In the winter of 1965, supporters of civil rights in Alabama mourned the untimely passing of a strong voice for equality. On Sunday, February 21, Malcolm X took the stage of the Audubon Ballroom in New York City, preparing to address a rally of the newly formed Organization for Afro-American Unity, a group formed by the speaker to fight for civil and economic equality for African Americans. Just a week earlier, Malcolm X’s home had been firebombed, and many believed that the crime was perpetrated by the Black Muslims, a revolutionary quasi-religious group known for advocating militant self-defense, and whose leader, Elijah Muhammad, had recently expelled Malcolm X as part of a larger power and identity struggle within the group. Malcolm X feared for his life, telling his autobiographer, Alex Haley, that he would not survive to read the finished product and applying to local authorities for a permit to carry a pistol.
His fears proved all too realistic. As Malcolm X mounted the podium, a commotion erupted eight rows back. As the crowd turned away, three men rushed the stage, brandishing two handguns and a shotgun, and fi red simultaneously. Aides hurriedly rushed Malcolm X to nearby Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, but the leader succumbed to his wounds.
Almost immediately, “the man who advised Negroes to form rifle clubs to fight the ‘devil white man’ for civil rights [using] ‘ballots or bullets’” underwent a transformation of character in the minds of many activists. As one reporter noted, “A legend was incubating of a heroic race leader who died for his people.” Named Malcolm Little upon his birth in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm X was a petty criminal in Harlem before being arrested and imprisoned in Concord, Massachusetts. While incarcerated, Malcolm X joined the Black Muslims and worked his way up quickly to become the head of the New York branch. Malcolm X was a natural with the media, with a particularly keen ear for statements that would make the front page. Through the early 1960s, Malcolm X served as a foil for the nonviolent message of the mainstream civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King. Where King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) encouraged a broad interracial movement for social equality, Malcolm X exhorted followers to eschew white participation and seek empowerment. Knowing King’s affinity for the story of Moses, Malcolm X challenged, “Nowhere in that Bible can you show me where Moses went to his people and said…seek integration with the slavemaster.”
In the summer of 1964, Malcolm X’s life changed. As the Black Muslims faced a series of internal criticisms over sexual misconduct by the organization’s leadership, Malcolm X left on a pilgrimage for Mecca. There, he submerged himself in the beliefs and practices of Islam and returned to America rededicated to equal rights, though with a specifically international concept of the struggle. In early 1965 Malcolm X traveled to Selma, where King, the SCLC, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were leading a voting rights demonstration. While still unwilling to cooperate with King’s crusade, Malcolm X did demonstrate a new understanding of their mutual importance to the movement. As Haley remembered, Malcolm X believed that his fiery rhetoric would force white leaders to compromise with King rather than face the alternative: “Whites better be glad Martin Luther King is rallying the people because other forces are ready to take over if he falls.”
Malcolm X’s death sparked a wave of terrorism targeting the Black Muslims. In New York and San Francisco, individuals sympathetic to Malcolm X’s philosophy burned mosques, and in Chicago, police placed round-the-clock protection on the home and person of Elijah Muhammad and the boxer Cassius Clay, perhaps the most famous Black Muslim in the country. James Farmer, the director of the civil rights group Congress of Racial Equality called the assassination a “political killing” and demanded a public inquest. Other leaders parsed the meaning of Malcolm X’s life. In an editorial tellingly titled “Violence Begets Violence,” the Birmingham World reminded readers that “we unequivocally disagreed with Malcolm X and his philosophy” and warned that “in this country there is no need for extremism to the right or left.” The actor Ossie Davis came to a different conclusion, eulogizing Malcolm X as “a prince, our own black, shiny prince who did not hesitate to die because he loved us so.”
