BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Assassination
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroomwhen someone in the 400-person audience yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!"[153][154][155] As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance,[I] a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun;[156][157] two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns.[154] Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving atColumbia Presbyterian Hospital.[155] The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.[158]
One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan) was beaten by the crowd before police arrived;[159][160] witnesses identified the others as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.[161] All three were convicted.[clarification needed][162] (At trial Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson;[163] in 1977 and 1978 he reasserted their innocence and named four other Nation members as participants in the murder or its planning.)[164][165]
Butler, today known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation's Harlem mosque in 1998; he maintains his innocence.[166] In prison Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation's teachings and converted to Sunni Islam; released in 1987, he maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009.[167][168] Hayer, today known as Mujahid Halim,[169] was paroled in 2010.[170]
Funeral
The public viewing, February 23–26 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners.[171] For the funeral on February 27, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside Harlem's thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ,[172][173] and a local television station carried the service live.[174]
Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young.[172][175] Actor and activist Ossie Davisdelivered the eulogy, describing Malcolm X as "our shining black prince":
There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain—and we will smile. Many will say turn away—away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man—and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate—a fanatic, a racist—who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.[176]
Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.[174] Friends used the gravediggers' shovels to complete the burial themselves.[177]
Actor and activist Ruby Dee and Juanita Poitier (wife of Sidney Poitier) established the Committee of Concerned Mothers to raise money toward a home for the family and for the children's educations.[178]
Reactions to assassination
Reactions to Malcolm X's assassination were varied.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s telegram to Betty Shabazz expressed his sadness at "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband."
While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.[179]
Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26, "Malcolm X got just what he preached", but denied any involvement with the murder.[180] "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him", Muhammad said. "We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end."[181]
The New York Post wrote that "even his sharpest critics recognized his brilliance—often wild, unpredictable and eccentric, but nevertheless possessing promise that must now remain unrealized."[182] The New York Times wrote that Malcolm X was "an extraordinary and twisted man" who "turn[ed] many true gifts to evil purpose" and that his life was "strangely and pitifully wasted".[183] TIME called him "an unashamed demagogue" whose "creed was violence."[184]
Outside of the U.S., and particularly in Africa, the press was sympathetic.[185] The Daily Times of Nigeria wrote that Malcolm X "will have a place in the palace of martyrs."[186] TheGhanaian Times likened him to John Brown and Patrice Lumumba, and counted him among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause".[187]Guangming Daily, published in Beijing, stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights",[188] while in Cuba, El Mundo described the assassination as "another racist crime to eradicate by violence the struggle against discrimination".[185]
Allegations of conspiracy
Within days, the question of who bore ultimate responsibility for the assassination was being publicly debated. On February 23, James Farmer, the leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Nation of Islam, were to blame.[189]Others accused the NYPD, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection, the ease with which the assassins entered the Audubon Ballroom, and the failure of the police to preserve the crime scene.[190][191]
In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs established to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s.[192] John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, was identified as an FBI undercover agent.[149] Malcolm X had confided to a reporter that Ali exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad, and that he considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership.[149] Ali had a meeting with Talmadge Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X, the night before the assassination.[193]
Some, including the Shabazz family, have accused Louis Farrakhan of involvement in Malcolm X's assassination,[194][195][196][197][198] and in a 1993 speech Farrakhan seemed to acknowledge the possibility that the Nation of Islam was responsible:
In a 60 Minutes interview that aired during May 2000, Farrakhan stated that some of the things he said may have led to the assassination of Malcolm X. "I may have been complicit in words that I spoke", he said. "I acknowledge that and regret that any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being."[201] A few days later Farrakhan denied that he "ordered the assassination" of Malcolm X, although he again acknowledged that he "created the atmosphere that ultimately led to Malcolm X's assassination."[202]
No consensus on who was responsible has been reached.[203]
Philosophy
Except for his autobiography, Malcolm X left no published writings. His philosophy is known almost entirely from the many speeches and interviews he gave from 1952 until his death.[204] Many of those speeches, especially from the last year of his life, were recorded and have been published.[205]
Beliefs of the Nation of Islam
Further information: Beliefs and theology of the Nation of Islam
Before he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X taught its beliefs. His speeches were peppered with the phrase "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that...".[206] It is virtually impossible to discern whether Malcolm X's personal beliefs diverged from the teachings of the Nation of Islam.[207][J] He later compared himself to a ventriloquist's dummy who could only say what Elijah Muhammad told him.[206]
