Malcolm X was assassinated at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Fifty years after his death, the complex figure Malcolm X — or, as he called himself after 1949, el Hajj Malik el Shabazz — continues to inspire.
On February 21, the Halifax North Memorial Public Library — a location chosen in part for its role as the location of the 1968 meeting that lead to the creation of the Black United Front, an organization that advocated for the Black community in Nova Scotia — held a panel to mark the anniversary of Malcolm X’s death. Titled “50 Years Since Malcolm X’s Assassination: The Legacy Endures; The Struggle Continues!” the panel discussed Malcolm X’s own life as a deeply religious individual, a revolutionary internationalist and a leader in the Black liberation struggle as well as his impact on a generation of Black activists, artists, revolutionaries and intellectuals.
Moderated by Dr. Rhonda Britton, pastor the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, the Panel consisted of Dr. Afua Cooper (JRJ Chair of Black Canadian Studies, Dalhousie University); El Jones (Halifax’s Poet Laureate, prison rights activist and PhD candidate, Dalhousie University); Dr. John Munro (Assistant Professor of History, Saint Mary’s University); Dr. Isaac Saney (Transition Year Program Director, Dalhousie University & Adjunct Professor of History, Saint Mary’s University).
