User:Malik Shabazz/Assassination of Malcolm X

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"The Man Who Didn’t Shoot Malcolm X", New York magazine

  • Background
    • Very brief bio
    • Break with NOI
  • Interruption and "dress rehearsal" on February 14

--> In June 1964, the NOI sued to reclaim Malcolm's home in Queens, which they claimed belonged to the organization. The suit was successful, and Malcolm and his family were ordered to vacate the house. On February 14, 1965, the night before a scheduled hearing to postpone the eviction date, the house burned to the ground. Malcolm and his family survived, and no one was charged with any crime.

--> On February 21 in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm had just begun delivering a speech when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Get your hand outta my pocket! Don't be messin' with my pockets!" As Malcolm and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance,[1] a man rushed forward and shot Malcolm in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns at Malcolm, who was shot 16 times. Angry onlookers in the crowd caught and beat the assassins as they attempted to flee the ballroom. Malcolm was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

  • Gunman/gunmen beaten by crowd, taken by police at the scene {Butler and Johnson?}
    • Possible confusion concerning gunman/gunmen leading to initial conspiracy theories

Three men were charged with the assassination: Norman 3X Butler, Talmadge Hayer, and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were members of the Nation of Islam. {Newark Temple?}

At trial, Hayer admitted that he had shot at Malcolm, but he testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and had not been involved in the shooting. All three men were convicted.

[edit] Norman 3X Butler

Norman 3X Butler has always maintained his innocence. Hayer, the only assassin who was apprehended at the scene {?} and confessed, also claimed that Butler was completely innocent.

Butler has remained a member of the Nation of Islam. He changed his name to Muhammad Abd Al-Aziz and was paroled from prison in 1985.

Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has said that he believes Al-Aziz's claims of innocence. In 1998, Farrakhan appointed Al-Aziz the head of the organization's Temple No. 7 in Harlem. Temple No. 7 had been established and led by Malcolm X before he left the Nation of Islam.

[edit] Thomas 15X Johnson

Thomas 15X Johnson has always maintained his innocence. Hayer, the only assassin who was apprehended at the scene {?} and confessed, also claimed that Johnson was completely innocent.

Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, was paroled from prison in 1987.

{NoI affiliation?}

[edit] Talmadge Hayer

Talmadge Hayer was the only assassin who was apprehended at the scene {?} and confessed.

After Hayer, Butler, and Johnson were convicted {?}, Hayer claimed that Butler and Johnson were innocent. In a court hearing on April 30, 1966, Hayer claimed that Leon David and Wilbur McKinley had participated in the assassination. He has repeated this assertion in several sworn affidavits known as the Hayer affidavits.

In 1977, Hayer named William Bradley and Albert Thomas as other members of the conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X. Bradley and Thomas, like Hayer, David, and McKinley, were all members of the Nation of Islam's Newark, New Jersey, temple.

[edit] Leon David

Leon David was a member of the Nation of Islam {Newark?} and, according to Hayer, one of the assassins of Malcolm X. David has never been charged in connection with the assassination. David is a member of the Nation of Islam and lives in New Jersey. {?}

[edit] Wilbur McKinley

According to Hayer, Wilbur McKinley was a member of the conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X. Little is known about McKinley except that he was older than 30 at the time (1965) and that he worked in the construction business.

  • Conspiracy theories

--> Within days of Malcolm's assassination, questions were raised about who was responsible for his death. On February 23, James Farmer, the leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Black Muslims, were to blame.[2] Others blamed the police, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection and the ease with which the assassins had entered the Audubon Ballroom.[3]

--> In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret government programs to infiltrate and disrupt civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, has been identified as an FBI agent.[4] Malcolm had confided in a reporter that Ali had exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad, and he considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership.[4] On February 20, the night before the assassination, Ali met with Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm.[5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ In the Epilogue to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley wrote that Malcolm said, "Hold it! Hold it! Don't get excited. Let's cool it brothers." (p. 434.) According to a transcription of a recording of the shooting, Malcolm's only words were, "Hold it!", which he repeated 10 times. (Louis A. DeCaro, Jr., On the Side of My People: A Religious Life of Malcolm X (New York University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-8147-1864-7), p. 274.)
  2. ^ Perry, p. 371.
  3. ^ Perry, p. 372.
  4. ^ a b Louis E. Lomax, To Kill a Black Man, (Holloway House, 1968, ISBN 0-87067-731-4), p. 198.
  5. ^ Evanzz, p. 294.