Malcolm X

Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. A posthumous autobiography, on which he collaborated with Alex Haley, was published in 1965.

Malcolm spent his adolescence living in a series of foster homes or with relatives after his father's death and his mother's hospitalization. He committed various crimes, being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1946 for larceny and burglary. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam, adopting the name Malcolm X to symbolize his unknown African ancestral surname while discarding "the White slavemaster name of 'Little'", and after his parole in 1952 quickly became one of the organization's most influential leaders. He was the public face of the organization for 12 years, advocating Black empowerment and separation of Black and White Americans, and criticizing Martin Luther King Jr. and the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on nonviolence and racial integration.^[2][3] Malcolm X also expressed pride in some of the Nation's social welfare achievements, such as its free drug rehabilitation program. From the 1950s onward, Malcolm X was subjected to surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In the 1960s, Malcolm X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with its leader, Elijah Muhammad. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca, and became known as "el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz,"^[4] which roughly translates to "The Pilgrim Malcolm the Patriarch".^[5][4][6] After a brief period of travel across Africa, he publicly renounced the Nation of Islam and founded the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated in New York City. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences; in 2021, two of the convictions were vacated. Speculation about the assassination and whether it was conceived or aided by leading or additional members of the Nation, or with law enforcement agencies, has persisted for decades.

A controversial figure accused of preaching racism and violence, Malcolm X is also a widely celebrated figure within African-American and Muslim American communities for his pursuit of racial justice. He was posthumously honored with Malcolm X Day, on which he is commemorated in various cities across the United States. Hundreds of streets and schools in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, while the Audubon Ballroom, the site of his assassination, was partly redeveloped in 2005 to accommodate the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.

Early years

A 1930 United States Census return listing the Little family (lines 59ff)

Malcolm X was born May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, the fourth of seven children of Grenada-born Louise Helen Little (née Langdon) and Georgia-born Earl Little.^[7] Earl was an outspoken Baptist lay speaker, and he and Louise were admirers of Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey. Earl was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Louise served as secretary and "branch reporter", sending news of local UNIA activities to Negro World; they inculcated self-reliance and black pride in their children.^[8][9][10] Malcolm X later said that White violence killed four of his father's brothers.^[11]

Because of Ku Klux Klan threats, Earl's UNIA activities were said to be "spreading trouble"^[12] and the family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee, and shortly thereafter to Lansing, Michigan.^[13] There, the family was frequently harassed by the Black Legion, a White racist group Earl accused of burning their family home in 1929.^[14]

When Malcolm was six, his father died in what has been officially ruled a streetcar accident, though his mother Louise believed Earl had been murdered by the Black Legion. Rumors that White racists were responsible for his father's death were widely circulated and were very disturbing to Malcolm X as a child. As an adult, he expressed conflicting beliefs on the question.^[15] After a dispute with creditors, Louise received a life insurance benefit (nominally $1,000 ‍—‌about $19,000 in 2022)^[A] in payments of $18 per month;^[16] the issuer of another, larger policy refused to pay, claiming her husband Earl had committed suicide.^[17] To make ends meet, Louise rented out part of her garden, and her sons hunted game.^[16]

During the 1930's white Seventh-day Adventists witnessed to the Little family; later on Louise Little and her son Wilfred were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.^[18]

In 1937, a man Louise had been dating‍—‌marriage had seemed a possibility‍—‌vanished from her life when she became pregnant with his child.^[19] In late 1938, she had a nervous breakdown and was committed to Kalamazoo State Hospital. The children were separated and sent to foster homes. Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 24 years later.^[20][21]

Malcolm attended West Junior High School in Lansing and then Mason High School in Mason, Michigan, but left high school in 1941, before graduating.^[22] He excelled in junior high school but dropped out of high school after a White teacher told him that practicing law, his aspiration at the time, was "no realistic goal for a nigger."^[23] Later, Malcolm X recalled feeling that the White world offered no place for a career-oriented Black man, regardless of talent.^[23]

A Boston police mug shot of Malcolm, following his arrest for larceny (1944)^[24]

From age 14 to 21, Malcolm held a variety of jobs while living with his half-sister Ella Little-Collins in Roxbury, a largely African-American neighborhood of Boston.^[25][26]

