The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union

[Straight after leaving prison in 1952] I bought a suitcase. I have thought since that, without fully knowing it, I was preparing for what my life was about to become. -Malcolm X, Autobiography

Upon his release from prison, Malcolm X traveled extensively through the United States in service of Elijah Muhammad, helping to build temples in Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles and, with Muhammad's blessing, becoming the Nation's most prominent spokesman. In 1959, a sensational television documentary on the Nation of Islam, The Hate That Hate Produced, shot Malcolm X to fame (or rather to infamy for many people), and his public engagements around the country grew even more numerous. Eager to record his journeys, he picked up a secondhand camera. "I don't know how many rolls of film I shot until I could take usable pictures," he later remarked. The hobby would remain a passion. When he came to Oxford, Malcolm X spent the afternoon before his debate taking photos of students.16