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The Assassination of Malcolm X

The Assassination of Malcolm X

2017, Revised 2020
72" x 52”
Archival print

It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.
February 19, 1965

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom, Washington Heights, NYC, as he was about to deliver a speech introducing the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

The narrative compostion is assembled from manipulated archival photographs and film stills taken shortly after the assassination with the addition of subsequent crime scene photographs.

This is the final work in the tetralogy of modern American assassinations, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy.

Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X - detail
Malcolm X succumbs to gunshot wounds on the stage of the Audubon Ballroom.
Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X - detail
Betty Shabazz, Malcolm's wife, weeps over his body while Yuri Kochiyama, a civil rights activist, supports his head.

2017 Version

Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X
Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X Detail
Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X Detail
Malcolm X Assassination
The Assassination of Malcolm X Detail