After a short time in Flint, Michigan, he moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood in 1943, where he found employment on the New Haven Railroad and engaged in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and pimping.^[27] According to biographer Bruce Perry, Malcolm also occasionally had sex with other men, usually for money, though this conjecture has been disputed by those who knew him.^[28][29][B] He befriended John Elroy Sanford, a fellow dishwasher at Jimmy's Chicken Shack in Harlem who aspired to be a professional comedian. Both men had reddish hair, so Sanford was called "Chicago Red" after his hometown, and Malcolm was known as "Detroit Red". Years later, Sanford became famous as comedian and actor Redd Foxx.^[37]

Summoned by the local draft board for military service in World War II, he feigned mental disturbance by rambling and declaring: "I want to be sent down South. Organize them nigger soldiers ... steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers".^[38][39][40] He was declared "mentally disqualified for military service".^[38][39][40]

In late 1945, Malcolm returned to Boston, where he and four accomplices committed a series of burglaries targeting wealthy White families.^[41] In 1946, he was arrested while picking up a stolen watch he had left at a shop for repairs,^[42] and in February began serving an eight-to-ten-year sentence at Charlestown State Prison for larceny and breaking and entering.^[43] Two years later, Malcolm was transferred to Norfolk Prison Colony (also in Massachusetts).^[44][45]

Nation of Islam period

Further information: Nation of Islam

Prison

Between Mr. Muhammad's teachings, my cor­re­spond­ence, my vis­i­tors ... and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being impris­oned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life.

—Malcolm X^[46]

When Malcolm was in prison, he met fellow convict John Bembry,^[47] a self-educated man he would later describe as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect ... with words".^[48] Under Bembry's influence, Malcolm developed a voracious appetite for reading.^[49]

At this time, several of his siblings wrote to him about the Nation of Islam, a relatively new religious movement preaching Black self-reliance and, ultimately, the return of the African diaspora to Africa, where they would be free from White American and European domination.^[50] He showed scant interest at first, but after his brother Reginald wrote in 1948, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison",^[51] he quit smoking and began to refuse pork.^[52]

After a visit in which Reginald described the group's teachings, including the belief that White people are devils, Malcolm concluded that every relationship he had had with Whites had been tainted by dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred.^[53] Malcolm, whose hostility to Christianity had earned him the prison nickname "Satan,"^[54] became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam.^[55]

In late 1948, Malcolm wrote to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to renounce his past, humbly bow in prayer to God, and promise never to engage in destructive behavior again.^[56] Though he later recalled the inner struggle he had before bending his knees to pray,^[57] Malcolm soon became a member of the Nation of Islam,^[56] maintaining a regular correspondence with Muhammad.^[58]

In 1950, the FBI opened a file on Malcolm after he wrote a letter from prison to President Truman expressing opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself a communist.^[59] That year, he also began signing his name "Malcolm X."^[60] Muhammad instructed his followers to leave their family names behind when they joined the Nation of Islam and use "X" instead. When the time was right, after they had proven their sincerity, he said, he would reveal the Muslim's "original name."^[61] In his autobiography, Malcolm X explained that the "X" symbolized the true African family name that he could never know. "For me, my 'X' replaced the White slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."^[62]

Early ministry

After his parole in August 1952,^[63] Malcolm X visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago.^[64] In June 1953, he was named assistant minister of the Nation's Temple Number One in Detroit.^[65][C] Later that year he established Boston's Temple Number 11;^[67] in March 1954, he expanded Temple Number 12 in Philadelphia;^[68] and two months later he was selected to lead Temple Number 7 in Harlem,^[69] where he rapidly expanded its membership.^[70]

In 1953, the FBI began surveillance of him, turning its attention from Malcolm X's possible communist associations to his rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.^[71]

During 1955, Malcolm X continued his successful recruitment of members on behalf of the Nation of Islam. He established temples in Springfield, Massachusetts (Number 13); Hartford, Connecticut (Number 14); and Atlanta (Number 15). Hundreds of African Americans were joining the Nation of Islam every month.^[72]

Besides his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed about 180 pounds (82 kg).^[73] One writer described him as "powerfully built",^[74] and another as "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".^[73]

Marriage and family

In 1955, Betty Sanders met Malcolm X after one of his lectures, then again at a dinner party; soon she was regularly attending his lectures. In 1956, she joined the Nation of Islam, changing her name to Betty X.^[75] One-on-one dates were contrary to the Nation's teachings, so the couple courted at social events with dozens or hundreds of others, and Malcolm X made a point of inviting her on the frequent group visits he led to New York City's museums and libraries.^[76]

Malcolm X proposed during a telephone call from Detroit in January 1958, and they married two days later.^[77][78] They had six daughters: Attallah (b. 1958; Arabic for "gift of God"; perhaps named after Attila the Hun);^[79][D][E] Qubilah (b. 1960, named after Kublai Khan);^[83] Ilyasah (b. 1962, named after Elijah Muhammad);^[84] Gamilah Lumumba (b. 1964, named after Gamal Abdel Nasser and Patrice Lumumba);^[85][86] and twins Malikah (1965–2021)^[87] and Malaak (b. 1965, both born after their father's death, and named in his honor).^[88]

...

