CBS News looks at Malcolm X, focusing on his public life from 1959 to his assassination in 1965, suggesting that his death was a great loss to the nation. The film intercuts archival footage of Malcolm and interviews with family, friends, colleagues, scholars, and writers. CBS documents Malcolm's move from being Elijah Muhammad's deputy in the Nation of Islam to his embrace of Islam: his new links with the civil rights movement posed a real threat to the powers that be. CBS details his death after secret FBI acts to increase the rift between Muhammad and Malcolm. Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory, and Andrew Young offer trenchant comments. "He was our manhood," eulogized Ossie Davis.
Cast
Dan Rather
Self - Narrator / Interviewer
Maya Angelou
Unknown
Chuck D
Unknown
James Farmer
Unknown
Dick Gregory
Unknown
Lionel Hampton
Unknown
Clarence Jones
Unknown
Quincy Jones
Unknown
Betty Shabazz
Unknown
Wesley Snipes
Unknown
Mario Van Peebles
Unknown
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Unknown
Keenen Ivory Wayans
Unknown
Andrew Young
Unknown
Walter Cronkite
Unknown
Ossie Davis
Unknown
J. Edgar Hoover
Unknown
John F. Kennedy
Unknown
Robert F. Kennedy
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Ted Kennedy
Unknown
Martin Luther King Jr.
Unknown
Malcolm X
Unknown
Elijah Muhammad
Unknown
Jacqueline Kennedy
Unknown