While addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims in New York City.
Malcolm Little, who was born in 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher advocating the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. The Ku Klux Klan’s threats compelled the family to relocate to Lansing, Michigan, where his father persistently delivered his controversial sermons despite continuous threats.
In 1931, the brutal murder of Malcolm’s father by the white supremacist group known as the Black Legion led to Michigan authorities refusing to prosecute the responsible parties.
In 1937, welfare caseworkers removed Malcolm from his family. By the time he was of high school age, he had dropped out and moved to Boston, where he increasingly engaged in criminal activities.
At the age of 21, in 1946, Malcolm was incarcerated due to a burglary conviction. It was during his time in prison that he encountered Elijah Muhammad’s teachings, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose followers are commonly referred to as Black Muslims. This movement promoted black nationalism and racial separatism, condemning Americans of European descent as immoral “devils.” Muhammad’s teachings profoundly impacted Malcolm, who embarked on a rigorous self-education journey and adopted the surname “X” to represent his lost African heritage.
After six years of incarceration, Malcolm emerged from prison and became a dedicated and effective minister for the Nation of Islam in Harlem, New York. Unlike civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X championed self-defense and argued for the liberation of African Americans “by any means necessary.” As a passionate orator, he garnered admiration from the African American community in New York and nationwide.
By the early 1960s, Malcolm began to develop a more vocal philosophy compared to that of Elijah Muhammad, who he believed did not adequately support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, after Malcolm suggested that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a case of the “chickens coming home to roost,” Elijah Muhammad, viewing Malcolm as increasingly powerful, seized the opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.
Several months later, Malcolm officially departed from the organization and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was deeply moved by the absence of racial discord among orthodox Muslims.
Upon returning to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, he established the Organization of Afro-American Unity in June 1964, promoting black identity and asserting that racism, rather than the white race, was the primary adversary of African Americans. His newly founded movement gradually attracted followers, and his more moderate stance gained increasing influence within the civil rights movement, particularly among leaders in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.
On February 21, 1965, just one week after his home was targeted by a firebomb attack, Malcolm X was shot and killed by members of the Nation of Islam while speaking at a rally for his organization in New York City.
