Malcolm X

Shot on 21 February 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan by members of the Nation of Islam; the former national minister had broken with the movement a year earlier.

Overview

Malcolm X, the most electrifying voice of Black nationalism, had left the Nation of Islam in March 1964, made the pilgrimage to Mecca, embraced orthodox Islam as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, and founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, moderating his racial views while remaining a fierce critic of American racism. Speaking to a family audience at the Audubon, a diversion in the crowd drew attention as gunmen rushed the stage and shot him repeatedly; he died shortly afterward at Columbia Presbyterian. Three Nation members were convicted in 1966. In 2021, two convictions were vacated after a reinvestigation showed suppressed exculpatory evidence, reopening the question of the assassination scope. His autobiography remains a canonical account of conversion, race, and political evolution in America.