Activity after leaving Nation of Islam

Malcolm X's only meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., March 26, 1964, during the Senate debates regarding the (eventual) Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[149]

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), a religious organization,^[150][151] and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism.^[152][153] On March 26, 1964, he briefly met Martin Luther King Jr. for the first and only time‍—‌and only long enough for photographs to be taken‍—‌in Washington, D.C., as both men attended the Senate's debate on the Civil Rights bill at the U.S. Capitol building.^[K][L]

In April, Malcolm X gave a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet", in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely but cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms.^[156][157]

In the weeks after he left the Nation of Islam, several Sunni Muslims encouraged Malcolm X to learn about their faith. He soon converted to the Sunni faith.^[158][159]

Pilgrimage to Mecca

In April 1964, with financial help from his half-sister Ella Little-Collins, Malcolm X flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as the start of his Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca obligatory for every Muslim who is able to do so. He was delayed in Jeddah when his U.S. citizenship and inability to speak Arabic caused his status as a Muslim to be questioned.^[160][161]

He had received Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam's book The Eternal Message of Muhammad with his visa approval, and he contacted the author. Azzam's son arranged for his release and lent him his personal hotel suite. The next morning Malcolm X learned that Prince Faisal had designated him as a state guest.^[162] Several days later, after completing the Hajj rituals, Malcolm X had an audience with the prince.^[163]

Malcolm X later said that seeing Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to Black-skinned Africans," interacting as equals led him to see Islam as a means by which racial problems could be overcome.^[164]

Visit to Cairo

Malcolm X, after his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca

Malcolm X had already visited the United Arab Republic (a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana in 1959 to make arrangements for a tour of Africa by Elijah Muhammad.^[165] After his journey to Mecca in 1964, he visited Africa a second time. He returned to the United States in late May^[166] and flew to Africa again in July.^[167] During these visits he met officials, gave interviews, and spoke on radio and television in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco.^[168]

In Cairo, he attended the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity as a representative of the OAAU.^[169] By the end of this third visit, he had met with essentially all of Africa's prominent leaders;^[170] Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria had all invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.^[170] After he spoke at the University of Ibadan, the Nigerian Muslim Students Association bestowed on him the honorary Yoruba name Omowale ('the son who has come home').^[171] He later called this his most treasured honor.^[172]

Malcolm especially hated Moïse Tshombe of the Congo as an "Uncle Tom" figure. In a 1964 speech in New York, he called Tshombe "the worse African ever born" and "the man who in cold blood, cold blood, committed an international crime-murdered Patrice Lumumba".^[173] Tshombe's decision in 1964 to hire White mercenaries to put down the Simba rebellion greatly offended Malcolm, who accused the mercenaries of committing war crimes against the Congolese.^[174]

France and United Kingdom

On November 23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, Malcolm X stopped in Paris, where he spoke in the Salle de la Mutualité.^[175][176] After his return to the United States, he accused the United States of imperialism in the Congo by supporting Tshombe and "his hired killers" as he called the White mercenaries.^[174] X accused Tshombe and the American president Lyndon B. Johnson of "...sleeping together. When I say sleeping together, I don't mean that literally. But beyond that, they're in the same bed. Johnson is paying the salaries, paying the government, propping up Tshombe's government, this murderer".^[174]

X expressed much anger about Operation Dragon Rouge, where the United States Air Force dropped in Belgian paratroopers into the city of Stanleyville, modern Kisangani, to rescue the White Belgian hostages from the Simbas.^[174] Malcolm X maintained that there was a double standard when it came to White and Black lives, noting it was an international emergency when the lives of Whites were in danger, making Dragon Rouge necessary, but that nothing was done to stop the abuses of the Congolese at the hands of "Tshombe's hired killers".^[177] X charged that the "Congolese have been massacred by White people for years and years" and that "the chickens have home to roast".^[178]

A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom. On December 3 he took part in a debate at the Oxford Union Society. The motion was taken from a statement made earlier that year by U.S. presidential candidate Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue".^[179] Malcolm X argued for the affirmative, and interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.^[180][181]

