February 21 - Assassination of Malcolm X

This Day in History: 21 February 2020

 

21 February 1965

 

55 years ago, today, Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City, by rival Black Muslims, while addressing his Organisation of Afro-American Unity. When Malcolm was younger, threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced his family to move to Michigan, where his father preached his black nationalist ideals. He was brutally murdered by white supremacist Black Legion, but the Michigan authorities refused to prosecute. At 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction, where he encountered Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are known as Black Muslims. They advocated black nationalism, and racial separation, which had a strong effect on Malcolm, who entered an intense programme of self-education and changed his surname 'Little' to 'X', symbolising his stolen African identity.

 

Malcolm was released from prison after 6 years and became a minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem. He advocated self-defence, and the liberation of African Americans by any necessary means, and so he became admired by his African American community. He gradually became more outspoken, and his opinionated view on the murder of President John F. Kennedy made Elijah Muhammad think of this opportunity as convenient to suspend him from the Nation of Islam, which Malcolm formally left a few months later. He made a pilgrimage to Mecca, returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, and founded the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. He was shot 15 times at close range while addressing his new organisation and was proclaimed dead at the age of 39. Malcolm's new movement gradually gained followers, and some of his more temperate philosophies became influential in the Civil Rights Movement.

 

Want to find out more about the life and death of Malcolm X? Click here for more information.