AMY GOODMAN: You’re listening to Democracy Now! Malcolm X was born 72 years ago today. In the latter part of his life, Malcolm X took an active interest in the African independence struggle, especially in the Congo. This is an excerpt from a speech Malcolm gave in Detroit. It was his last major speech and came just one day after his house was firebombed in Queens, New York. That was on February 14th, 1965. He was killed only seven days later in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York, on February 21st, 1965. We pick this speech up when he is talking about the battle that took place after Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba declared the Congo independent in 1960.

MALCOLM X: This was mass murder in the Congo, of women and children and babies. But there was no outcry even from the white liberals, even from your friends. Why? Because they made it appear that it was a humanitarian project. They said that the planes were being flown by American-trained, anti-Castro Cuban pilots. This is propaganda, too. Soon as you hear that it’s American-trained, you say, “Oh, that’s all right. That’s us.” And the anti-Castro Cubans, “Oh, that’s all right, too, because if they’re against Castro, whoever else they’re against, that’s good, ’cause Castro is a monster.” But you see how, step by step, they grab your mind?

And these pilots are hired, their salaries are paid by the United States government. They’re called mercenaries, these pilots are. And a mercenary is not someone who kills you because he’s patriotic. He kills you for blood money. He’s a hired killer. This is what a mercenary means. And they’re able to take these hired killers, put them in American planes, with American bombs, and drop them on African villages, blowing to bits Black men, Black women, Black children, Black babies, and you Black people sitting over here cool like it doesn’t even involve you. You’re a fool. They’ll do it to them today, and do it to you tomorrow, because you and I and they are all the same.

They call it a humanitarian project and that they’re doing it in the name of freedom. And all of this, these glorious terms, are used to pave the way in your mind for what they’re going to do.

Then they take Tshombe. You’ve heard of Tshombe. He’s the worst African that was ever born, the lowest type that was ever born. He’s a murderer himself. He’s the murderer of Lumumba, the former prime minister of the — first and only rightful prime minister of the Congo. He’s an international — he’s a murderer with an international stature as a murderer. Yet the United States government went and got Tshombe in Spain and put him as the head of the Congolese government. Imagine that. This is criminal. Here’s a man who’s a murderer, so the United States takes him, puts him over the Congo and supports his government with your tax dollars. Now, in other words, they hire him to occupy the position as head of state over the Congo — a killer! He is a hired killer himself, his salary paid by the United States government. And he turns — his first move is to bring in South Africans, who hate everything in sight. He hires those South Africans to come and kill his own Congolese people. And the United States, again, pays their salary.

You know, it’s something to think about. How do you think you would feel right now if some Congolese brothers walked up to you — they look just like you. Don’t think you don’t look Congolese. You look as much Congolese as a Congolese does. They got all kinds of Congolese over there. How would you feel if one of them walked up to you and asked you about what your government is doing in the Congo. I was asked that when I was over there. But they didn’t have to come to me like that, because they know where I stand automatically anyway, and for which I’m thankful to the press for letting everybody know where I stand. But you have no explanation. Your tongue stays in your mouth. And you have to then become — go to the extreme to convince them that you don’t go along with what the United States government is doing in the Congo. But again, it comes — your image making comes into importance here.

And they justify the usage of Tshombe as the present head of state by saying he’s the only African who can unite or bring unity to the Congo. Has he brought unity to the Congo? But, see, this is their game. And their real reason for wanting Tshombe there was so that Tshombe could invite them to come in. No other African head of state would have dared to invite outside powers, so they put Tshombe there. And as soon as Tshombe got there, then he invited them to bring paratroopers from Belgium in the United States’ transport planes to try and recapture the Congo.

This was all a cold-blooded act on the part of your Western powers, namely the Western powers here in the United States — the interests in the United States, in England, in France and in Belgium and so forth. They want the wealth of the Congo, plus its strategic geographic position.

The step-by-step process that is used, was used by the press: First they fan the flame in such a manner to create hysteria in the mind of the public. And then they shift gears and fan the flame in a manner designed to get the sympathy of the public. And once they go from hysteria to sympathy, their next step is to get the public to support them in whatever act they’re getting ready to go down with. You’re dealing with a cold, calculating international machine, that’s so criminal in its objectives and motives that it has the seeds of its own destruction, right within it. They use the press to emphasize that white hostages are being held by cannibals — imagine that — or white priests, white missionaries, white nuns. They don’t say “nuns.” White nuns. You know what the paper said right here in Detroit: white missionaries, not just a missionary; a white nun, as if there’s a difference between a white nun and a Black nun, or a white priest and a Black priest; or if the light that’s in a white skin is more valuable than a light within a Black skin. This is what they’re implying. And the press — go get the press when this thing was going on, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. They’re vicious in their whiteness.

But still, I wouldn’t judge them just 'cause they're white, because they’d call me a racist. Judge them by their deeds, by their conscious behavior. And you know how they’ve been consciously behaving in the Congo and how they consciously behave in Vietnam and how they consciously behave right now in Alabama and Mississippi. So you and I got to get conscious and start behaving in a way that we can offset this thing, before it’s too late.

AMY GOODMAN: Malcolm X in a speech that he gave a week before he was assassinated and a day after his house was firebombed in Queens, New York. The speech he was giving was given in Detroit, Michigan, on February 15th, 1965. When we come back, we’re going to go to the rare tape of a debate between Malcolm X and James Baldwin, on this 72nd anniversary of the birth of Malcolm X. Stay with us.