Malcolm X Assassinated: Civil Rights Movement Shocked
Three gunmen opened fire on Malcolm X as he began speaking at the Audubon Ballroom in Upper Manhattan on February 21, 1965. Twenty-one shotgun pellets and bullet wounds killed him at age 39. Talmadge Hayer was tackled by the audience and beaten before police arrested him. Two other men, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, were convicted despite consistent alibis and Hayer's repeated testimony that they were innocent and that four other Nation of Islam members from a Newark mosque had participated. In 2021, a 22-month investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney exonerated Butler and Johnson, finding that both the FBI and NYPD had withheld evidence that would have cleared them at trial. The FBI had infiltrated Malcolm's security detail and was aware of assassination threats but did nothing to protect him. The case exposed how federal surveillance of Black leaders actively enabled rather than prevented violence against them.
February 21, 1965
61 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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