You Were LIED To About Malcolm X and MLK

They told us to pick one: the peaceful dreamer or the angry militant. The record tells a much stranger story. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. met once, for about a minute, at the U.S. Capitol on March 26, 1964. Both were watched by the FBI. Both had their homes bombed. Both were killed at 39. Two of the men convicted of killing Malcolm were cleared 55 years later. And the FBI's recordings of King are still sealed in the National Archives until January 31, 2027. This is the story of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and six things most of us were taught about them. Which of these were you taught in school? Tell me in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 1:27 The streetcar 5:05 The parsonage 8:19 Harlem 11:08 Mark him now 16:22 One minute 17:32 The pilgrim 23:15 No vice: Malcolm at Oxford 26:51 Thirty-four days 28:48 Selma 31:39 The North 33:31 A time to break silence 35:20 The drum major 36:52 Memphis 39:08 The break-in 42:41 Fifty-six years 45:50 The dream, licensed 49:27 Ending MALCOLM X'S OWN VOICE "The Ballot or the Bullet", King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, 12 April 1964 Oxford Union debate, 3 December 1964 Michigan State University, 23 January 1963 (Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections) SOURCES The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) The Playboy Interview: Martin Luther King Jr., Playboy, January 1965 Jonathan Eig, King: A Life (2023) FBI monograph, The Nation of Islam (1965) FBI, Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Current Analysis (March 1968) FBI COINTELPRO memo, Black Nationalist-Hate Groups (4 March 1968) Senate Select Committee (Church Committee) Final Report, Books II and III (1976) House Select Committee on Assassinations, Final Report (1979) King v. Jowers, Circuit Court of Shelby County, Tennessee (1999) U.S. Department of Justice, Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (June 2000) Executive Order 14176 (January 2025)