June 28, 1964: Malcolm X founds OAAU

On this day in 1964, Malcolm X founded a new group called the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Its goals were to push for human rights for black Americans and to seek common ground between Africans and black Americans.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover considered the group a national-security threat, and placed it under surveillance until its dissolution after Malcolm X’s death in February 1965.

In 1946, 20-year-old Malcolm X was sentenced to jail for several robberies in the Boston area. By the time he was released in 1952, he had become a member of the Nation of Islam, which some consider a black supremacy group. He quickly rose to become the public face of the movement.

He broke ties with the Nation of Islam in 1964; in March, he founded Muslim Mosque, Inc. before embarking on the hajj, the obligatory pilgrimage to Mecca. On his trip, he also visited several countries in Africa, where he was impressed with the nascent Organization of African Unity (OAU, the predecessor to the African Union). He used this as his template for the OAAU.

Malcolm X was invited to the OAU’s second meeting, in Cairo, as a representative of the OAAU. There, he met most of the heads-of-state on the continent, and received invitations from several to serve in their governments.

On February 21, 1965, as he was preparing to address the OAAU at the Audubon Center in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, Malcolm X was shot 21 times by three Nation of Islam members.

USHistory.org has more on Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.

Image: Herman Hiller, New York World-Telegram & Sun (1964). Library of Congress LC-USZ62-111166