A Symbol Fills the Need of a New Generation : Malcolm X: A complicated man and flawed hero, he stood for candor and courage, pride and self-reliance.

There’s something about Malcolm X that makes reporters, especially white reporters, weigh their words. Even now. I expect he’d want it that way. We sit down at our word processors, and the ghost of Malcolm pops out: “Watch what you say. The people I care about don’t need you, your interpretation of what I’ve said or done.”

I heard Malcolm speak--once. I was covering Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement in the South. On a quick trip to New York I went along with a local WCBS-TV crew to cover one of Malcolm’s speeches in Harlem.

His sentence structure was tight, his words direct, his message as blunt as a punch in the nose. Malcolm was angry, and he didn’t leave you wondering why or whether his anger was justified, even when he was saying something that might not agree with what you’d always believed. Malcolm gave you a lot to squirm over and get hot about. He meant to make whites uncomfortable and blacks determined.

Back in Georgia, Dr. King asked me what I thought of this new preacher who was neither Southern nor Christian, whose thundering voice demanded attention and--increasingly--got it. I couldn’t really make much answer, because I was still trying to comprehend what I’d heard. In many ways, I still am.

There’s so much myth and mystery and so many messages to sift through--and there’s so much reality that’s beyond the comprehension and experience even of a reporter who likes to think he’s reasonably seasoned--that I’m humbled.

I wouldn’t presume to explain or interpret Malcolm X to anybody. But I have studied the facts. I have just completed a documentary (“The Real Malcolm X,” to air on CBS tonight), with extensive research and interviews. All I presume to do is to set forth what I’ve found.

What I’ve found is the symbolic appeal of Malcolm X. The man, the message, the myth are all important, but less important than what they have come to symbolize for some in a new generation of African-Americans.

In his own way, Malcolm X became a political symbol--partly because of accident and circumstance, partly because of hard work. Malcolm X was and is a highly visible symbol for a few important ideas:

* Self-reliance. Malcolm was a survivor, with all the strength and confidence that come from getting through tough times. And when Malcolm needed to rely on others, he relied on blacks--his brothers and sisters, his wife, his mosque, his followers, his community.

* Commitment to a lifetime of learning and personal growth. In prison, following his conversion to Islam, Malcolm acquired something pretty close to a doctorate in philosophy, self-taught. The breadth and depth of his reading, his never-ending exploration of language, his mastery of the arts of rhetoric and debate would be invaluable tools in his later preaching and activism. It is Malcolm’s command of language that affords him so much power 27 years after his death. Some of the most stirring passages of his autobiography describe his transformation in prison from a kind of pacing, powerless animal to a ready angel of intellectual might.

* The value of a “Don’t Tread on Me--I Will Not Be Bullied” determination. Malcolm X displayed it not only toward whites. He also showed this determination to the late Elijah Mohammed and to those disciples of the Chicagoan who tried to intimidate Malcolm. This kind of determination can, of course, be dangerous. In Malcolm’s case, it led to this death. Whether we admire his philosophy or not, we admire his strength, his refusal to back down on matters that were important to him.

Yes, Malcolm did bad things, especially when he was young. He paid the penalty, renounced his wicked ways and changed. His life became the proof that white men lied when they said black men could not change. Lest we forget, that’s what some whites were saying in the early ‘60s, to justify their failure to improve the condition of African-American life.

Yes, Malcolm said things that were hurtful, potentially destructive and sometimes just plain wrong-headed.

And, yes, there are some who are revising history and making the man into something he never was.

But recognizing all of that risks blinding us to the symbol Malcolm X has become.

He was a complicated man. He rose to stand for something and to urge others to stand for things such as candor and courage, pride and self-reliance.

Of such men--and women--legends and then myths are sometimes made. There never has been a legend or myth without a flawed hero at its center. And there has never been a symbol without a need.