Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

by Michael Harriot

That June, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover sent a telegram to the New York FBI offices that simply said, “Do something about Malcolm X.” He was no longer a marginal figure in an obscure religion. He was speaking at Oxford University, meeting with heads of state from around the world, and had been invited to serve in the governments of three African countries—Ghana, Algeria, and Egypt. On February 14, 1965, Malcolm X’s house was firebombed while he and his children slept. By the time Malcolm’s bodyguards arrived, the police were there. Malcolm suspected that the Nation of Islam was behind the bombing and wanted him dead because he was being openly critical of Elijah Muhammad. As Malcolm sat in a police car with his bodyguard, he repeatedly told the police that he ran to grab his firearm after a Molotov cocktail crashed through his window. He knew he was under surveillance by the FBI and the local police force. Yet he insisted on telling the police that he, a felon, was in possession of not one but two firearms. But, for some reason, they wouldn’t take him into custody. It was almost as if they wanted him on the streets.