Feb. 21, 1965 - The major civil rights organizations expressed shock today over the assassination of Malcolm X and pledged to continue policies of nonviolence.
Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the NAACP, said that the “gunning down” of Malcolm was a “shocking and ghastly demonstration of the futility of resorting to violence as a means of settling differences.”
“Violence is not the answer to disputes,” he continued, “either between warring factions within a group or between groups in the large society.”Dr. Martin Luther King (pictured with Malcolm X last March 26) said in a statement that “we must face the tragic fact that Malcolm X was murdered by a morally inclement climate.”
“It revealed that our society is still sick enough to express dissent through murder,” he added. “We have not learned to disagree without being violently disagreeable. This vicious assassination should cause our whole society to see that violence and hatred are evil forces that must be cast into unending limbo.”
In Chicago, Black Muslim leaders declined to comment on the shooting. A spokesman for Elijah Muhammad, the Black Muslim “prophet,” said he would have no comment on the shooting today “but might have something to say tomorrow.” Malcolm was a former Black Muslim aide.
Acting Manhattan Borough President Earl Brown said he was “horrified that anybody would take this shocking and brutal action, regardless of political or personal disagreement.”
“As a former newspaperman,” he continued, “I knew Malcolm X and had spoken with him many times. In spite of his extremist views, he had an intelligent and disciplined mind.”
The Federation for Independent Political Action, an organization of Harlem neighborhood groups headed by Jesse Gray, the rent strike leader, announced it would call for the closing of all stores on 125th St. for one day “out of respect and in observance of what Minister Malcolm meant for our community.”
Ossie Davis, the Negro actor and playwright, made a radio appeal for funds to be passed on to the widow and children of Malcolm X. Mr. Davis made the appeal on the Barry Gray program on WMCA.
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