Malcolm X taught that black people were the original people of the world,[79] and that white people were a race of devils who were created by an evil scientist named Yakub.[80]The Nation of Islam believed that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent.[81] When questioned concerning his statements that white people were devils, Malcolm X said: "history proves the white man is a devil."[208] "Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil."[209]
Malcolm X said that Islam was the "true religion of black mankind" and that Christianity was "the white man's religion" that had been imposed upon African Americans by their slave-masters.[210] He said that the Nation of Islam followed Islam as it was practiced around the world, but the Nation's teachings varied from those of other Muslims because they were adapted to the "uniquely pitiful" condition of black people in America.[211] He taught that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation, was Allah incarnate,[212] and that Elijah Muhammad was his Messenger, or Prophet.[K]
While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of blacks from whites. The Nation of Islam proposed the establishment of a separate country for African Americans in the southern[91] or southwestern United States[213] as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa.[92] Malcolm X suggested the United States government owed reparations to black people for the unpaid labor of their ancestors.[214] He also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, instead advocating that black people should defend themselves.[93]
Independent views
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X announced his willingness to work with leaders of the civil rights movement,[106] though he advocated some changes to their policies. He felt that calling the movement a struggle for civil rights would keep the issue within the United States, while changing the focus to human rights would make it an international concern. The movement could then bring its complaints before the United Nations, where Malcolm X said the emerging nations of the world would add their support.[215]
Malcolm X argued that if the government was unwilling or unable to protect black people, they should protect themselves, and said that he and the other members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity were determined to defend themselves from aggressors, and to secure freedom, justice and equality "by whatever means necessary".[216]
Malcolm X stressed the global perspective he gained from his international travels. He emphasized the "direct connection" between the domestic struggle of African Americans for equal rights with the independence struggles of Third World nations.[217] He said that African Americans were wrong when they thought of themselves as a minority; globally, black people were the majority.[218]
In his speeches at the Militant Labor Forum, which was sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X criticized capitalism.[140] After one such speech, when he was asked what political and economic system he wanted, he said he didn't know, but that it was no coincidence the newly independent countries in the Third World were turning toward socialism.[219] When a reporter asked him what he thought about socialism, Malcolm X asked whether it was good for black people. When the reporter told him it seemed to be, Malcolm X told him, "Then I'm for it."[219][220]
Although he no longer called for the separation of black people from white people, Malcolm X continued to advocate black nationalism, which he defined as self-determination for the African-American community.[221] In the last months of his life, however, Malcolm X began to reconsider his support for black nationalism after meeting northern African revolutionaries who, to all appearances, were white.[222]
After his Hajj, Malcolm X articulated a view of white people and racism that represented a deep change from the philosophy he had supported as a minister of the Nation of Islam. In a famous letter from Mecca, he wrote that his experiences with white people during his pilgrimage convinced him to "rearrange" his thinking about race and "toss aside some of [his] previous conclusions".[223] In a conversation with Gordon Parks, two days before his assassination, Malcolm said:
-
- Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant—the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together—and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [Black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years.
-
- That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days—I'm glad to be free of them.[1]
Up until one week before his death, Malcolm X continued to publicly advocate that black people should achieve advancement "by any means necessary".
Legacy
Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.[224][225][226] He is credited with raising the self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage.[227] He is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the black community in the United States.[228][229][230] Many African Americans, especially those who lived in cities in the Northern and Western United States, felt that Malcolm X articulated their complaints concerning inequality better than the mainstream civil rights movement did.[95][96] One biographer says that by giving expression to their frustration, Malcolm X "made clear the price that white America would have to pay if it did not accede to black America's legitimate demands."[231]
In the late 1960s, increasingly radical black activists based their movements largely on Malcolm X and his teachings. The Black Powermovement,[56][232] the Black Arts Movement,[56][233] and the widespread adoption of the slogan "Black is beautiful"[234] can all trace their roots to Malcolm X.
In 1963 Malcolm X began a collaboration with Alex Haley on his life story, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.[105] He told Haley, "If I'm alive when this book comes out, it will be a miracle",[235] and indeed, Haley completed and published it some months after the assassination.[236]
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest in his life among young people. Hip-hop groups such as Public Enemy adopted Malcolm X as an icon,[237] and his image was displayed in hundreds of thousands of homes, offices, and schools,[238] as well as on T-shirts and jackets.[239] This wave peaked in 1992 with the release of the film Malcolm X,[240] an adaptation of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
In 1998 Time Magazine named The Autobiography of Malcolm X one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.[241]
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