Malcolm X

I recently re-watched Spike Lee's "Malcolm X"; I hadn't seen it since it came out in 1992. A three hour movie, it was a bit slow and meandering in the early going. The last half hour of "Malcolm X" was very captivating; seemed as though the real Malcolm X was far more charismatic than Denzel Washington. Denzel played most of the movie with a dour expression, but in the vintage clips of Malcolm X they showed, he had an amazing and beautiful smile. It's easy to forget how influential Malcolm X was. His assassination was one of the major traumatic moments of the 60's, and probably intel-controled at some level. It seems like no one knows exactly who killed him, and I haven't researched the assassination conspiracy in any way, but it's clear he was under heavy CIA/FBI surveillance. Note the wikipedia page on him (well worth reading in general) says:

"As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired semi-automatic handguns, hitting Malcolm X several times. He was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. According to the autopsy report, Malcolm X's body had 21 gunshot wounds, ten of them from the initial shotgun blast."

Note the 33.

Obviously, Malcolm X promoted some very controversial ideas, but in the context of the times, these are rather understandable. He did seem to become more enlightened after his pilgrimage to Mecca, and toned down his anti-white rhetoric. I'm no fan of the Islamic religion, but Malcolm was a very strong and effective civil rights leader, and was very influential for future movements.