The 44th Anniversary of the Assassination of Malcolm X

by Karen Hatter | February 21, 2009 at 09:34 am

3507 views | 116 Recommendations | 22 comments

On February 21, 1965, Black nationalist leader Malcolm X, who first changed the 'X' to Shabazz, later changing his full name to El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem in New York City. He was gunned down as he stood at the rostrum, preparing to address those gathered to hear him further expound upon his vision for the newly formed organization, the Organization for Afro American Unity (OAAU).

He was murdered as his wife, Betty Shabazz, and his four young daughters, sitting on the front row in the ballroom, watched in horror as gunmen stepped to the front of the ballroom, opening fire. Malcolm had abandoned the practice of security searches that had been standard operating procedure during his time in the Nation of Islam. Shortly after Malcolm fell to the stage, a man later identified to be an F.B.I. asset/operative/informant, is seen kneeling over Malcolm's still body, the man believed to be attempting CPR.

Three months after his return from Hajj in Mecca in March 1964, at the founding rally of the OAAU, also held at the Audubon Ballroom, during his speech to those gathered on June 28, 1964, Malcolm read the "Basic Aims and Objectives of the Organization of Afro American Unity”, less than eight months before he was assassinated. Much has been written, about Malcolm's religious epiphany while on pilgrimage in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, of the men alleged to be in the plot to kill Malcolm X, their ties to the Nation of Islam, with whom Malcolm had had a falling out after criticizing the leader of the Nation of Islam, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Minister Louis Farrakhan's remarks, who, at the time, was the editor of the Nation of Islam's internationally distributed newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, which Minister Farrakhan has admitted, added fuel to growing tensions within the Nation of Islam and the Black community.

Very little has been written about the construct of societal change that was evolving or the events that led up to and included Malcolm X's death. The F.B.I. operative alleged to be giving mouth to mouth resuscitation to Malcolm as he lie bleeding on stage at the Audubon was a player in and part of government infiltration that was used throughout the United States by the F.B.I. to 'monitor' Black organizations in America, as it spied on all domestic organizations engaged in what would have been termed, during the McCarthy Era Senate investigations, 'un-American activities', through the use of a program called the Counterintelligence Program or COINTELPRO.

In the Black community, all Black organizations were targeted under COINTELPRO. Non violent and those considered by the F.B.I. with the potential to be violent, were handled in the same manner, not necessarily because of any evidence of violent tendencies but, based upon the belief, time has revealed, and at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover, with him believing all Black groups may have become violent.

COINTELPRO is said to have been formulated in 1956, the same year that the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v the Board of Education, that resulted in planning to desegregate public schools, as they were deemed not separate and equal. This decision gave rise to the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission, for all intent and purpose, a shadow government meant to work to thwart the change on the horizon in America.

The Mississippi commission model was adopted throughout the Southern states in the United States for the same reason which, at that time, was to deny African American citizens democratic rights and dignity. COINTELPRO is claimed to have been terminated in 1972, upon the discovery of its existence during a burglary at an F.B.I. field office however, many of its actions and tactics, later ruled illegal upon its discovery, have now been made legal with the creation and use of the Patriot Act I and the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, better known as Patriot Act II.

COINTELPRO was conceived of to spy on, disrupt, through the use of disinformation techniques and other 'extra normal means', domestic organizations, considered to be dissident organizations. In the Black community, the F.B.I. under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover, was concerned about “.... preventing the rise of a Black Messiah”.

F.B.I. memoranda document Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s status, according to Hoover, as the “ .... most dangerous man in America....”, due to the growing influence of his non-violent movement, fearing that influence if his movement abandoned non violence. Under COINTELPRO, the concern for the Nation of Islam was embodied by Malcolm X. It was concluded that Elijah Muhammad was too old, less a threat than Malcolm, who was considered by the F.B.I., to be a possible successor to lead the organization. At present, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it states Malcolm X was investigated to “.... verify communist influence”. The FOIA site shows there are 11,674 pages pertaining to Malcolm X, of which 4,065 are available to be viewed, with most to be sealed until a future date. In addition to Malcolm's charisma, the growing following, at the time of his murder in 1965, as he planned to launch a nationalist organization, the OAAU, that would, among other things, petition the United Nations for redress of grievances, on behalf of so called Negroes in the United States, where their status as second class citizens was still the reality in America, stating the so called Negro, or Afro American, must be free “ .... by any means necessary” and the use of COINTELPRO to disrupt Malcolm's fledgling organization, as well as the Nation of Islam, must be part of any discussion that attempts to explore and provide understanding and clarity to the contributions made by El Hajj Malik El Shabazz to the African/African American community, the society at large and his influence throughout the world.

