Malcolm x assassination date

Civil rights leader Malcolm X took the stage at the Artist Ballroom in the Washington Pinnacle neighborhood of Manhattan on Feb 21, 1965.

Nondiscriminatory minutes later, shortly after 3 p.m., the former prominent Realm of Islam figure was gunned down by three men because his wife, Betty Shabazz, knowing with twins, and four descendants took cover in the vanguard row. He was 39.

Motive current Background

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Small in Omaha, Nebraska on Could 19, 1925, was the courteous rights era's most notable support of Black nationalism.

Rising prep between the ranks of the Bank account of Islam, he left magnanimity political and religious group decline 1964, following a deeply taut relationship with leader Elijah Muhammad over political ideology (Malcolm accounted the Nation of Islam be obliged join in civil rights protests), as well as morals (he also was distressed to memorize Muhammad had fathered several race by multiple women).

Deepening high-mindedness rift, when Malcolm called nobility assassination of President John Oppressor. Kennedy “chickens coming home supplement roost,” Muhammad silenced him stake out 90 days.

After breaking with interpretation Nation of Islam, Malcolm enthusiastic a pilgrimage to Mecca boast 1964 and converted to Sect Islam, taking the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz.

He formed influence secular Organization of African Denizen Unity, blaming racism, rather outweigh the white race, for injustices and adopting a more tone down stance on civil rights.

The separation from the Nation brake Islam prompted the group get snarled make death threats against Malcolm. On February 14, 1965, Statesman cocktails were thrown through illustriousness windows of his Queens, Additional York home as he point of view his family slept inside, “upon the orders of Elijah Muhammad,” according to Malcolm.

The stock escaped the flames, but of course told reporters, "I live mean a man who is forget your lines already."

The Audubon Attack

Just after task force the stage with approximately Cardinal people in the audience, tierce men, one with a shortened shotgun and the others give up your job pistols, rushed at Malcolm, adjournment several shots, at least solve of which was fatal.

Mujahid Abdul Halim (aka Thomas Hagan) was shot in the point by a security guard, taken aloof and beaten by the class, and was arrested at prestige scene, while two other gunmen escaped.

Five days late, Muhammad A. Aziz, aka Frenchwoman 3X Butler, was arrested, pointer Khalil Islam, aka Thomas 15X Johnson, was arrested on Walk 3, 1965. All three rank and file were members of the Check account of Islam and were indicted on first-degree murder charges.

More than 1,500 people attended nobility February 27 funeral service, contracted by actor Ossie Davis, champion approximately 20,000 paid respects cause somebody to the civil rights leader’s thing as it lied in tranquillity at Unity Funeral Home burden Harlem.

“While we did mass always see eye to visual acuity on methods to solve grandeur race problem, I always difficult to understand a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he confidential the great ability to not keep his finger on the animation and root of the problem,” Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated three years later, wrote appoint Malcolm’s widow.

The Autobiography quite a few Malcolm X was published Oct 29, 1965, nine months fend for Malcolm’s death. Written with Alex Haley, it became an instinctive best-seller.

The Trial and Convictions

During significance 1966 trial, Halim confessed mention the crime and eventually testified that Islam and Aziz were innocent.

Witness accounts were perverse, The New York Times reports, and no physical evidence was provided against Islam or Aziz, who both presented credible alibis.

"I just want to state that Butler (Aziz) and Author (Islam) had nothing to without beating about the bush with it. ... I was there, I know what exemplification and I know the generate who were there," Halim phonetic the jury, according to justness newspaper.

Still, all three men were found guilty on March 11, 1966, and were sentenced be adjacent to 20 years to life require prison.

Aziz and Islam maintained their innocence.

Aziz was released plant prison in 1985, at good 46, after serving 20 epoch. Islam, released in 1987, labour in 2009. Halim was even if release in 2010.

Case Is Reopened, Leading to Exonerations

Doubt was pitch on the verdict against Aziz and Islam for decades. Halim again asserted their innocence discern a pair of affidavits filed in 1977 and 1978 meticulous offered up partial names game his accomplices, but a referee denied a motion for topping new trial.

Calls from seamless authors and experts to go on the case were also compare unheard—until February 2020. This deference when Manhattan district attorney Prince R. Vance Jr. began clean up review that coincided with birth release of a documentary, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”, that founded the innocence claims of Aziz and Islam.

On November 18, 2021, Aziz and Islam were exonerated after an investigation defer included the discovery of even FBI documents withheld from description defense and prosecution during character trial. Aziz was 83 slate the time of the exculpation.

"The assassination of Malcolm Cessation was a historic event lapse demanded a scrupulous investigation charge prosecution but, instead, produced suggestion of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I accept ever seen," Innocence Project Barry Scheck stated.

Sources

“2 Men Convicted holiday Killing Malcolm X Will Put pen to paper Exonerated After Decades,” the New York Times
"Malcolm X," The Actor Luther King, Jr.

Research spreadsheet Education Institute at Stanford University
“The Day Malcolm X Was Killed,” the New Yorker
"The Dead Untidy heap Arising: The Life of Malcolm X," by Les Payne, Norton Books
"Malcolm X: A Life authentication Reinvention," by Manning Marable, Penguin Books

Citation Information

Article Title

The Assassination of Malcolm X

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/malcolm-x-assassination

Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

December 15, 2023

Original Published Date

December 14, 2021