The attack came amid escalating tensions between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, which he had publicly broken from a year earlier. No one was killed, but the firebombing underscored the mounting threats against him in the final days before he was shot dead at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965.
By February 1965, Malcolm X was a man surrounded by danger on every side. He had split publicly from the Nation of Islam in 1964 after growing disillusioned with its leader, Elijah Muhammad, and had begun articulating a more internationalist vision of Black liberation following a pilgrimage to Mecca and travels across Africa.
That break made him a target. Members of the Nation of Islam viewed his departure and public criticisms as a betrayal deserving punishment. In the predawn hours, a firebomb was thrown into his Queens home, where his wife Betty Shabazz and their four young daughters were sleeping. The family escaped without serious injury, but the message was unmistakable.
Malcolm X spoke publicly about the attack, telling reporters he expected worse to come and that he did not believe he would live to see his life story fully written. Eleven days later, on February 21, he was assassinated on stage at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, shot by men associated with the Nation of Islam. The firebombing remains one of the clearest warning signs in the days leading up to his death.