[Marxism] Malcolm X's Assassination The Day the Music Died Br Roland Sheppard

[David Walsh <davidrail68@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Malcolm X's Assassination The Day the Music Died
> February 21, 1965
> By
> Roland Sheppard
>
> In the afternoon, on January 21, 1965, I went to the Audubon Ballroom to hear 
> Malcolm X speak. I also went to sell the newspaper, The Militant,  a radical 
> newspaper, which at that time, printed the truth about Malcolm X, his 
> speeches, and publicly defended him.
> When I got to the Ballroom, things were radically different -- there were no 
> cops. (Normally Malcolm's meetings in Harlem were crawling with cops.) As I 
> was selling papers, Malcolm X approached the Audubon Ballroom, I offered to 
> sell him the latest issue, but he told me, "not today Roland, I am alone and 
> in a hurry."
> A while later, as I entered the meeting room I again did not see any cops. I 
> went in to sit down, where I normally sat along with the rest of the press in 
> the front and the left side of the room. On the way to my seat, Gene Roberts, 
> who later surfaced as a police agent member of the Black Panther Party, told 
> me that I could not seat at my regular place, but on that day I had to sit in 
> the front row on the right side of the hall, facing the stage.
>  As I sat down, I glanced over, to where I normally sat, and saw a large 
> Black man, with a Navy Blue-gray trench coat. When the meeting started all 
> was quite, as the crowd listened to Benjamin X introducing Malcolm X.
> When Malcolm approached the podium, he gave the normal Muslim greeting for 
> peace, at that point a disturbance occurred in the room. Two men were 
> standing about halfway back in the room and to the right of the Malcolm on 
> stage.. One was shouting 'Get your hand out of my pocket', Malcolm was trying 
> to calm things down, when the men, one later identified as Talmadge Hayer, 
> started running down the right aisle shouting and firing a pistol at Malcolm 
> and ran out the exit doors by the stage, to the right of Malcolm X..
> Suddenly I heard gunshots fired from all over the place, and I instinctively 
> hit the floor. When I looked up, I saw Malcolm X standing up and glaring down 
> at one of his assassins. At that point, from the corner of my eye, nearby to 
> my left, I saw a flash from a gun as I watched Malcolm X fall down and back 
> about ten feet. In that instant, when Malcolm died before my eyes, I suddenly 
> realized how big he was and  I realized that he was a giant in stature, in 
> the world.  This vision of Malcolm X, being assassinated, has haunted me till 
> this day. (The fatal blast, which I later found out to be from a shotgun, 
> came from the area where I had seen the large Black man, with a Navy 
> Blue-gray trench coat!)
> When I left the hall, Malcolm's bodyguards told me that they had caught two 
> of the assassins, one who was shot (Talmadge Hayer) and one whom the police 
> took away.
> A few weeks later, when I was questioned in the Harlem Police station, I was 
> shown a series of photos of people whom I recognized as members of the Nation 
> of Islam or Malcolm's organization. I also saw a picture of the saw a large 
> Black man, with a Navy Blue-gray trench coat, that I had seen at the Audubon 
> Ballroom. I was thinking of how to respond to the cops and how to say that I 
> did not recognize the photos of Malcolm's friends and supporters and the 
> members of the Nation of Islam.
> I then told the cops that I had to go to the rest room. When I got to the 
> men's room door, I saw the same large Black man, coming out of the men's 
> room, that I had seen in the Audubon Ballroom and in the photos that were 
> just shown to me. Then he walked by me, he walked past the desks of the 
> secretary pool, and went to his office inside the police station! At that 
> point I knew that he and the government either killed Malcolm X or were part 
> of the assassination plot. I became very nervous thinking about what I was 
> going to say to the cops when I got back and how I was going to get out of 
> the station alive. I then came up with, "I can not recognize anyone, everyone 
> looks the same."  The cops nodded in agreement and we were allowed to leave 
> the police station.
> Malcolm X was my one of my heroes. He was the most honest mass leader that I 
> have ever known or seen.  He was a great orator and his speeches seemed like 
> a conversation between himself and the audience. His speeches were like music 
> to my ear and have inspired me for the rest of my life in the fight for 
> social justice. He was so human in his orations, I still remember him when 
> made the Harlem ' Hate Gang ' Scare speech at The Militant Labor Forum, on 
> May 29, 1964" and other speeches when he to chuckled a 'heh heh' when he was 
> about to make a special comment.  At that Forum he said: "It's impossible for 
> a chicken to produce a duck eggâ The system of this country cannot produce 
> freedom for an Afro-American. It is impossible for this system, this economic 
> system, this political system, this social system, this system period. It is 
> impossible for it , as it now stands, to produce freedom right now for the 
> Black man in this country â it is impossible. 
 And
>  if ever a chicken did produce a duck egg, (heh heh) I'm certain you would 
> say it was certainly a revolutionary chicken.  (heh heh)"
> Both he and Martin Luther King had come to similar positions about capitalism 
> and the Vietnam War at the time of their death. That is why this government 
> assassinated them. No one has followed in their footsteps. From the point of 
> view of this government, the world leader in political assassinations, the 
> two assassinations worked. For to this day, no mass leader has had the 
> courage to pick up where they left off.  They were able to silence the art, 
> science, and truth, of these two great orators. To me, February 21st is  "The 
> day the Music Died." It was the saddest day of my life.
> For an in depth explanation of the government's assassinations of Malcolm X 
> and Martin Luther King, read my website article: (See Below)
> http://web.me.com/rolandgarret/Site/The_Assassinations_ 
> of_Malcolm_X_and_Martin_Luther_King_Jr..html
>
>
> --
> This email has been sent as a service by
> Roland Sheppard.
> Visit my web site at:
> http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret
>
> 
>
>
> Regards,
> Dave
> www.socialistviewpoint.org
>
> "If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of 
> mine."
> Che Guevara (Cuban Revolutionary)
>


      

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