The day Malcolm X addressed Oxford Union

"Mr Chairman, tonight is the first night that I’ve ever had an opportunity to be as near to conservatives as I am."

Those are the words with which Malcolm X began his address at the Oxford Union on 3 December 1964.

The union is the country's most prestigious student debating organisation and has served as a breeding ground for world leaders - predominantly from Britain's white upper classes - since it was first established in the early 19th Century.

In sharp contrast, Malcolm was a revolutionary American black nationalist who opposed everything that such establishment-led, majority-white institutions stood for.

But he was on an ideological journey at the time - one that made Oxford, a city known for creating the leaders of tomorrow, the perfect place for him to visit.

This is the story of Malcolm's whirlwind trip to the city of dreaming spires - told in his own words, from the speech he gave there on this day, 60 years ago.

In 1964, Malcolm - whose full name was el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz - was one of the most famous people in America.

He was known for his charismatic and inflammatory form of black nationalism.

During the year leading up to his visit to Oxford, Malcolm travelled across Africa and Arabia, where his previously hard-line beliefs of strict racial separation began to change.

Saladin Ambar, professor of political science at Rutgers University, said he was going through an "intellectual and ideological transformation".

"He was beginning to question and in fact, eschew black nationalism as the guiding principle of his politics," he continued.

"He had met with leaders of the Algerian resistance and had been confronted by at least one person who asked Malcolm, 'what about me? I have white skin, I have blue eyes, and here I am fighting the French - where do I fit within your worldview":[]}