Malcolm X Assassinated on this day in history

[williepete]

I love my 'This Day in History' sites. (I monitor 9 of them).

I knew Malcolm X was assassinated on this day but I learned quite a bit more about this interesting man by today's remembrance. Three things in particular: His father was also assassinated. By the Black Legion organization which I had never heard of. Why he chose the name Malcolm X and that he took yet another name, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity which unlike the Nation of Islam was active with the Civil Rights movement.

The "lack of discord among orthodox Muslims" Malcolm observed surely rings hollow in today's Middle East.

Excerpt from today's article:

"...Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful,...suspend(ed) him from the Nation of Islam.

...Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm's new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City."

More on this life, work and assassination:
This Day in History History.com What Happened Today in History

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Ironic he's often remembered as being a member of NoI and yet it was they who assassinated him.

 

[Roadrunner]

Ironic he's often remembered as being a member of NoI and yet it was they who assassinated him.

I sorta remember when that happened.

I don't recall a big deal being made over it though.

Sort of a legend that grew.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Ironic he's often remembered as being a member of NoI and yet it was they who assassinated him.

I sorta remember when that happened.

I don't recall a big deal being made over it though.

Sort of a legend that grew.

Before my time. Can you tell you every minute of my morning on 9/11/2001 though. That kinda stands out.

 

[Roadrunner]

Ironic he's often remembered as being a member of NoI and yet it was they who assassinated him.

I sorta remember when that happened.

I don't recall a big deal being made over it though.

Sort of a legend that grew.

Before my time. Can you tell you every minute of my morning on 9/11/2001 though. That kinda stands out.

I had just gone from teaching in a traditional high school to an alternative school.

I had been a bit anxious the first day, maybe the first few days.

Then 9/11.

Brought everybody together, and my years at that alternative school were the best I ever had.

I still see kids from those days, and they love me, and their babies love me.

 

[Mad Scientist]

The book was a good read and even the Spike Lee movie was good too. Even though SL is a P.O.S.

Malcom went to Mecca and found that Islam wasn't the race based religion that Nation of Islam had projected and yeah, he was killed by the N of I.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Ironic he's often remembered as being a member of NoI and yet it was they who assassinated him.

I sorta remember when that happened.

I don't recall a big deal being made over it though.

Sort of a legend that grew.

Before my time. Can you tell you every minute of my morning on 9/11/2001 though. That kinda stands out.

I had just gone from teaching in a traditional high school to an alternative school.

I had been a bit anxious the first day, maybe the first few days.

Then 9/11.

Brought everybody together, and my years at that alternative school were the best I ever had.

I still see kids from those days, and they love me, and their babies love me.

My then-gf called me on the morning of 9/11 asking if I wanted her to come over. While pondering that she put me on hold and her job had that musak sorta thing for people on hold and the news was talking about it. When she came back on I asked what was going on in NYC and she said to turn on the news. I did.

Remember having a shiver of fear when the news showed a distant shot of downtown remembering similar shots in WW3 type movies right before the bright flash.

It's unfortunate we only ever 'come together' as one nation when someone other than ourselves becomes the new enemy.

 

[williepete]

Malcolm X was assassinated on this day in history,

...so 911 and our teaching jobs and ex girl friends.



I had hoped to come home from work and learn more about Malcolm X but that's USMB for ya.

Thanks Mad Scientist for the movie endorsement. I wanted to watch it tonight if anyone thought it was historically worthwhile.

Sheesh.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Pretty sure LBJ was behind the assassination, but I could be wrong

 

[Thunderbird]

Three things in particular: His father was also assassinated.

This and other claims from The Autobiography of Malcom X are dubious.

Check out: Malcolm: the life of a man who changed Black America by Bruce Perry.

 

[williepete]

Thanks Thunderbird. Sounds interesting. On my list.

Appears to be very well researched from first hand sources.

Malcolm: the life of a man who changed Black America by Bruce Perry.
Malcolm The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America by Bruce Perry Reviews Discussion Bookclubs Lists

"This fascinating psychological portrait, strikingly different from the one given in the Autobiography, is of a man who was abused by both his parents, who never shook off the conflicts of his troubled youth, and whose internalized messages of racial ambivalence continued to plague him throughout his brilliant career. As no other book has done, Malcolm traces the entire life of this heroic figure, from his birth in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, his youthful struggles with deprivation and drug addiction, his life-threatening prison experience and conversion to Islam, through his emergence as a Muslim leader and spokesman for a restless America, and finally to his death by assassination. Exhaustively researched, this first comprehensive biography of Malcolm X is based on the oral and written accounts of over 400 people who knew him, as well as government files and Malcolm's letters. "...paints a rich, full, and fair portrait of the man...what it gives us is not a diminished Malcolm, for his heroism, his brilliance...charm...wit...necessity have never been as sympathetically or absorbingly rendered."-The Los Angeles Times