Assassination of Malcom X

On the morning of February 21, 1965, Malcolm X woke up, alone, in a room at New York City's Hilton Hotel.

He was, literally, a man without a home. One week earlier, his house in the East Elmhurst section of Queens had been firebombed in the middle of the night. His wife, Betty Shabazz, and their four young children emerged unscathed, though they were now staying at the home of friends in an undisclosed location for their safety.

Malcolm strongly believed that his former colleagues from the Nation of Islam (NOI), under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad, were behind the firebombing. Once the second-most powerful member of the religious and political movement, he now found himself looking over his shoulder at the militant Muhammad loyalists he knew could easily snuff out his life.

As he told reporters around that time, "I live like a man who is dead already."

Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam after his comments about President Kennedy’s death

The Nation of Islam, with its focus on Black empowerment, had provided a lifeline for the man still known as Malcolm Little during his incarceration for larceny in the late 1940s. Following his parole in 1952, the former street hustler assumed increasingly important roles under Muhammad's wing, becoming minister of Boston Temple No. 11 and then Temple No. 7 in New York City.

A towering figure of intimidating intellect, the fiery Malcolm X helped make the Nation of Islam an intriguing alternative to African Americans who remained unconvinced by the nonviolent demonstrations of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. But he eventually found himself at odds with NOI leadership for his public revelation of Muhammad's adulterous affairs, as well as the perceptions that his individual power had become too dangerous.

After Muhammad suspended him for saying that President John F. Kennedy's assassination was the result of "chickens coming home to roost" in a violent society, Malcolm X left the movement in March 1964, his turn toward a more inclusive form of activism and denunciations of the NOI further fueling the animosity between the two sides.

                   Prepared by Simon