Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, six days after gunmen shot him dead at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Actor Ossie Davis delivered a eulogy calling him 'our own black shining prince,' and mourners, defying the frozen ground, reportedly took over the gravediggers' shovels themselves to bury him, refusing to let hired hands do it.
Malcolm X had been assassinated on February 21, 1965, shot multiple times while beginning a speech to his Organization of Afro-American Unity, an event that stunned even those who knew he had received death threats after his acrimonious split from the Nation of Islam. His funeral drew roughly 1,500 mourners to the Faith Temple Church of God in Harlem.
Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy that would become as famous as the man it honored, describing Malcolm as 'a man who did not hesitate to die, because he loved us so much,' and defending his militancy as an honest response to a nation's brutality toward Black Americans.
At the burial in Hartsdale, mourners, wary of further violence and distrustful of strangers, reportedly dismissed the cemetery's grave workers and filled in the grave themselves by hand, a final act of protective devotion. Malcolm X's autobiography, cowritten with Alex Haley and published later that year, would go on to shape generations of activists and thinkers, cementing a legacy that had been cut short at just 39 years old.
Key people: Malcolm X, Ossie Davis