Autobiography of Malcolm X

Southern Africa, the Nigerian Ambassador from Lagos, the President of the Republic of Ghana,
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah: "The death of Malcolm X shall not have been in vain."
Next, Omar Osman stood, a representative of the Islam Center of Switzerland and the United
States: "We knew Brother Malcolm as a blood brother, particularly after his pilgrimage to Mecca
last year. The highest thing that a Moslem can aspire to is to die on the battlefield and not die at
his bedside-" He paused briefly to wait out the applause from among the mourners. "Those who
die on the battlefield are not dead, but are alive!" The applause was louder, and cries rose, "Right!
Right!" Omar Osman then critically commented upon the remarks which USIA Director Carl
Rowan had made in Washington, D.C., about the foreign press reaction to the death of the
deceased. From the audience then hisses rose.
Again, the actor Ossie Davis stood. His deep voice delivered the eulogy to Malcolm X which was
going to cause Davis subsequently to be hailed more than ever among Negroes in Harlem:
"Here-at this final hour, in this quiet place, Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest
hopes-extinguished now, and gone from us forever....
"Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captainand
we will smile.... They will say that he is of hate-a fanatic, a racist-who can only bring evil to
the cause for which you struggle!
"And we will answer and say unto them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch
him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing?
Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would
know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him: Malcolm was our
manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. And, in honoring him,
we honor the best in ourselves.... And we will know him then for what he was and is-a Princeour
own black shining Prince!-who didn't hesitate to die, because he loved us so."
Brief speeches were made by others. Then, the family, the OAAU members and other Muslims
present stood and filed by the coffin to view the body for the last time. Finally, the two plainclothes
policemen ushered Sister Betty to have her last sight of her husband. She leaned over,
kissing the glass over him; she broke into tears. Until then almost no crying had been heard in the
services, but now Sister Betty's sobs were taken up by other women.
The services had lasted a little over an hour when the three minutes of prayers said for every
Muslim who is dead were recited by Alhajj Heshaam Jaaber, of Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the
phrase "Allahu Akbar"-"God is most great"-all Muslims in the audience placed their opened hands
at the sides of their faces.
An official cortege, with the hearse, of three family cars, eighteen mourners' cars, twelve police
cars and six press cars-followed by about fifty other cars-briskly drove the eighteen miles out of
Manhattan and along the New York Thruway, then off its Exit 7 to reach the Ferncliff Cemetery in
Ardsley, N.Y. All along the route, Negroes placed their hats or hands over their hearts,paying their
final respects. At each bridge crossing in Manhattan County, police cars stood watch; the
Westchester County police had stationed individual patrolmen at intervals en route to the
cemetery.
Over the coffin, final Moslem prayers were said by Sheik Alhajj Heshaam Jaaber. The coffin was
lowered into the grave, the head facing the east, in keeping with Islamic tradition. Among the
mourners, the Moslems knelt beside the grave to pray with their foreheads pressed to the earth,
in the Eastern manner. When the family left the gravesite, followers of Malcolm X would not let
the coffin be covered by the white grave-diggers who had stood a little distance away, waiting.
Instead, seven OAAU men began dropping bare handfuls of earth down on the coffin; then they
were given shovels and they carried dirt to fill the grave, and then mound it.
The night fell over the earthly remains of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, who had been called Malcolm
X; who had been called Malcolm Little; who had been called "Big Red" and "Satan" and
"Homeboy" and other names-who had been buried as a Moslem. "According to the Koran," the
New York Times reported, "the bodies of the dead remain in their graves until the Last Day, the
Day of Judgment. On this day of cataclysm the heavens are rent and the mountains ground to
dust, the graves open and men are called to account by Allah.