Feb. 13, 1965 | Malcolm X on British Television

Feb. 13, 1965 - Malcolm X, black nationalist leader, flew back to the United States today leaving a trail of resentment for accentuating British racial problems during his brief visit.
Visiting Smethwick, the midlands hotbed of racial problems in Britain, he angered Mayor Clarence Williams and drew press comment for his volatile remarks.
“I have heard that the blacks of Smethwick are being treated in the same way as the Negroes were treated in Birmingham, Ala. — like Hitler treated the Jews,” Malcolm told newsmen.
At a press conference in Birmingham, near Smethwick, he said the British are becoming increasingly racist and predicted the situation will become violent.
Mayor Williams deplored the remarks as those of someone who had come to Smethwick specifically to create more tension and gain publicity.
The are an estimated 1 million nonwhite immigrants in Britain, and the problems of their integration into the nation’s social, educational, and economic life have become increasingly serious during the last year.
The Labor Party now in power originally opposed limiting immigration from the Commonwealth under an act of Parliament, but under stress of political pressure has veered toward the Tory position lately.

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