In his address at Oxford, Malcolm rejected the label of "Black Muslim" and instead focused on being a Muslim who happened to be Black, which reflected his conversion to Sunni Islam.^[182] Malcolm only mentioned his religion twice during his Oxford speech, which was part of his effort to defuse his image as an "angry Black Muslim extremist", which he had long hated.^[182] During the debate at Oxford, he criticized the way the Anglo-American press portrayed the Congo crisis, noting the Simbas were portrayed as primitive cannibalistic "savages" who engaged in every form of depravity imaginable while Tshombe and the White mercenaries were portrayed in a very favorable light with almost no mention of any atrocities on their part.^[177]

Malcolm X charged that the Cuban émigré pilots hired by the CIA to serve as Tshombe's air force indiscriminately bombed Congolese villages and towns, killing women and children, but this was almost never mentioned in the media while the newspapers featured long accounts of the Simbas "raping White women, molesting nuns".^[183] Likewise, he felt the term mercenary was inappropriate, preferring the term "hired killer" and that Tshombe should not be described as a premier as he preferred the term "cold-blooded murderer" to describe him.^[183] Malcolm X stated that what he regarded as the extremism of the Tshombe government was "never referred to as extremism because it is endorsed by the West, it is financed by America, it's made respectable by America, and that kind of extremism is never labelled as extremism".^[184]

Malcom X argued this extremism was not morally acceptable "since it's not extremism in defense of liberty".^[185] Many in the audience at Oxford were angered by Malcolm X's thesis and his support for the Simbas who had committed atrocities with one asking "What sort of extremism would you consider the killing of missionaries?".^[185] In response, Malcolm X answered "It is an act of war. I'd call it the same kind of extremism that happened when England dropped bombs on German cities and Germans dropped bombs on English cities".^[185]

On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X flew to Britain again,^[186] and on February 8 he addressed the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations in London.^[187] The next day he tried to return to France, but was refused entry.^[188] On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, where the Conservative Party had won the parliamentary seat in the 1964 general election. The town had become a byword for racial division after the successful candidate, Peter Griffiths, was accused of using the slogan, "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Liberal or Labour." In Smethwick, Malcolm X compared the treatment of ethnic minority residents with the treatment of Jews under Hitler, saying: "I would not wait for the fascist element in Smethwick to erect gas ovens."^[189][190]

Return to United States

After returning to the U.S., Malcolm X addressed a wide variety of audiences. He spoke regularly at meetings held by MMI and the OAAU, and was one of the most sought-after speakers on college campuses.^[191] One of his top aides later wrote that he "welcomed every opportunity to speak to college students."^[192] He also addressed public meetings of the Socialist Workers Party, speaking at their Militant Labor Forum.^[193] He was interviewed on the subjects of segregation and the Nation of Islam by Robert Penn Warren for Warren's 1965 book Who Speaks for the Negro?^[194]

Death threats and intimidation from Nation of Islam

Malcolm X guards his family after Nation of Islam threats in an iconic Ebony magazine photo.

Throughout 1964, as his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, Malcolm X was repeatedly threatened.^[195]

In February, a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered the bombing of Malcolm X's car.^[196] In March, Muhammad told Boston minister Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off";^[197] the April 10 edition of Muhammad Speaks featured a cartoon depicting Malcolm X's bouncing, severed head.^[198][199]

On June 8, FBI surveillance recorded a telephone call in which Betty Shabazz was told that her husband was "as good as dead."^[200] Four days later, an FBI informant received a tip that "Malcolm X is going to be bumped off."^[201] That same month, the Nation sued to reclaim Malcolm X's residence in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York. His family was ordered to vacate^[202] but on February 14, 1965‍—‌the night before a hearing on postponing the eviction‍—‌the house was destroyed by fire.^[203]

On July 9, Muhammad aide John Ali (suspected of being an undercover FBI agent)^[204] referred to Malcolm X by saying, "Anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy."^[205] In the December 4 issue of Muhammad Speaks, Louis X wrote that "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death."^[206]

The September 1964 issue of Ebony dramatized Malcolm X's defiance of these threats by publishing a photograph of him holding an M1 carbine while peering out of a window.^[207][208]

Assassination

Main article: Assassination of Malcolm X

External image
"The Violent End of the Man Called Malcolm", LIFE, March 5, 1965. Photos taken moments after the fatal shots were fired, including one of activist Yuri Kochiyama cradling the dying Malcolm X's head.[209]

