ABC RADIO PRESENTS: ‘MALCOLM X. MISFIT OR MESSIAH?’
(As aired on ABC affiliate WXYZ 1270, Detroit, Sunday night, February 21, 1965)
THE KILLING OF MALCOLM X
—FEBRUARY 21, 1965—
On Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, “Get your hand outta my pocket!” As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. MalcolmX was pronounced dead at 3:30pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.
One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. At trial Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson. In 1977 and 1978, he signed affidavits reasserting Butler’s and Johnson’s innocence, naming four other Nation members of Newark’s Mosque No. 25 as participants in the murder or its planning. These affidavits did not result in the case being reopened.
(In 2020, the Netflix docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X? explored the assassination, which launched a new review of the murder by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney. The series is currently streaming on the network.)
Butler, today known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation’s Harlem mosque in 1998; he maintains his innocence. In prison Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation’s teachings and converted to Sunni Islam. Released in 1987, he maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, who also rejected the Nation’s teachings while in prison and converted to Sunni Islam, is known today as Mujahid Halim.He was paroled in 2010.
The public viewing, February23–26 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners. For the funeral on February27, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside Harlem’s thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ,and a local television station carried the service live.
Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young.Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing MalcolmX as “our shining black prince. . . who didn’t hesitate to die because he loved us so” . . .
Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Friends took up the gravediggers’ shovels to complete the burial themselves.
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(Source: Malcolm X; Wikipedia)
THE ABC RADIO NETWORK. 55 YEARS AGO TODAY
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—ACKNOWLEDGEMENT—
The above presented ABC Radio recording is courtesy of (the outstanding) pastdaily.com website and its site’s curator, Gorden Skene.
(please see Past Daily link in this site’s blogroll).
