American Muslim civil activist was assassinated by an Islamic cult.
One of his men, James McDaniel, approached Malcolm and suggested, “I would like to position guards around the stage. Since you have already received multiple threats, it’s better everyone attending is searched to ensure your safety.”
Malcolm contemplated the suggestion. He was already disturbed to know that many co-speakers at the rally may backtrack on their commitment.
“I want the attendees of the speech to feel relaxed,” Malcolm replied.
Although unhappy to hear Malcolm’s reply, James persisted.
Although unhappy to hear Malcolm’s reply, James persisted.
“It’s better that you postpone this engagement,” he advised and warned that chances of an attack was high.Malcolm, adjusted his jacket, went near to James and muttered into his ears, “This is the time for martyrs.”
Disappointed, James left the backstage while Malcolm prepared his notes for his speech.
In the auditorium, Malcolm’s wife Betty and daughters arrived and they sat in the front row. Through the backstage, he could see them among the 400 people who had gathered to hear his speech. He was nervous not because of concern for his safety, but for the lives of his wife and daughters.
Meanwhile, as feared, one by one, Malcolm’s guest speakers cancelled their scheduled speech. First black nationalist Milton Galamison, then bookstore owner Louis Micheaux, then the last two guests. As the hour was getting late, Benjamin Goodman went on stage and warmed up the crowd for Malcolm. Finally, it was his turn. Malcolm stepped onto the podium and greeted the crowd.
“As Salaam Alaikum,” Malcolm wished.
“Walaikum Salaam,” they replied.
At that moment, two young blacks stood up in one of the front rows.
“Nigger, get your hand outta my pocket!” one of them ordered the other.
The attention of men guarding Malcolm turned towards the quarrelling men. As they rushed towards them, a man in the second row pulled out a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun, ran up to the stage and opened fire. Malcolm, seeing the armed man approach, smiled slightly and was hit in his left shoulder and chest by two shotgun blasts and fell to the stage.
Two additional assassins seated in the front row rushed forward to the stage and shot Malcolm several more times with semi-automatic pistols. The crowd scrambled for safety as sixteen shots struck Malcolm.
As Malcolm lay on the stage dying, his pregnant wife removed from the inner pocket of his suit coat the note with the names of five men he believed would assassinate him.
She stuck it in her purse, showing it to no one. Gene Roberts, a bodyguard who was actually a Bureau of Special Services and Investigations under-cover agent, knelt over Malcolm and appeared to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Nothing could save him. Malcolm was gone.
Meanwhile, the killers ran out of the auditorium. One of the handgun shooters, Thomas Hayes got shot in his leg by Malcolm’s bodyguards. He got beaten by the angry crowd outside the front entrance.
The police arrived a minute later to place the captured assassin under arrest before entering the building to find Betty holding her husband and crying.
The 39-year old American Muslim activist was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
BACKGROUND
“I am a marked man,” Malcolm X said dejectedly to his accomplice, “I am ready to die. I just don’t want them to hurt my family,” Malcolm had feared a year before he was assassinated.
Malcolm, an American civil rights activist and high ranking member of a cult called Nation of Islam (NOI), was a public speaker, a charismatic personality, and an able organiser. He had expressed the pent-up anger, frustration, and bitterness of African Americans which brought 50,000 black men under the NOI movement However, Malcolm began to disassociate itself from NOI and moved towards a civil movement that was on the lines of Afro-American unity, something which was totally against the principles of the cult.
Malcolm left NOI in March, 1964 and in the next month founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and also formed an organisation called The Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Around the same time, he embraced Sunni Islam, renouncing the separatist beliefs of NOI which invited massive ire. He was a staunch critic of the American government as well.
When President John F Kennedy was assassinated, Malcolm made a comment that Kennedy’s assassination was just a taste of the violence that America had been inflicting around the world in places like Vietnam, Cambodia and Cuba. “Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they always made me glad,” he had said. NOI’s leader Elijah Muhammad himself expressed remorse at the killing. The comments by Malcolm didn’t go down well with the fraternity, during the time the nation was mourning. Tensions between Malcolm at the very cult he had developed under him were rising. Malcolm had joined NOI after he heard about from his brother while he was serving prison time at an early age.
The NOI combined mixed elements of traditional Islam and black nationalism. Malcolm continued his activism even after leaving NOI. The NOI and FBI were keeping watch on him after he left the group. The FBI followed him to his Middle Eastern trip for the Haj pilgrimage. Malcolm was also aware that there were more people involved since he knew the extent of what the NOI could do. On the day of his assassination, the police had already been ignoring his calls for protection even though there were already three attempts on his life: once at an LA airport where he was able to escape. Once at a hotel where he was staying the night, which NOI thugs had surrounded. And another time with the burning of his house. Finally, they succeeded in the fourth attempt.
(Published in The Martyrs' Supplement, The New Indian Express, South India & New Delhi along with The Morning Standard, January 30, 2019
http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/2002986/The-New-Indian-Express-Kochi/30012019#page/29/2
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