free. So it was this sort of coalition between those slave owners who felt that free blacks posed a threat to enslaved africans and to sort of reformers who felt that if they slowly, they gradually ended slavery, they could also gradually get rid of those freed blacks from slavery. And so black people got word of this, particularly the very powerful black community in philadelphia. So they got together at this church in 1817 to decide whether africanamericans would support the american colonizization societys efforts to send basically free blacks back to africa. And they resolved against the american colonizization society. They felt that they were deeply tied to the struggle, the abolitionist struggle. And they felt they just couldnt leave the free enslaved black people here by themselves. They classified them as their brethren. But what they also said in their resolution is we dont want to go back to the savage wilds of africa. And so even within this progressive for lack of a better term for black people who was opposing the american colonizization society in 1817, they were also reinforcing ideas about this savage dark backwards africa. And of course that would continue through dubois in 1903 and of course he would move away from that part of his life. But many africanamericans certainly did not. And generally speaking, even when i actually ventured to africa, i first visited ghana man, i dont want to tell you what year because im going to date myself. And ill never forget people asking the silliest questions. I remember one person asked me, so, like, did you, like were you able to go shopping . Like, do they have malls in africa . You know, some of the most basic questions. Do people wear clothes like you know, all types of questions about africa and this was in the 21st century. Right . So imagine what people were thinking back then. And certain ly so malcolm x of course my excuse me. So of course malcolm x thought it was critical it was absolutely critical to reformulate africanamerican ideas of africa because he felt it would reformulate africanamericans ideas of themselves. And so of course in that speech, he speaks of all of the different ways in which black people hate themselves and all of the different ways in which black people hate africa and of course made that connection. And he stated and i quote, in hating africa, we ended up hating ourselves. And not really realizing it because you can hate the roots of the tree and not hate the tree. You cant hate your origin and not hate yourself. And he said he would make this case that white people knew that. And according to him they were feeding this negative thought of africa because according to him it would cause black people to hate their african identity, to hate the african heritage, to certainly hate calling themselves african. And hate their skin color. He also would make this case which is even still a radical which was a radical idea then and even as a radical idea today, he would make this case that africanamericans or the what do we call it . The socalled negro was more african than american. And so he wanted he even wanted people to connect themselves to africa through how they identified themselves. As african. And of course that furthered panafricanism. Because if you had people of african descent around the world all identifying as african, then it certainly would further that sort of panAfrican Unity that he felt was necessary to challenge global white supremacy. But it was also interest iing h would make the case that more african than they are american because they have never tasted the fruits of americanism. Right . And he went on this sort of long run about just because youre at the what . At the table, doesnt mean youre what . Doesnt mean just because youre american doesnt mean youre american. He would constantly make that analogy. Do they quote malcolm x when they say that . Right. So i think. And i think finally, he also wanted africanamericans to have a positive perspective or realistic perspective i should say on africa because he believed particularly by 1964 that africa and newly newly dkc de decolonized how and why he thought that the world specifically africa could play a leading role in the redemption, in the improvement in the advancement of africanamericans. He and thats why i wanted you to sort of read that interview he gave in july of 1964 when he was attending the organization the Second Organization of African Unity conference in cairo, egypt. Because he talked about and i quote, it was always the world pressure that was upon america that enabled black people to go forward. It was not the initiative internally that the negro put forward in america, nor was it a change of heart on the part of uncle sam. It was world pressure. And what he was arguing is actually something that historians and other scholars have been finding is theres a tremendous amount of truth to. Which is though were taught this sort of civil rights narrative that by the mid1950s, americans began to recognize that jim crow segregation and that mass disenfranchisement was wrong, was morally wrong. And that the sort of struggles and movements were able to persuade americans in how wrong it was which then led to the brown v. Board of education decision in 1954 which of course declared uns ed segregated scho unconstitutional which led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 which were told led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Which were taught led to the Voting Rights act of 1965. That people recognized that powerful americans, that americans writ large recognized that this problem was bad. And that essentially in recognizing that through the civil rights movement, america decided to fix it. That america has always essentially been moving forward through this sort of moral compass towards greater equality and freedom. And as a result, that period was precisely that history sort of moving forward. Well, malcolm gave a different explanation. He stated it had nothing to do with americans realizing anything and everything to do with world pressure. What did he mean when he said world pressure . What was he talking about . What was he talking about . Yes . In General International criticism, money funding for pushing others, like, civil rights organizations. So outside forces trying to, like, change things inside. Yeah. And so specifically yes . And, like, different aspects of communism and the idea of democracy when its not being basically when democracy wasnt being applied to everyone. Sure. You were going to Say Something . I was going to bring up how he talked a lot about hitler and germany and kind of compared america to that setting. Yeah. Going back to the cold war, so you had particularly after world war ii all of these nations, all these places decolonizing. And you had these two great superpowers. The United States and the soviet union who in many ways, the cold war itself was these forces not only battling each other for global supremacy, but also seeking to woo these newly created and sovereign nations around the world. And of course part of the part of