The legacy of Malcolm X seemingly grows more powerful over time. And yet his house in Queens—purchased by the Nation of Islam as a sanctuary for his family, only to be repeatedly firebombed—displays not even a reference to its most famous inhabitant.
As the world celebrates the centennial birth anniversary of Malcolm X, it feels necessary to remind everyone: Malcolm X lived in Queens, the most diverse place on the planet. And it does not feel hyperbolic to say the borough only gets to be this emblem of diversity, a stronghold of the Black middle class and eventual magnet for newcomers of all hues, because Malcolm X lived.
I recently concocted a walking tour of the Queens spots of significance to the Civil Rights revolutionary. I share these addresses with hope that others might follow. My guide could be no better: Liz Bass, a researcher on the award-winning book: “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X,” authored by journalist Les Payne and his daughter, Tamara. Les Payne, Liz Bass and I were colleagues at Newsday in the early 2000s, in the Kew Gardens, Queens, office of the newspaper. As long as I knew Les, which was for nearly 20 years, he was working on this book. (I feel it’s important, too, to note that I have been familiar with Les’ journalism pretty much my whole life. I grew up partly on Long Island and my father revered Les’ impassioned columns, which spanned global issues, race relations and politics.)
While Harlem was undeniably the hub and base of Malcolm X’s political activism, it was in Queens that Malcolm and Betty Shabazz set up homes. Our first stop, thus, was 23-11 97th St. in East Elmhurst.
Originally boasting a brick facade, today it is covered in green siding. Efforts to place a sign or memorial have been unsuccessful. The house was firebombed on Feb. 14, 1965, a week before Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom.
There really isn’t much to see, and perhaps that’s the point. Other homes where Malcolm X, who was born as Malcolm Little, spent time have markers or designations, including a memorial in Omaha, Neb. And the setting of his tragic assassination in Washington Heights, N.Y., the Audubon Ballroom, has been converted into the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, also called the Shabazz Center. But here, there’s only a street sign co-naming the block “Malcolm X Place.” In his book, “Famous People of Queens,” community journalist Rob MacKay describes the house as a “two-bedroom, detached, brick house with only one bathroom, a small living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a utility room.” He writes:
Photo: Library of Congress
“Four of their daughters — Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, and Gamilan – were born in Queens. (Their other daughters, twins Malaak and Malikah, were born after his death.) Just like today, East Elmhurst was a middle-class, largely African-American neighborhood when Malcolm X’s family lived there. Other prominent former residents include Willie Mays and Eric Holder, who served as United States Attorney General during the Obama Administration.”
From the family home, we went a few blocks over to 25-26 99th St.
Malcolm and Betty Shabazz lived here after getting married in 1958. The address and many elements of their family life are detailed in Manning Marable’s book, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention,” which also won the author a posthumous Pulitzer Prize. It was a group house, shared with other members of the Nation of Islam. Details are captured in this essay about the eventual rift between Malcolm X and the Nation, as well as constant threats from police and government officials:
“…two NYPD detectives and a federal postal inspector invaded the Queens apartment house in which Malcolm and his wife, Betty Shabazz, lived in one of the three apartments. They shared the house with two other NOI couples, including John X Ali and his wife, Minnie Ali. In 1958, John Ali was not only the secretary of Malcolm’s Mosque Number Seven but also his top advisor, his close friend, and his housemate.
Brandishing a warrant for a postal fraud suspect who did not live there, the detectives barged into the house and ran directly to Malcolm’s office on the second floor. They fired several shots into it. Fortunately Malcolm was away from the house, but the bullets narrowly missed the terrified women and children in the next room. One detective arrested Betty Shabazz, who was pregnant, and Minnie Ali. He threatened to throw the women down the stairs if they didn’t move faster. The detectives, on the first floor, were confronted and beaten by a crowd of angry neighbors. Police reinforcements arrested six people, including Betty Shabazz and Minnie Ali, who were charged with assaulting the two detectives.”
Finally, we concluded our tour at the Helen Marshall Playground at 100th Street and 24th Avenue nearby. Helen Marshall was borough president from 2002 till 2013; I met her many times when I worked at Newsday. She was also the first Black borough president of Queens; our current president, Donovan Richards, is the second.
During her tenure, Marshall reflected on her old friend and neighbor, Malcolm X. According to the Times-Ledger, Marshall spent three years in Corona before moving to East Elmhurst in 1960 and said:
‘I knew Malcolm X at the time.’ … Marshall…was then an influential community leader in the schools integration movement. She recalled long debates with Malcolm X, with whom she said she found more in common after his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca and new-found belief in racial harmony. ‘I talked to him for long periods of time – in fact, my neck would get stiff looking up at him because he was a very tall person,’ she said.
Indeed, he towered above—and ahead.
