Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement -- Assassinations

What are your thoughts on the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King?

Of course, they had two very different styles of leadership, however, they were both great leaders of their time. I did not know Malcom X, and he was assassinated some time before I became active. I do know that he directed most of his leadership to Black people, while Dr. King was more inclusive. And asked for help from all people. Being a person who is and has remained non-violent my entire life, I followed Dr. King.

However, the thoughts of assassinations of anyone, Malcom X, Dr. King, President Kennedy, Senator Bobby Kennedy and the attempted assassination of George Wallace, is all very deplorable to me.

Bruce Hartford:

I think that the full truth of these assasinations has never been revealed. I believe that the U.S. government had a direct hand in them that has been covered up all these years. The FBI's unjustified and illegal attacks against Dr. King and Malcom X are well documented. Someday, I hope we will learn the truth.

Gabe Kaimowitz:

Along with the assassinations of JFK and RFK, they effectively ended the civil rights movement prematurely. Both of the blacks were killed as their horizons seemed to broaden, Malcolm X to include whites, Martin, to include poverty and the war as primary issues.

Joan Mandle:

The assassinations of King, Malcolm, and Bobby Kennedy were a disaster in political as well as human terms. In terms of the movement, it was a terrible and discouraging blow that made many people give up, turn inside themselves and become cynical about the possibility of change. But the possibility of a grassroots movement emerging to make our society more just is always there. We just have to seize the moment. I myself am now working with students to get big money out of politics — to build a new student movement for social change for real democracy, I have hope, but even if we don't win the struggle is worth it — it is the meaning of life.

Wazir (Willie) Peacock:

I was in New York in 1964 getting myself together and I went to some of Malcolm's meetings at the Audubon. The kind of tension that I felt there I'd never felt anywhere before then or since. I felt there were elements there that was like a conspiracy brewing. I think he was assassinated by the United States government and they picked the a time to do it when there was controversy between Malcolm and Elijah Mohammad. I think they planted people there to take him out. Because when Malcolm went to Mecca and came back, he started talking about another kind of thing. Because he went to Mecca, and in Mecca he saw white people. He didn't know that there were white Muslims before that. Malcom had been given a position in the world of Islam. He never got a chance to exercise that. So the State Department had a lot of reasons to take him out.

The same goes with Martin Luther King. It was obvious that there was a conspiracy going to kill him. Starting with everything that happened in Memphis, housing, security forces were moved around and changed. They set it all up. I think Martin knew that there was no escape after seeing things that happened. That's why he gave that speech [the "Been to the Mountain" speech the night before he was murdered]. I think the reason why is that they thought it would stop the movement, especially the way they thought it was going. His philosophy and all was getting to appeal to everybody. That wasn't good for the politicians. He was addressing economic issues and the [Vietnam] war. And he was powerful. He was powerful enough to stop the clock. They had to stop him.

I think they'll stop anybody if they can. I think they're watching it close to not let anybody, regardless what color, get that powerful again outside of their control. The "they's" in this case are the bureaus of our government that's gotten out of control and the CIA is one of them. The military industrial complex is out of control. I mean, they run the country. They basically just try to run the world and it's almost got to be a kind of a system that nobody can stop. It runs itself now. They talk about this artificial intelligence. The thing is running itself.

Jimmy Rogers:

I think the people who run this country are concerned about their image internationally. When Malcolm X started going around to all these African countries talking about human rights here, I feel that that made a lot of people very nervous. I think that was probably the reason he was killed.

Howard Romaine:

Tragic, the latter almost certainly involving Federally, and or state supported action, the extent of which, I believe, is obvious, but due to integration of Federal police, media, etc. blocked from public view..