americas pitch was that its the land of what . Freedom. Its the land of equality. And for many of these nations who after world war ii saw soldiers who fought black soldiers who fought in world war ii coming back to places like georgia and getting lynched or who saw the ways in which that black woman who tried to desegregate the university of alabama in the mid1950s, when they saw the treatment, when they saw the brutality because this brutality and treatment particularly in the 1950s and 1960s were being circulated in newspaper and media organizations around the world, it contrasted deeply with the United States pitch. It contrasted with that pitch. And so according to malcolm and according to later historians, the United States recognized that in order to be able to truly woo and attract the markets and resources and relationships that would be born of creating sort of alliances after the soviet unions with these independent nations would be to correct this serious sort of problem at home. And so thats the case that sort of malcolm and so that is what malcolm believed was the fundamental engine of change, of civil rights change. World, global pressure. And i think its critical for us to understand that to understand why he was so focused on getting africanamericans to think positively about africa. Because he saw africanamericans liberation as coming through africa. Specifically the United Nations. And so when he, of course, spoke. I should say created or wrote a letter, an appeal to the african heads of state who gathered together in july of 1964 for the Second Organization of African Unity conference, he appealed to them literally an he described them as their, quote, long lost brothers and sisters. He argued again and again. I think the line in which he said over and over again is our problems are your problems. He said this in this appeal over and over again. Speaking to these africanamerican heads of state. And he spoke about the brutality and the racism that africanamericans were experiencing. But then he also talked about the brutality and racism that people from africa were experiencing when they visited the United States. And what was interesting is he would talk about you are mistaken for an africanamerican and so they brutalized you. Remember he wrote about that . And so he, of course, was making the case that what africanamericans were lacking was fundamentally their human rights. And the reason why he emphasized human rights, even though civil rights was the term of the day was because that would then allow him to connect what africanamericans were seeking to what these african heads of states of newly decolonized nations were seeking. Really the decolonizization movement was for human rights to have sovereignty over your own land. To have the ability to control your economy, the ability to elect your own leaders, the ability to not be someone elses colonial subject. And he wanted his fundamental goal in writing this appeal in bringing African People worldwide together to release themselves from antiafrican ideas was the just sort of grand plan for malcolm in the last year of his life was he wanted these african heads of states to help him bring the u. S. Government before the u. N. Before the United Nations to charge the u. S. With violating the human rights of 22 million africans. Africanamericans. He want ed essentially the u. S. To be brought before the world stage and ridiculed in the 1960s the way south africa had been brought before the world stage in the United States in the 1960s and ridiculed. And he spoke directly to that and this appeal to south africa is like a vicious wolf openly hostile towards black humanity. I should preface this with he actually said america is was worse or better than south africa . He said it was worse than south africa. And he made this case that it was worse than south africa. Because at least south africa, he says south africa preaches segregation and actually segregates. While america preaches equality and segregates. And so for him, they were doing the same thing but one was not openly admitted to what they were doing. He also said south africa is like a vicious wolf. Openly hostile towards black humanity. Black america im sorry, america he said is like a is cunning like a fox. Friendly and smiling but even more vicious and deadly than the wolf. And so, of course, he framed south africa as this visual wolf and america as this cunning fox. The reason whey this is interesting is because its a nice segue to what were going to talk about next time. Right . His views on the liberal versus the conservative. Right . And he would, of course, make this case that both the liberal and the conservative are enemies of africanamericans. But theyre certainly different. And he would, of course, classify the conservative as the vicious wolf and the liberal as the cunning fox. But i dont want to give that away. Well talk about that next time. Thank you. Yall have a good evening and ill see you neck week. Were featuring American History tv. A preview of whats available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight well do an academic tour of texas. Our Lone Star State night begins with gene allen smith, a Texas Christian University professor teaching about George Washingtons character. He examines how the first president interacted with his contemporaries. American history tv tonight starting at 8 00 eastern on cspan3. American history tv on cspan3 looks back at the influenza pandemics of 1918 and 1957. Saturday night at 8 00 eastern on lectures in history. Stoney brook University Professor nancy thoms compares that epidemic to whats happening today. When they tell us not to shake hands or sneeze into our elbow, thats a social distancing method. Exactly the same stuff they were telling americans to do at the turn of the last century. Why is this important . Because even though we have made astounding improvements in the health sciences, we still cannot cure a virus. And sunday at 4 00 on real america, the 1957 film the silent invader about a new influenza virus that emerged from asia. In metropolitan pittsburgh with approximately 1 million people, if we had this flu strike here you would have approximately 200,000 people who would become ill in a four to six week period. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3. Follow the federal response to the coronavirus outbreak at cspan. Org coronavirus. Watch congress, white house briefings, and updates from governors. Track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch on demand any time unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavirus. Up next on American History tv, stevenson University Professor Jamie Goodall teaches a class about women in the 1960s civil rights movement. She discusses many women in the coordinating committee who held leadership roles and the challenges they faced. So today we have shifted into the 1960s. One of the things about the 1960s is this idea that a lot of americans felt they were on the precipice of promise, of greatness. The 1960s held a lot of opportunity in the postwar era. In 1961 jfk had just been