What did Malcolm X say in full at his UC Berkeley speech on October 11, 1963, and where can the complete transcript be read?
Executive summary
The complete text of Malcolm X’s October 11, 1963 UC Berkeley lecture/interview is not a single mysterious lost document but is published and archived in multiple places: printed in collected-speeches compilations and made available online as transcript and as audio/video recordings [1] [2] [3] [4]. For readers seeking the verbatim words, several digital repositories provide the full transcript and/or downloadable recordings from that date [1] [4] [5].
1. Where the full transcript can be read (and downloaded)
The most direct route to the complete transcript is through published collections of Malcolm X’s speeches that include the UC Berkeley session: a widely circulated PDF titled “Collected Speeches, Debates & Interviews (1960–1965)” contains the Berkeley text (listed as “UC Berkeley (October 11, 1963)”) and is available online from multiple university and left-archive mirrors [1] [2]. Dedicated Malcolm X sites such as BrotherMalcolm.net also host the Berkeley transcript [3], while digitized archives and activist libraries (for example the ICIT digital library and the malcolmxfiles blog) present the same material or searchable excerpts [6] [7]. For those who prefer library catalog records and media access, WorldCat and the UC Berkeley Moffitt Library describe and link to online audio/video recordings associated with that lecture which accompany the transcript [5] [8].
2. Audio and video sources that corroborate the transcript
Complete audio of the 1963 Berkeley interview/lecture exists in public archives and can be streamed or downloaded—Internet Archive holds a recording identified as “Malcolm X Interview at UC Berkeley” recorded October 11, 1963, which matches the transcript text and Q&A format recorded there [4]. UC Berkeley’s own media vault and course videography entries document that the event was recorded as Lecture #22 for Sociology 1-A and provide institutional confirmation of the audio source [8]. C-SPAN’s classroom materials also index the 1963 interview, enabling classroom and public access to primary audiovisual content tied to that date [9].
3. What Malcolm X said — concise thematic summary and notable lines
The Berkeley session is an interview-lecture in which Malcolm X addresses the conditions of Black Americans, criticizes white liberalism, discusses Black separatism and self-determination, and answers questions about Islam and the Nation of Islam; the available transcripts and recordings show him insisting that Black people were trapped in “a vicious cycle of economic, intellectual, social, and political death” and arguing for political and territorial control as remedies [6] [10]. The text also records exchanges where he declines to make detailed religious exegesis at that event—saying he’d been asked to stay on secular topics—and where he rebukes the “hypocritical white politicians” and so-called white liberals for failed promises [7] [6]. These themes and specific quoted lines are preserved verbatim in the collected-speeches PDFs and the UC Berkeley audio/archival records [1] [4] [8].
4. Choosing the most reliable copy and spotting variations
Because multiple repositories reproduce the Berkeley text, differences can appear in formatting, editorial headers, or in transcript punctuation; the most reliable practice is to consult a primary source copy tied to the university’s recording (UC Berkeley/ Moffitt Library) or the scanned “Collected Speeches” volumes that cite the event directly [8] [1]. Secondary hosts such as malcolmxfiles and ICIT are useful and accessible reproductions but should be cross-checked against the printed PDF collections or the audio file on Internet Archive that preserves the original recorded questions-and-answers [7] [6] [4]. When precise wording matters—quotation for publication or scholarship—pair the transcript with the archive audio to confirm exact phrasing [4] [8].
5. Practical steps to read or verify the full speech right now
To read Malcolm X in full from October 11, 1963, download the “Collected Speeches, Debates & Interviews (1960–1965)” PDF where the UC Berkeley entry is included [1] [2], or open the UC Berkeley Library media page for the campus recording and follow links to audio/video holdings [8]. For immediate streaming or to hear the delivery and Q&A context, use the Internet Archive entry for the October 11 interview and compare transcribed segments on BrotherMalcolm.net or ICIT Digital to confirm verbatim passages [4] [3] [6].