The key to understanding Malcolm's assassination is the last year of his life. He spent over half of it outside the United States, on four separate trips abroad. In his Autobiography Malcolm tells the well-known story of his transforming April l964 Hajj to Mecca, where he experienced a profound unity of worship with Muslims of every race, including those "whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white." The Autobiography says little, however, of Malcolm's July 9 to November 24, l964, travels through Africa, an equally important story he was saving for a book he didn't live to write.
The purpose of Malcolm's tour of Africa was to internationalize the plight of Afro-Americans in the U.S. Malcolm went first to Cairo, where he attended the African Summit Conference and appealed to the delegates of 34 African nations "to help us bring our problem before the United Nations, on the grounds that the United States is morally incapable of protecting the lives and the property of 22 million African-Americans." Malcolm wanted to unmask the U.S. government at the United Nations. He was taken seriously in that purpose by African heads of state and by his own government. U.S. intelligence agents followed him closely, as can be seen from CIA and FBI documents. Malcolm was acutely aware of the surveillance, which was made obvious by the agents in order to intimidate him. At the Cairo conference Malcolm collapsed with stomach pains and was rushed to a hospital. His stomach was pumped, and he survived. The doctors told him he had consumed "a toxic substance" at dinner. They ruled out food poisoning. Malcolm thought he had been poisoned by the same forces that were shadowing him. He then wrote an open letter to friends in Harlem in which he said:
"You must realize that what I am trying to do is very dangerous, because it is a direct threat to the entire international system of racist exploitation ... Therefore, if I die or am killed before making it back to the States, you can rest assured that what I've already set in motion will never be stopped...Our problem has been internationalized (Malcolm X, By Any Means Necessary)."
Malcolm continued his human rights campaign for African-Americans for four and a half months throughout Africa, speaking before huge crowds in nation after nation, dogged everywhere by the CIA. Malcolm's friend, the writer Louis Lomax wrote: "By then the CIA was following Malcolm's every move; agents were aboard every flight he took, other agents watched his hotels and even kept him under surveillance during meal time" (Louis E. Lomax, To Kill a Black Man). Malcolm told his sister, Ella Collins, that he narrowly avoided another poisoning in Ethiopia.
On February 9, l965, twelve days before his assassination, Malcolm X was barred from visiting France on another speaking trip. When his plane landed, the French government without explanation ordered him to leave the country. Malcolm believed the State Department was responsible. After Malcolm's death, journalist Eric Norden discovered the reason why France had barred Malcolm. Norden was told by a North African diplomat that "his country's intelligence apparatus had been quietly informed by the French Department of Alien Documentation and Counter-Espionage that the CIA planned Malcolm's murder, and France feared he might be liquidated on its soil." The diplomat then commented in elegantly modulated French: "Your CIA is beginning to murder its own citizens now."
On the day before his assassination, Malcolm X phoned Alex Haley and told him why he was going to stop saying that it was the Muslims who were about to kill him. He said: "I know what [the Muslims] can do and what they can't, and they can't do some of the stuff recently going on."
Malcolm then made a final remark that Haley thought "an odd, abrupt change of subject" but which may have been no change of subject at all: "You know, I'm glad I've been the first to establish official ties between Afro-Americans and our blood brothers in Africa." Malcolm knew that was the real reason his life had been targeted. And he had no regrets.
But there may have been a second reason. Continuous FBI and CIA surveillance had discovered that Malcolm was exploring an even more startling alliance than his ties with African leaders, a collaboration with Dr. Martin Luther King. On February l4, l965, Malcolm and Martin conferred on the phone. Their conversation was described by William Kunstler: "There was sort of an agreement that they would meet in the future and work out a common strategy, not merge their two organizations, but that they would work out a method to work together in some way. And that led to the bombing of Malcolm's house that evening in East Elmhurst and his assassination one week later."
As those who were monitoring their communications knew, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were moving toward an alliance that would have shaken the system to its foundations. Both were targeted.
Stop blaming the Nation of Islam and let's punish the guilty party! These same bastards killed King and both Kennedy Brothers! Truth has come to you!
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