Malcolm X’S Charming Appearance on ‘Front Page Challenge,’ 1965

via Dangerous Minds

In 1964 Malcolm X went to Saudi Arabia and broke with his mentor and guide Elijah Muhammad. In doing so he parted with racism in all its forms; it was the beginning of an entirely new phase in Malcolm X’s political journey. The announcement made headlines all over the world.

On January 5, 1965, Malcolm X appeared on a Canadian news/quiz show called Front Page Challenge, which seems to be a cross between the NPR radio program “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” and the U.S. Sunday morning political shows like Meet the Press. Before submitting to the journalistic interrogation by the panel of experts, as on Meet the Press, the guest, who is a figure relating to some recent news story, has to undergo a What’s My Line-style game of 20 Questions and try to stump the panelists while screened from view:

Q: Did the story happen on a continent beginning and ending with the letter ‘A’?
A: Yes.

Q: Are you a military figure?
A: [smiling] No.
Q: I don’t know why that’s getting a chuckle, but it is.

Q: Did you get kidnapped or abducted in some way?
A: No.

And so on. It’s a curious kind of program; I’d love to see Julian Assange appear on something like that today!

Tragically, less than two months after this was taped, Malcolm X would be assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.