The Assassination of Malcolm X

Part 4 in a series on the Assassinations of the ’60s

By Michael Welch and James DiEugenio

Global Research,

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“When the government of South Africa began to trample upon the human rights of the people of South Africa they were taken to the U.N. When the government of Portugal began to trample upon the rights of our brothers and sisters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N. Why, even the white man took the Hungarian question to the U.N. And just this week, Chief Justice Goldberg was crying over three million Jews in Russia, about their human rights, charging Russia with violating the U.N. Charter because of its mistreatment of the human rights of Jews in Russia. Now you tell me how can the plight of everybody on this Earth reach the halls of the United Nations and you have twenty-two million Afro-Americans whose churches are being bombed, whose little girls are being murdered, whose leaders are being shot down in broad daylight? Now you tell me why the leaders of this struggle have never taken it before the United Nations.” – Malcolm X (April 3, 1964)[1]

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Of all the figures risen to the level of legends in the United States that faced an assassination in that five year stretch in the 1960s, Malcolm X would definitely qualify as the most controversial.

The man who went into prison as a convict for larceny and break and enter and came out a minister within the religion of Islam. He bore the surname to replace his actual family name which was taken from African slaves and replaced with ‘Little,’ a slavemaster’s name. And while still in the Nation of Islam, he advocated for the separation of blacks and white, that blacks are superior to whites, and to the philosophy of non-violence he promoted defense of black people “by any means necessary.”[2][3]

But Malcolm X was a powerful figure who spoke extremely well. And he was a media favorite. He attracted the attention of prominent world leaders including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African Congress, and Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea. Following a visit to the United Nations General Assembly in September of 1960, even Fidel Castro expressed an interest in meeting privately with him in Cuba.[4][5][6]

The leader backed away from the previous views on racial segregation. He advocated Pan-Africanism, a world-wide movement promoting solidarity among indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent. He advocated the pursuit of racial justice. [7]

And it just so happens a number of agencies under the auspices of the government, had taken notice of him as well.

The Nation of Islam was not alone in seeking to curtail is influence.

That convergence of factors led to his murder on the stage of the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan on February 21, 1965.

The Global Research News Hour spends the entire hour of this special program looking at what motivated Malcolm X, what made him a threat to authorities, and how the Nation of Islam attackers on him were manipulated by the FBI and the CIA. Taking us through the entire legend of this figure is the outstanding scholar of all four assassinations of the ‘60s: James DiEugenio.

James DiEugenio has an MA in Contemporary American History from California State University Northridge. He authored the book Destiny Betrayed, probing the Garrison investigation of the JFK assassination, expanded in 2012. He also wrote Reclaiming Parkland in 2013 expanded again in 2016 and then re-issued again with additional material in the 2018 book The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today. He co-authored the book The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X.

Mr DiEugenio also has a website: kennedysandking.com with materials related to one or more of the assassination targets.

(Global Research News Hour Summer 2021 series)

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Notes:

  1.  Malcolm X (April 3, 1964) from the “Ballot or the Bullet” speech; www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/the-ballot-or-the-bullet-speech-transcript-malcolm-x
  2. www.malcolmx.com/biography/
  3. Walter Dean Myers (1965), By Any Means Necessary, Random House Inc.
  4. Natambu, Kofi (2002). The Life and Work of Malcolm X. pg 231-233, Indianapolis: Alpha Books
  5.  Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.(2011)(p. 172) New York: Viking.
  6. Lincoln, C. Eric (1961). The Black Muslims in America. Boston: Beacon Press.
  7. Walter Dean Myers (op.cit), pg 154, 155, 185

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