This Unfortunate Day in History

On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little) was assassinated while speaking at a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York City. After being shot seventeen times by three members of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived at the Columbus University Medical Center.

There are two astounding aspects regarding Malcolm X and, more importantly, his death. First and foremost, the reason that Malcolm X was murdered is because he publicly spoke out against the Nation of Islam after leaving the organization due to his fundamental issues with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad. And one of the individuals behind the assassination plot (regardless of his denials) was Louis Farrakhan, who is now the Supreme Minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam. With that being said, I am not sure if you could consider this quote from Farrakhan in 1993 a denial: "Did you teach Malcolm? Did you clean up Malcolm? Did you put Malcolm out before the world? Was Malcolm your traitor or was he ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the hell business is it of yours? You just shut your mouth and stay out of it. Because in the future, we are going to become a nation. And a nation gotta be able to deal with traitors, cutthroats and turncoats." Bringing up Farrakhan leads to my second point. If certain members of the African American community placed more emphasis on Malcolm X's life (both before the Nation of Islam and after) and embraced his views, the current black leaders would be a whole lot different than Jesse Jackson, Alan Keyes, Al Sharpton and, of course, Farrakhan.