Malcolm X Assassinated in New York City
Militant African-American leader Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City on this day.
His assassination continues to be surrounded by controversy, with allegations that the Nation of Islam, the FBI and New York City police officers were complicit in the murder.
Malcolm Little, the future civil rights leader known as Malcolm X, was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 19, 1925. His family soon moved to Michigan. The Omaha birth site is now a historic landmark and the location of the Malcolm X Center.
As an adult, Malcolm settled in Boston as an adult and became involved in various crimes. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison where, influenced by other inmates, he converted to Islam. A charismatic leader, he soon rose to prominence in the Nation of Islam, where he gradually came into conflict with the culturally and politically conservative leaders. As he became a prominent national leader for African Americans, advocating a unique version of separatism that challenged the integrationist position of national civil rights leaders, he caught the attention of the FBI, which opened an FBI file on him May 4, 1953.
Read Manning Marable’s biography of Malcolm for the best account of the controversy.
Read the new biography: Les Payne and Tamara Payne, The Dead Are Rising: The Life of Malcolm X (2021)
Read the great new book on Malcolm X and Martin Luther King: Peniel Joseph, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King (2020)
Read the acclaimed biography: Manning Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011)
Watch a 1963 interview with Malcolm X: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTOn8JtN4c0
Visit the Malcolm X Center in Omaha
Watch a compilation of Malcolm X speeches and interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9AmuYqjRyg
See the Spike Lee film: Malcolm X (1992)