Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / "Malcolm X" - TPR's In Focus - Feb 11, 2026

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"Malcolm X" - TPR's In Focus - Feb 11, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University's
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  Dothan Campus, identifying and preserving historical documents
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  and photographs for research related to the Wiregrass region.
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  More information at Troy. edu/WiregrassArchives.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is in focus. And I'm Carolyn
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  Hutchison. One of the most polarizing figures of the Civil
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  Rights era was Malcolm X. A Muslim whose radical views of
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  the white race were transformed after he visited Malcolm.
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  Montgomery's Capri Theatre is presenting the movie Malcolm X.
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  So we ask John Martello, an award-winning actor, producer
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  and director and Dr. Richard Bailey, eminent historian and
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  author to discuss the movie. They will host a screening of
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  the movie Malcolm X on February 15th at 1 p. m. At Capri Theatre.
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  Dr. Richard Bailey, welcome back to Troy Public Radio. And thank
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  you for having me. John Martello, what an honor to have you join
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  us.
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  Yes, what an honor to be asked. Thank you.
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  You and Dr. Bailey will be hosting a special screening of
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  the movie Malcolm X. Can you give us an idea of what's ahead?
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  As part of an epic series for Black History Month, I selected
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  Malcolm X from 1992, directed by Spike Lee, as starring Denzel
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  Washington. It's quite a picture. It's over three hours long and
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  it moves beautifully because it's paced extremely well. It's
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  a gripping story. Screenplay is excellent. Denzel Washington
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  gives I think a first-rate performance as Malcolm X. He's
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  more thanably supported by Angela Bastett and Al Kramer and
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  Christopher Plummer and there are cameos by Bill Kunseler and
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  Karen Allen and Peter Boyle and Nelson Mandela. It's just a very,
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  very engaging movie, quite a saga of watching these key
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  events in Malcolm X's life from Boyhood and being basically a
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  criminal going to jail where we learned about Islam and made his
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  conversion and became a minister all the way to the assassination
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  in 1965. And it's just first-rate. So for a movie to
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  run three hours and I think 15 minutes without a dull moment is
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  certainly an exception, not the rule.
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  Dr. Bailey, as a historian, what was your impression of this
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  movie?
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  Well, first of all, let me say how much Montgomery is indebted
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  to John Martello for bringing this to the Capri theater for
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  all of us to sit and view. I think in watching Malcolm X
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  takes us back to one of the more significant periods in all of
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  American history. In fact, if you were to name some of the
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  leading personalities of the 20th century, Malcolm X's name
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  would be in that top five is not that top 10. For us to be able
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  to watch this movie unfolds where we start with the young
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  Malcolm little Tomahana Braska and the end with an adult
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  Malcolm X New York City. It's absolutely riveting.
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  Malcolm was buried in Harlem. I believe it was February 27th of
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  1965. And Dr. Bailey, several prominent civil rights leaders
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  attended that funeral. John Lewis, James Foreman, James
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  Farmer, Andrew Young, actor Ozzy Davis described Malcolm X as
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  quote, "our shining black prince who didn't hesitate to die
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  because he loved us so." What's your take on that comment?
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  I think it's quite appropriate. In fact, Malcolm X is one of
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  those persons whose statue has not diminished at all since 1965.
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  John, can you describe how the movie takes us through his life
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  from being a militant activist to a pacifist?
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  What's interesting, I guess, is there's a narration or the voice
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  of digital Washington playing Malcolm X underneath the opening
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  titles of the film about the white man and how the white man
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  has done this, has done that. And I remember the first time I
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  saw the film getting a little uncomfortable because I thought,
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  what am I in for? Then when you travel that journey with him
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  from jail to his religious epiphany and his ministry and
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  his standing up to the man who gave him that opportunity,
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  Elijah Muhammad, his criticism of Muhammad because of his
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  lifestyle, basically. As a white man, I went all the way through
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  that to grief at the end of the film when he's assassinated
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  because as Dr. Belly said, he was such a singular individual
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  such a powerful figure for change that one can't help but
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  get caught up in that and get swept away by.
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  And Dr. Belly, going into the basics of his religion, we're
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  talking about two different factions of Islam. The nation of
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  Islam and L Islam, L Islam being the more peaceful of the two.
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  Can you describe where the murder came in and why?
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  Once Malcolm joined the nation of Islam under the Elijah
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  Muhammad, he was taught all of these things about how evil
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  white society was when he made that trip to Mecca, all these
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  white people who were not the kind of people that he had been
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  led to believe that white people were. So coming back to the
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  United States, he's a change individual. He's gone down to
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  Damascus Road, if you will. And he's aware that the white man is
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  not the devil. That's how the white man had been placed in
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  Malcolm's life, that's white society. Malcolm no longer
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  believes this. That places him at odds with Elijah Muhammad.
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  And then he comes to realize that Elijah Muhammad himself has
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  led a double life, all of these children out of Wittlock. So
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  Malcolm has to take a bit of what we might call soul
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  searching, has to look deep into himself and realize that he has
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  been misled all of these years. And that's the Malcolm X, that
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  many people don't talk about. That Malcolm X who can see a
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  white person as not being as evil as he had been taught to
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  believe in, and that gives us a kind of split in the nation of
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  Islam. I think we must admit that least taught somebody
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  saying we got to deal with this guy because he no longer
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  believes in what we believe in Elijah Muhammad with the nation
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  of Islam.
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  He denied any involvement in Malcolm's death. And the
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  murderers, a couple of them who got life sentences were released
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  in 2010 and 2021.
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  Yes, here's the point, all of those people who want to
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  stereotype Malcolm X. They don't want to acknowledge that this
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  man is not the same thug. He is the ultimate minister Malcolm X.
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  He is the personification of everything that Islam is
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  supposed to be about clean living and coming back from
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  mecca trying to be this kind of person. This does not sit well
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  with the power that be in the nation of Islam. This leads up
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  to his assassination in February 1965. But many people refuse
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  adamantly to focus on that transformed Malcolm X. This is
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  the person I think Malcolm X would want people to remember
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  him as that person who did not see every white man as the devil.
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  So John Martello, do you think the movie got that message right?
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  Yes, I do. I think Denzel Washington is one of the fine
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  American actors of the last quarter of a century. You get to
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  understand which we didn't always have a chance to do in
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  1965. I think racially it was being healed but the fact that
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  you see this transformation of this this young man and he was
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  the young man when he was killed. You really come to appreciate
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  him. The quote that you made of Ozzy Davis does wind up in that
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  film we do hear him reading his eulogy. It's a fitting end to
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  the film.
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  Denzel Washington was so, shall we say, engrossed with that film
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  in 1991 when he and his wife brought a new son into the world.
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  They named him Malcolm. That's true.
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  Yes.
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  Gentleman, thank you for a fascinating interview today.
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  Well, thank you and thank you for having us. My pleasure.
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  Thank you. Joining us were Dr. Richard Bailey, historian and
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  author and John Martello, actor, producer and director who will
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  host the screening of the movie Malcolm X, February 15th at 1pm
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  at Montgomery's Capri Theatre. More information can be found at
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  the website capritheatre. org. Thanks for joining us today for
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  in Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts
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  and Carolyn Hedgeson and this is listener-supported Troy Public
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  Radio.