The Anniversary of Malcolm X's Death
He was shot to death as he spoke before a packed audience in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. A week before, his house in Queens had been burned to the ground-no one was charged with the crime. He had escaped several attempts on his life in the previous months, and reportedly, was going to announce the attempted murderers during his speech.
He was 39 years old and left behind a wife, Betty Shabazz, and six daughters (twins were born after his death). He made a pilgrimage to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim, after his break with the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East to Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria and Morocco.
He established connections with international world leaders. He was deeply influenced by his experiences abroad and announced he was willing to work with leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and that he would focus on human rights, not Civil Rights, which he felt was simply a domestic issue, making the African-American struggle an international issue that could be brought before the United Nations.
In a 1965 conversation with the iconic photographer Gordon Parks, which was two days before his assassination, Malcolm said:
"Listening to leaders like Nasser, Ben Bella, and Nkrumah awakened me to the dangers of racism. I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.
Brother, remember the time that white college girl came in to 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."
Though three men were charged in the shooting, one, Talmadge Hayer, said the other two men who were charged were not present, but he declined to name the men that joined him in the shooting.
New York police department records, regarding Malcolm's assassination, have since disappeared. It may never be known why he was murdered or who was responsible for his death. Malcolm X will always be our Black Prince. RIP, Malcolm. Your legacy lives on.
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