Hey everyone, Jody Avergan here. This is another episode in what we are calling our

Some Sunday context series where we're trying to give you some episodes from the archives

and some new conversations that put what we are going through today in some historical

context. Today, pretty straightforward, we are about to celebrate Monday, in fact, the 100th birthday

of Malcolm X. So we thought we'd bring you an episode we did about a year and a half ago

about Malcolm X's death. The moment of his assassination says a lot about the life he led and the

impact he had and his legacy. So there will surely be a lot of coverage of X's 100th birthday coming up. There's also a

couple big new books about him. So maybe this episode will help give you some context. Take a listen.

We will be back with a brand new episode on Tuesday.

Hello and welcome to This Day in Esoteric Political History from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 21st, 1965, Malcolm X is preparing to address the organization of Afro-American

Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights in Manhattan. Ahead of his speech, X is shot

multiple times and killed.

The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms, and legs,

including 10 buckshot wounds from a sawed-off shotgun that was used in the attack and

was the first weapon to be fired.

We'll get into the timeline of how we got to this moment, and then of course talk about

the assassination itself, but for some context and some sort of real gut punch context, just

a week earlier, X had given an interview in which he said, quote, no one can get out

without trouble, and this thing with me will be resolved by death and violence.

And that is indeed what happened on this day, February 21st, 1965. I will also say there is a big

over 50 year long legacy and hook to this story as well that is that just in the last few years,

...