Five Accounts of the Assassination of Malcolm X

Assignment Details:

1. Read “Five Accounts of the Assassination of Malcolm X” p. 141 in your textbook.
2. Take note of the different ways they event is presented, noting details and the focus unique to each.
3. Analyze each article and discuss why each one’s author might have chosen to include or exclude some facts and why some were presented in the fashion they were. Make sure to include specific examples from each article to support your opinion.

Five Accounts of the Assassination of Malcolm X

The New York Times (February 22, 1965)

Malcolm X, the 39-year-old leader of a militant Black Nationalist movement, was shot to death yesterday afternoon at a rally of his followers in a ballroom in Washington Heights. The bearded Negro extremist had said only a few words of greeting when a fusillade rang out. The bullets knocked him over backwards.

A 22-year-old Negro, Thomas Hagan, was charged with the killing. The police rescued him from the ballroom crowd after he had been shot and beaten.

Pandemonium broke out among the 400 Negroes in the Audubon Ballroom at 160th Street and Broadway. As men, women and children ducked under tables and flattened themselves on the floor, more shots were fired. The police said seven bullets struck Malcolm. Three other Negroes were shot. Witnesses reported that as many as 30 shots had been fired. About two hours later the police said the shooting had apparently been a result of a feud between followers of Malcolm and members of the extremist group he broke with last year, the Black Muslims.

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