As he stepped forward to address a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity, gunmen rushed the stage and fired at close range, hitting him fifteen times. He was 39. His assassination came after months of death threats following his public break with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad.
Malcolm X knew the danger he was in. He had told friends and journalists for weeks that his life was in jeopardy, and just six days earlier his home in Queens had been firebombed while his wife and children slept inside. Still, he refused to cancel the Sunday afternoon rally at the Audubon Ballroom, a converted dance hall in Washington Heights, and he even waved off his own security detail that day.
As he began speaking, a disturbance broke out in the crowd of roughly 400 people. In the confusion, one man fired a shotgun into his chest at point-blank range while two others rushed forward firing pistols. Betty Shabazz, six months pregnant, threw herself over her four daughters as chaos erupted. Talib Hassan Yahya, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson were arrested, though decades later two of the convictions were vacated amid revelations the FBI and NYPD had withheld evidence.
Malcolm X's funeral drew thousands, and his autobiography, published later that year, became one of the most influential books in American history, reshaping how a generation understood race, religion, and self-determination.
Key people: Malcolm X, Betty Shabazz