Malcolm X's Assassination
February 21st, 1965 will forever mark the death of one of the great leaders of the Black Nationalist Movement. Malcolm X was in Manhattan waiting to deliver his speech for the Organization of Afro-American Unity. However, members of the Nation of Islam would interrupt the event before he is able to speak. Three gunmen, Thomas Hagan, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson lethally shot Malcolm multiple times on stage. Malcolm X was rushed to Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center but pronounced dead at 3:30 PM.
His funeral on February 27th, 1965 in Faith Temple Church of God in Christ was attended by around 2,000 people. Actor Ossie Davis delivered an especially moving eulogy. Malcolm X now rests at the Ferncliff Cemetary in Hartsdale, New York.(2)
There were many things Malcolm said that may have led to his assassination. But what stood out as one of the more straightforward and caustic statement aimed directly towards his time spent under Elijah Muhammad was the following:
ON NATION OF ISLAM
"For 12 long years I lived within the narrow minded confines of the "straight jacket world" created by my strong belief that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger direct from God Himself, and my faith in what I now see to be a pseudo-religious philosophy that he preaches. . . . I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did." --Malcolm X, in a letter from Mecca to a friend, NYT, 4 Oct 1964, p.59
More quotes like the above can be seen here.
His funeral on February 27th, 1965 in Faith Temple Church of God in Christ was attended by around 2,000 people. Actor Ossie Davis delivered an especially moving eulogy. Malcolm X now rests at the Ferncliff Cemetary in Hartsdale, New York.(2)
There were many things Malcolm said that may have led to his assassination. But what stood out as one of the more straightforward and caustic statement aimed directly towards his time spent under Elijah Muhammad was the following:
ON NATION OF ISLAM
"For 12 long years I lived within the narrow minded confines of the "straight jacket world" created by my strong belief that Elijah Muhammad was a messenger direct from God Himself, and my faith in what I now see to be a pseudo-religious philosophy that he preaches. . . . I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did." --Malcolm X, in a letter from Mecca to a friend, NYT, 4 Oct 1964, p.59
More quotes like the above can be seen here.