Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302220251
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: HAYWARD FARRAR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
MALCOLM X'S TRUE STORY YET TO BE TOLD
TODAY is the anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. On this date in 1965, he was shot by three gunmen as he began a speech to his followers gathered in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York City.During the previous year, Malcolm had changed from the chief spokesperson and organizer for the Nation of Islam to a seeker of truth and justice in American race relations. He traveled to Mecca, became an orthodox Muslim, attempted to make links with the civil-rights movement and organized his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque Inc., and a secular black liberation organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Before any of these programs got off the ground, however, Malcolm was murdered.
One suspect, Talmadge Hayer, was apprehended at the crime scene. Two other suspects, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, were arrested later. All three were connected to the Nation of Islam, though that organization quickly repudiated them. After a confusing trial in which Hayer asserted that Butler and Johnson were innocent, but would not implicate anyone else's complicity, all three were convicted and sentenced to life terms.
In 1978, Hayer confessed that he was part of a five-person conspiracy to kill Malcolm. This conspiracy was composed of members of the Nation of Islam's Newark mosque. He reiterated that neither Butler nor Johnson was part of the conspiracy. Hayer could not, however, give definitive identifications of the other members of the conspiracy; nor could he give evidence that the assassination had been ordered by Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam, or any of his associates.
For reasons that are not clear, Hayer's second confession was disregarded and his motion for a new trial turned down. In the mid-1980s, Hayer, Butler and Johnson were paroled and, for obvious reasons, keep extremely low profiles today.
From Feb. 21, 1965, to today, the circumstances of Malcolm's assassination have been shrouded in confusion, myth and denial. Malcolm had become extremely controversial and had made more enemies than he could count. Despite his adulation today by blacks and not a few whites, Malcolm was not all that popular in the black community during his life and, of course, was vilified in the white community.
In fact, he did not become the legend he is today until his autobiography was published and read in the years following his death. In any event, there were many in the black and white communities who wanted Malcolm put out of circulation, especially in the last year of his life.
One of these was the Nation of Islam. Malcolm's parting from that group was extremely bitter. He had found a new and positive purpose in his life through the Nation of Islam, and the Nation of Islam became a nationally prominent organization due to Malcolm's organizational skills and public persona.
Nevertheless, his expulsion from this organization due to internal rivalries and jealousies resulted in a feud between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam that became progressively tinged with violence. Others who wanted Malcolm neutralized included significant segments of America's white power-structure that saw Malcolm's preachings as a threat to their dominance. It is now known that Malcolm's movements and conversations were monitored by the FBI, and that one of his associates in the last year of his life was a New York City undercover police officer.
In his last months, Malcolm had to endure death threats from ex-associates in the Nation of Islam, among them Louis X. Now known as Louis Farrakhan, he advocated Malcolm's death in the Nation of Islam's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks.
Malcolm also had his phone tapped by the FBI and his house firebombed. So harassed was Malcolm, it is possible that he welcomed his death.
Due to a botched police investigation, an even more botched trial (which may have resulted in the conviction of two innocent men), and a fear of (or an indifference to) finding the truth, the true story of Malcolm's assassination may never be determined or told.
Whites are not eager to uncover in Malcolm's murder any involvement of the FBI, the New York Police Department, or any other national-security agencies. Neither are blacks who are willing to discuss or investigate any role that the Nation of Islam may have played in Malcolm's death.
Even the recent movie "Malcolm X" finesses the issue of the ultimate responsibility for his death. It may be that nobody wants to find out or acknowledge the truth. Such knowledge may be too painful for black and white Americans to contemplate. Therefore, they resort to theory, myth and denial.
Malcolm's assassination was disastrous for America. He spoke to and for the most dispossessed and alienated segments of black America, and did so in a manner that reverberates even today among sensitive and concerned blacks and whites. Furthermore, he was a man of impeccable integrity and conviction, who, unlike others, did not use the misery of the people for whom he spoke to propel himself into a privileged situation.
When he died, he died broke, something unusual for most American "leaders." Most tragically, Malcolm was gunned down while still a young man of 39. Not yet in the prime of his life, and still growing intellectually and spiritually, Malcolm was not allowed to fulfill his immense potential as a leader.
The current adulation of Malcolm is an indication of the void his passing created in this country's life - a void that to this day has not been filled.
Hayward Farrar, an assistant professor of history at Virginia Tech, is author of a chapter in the book, "The Legacy of Malcolm X: A New Look at His Life and Contributions."