Perhaps the best account of Malcolm X’s importance to the civil rights movement came from the man himself. Fearing for his life, Malcolm X told Haley that, in the minds of many, his legacy would be “hate”: “[The white man] will make use of me dead, as he has made use of me alive, as a convenient symbol of ‘hatred’—and that will help him to escape facing the truth that all I have been doing is holding up a mirror to reflect, to show, the history of unspeakable crimes that his race has committed against my race.” Malcolm X has been associated with violence, but those who dismissed him as an extremist failed to consider his influence on younger activists. As King’s campaign forced legal recognition of basic equality, many in the movement began to consider the direction of protest when nonviolence and direct action no longer brought results. As John Lewis recalled, “[T]here was no question that [Malcolm X] had come to articulate better than anyone else on the scene— including Dr. King—the bitterness and frustration of black Americans.… Malcolm, like the movement, was moving towards new horizons.”
Almost immediately, “the man who advised Negroes to form rifle clubs to fight the ‘devil white man’ for civil rights [using] ‘ballots or bullets’” underwent a transformation of character in the minds of many activists. As one reporter noted, “A legend was incubating of a heroic race leader who died for his people.” Named Malcolm Little upon his birth in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm X was a petty criminal in Harlem before being arrested and imprisoned in Concord, Massachusetts. While incarcerated, Malcolm X joined the Black Muslims and worked his way up quickly to become the head of the New York branch. Malcolm X was a natural with the media, with a particularly keen ear for statements that would make the front page. Through the early 1960s, Malcolm X served as a foil for the nonviolent message of the mainstream civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King. Where King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) encouraged a broad interracial movement for social equality, Malcolm X exhorted followers to eschew white participation and seek empowerment. Knowing King’s affinity for the story of Moses, Malcolm X challenged, “Nowhere in that Bible can you show me where Moses went to his people and said…seek integration with the slavemaster.”
In the summer of 1964, Malcolm X’s life changed. As the Black Muslims faced a series of internal criticisms over sexual misconduct by the organization’s leadership, Malcolm X left on a pilgrimage for Mecca. There, he submerged himself in the beliefs and practices of Islam and returned to America rededicated to equal rights, though with a specifically international concept of the struggle. In early 1965 Malcolm X traveled to Selma, where King, the SCLC, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee were leading a voting rights demonstration. While still unwilling to cooperate with King’s crusade, Malcolm X did demonstrate a new understanding of their mutual importance to the movement. As Haley remembered, Malcolm X believed that his fiery rhetoric would force white leaders to compromise with King rather than face the alternative: “Whites better be glad Martin Luther King is rallying the people because other forces are ready to take over if he falls.”
Malcolm X’s death sparked a wave of terrorism targeting the Black Muslims. In New York and San Francisco, individuals sympathetic to Malcolm X’s philosophy burned mosques, and in Chicago, police placed round-the-clock protection on the home and person of Elijah Muhammad and the boxer Cassius Clay, perhaps the most famous Black Muslim in the country. James Farmer, the director of the civil rights group Congress of Racial Equality called the assassination a “political killing” and demanded a public inquest. Other leaders parsed the meaning of Malcolm X’s life. In an editorial tellingly titled “Violence Begets Violence,” the Birmingham World reminded readers that “we unequivocally disagreed with Malcolm X and his philosophy” and warned that “in this country there is no need for extremism to the right or left.” The actor Ossie Davis came to a different conclusion, eulogizing Malcolm X as “a prince, our own black, shiny prince who did not hesitate to die because he loved us so.”
Perhaps the best account of Malcolm X’s importance to the civil rights movement came from the man himself. Fearing for his life, Malcolm X told Haley that, in the minds of many, his legacy would be “hate”: “[The white man] will make use of me dead, as he has made use of me alive, as a convenient symbol of ‘hatred’—and that will help him to escape facing the truth that all I have been doing is holding up a mirror to reflect, to show, the history of unspeakable crimes that his race has committed against my race.” Malcolm X has been associated with violence, but those who dismissed him as an extremist failed to consider his influence on younger activists. As King’s campaign forced legal recognition of basic equality, many in the movement began to consider the direction of protest when nonviolence and direct action no longer brought results. As John Lewis recalled, “[T]here was no question that [Malcolm X] had come to articulate better than anyone else on the scene— including Dr. King—the bitterness and frustration of black Americans.… Malcolm, like the movement, was moving towards new horizons.”