On This Day…

Malcolm X Assassinated

February 21, 1965

As he was preparing to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity, someone in the audience yelled, “N–ger! Get your hand outta my pocket!” As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to end the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged firing semi-automatic handguns. Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer confessed to being one of the gunmen. Hayer and two others were convicted of the crime, but the other two men maintained their innocence. Two days prior to the assassination, Malcolm X told a reporter that the Nation of Islam was trying to kill him.