“Indeed, one of his legacies was a contribution to the desegregation of residential housing in Smethwick.”

Malcolm X has been honoured with a plaque in Smethwick almost 50 years after he visited the West Midlands town during heightened racial tensions.

The civil rights campaigner gave interviews in 1965 in Marshall Street where white householders were lobbying the council to buy up houses to prevent black or Asian families moving in.

The father-of-six was assassinated nine days later in New York.

A blue plaque has been unveiled on the side of a house in Marshall Street.

‘Passionate and outspoken’
Malcolm X made the surprise visit in February that year after addressing the first meeting of the Council of African Organisation in London.

In 2005, a film was released marking the 40th anniversary of his visit to the Black Country.

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One of his legacies was a contribution to the desegregation of residential housing in Smethwick”

Jak Beula, Nubian Jak Community Trust
Speaking at the time, film-maker Steve Page said Malcolm X was “passionate, outspoken and controversial”.

He became known for championing black rights and denouncing white people.

He was shot as he began a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem.

Thomas Hagan, the only man to have admitted his role in his killing, was released from a New York prison on parole in April 2010.

He said two other men convicted with him were not involved. They were release on parole in the 1980s.

The idea for the plaque was first suggested by the Nubian Jak Community Trust, which organises Britain’s only Black and Minority Ethnic national plaque scheme.

The trust said it had previously commemorated figures including singer Bob Marley and abolitionist and author Mary Prince.

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WIKI ON THE ASSASSINATION

On February 21, 1965, as Malcolm X prepared to address the Organization of Afro-American Unity in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom, a disturbance broke out in the 400-person audience[159]—a man yelled, “Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!”[160][161] As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance,[162] a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun.[163] Two other men charged the stage and fired semi-automatic handguns, hitting Malcolm X several times.[161] He was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.[159] According to the autopsy report, Malcolm X’s body had 21 gunshot wounds, ten of them from the initial shotgun blast.[164]

One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan) was seized and beaten by the crowd before the police arrived minutes later;[165][166] witnesses identified the others as Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, also Nation members.[167] Hayer confessed at trial to have been one of the handgun shooters, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson.[168] All three were convicted.[169]

Butler, now known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation’s Harlem mosque in 1998. He continues to maintain his innocence.[170] Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation’s teachings while in prison and converted to Sunni Islam. Released in 1987, he maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009.[171][172] Hayer, now known as Mujahid Halim,[173] was paroled in 2010.[174]