Malcolm X shot dead at Harlem rally

Reuters, BUP, The Guardian, Monday 22 February 1965

New York, February 21—Malcolm X, the Negro nationalist leader, was assassinated while addressing a meeting in Harlem today. He fell after a barrage of shots. Later, two Negro men were arrested and charged with murder.

The Negro leader, who recently returned from a tour of Africa and a visit to Britain, was taken to a near-by hospital with three bullet wounds.

A spokesman said: The wounds were centred in his chest and I believe one was in his cheek. This conflicted with a police report that he was shot in the stomach. Three other men were wounded in the shooting.

It was at 3 p.m. that Malcolm X rose to address the audience in a ballroom, where he held weekly meetings of the Organisation of Afro-American Unity. This was the movement he formed after falling out with the Black Muslims, which he led in New York, because of the remark he made at the time of President Kennedy's assassination, the chickens are coming home to roost.

Rush for exits

As he rose, one of his followers climbed on the rostrum and told the audience: Malcolm is a man who would give his life for you. There aren't many men who would lay down their lives for you. Malcolm X stepped to the rostrum and received a thunderous ovation.

Then the shots rang out. Many of the 500 people present fell to the floor. When the firing subsided, Malcolm X, bloodied and unmoving, lay sprawling on the floor in a pool of blood. The audience rushed towards the exits of the buildings, dashed down the stairways, and into the street. Some of the witnesses reported that the fusillade of shots sounded like a machine-gun burst.

Men beaten

Malcolm X's wife, Betty, watched her husband fall over. Then she ran hysterically through the auditorium screaming: They're killing my husband.

Guards had been stationed throughout the ballroom for Malcolm X's speech, which had been advertised as an action programme. The meeting was closed to the press but Negro journalists were admitted as interested people.

Few policemen were on duty at the ballroom. But large numbers were soon on the scene. Don't let them get away Negroes shouted as they chased two men. Kill them, kill them. The policemen intervened as the two men were being beaten on the pavement.

When he was in Britain he told students of Manchester University that the American Negro would bring about a revolution either with the ballot or the bullet.

Reuter and British United Press