Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture > Malcolm
X: A Search for Truth
Malcolm X to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, 1964–65
“…on this pilgrimage, what I have
seen, and experienced, has forced me to re-arrange much of my thought-patterns
previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. …I
have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must
go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.”
— The Autobiography of Malcolm X
By January 1965, Minister Malcolm had been “silenced” and
stripped of his ministry (supposedly for ninety days) by Elijah
Muhammad for his comment after the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy.
He had used the phrase “chickens coming home to roost” in
his response to a reporter’s question after a speech. By the
time those days passed, Malcolm X had made the momentous
decision to strike out on his own because he knew the forces
against him in
the Nation of Islam were now insurmountable—Elijah Muhammad
believed he had betrayed him. But he had to have an organizational
foundation from which to do his work.
First he formed the Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI), in March.
By June he realized he needed a secular political organization
to attract
the broad group of non-Muslim supporters he’d always had. This
became the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), which he saw
as spearheading a drive to charge the United States, before the United
Nations, with violating the human rights of black people—a
move the U.S. government considered dangerous to its interests. Personally,
he was looking to traditional Islam for answers to the spiritual
quest on which he found himself now that he was out of the Nation.
Malcolm X traveled to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe,
and in letters and interviews he shared his experiences,
at times shocking even his followers in the U.S. He made
the hajj (pilgrimage)
to Mecca, where his vision of humanity was transformed,
as he saw that Islam could unite Muslims of every race
and nationality. He
himself was transformed: having made the hajj, he became
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.
Back home in Harlem, through both of his organizations,
he tried to strengthen ties to the civil rights movement
and local community leaders struggling around issues
such as housing and education. Something
much more sinister also occupied him. Threats, assaults,
and murder attempts on his and his followers’ lives had become a regular
occurrence, escalating as time went on. He had publicly revealed
Elijah Muhammad’s transgressions, and the Nation was in a retaliatory
mood. On February 21, 1965, the day he was assassinated at the Audubon
Ballroom, Malcolm X was also under surveillance by local and federal
authorities.
The search for truth, on which this global man of politics
and faith embarked, continues.
Timeline
1964
January - Visits Cassius Clay training camp in Miami, Florida,
with family.
January–February - Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston for
World Heavyweight Championship. Clay goes public as Muhammad
Ali.
February - Former assistant at New York mosque says
mosque official asked him to wire bomb in Malcolm X’s
car; beginning of ongoing series of threats and harassment
until end of his
life.
February 26 - Petitions Elijah Muhammad by letter and telephone
for reinstatement.
March - Starts visiting Dr. Mahmoud Youssef Shawarbi, director
of Islamic Center of New York, for instruction in Islam.
March 8 - Announces break with Nation of Islam and Elijah
Muhammad.
March 10 - Nation requests family vacate East Elmhurst, Queens,
house and return all property.
March 12 - Announces formation of Muslim Mosque, Inc., as
religious and political organization.
March 16 - Starts getting involved in local black New York
City political struggles.
March 26 - Meets Martin Luther King, Jr., for only time, at
U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
March 29–April 12 - Delivers “The Ballot or the
Bullet” speech in New York City, Cleveland, and Detroit.
April 8 - Nation files for eviction of family from East Elmhurst
house.
April 10 - Muhammad Speaks runs cartoon showing Malcolm
X’s
decapitated head rolling toward a pile of skulls. In same issue
his brother Philbert X denounces him.
April 13–May 21 - Travels to nine Middle East and African
countries. Makes the hajj in Mecca and sends letter describing
his move beyond black/white perspective to more humanistic
vision; signs letter “El-Hajj Malik EI-Shabazz.” Guest
of Prince Faisal in Saudi Arabia and meets with President Kwame
Nkrumah in Ghana.
May 29 - FBI visits him, and he tape records encounter.
June–August - Freedom Summer project in Mississippi,
led by Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and
Congress
of Racial Equality (CORE), launches voter registration and
education campaign with help of hundreds of volunteer students
and others. James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael
Schwerner disappear, later found murdered by Ku Klux Klan members.
June 26 - Writes open letter to Elijah Muhammad calling for
peace; published in New York Post.
June 28 - Announces founding of secular group, Organization
of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), separating political from religious
activity, to appeal to broad black constituency.
July 1 - Family’s fourth child, Gamilah Lamumba,
born.
July 2 - President Lyndon B. Johnson signs 1964 Civil Rights
Act, providing legal protection against discrimination in all
aspects of public life.
July 9–November 24 - Tours Africa, Middle East,
and London. Visits fourteen nations and meets with at least
eight
heads
of state and numerous other leaders. Petitions Organization
of African Unity (OAU) summit in Cairo to bring cause of American
blacks to United Nations as human rights issue.
July–August - Riots break out in New York, New Jersey,
Chicago, and Philadelphia.
August 22 - Fannie Lou Hamer delivers televised testimony
to Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey,
demanding right of new Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP) to represent disfranchised people of her state.
Late November - Reunites with mother and family in Michigan,
after her release from Kalamazoo State Hospital.
November 30 - Travels to London for debate on “extremism” at
Oxford Union on December 3.
December 16 - Speaks at Harvard Law School forum.
December 20 - OAAU rally, Audubon Ballroom, in support of
Fannie Lou Hamer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
(MFDP).
1965
January 19 - In Toronto, Canada, for television appearance.
February 3–4 - Speaks at Tuskeegee Institute
and at SNCC event at Brown Chapel, Selma, Alabama.
February 5–13 - Visits London to address First
Congress of Council of African Organizations on February
8 and London
School of Economics on the 11th.
February 9 - Flies to Paris to address Congress of African
Students, but is refused entry; returns to London.
February 14 - Family home in East Elmhurst firebombed in early
morning hours. Flies to Detroit to make what will be his last
major speech.
February 15 - OAAU rally, Audubon Ballroom; 600 attend.
February 18 - Evicted from home in East Elmhurst;
moves household out. Gives last speech, “The Black Revolution and Its
Effects Upon the Negroes of the Western Hemisphere,” at
Barnard College, Columbia University.
February 21 - At 3:10 p.m., gunned down as he begins speaking
at Audubon Ballroom. Talmadge Hayer (aka Thomas Hagan) arrested.
February 23 - New York Mosque No. 7 burns in early morning
hours.
February 27 - Ossie Davis delivers eulogy at funeral service
at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem. Buried at
Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York.
March - Betty Shabazz performs the hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
March 11 - Grand jury indicts Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler,
and Thomas 15X Johnson for murder of Malcolm X.
September 30 - Family’s twin daughters, Malaak
and Malikah, born.
November - The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written with Alex
Haley, published.
1966
April 14 - Three accused men sentenced to life imprisonment
for murder of Malcolm X, after two-month trial and despite
testimony
from Hayer that does not implicate either Butler or Johnson.
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