Inside Malcolm X's Speech After His Home Was Bombed

Publish date: 2024-05-02

At about 3 a.m., firebombs shattered through Malcolm X's living room windows and his home burst into flames. Startled awake, he grabbed his wife and four children and quickly made it outside to safety in the freezing darkness (via The New York Times). The living room was heavily burned and many of the family's possessions were destroyed.

According to the FBI report after the incident, Malcolm X "showed no emotion or anger" while being interviewed by the authorities, and "actually laughed when he was asked who he thought may have burned his home." Malcolm X's organization believed it was the Nation of Islam, the FBI reported. Malcolm X later publicly said the attack was on "the orders of Elijah Muhammad" (via ICIT Digital Library). On top of their other disputes, the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X where actually in a legal battle over the house itself, it being owned by the organization but Malcolm X arguing the N.O.I. had violated its own eviction protocols (via Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society and The New York Times).

Despite the attack, Malcolm X decided to keep a speaking engagement in Detroit Sunday night, at the Ford Auditorium.

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