Also at NowPublic: In Memory of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, Formerly Known As Malcolm X

7 See all footage | View Slideshow

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rumana husain

at 10:05 on February 21st, 2009

thank you for this reminder and detailed info on MX

Amy Judd

at 11:50 on February 21st, 2009

I had no idea about the intimate details of his life or death - thanks for this piece Karen

A. Tran

at 12:08 on February 21st, 2009

Thank you, Karen, for this story on the unfortunate anniversary of assassination of Malcolm X.

mazevedo

at 13:58 on February 21st, 2009

Great piece, thanks for sharing!

dowdinsk

at 14:10 on February 21st, 2009

by all means necessary

jhazell

at 18:50 on February 21st, 2009

I doesn't matter what road you took, all roads, (whether they were with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King or the white racist idiots of the South), inevitably led to President Obama. I wonder if Malcolm X would be surprised at the outcome or did he kind of know?? Seems to me that to be a leader in the American Black movement of that time you did always have to keep your eyes on the prize. Its a legacy of strength and resolve against ignorance and violence and in the end, we all won. Yes I know, there is a long way to go still and many have paid the price along the way, but it seems to be starting to turn around and who knows what the future may bring. Thanks and good post

jhazell

at 18:56 on February 21st, 2009

Powerful piece, a lesson in dedication and intelligence, and diary of the road taken, hard and painful. I love the way you write and I guess everyone is welcome to their own opinions and interpretations. Thanks for yours.

Karen Hatter

at 19:14 on February 21st, 2009

My most sincere gratitude for the praise, Jhazell.

Karen Hatter

at 19:16 on February 21st, 2009

Thank you to Everyone who stopped by to read and recommend this piece. I appreciate your support.

duo

at 00:56 on February 22nd, 2009

Thank you for reminding us of Malcolm X and his contributions during the civil rights movement. He said on the video at this link, "The price of freedom is death." Unfortunately, this seems to have been true in his case, as it was for Dr. King and others.

http://www.scholarspot.com/video/11183/4407/-MALCOLM-X-The-Price-of-Freedom-is-Death-

djermano

at 03:49 on February 22nd, 2009

Such a pity mankind gets caught up in the masses of confusion and hysteria. One man advocates Violence the other Nonviolence.... Such a pity we have the conflicts of black vs.white....rich vs poor.....it seems like a movie, a nightmare, a humanistic contingent within a crayon box of insanity....while the color red dominiates the outcome to the picture. Why is there argument, why is it one gains the upper hand, while the other gets the short end of the stick? America was thought of as an American dream, and yet so many examples have proved it quite the opposite indeed... The sensationalism of it all.....beckons its complete utter implosion......as the WTC center exemplifies the idea of America is really a fight against itself.... And as the human condition continues to evolve and reinvent itself, the horrors become more pronounced and more extreme.... Malcolm Little should have kept his small dignified name.......in that tis better to go onward in life as unknown than to capture the attention of the masses, who will blame all of societies ills on you for trying to help. I know the meaning of the X, which represented the unknown names of Africans who came to the US as slaves. It is said a white blue eyed boy gave the name to his family that name being Little....but who knows if this is true or not... What is interesting is that Malcolm was like Obama part white in fact. His grandfather was a white Scottsman.

I liked Malcolm and when I see Malcolm X's name I know he was before and ahead of his time......so ahead that he signed his name before the X instead of after it.... Long live Malcolm Little......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X

Bro. Jermano

Karen Hatter

at 09:16 on February 22nd, 2009

From COINTELPRO: The Untold Story (Part I) :

According to the FBI's own records, agents have been directed to use "established local news media contacts" and other "sources available to the Seat of Government" to "disrupt or neutralize" organizations and to "ridicule and discredit" them.

Many counterintelligence techniques involve the use of paid informants. Informants become agents provocateurs by raising controversial issues at meetings to take advantage of ideological divisions, by promoting emnity with other groups, or by inciting the group to violent acts, even to the point of providing them with weapons.

Over the years, FBI provocateurs have repeatedly urged and initiated violent acts, including forceful disruptions of meetings and demonstrations, attacks on police, bombings, and so on, following an old strategy of Tsarist police director TC Zubatov: "We shall provoke you to acts of terror and then crush you."

A concise description of political warfare is given in a passage from a CIA paper entitled "Nerve War Against Individuals," referring to the overthrowing of the government of Guatemala in 1954:

The strength of an enemy consists largely of the individuals who occupy key positions in the enemy organization, as leaders, speakers, writers, organizers, cabinet members, senior government officials, army commanders and staff officers, and so forth. Any effort to defeat the enemy must therefore concentrate to a great extent upon these key enemy individuals.

If such an effort is made by means short of physical violence, we call it "psychological warfare." If it is focussed less upon convincing those individuals by logical reasoning, but primarily upon moving them in the desired direction by means of harassment, by frightening, confusing and misleading them, we speak of a "nerve war". 8

The COINTELPROs clearly met the above definition of "nerve wars," and, in the case of the American Indian Movement in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, the FBI conducted a full-fledged counterinsurgency war, complete with death squads, disappearances and assassinations, recalling Guatemala in more recent years.

The full story of COINTELPRO may never be told. The Bureau's files were never seized by Congress or the courts or sent to the National Archives. Some have been destroyed. Many counterintelligence operations were never committed to writing as such, or involve open investigations, and ex-operatives are legally prohibited from talking about them. Most operations remain secret until long after the damage has been done.

