This Day in History:
Malcolm X Is Assassinated February 21, 1965 The African American nationalist
and religious leader was
assassinated by rival Black Muslims
of the Nation of Islam in New York City. He had been addressing
his Organization of Afro-
American Unity at the Audubon
Ballroom in Washington Heights. Founded just months earlier by Malcolm,
the organization advocated black identity
and held that racism — not the white race —
was the greatest foe of the African American. The Nation of Islam — from which
Malcolm X had separated before
his pilgrimage to Mecca — advocated
black nationalism and racial separatism. Malcolm’s new movement
steadily gained followers,
becoming increasingly influential
in the civil rights movement. An estimated 30,000
mourners attended
his funeral in Harlem.