Poster of the Week

I Believe That There Will Ultimately Be A Clash

Northern Sun Merchandising
Offset, 1980s
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Malcolm X was assassinated 45 years ago this week. Feb 21, 1965

“You’ll get freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get your freedom; then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it. When you get that kind of attitude, they’ll label you as a “crazy Negro,” or they’ll call you a “crazy nigger” - they don’t say Negro. Or they’ll call you an extremist or a subversive, or seditious, or a red or a radical. But when you stay radical long enough and get enough people to be like you, you’ll get your freedom.”

MALCOLM X (1925-1965)-was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. He has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. He was introduced to the Black Muslims while serving a prison term, became a Muslim minister upon release in 1952, and quickly became very prominent in the movement. In 1963, he was suspended by Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims, for suggesting that President Kennedy’s assassination was a matter of the “chicken coming home to roost.” He then formed a rival organization of his own, the Muslim Mosque, Inc. In 1964, after a pilgrimage to Mecca, he announced his conversion to orthodox Islam and his new belief that there could be a brotherhood between black and white. In his Organization of Afro-American Unity, formed after his return, the tone was still that of militant black nationalism, but no longer of separation. In February 1965, he was shot and killed in a public auditorium in New York City. His assassins were identified as Black Muslims. The FBI was also blamed for the involvement in the assassination. At the time, COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs were directed towards infiltrating and disrupting civil rights organizations, and the national secretary of the Nation of Islam was identified as an FBI undercover agent.