Karen Hatter

at 13:33 on February 22nd, 2009

From a speech delivered by Malcolm X at Corn Hill Methodist Church, Rochester, New York, on February 16, 1965, 5 days before his death, entitled, Not Just An American Problem But a World Problem :

Since the civil rights bill - I used to see African diplomats at the UN crying out against the injustice that was being done to Black people in Mozambique, in Angola, the Congo, in South Africa, and I wondered why and how they could go back to their hotels and turn on the TV and see dogs biting Black people right down the block and policemen wrecking the stores of Black people with their clubs right down the block, and putting water hose on Black people with pressure so high it tears off our clothes, right down the block. And I wondered how they could talk all the talk about what was happeneing in Angola and Mozambique and all the rest of it and see it happen right down the block and get up on the podium in the UN and not say anything about it.

But I went and discussed it with some of them. And they said that as long as the Black man in America calls his struggle a struggle for civil rights - that the civil rights context, it's domestic and it remains within the jurisdiction of the United States. And if any of them open up their mouths to say anything about it, it's considered a violation of laws and rules of protocol. And the difference with the other people was that they didn't call their grievances "civil rights" grievances, they called them "human rights" grievances. "civil rights" are within the jurisdiction of the govenrment where they are involved. But "human rights" is part of the charter of the United Nations.

All the nations that signed the charter of the UN came up with the Declaration of Human Rights and anyone who classifies his grievances under the label of "human rights" violations, those grievances can then be discussed by people all over the world. For as long as you call it "civil rights" your only allies can be the people in the next community, many of whom are responsible for your grievance. But when you call it "human rights" it becomes international. And then you can take your troubles to the World Court. You can take them before the world. And anybody anywhere on this earth can become your ally.

So, one of the first steps that we became involved in, those of us who got into the Organization of Afro-American Unity, was to come up with a program that would make our grievances international and make the world see our problem was no longer a Negro problem or an American problem but a human problem. A problem for humanity. And a problem which should be attacked by all elements of humanity. A problem that was so complex that it is impossible for Uncle Sam to solve it himself and therefore we want to get into a body or conference with people who are in such positions that they can help us get some kind of adjustment for this situation before it gets so explosive that no one can handle it.

Thank you.

- From Malcolm X - The Last Speeches

Pathfinder Press

A. Tran

at 18:22 on February 22nd, 2009

Thank you, Karen, for posting excerpts from the Not Just An American Problem but a World Problem speech. I also think this paragraph in his speech provides insights to Malcolm X's perspectives on human rights and the degradation of African Americans.

"We realized at the same time we had a problem in this society that went beyond religion. And it was for that reason we set up the Organization of Afro-American Unity in which anybody in the community could participate in an action program designed to bring about complete recognition and respect of Black people as human beings."

Karen Hatter

at 05:58 on February 23rd, 2009

Thank you for highlighting this portion of the speech as well, Pythiian1.

Rhonda J Mangus

at 22:12 on February 22nd, 2009

Interesting Opinion piece and comment thread, Karen. Thanks for this!

djermano

at 05:19 on February 23rd, 2009

The question is who was right? Malcolm or King? Malcolm advocated Violence, while Rev. King advocated Nonviolence. Is there a significance that there is a Martin Luther King holiday, and not a Malcolm X holiday? Clearly Rev. King deep down knew it was not about race......it was about class...rich vs.poor... You see if the rich can divert the issue toward racism....it puts up a barrier to the real truth....which adds a barrier and protection to their wealth.

Bro. Jermano

Karen Hatter

at 07:12 on February 23rd, 2009

El Hajj Malik El Shabazz did not advocate violence.

He believed that when and if one was attacked, the person attacked had the basic human right to defend themselves.

He did not believe that he should suffer abuse at the hands of another to show others he was allegedly a better man as he allowed himself to be spat upon, kicked and beaten.

tikun

at 12:38 on February 23rd, 2009

I wish you were there at the time in New York. This isn't quite the truth. Half way for sure. Violence was the operative word when it came to verbal attacks on whites in general. While there was never anything he did in his actions to get him arrested the rhetoric was up in the stratisphere when it came to subtle and not so subtle threats. Maybe El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, who btw, never was called by that name in public, but Malcolm certainly entertained and used the violent rhetoric for effect.

I am baffled why it is so difficult to tell the WHOLE story. The truth will never diminish his importance in American history. But revising the truth shows little respect for the man.

Karen Hatter

at 12:58 on February 23rd, 2009

I was there.

Karen Hatter

at 07:45 on February 23rd, 2009

Always remember the past for therein lies the future, if forgotten ....

- the Akan concept of Sankofa

Amy Judd

at 10:28 on February 23rd, 2009

As this piece is clearly marked opinion, the author is free to put her personal opinion in to the story, and while some may not agree with the view presented here, this is not a news piece - it's an editorial piece.

It's fine to address the issues in the piece and discuss them, but not to accuse the author of having an agenda or only selective reporting on an issue when it is their own opinion piece.

Please be civil and respectful of everyone's point of view and please don't presume to know about why someone chose to write a story in a certain way when you know nothing about them.

Thanks.