this is elijah mohammad at the end, correct? >> right here, big as life and there is malcolm x. this is a 1961 shot in washington d.c. with a church of god figure. debating the merits of islam. >> host: do you think we could have that debate today? >> guest: i think we are having that debate today. it's taking place on a global scale and e we are having it. now polite and in front of cameras well it is in front of camera so yes we are having that debate. >> host: off we go. >> guest: one other fascinating image of malcolm x as part of richard saunders collection. here he is on a tour at the museum of natural history in new york in 1961 and he's essentially using the image of an african woman to talk about people in a broader context to young muslim girls and this is also fascinating because here we are talking about the boys and this is a history lesson being taught to young people in 1961 rated historian and sociologist. >> host: where we headed? >> guest: we are in one of the meeting rooms at the schomburg for special collections are held and we have some real treasures as par

famous part of my lineage the part i know as opposed to much distantly i'm the great grandson of elijah mew mohammad. the father of the nation of islam. my father was educated at the university of islam until he went to college mitchell mother never converted, but very much formative to my early years my first cousins, aunts aunts and uncles were very much part of their grandfather and father's legacy, and i was very much part of that as a child. >> host: and why was that formative? >> guest: formative in the way that any child who is part of a family that means something to people you recognize early on that people see you differently. so i had conversations with adult bas off being the great-grandson of elijah muhammad that other children would not have had. out of the curiosity the way celebrity culture attaches to the die scene dents of famous -- descendents of famous people and i had some sensibilities that were cult avoid its as a result of being part of a family. i was not taught anything special with regard to the nation of islam than, say any member of the nation at the time. i was not bein