On February 19, 1965, Malcolm X told interviewer Gordon Parks that the Nation of Islam was actively trying to kill him. On February 21, 1965, he was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!"^{[210][211][212]}

As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance,^[M] a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun^[213][214] and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns.^[211] Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.^[212] The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.^[215]

One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), was beaten by the crowd before police arrived.^[216][217] Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson.^[218] All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.^[219][220]

At trial, Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson.^[221] In 1977 and 1978, he signed affidavits reasserting Butler's and Johnson's innocence, naming four other Nation members of Newark's Mosque No. 25 as participants in the murder or its planning.^{[222][223][224][225]} These affidavits did not result in the case being reopened.

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.^[226] 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.^[227][228] Hayer, who also rejected the Nation's teachings while in prison and converted to Sunni Islam,^[229] is known today as Mujahid Halim.^[230] He was paroled in 2010.^[231]

In 2021, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam (formerly Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson) were exonerated from their murder convictions, following a review that found the FBI and the New York Police Department withheld key evidence during the trial.^[232] On July 14, 2022, Aziz filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn against the City of New York, seeking $40 million in damages related to his wrongful imprisonment.^[233]

Les Payne and Tamara Payne, in their Pulitzer Prize winning biography The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X, claim that the assassins were members of the Nation of Islam's Newark, New Jersey mosque: William 25X (also known as William Bradley), who fired the shotgun; Leon Davis; and Thomas Hayer.^[234]

Funeral

The public viewing, February 23–26 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners.^[235] 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,^[236][237] and a local television station carried the service live.^[238]

Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young.^[236][239] Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing Malcolm X as "our shining Black prince ... who didn't hesitate to die because he loved us so":

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.... And, in honoring him, we honor the best in ourselves.^[240]

Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.^[238] Friends took up the gravediggers' shovels to complete the burial themselves.^[241]

Actor and activist Ruby Dee and Juanita Poitier (wife of Sidney Poitier) established the Committee of Concerned Mothers to raise money for a home for his family and for his children's educations.^[242]

Reactions

Reactions to Malcolm X's assassination were varied. In a telegram to Betty Shabazz, Martin Luther King Jr. expressed his sadness at "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband."^[243] He said:^[243]

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.

Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26 that "Malcolm X got just what he preached," but denied any involvement with the murder.^[244] "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him," Muhammad said, adding "We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end."^[245]

Writer James Baldwin, who had been a friend of Malcolm X's, was in London when he heard the news of the assassination. He responded with indignation towards the reporters interviewing him, shouting, "You did it! It is because of you—the men that created this White supremacy—that this man is dead. You are not guilty, but you did it.... Your mills, your cities, your rape of a continent started all this."^[246]

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."^[247] 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."^[248] Time called him "an unashamed demagogue" whose "creed was violence."^[249]

Outside of the U.S., particularly in Africa, the press was sympathetic.^[250] The Daily Times of Nigeria wrote that Malcolm X would "have a place in the palace of martyrs"^[251] The Ghanaian Times likened him to John Brown, Medgar Evers, and Patrice Lumumba, and counted him among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause."^[252][253]

In China, the People's Daily described Malcolm X as a martyr killed by "ruling circles and racists" in the United States; his assassination, the paper wrote, demonstrated that "in dealing with imperialist oppressors, violence must be met with violence."^[253] The Guangming Daily, also published in Beijing, stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights."^[254] In Cuba, El Mundo described the assassination as "another racist crime to eradicate by violence the struggle against discrimination."^[250]

In a weekly column he wrote for the New York Amsterdam News, King reflected on Malcolm X and his assassination:^[255]

Malcolm X came to the fore as a public figure partially as a result of a TV documentary entitled, The Hate that Hate Produced. That title points to the nature of Malcolm's life and death.

Malcolm X was clearly a product of the hate and violence invested in the Negro's blighted existence in this nation....

In his youth, there was no hope, no preaching, teaching or movements of non-violence....

It is a testimony to Malcolm's personal depth and integrity that he could not become an underworld Czar, but turned again and again to religion for meaning and destiny. Malcolm was still turning and growing at the time of his brutal and meaningless assassination.…

Like the murder of Lumumba, the murder of Malcolm X deprives the world of a potentially great leader. I could not agree with either of these men, but I could see in them a capacity for leadership which I could respect, and which was just beginning to mature in judgment and statesmanship.

Allegations of conspiracy

...

Pantheon Rank 202

Sandbox