1965
Malcolm X assassinated
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African
American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black
Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon
Ballroom in Washington Heights.
Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in
1925, Malcolm was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who
advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku
Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father
continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats. In
1931, Malcolm’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black
Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible.
In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by
welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out
of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in
criminal activities. In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a
burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad,
the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black
Muslims.
The Nation of Islam advocated black
nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent
as immoral “devils.” Muhammad’s teachings had a strong effect on Malcolm, who
entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name “X” to
symbolize his stolen African identity.
After six years, Malcolm was released from
prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in
Harlem, New York. In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther
King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African
Americans “by any means necessary.” A fiery orator, Malcolm was admired by the
African American community in New York and around the country.
In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more
outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not
sufficiently support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, Malcolm’s
suggestion that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a matter of the
“chickens coming home to roost” provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that
Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him
from the Nation of Islam.
A few months later, Malcolm formally left the
organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly
affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to
America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization
of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism,
not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm’s new
movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became
increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the
leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
On February 21, 1965, one week after his home
was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while
speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.