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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

El Altar: Assassinations of World Leaders

In the midst of positive change and hope, many of the leaders of major political movements were targeted and assassinated including John F. Kennedy (JFK), Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK), Malcolm X, and Robert F. Kennedy (RFK). The Great Wall of LA mural depicts a makeshift Altar on top of an old television. Portraits of the four leaders hang on the walls while on the television RFK is depicted shaking hands while on his presidential campaign bid. The assassinations exposed the progressive threat that these leaders posed to the U.S. government. This segment serves as a commemoration to the leaders in the U.S. that put their lives at risk to advocate for change.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In the months prior to his assassination, Kennedy and his team were preparing to run for re-election. Focusing on the swing states of Florida and Texas, Kennedy announced that he would plan a tour to visit various cities in both of the states. President Kennedy went to Fort Worth then to Dallas where he planned to speak at a luncheon at the Trade Mart. On the way to the Trade Mart, as the President passed the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire was heard; President Kennedy was shot in the head and neck and Governor Conally was shot in the back. The car took them to Parkland Memorial Hospital where Kennedy was pronounced dead. Conally would later recover. The assassin was arrested and identified as Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository who had just recently been hired. Two days later on November 24th, as he was being transferred to the county jail Oswald was fatally shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner.

Two years later on February 21,1965, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan. Malcolm was widely known as the more militant counterpart to MLK, and whose teaching became the basis for the Black Panther Party. He was also the leading spokesman for the Nation of Islam who identified as Black Nationalists. After years of being a key member of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm discovered that the movement's leader Elijah Muhammad, had gone against his own teachings of celibacy until marriage by having multiple affairs and illegitimate children. Afterwards, Malcolm was suspended from the NOI for speaking publicly about the assassination of JFK. Feeling like he led thousands of people to a fraudulent organization, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam on March 8, 1964. Less than a year later, while Malcolm was preparing to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom a man threw a makeshift smoke bomb into the auditorium floor distracting security. Malcolm’s assassin ran up to him and shot him in his chest. Two other men came up and shot him in the thighs and ankle. As they left the Audubon, Malcolm’s security guard shot gunman Talmadge Hayer in the thigh. Talmadge Hayer confessed to the killing and is in prison. He has claimed that the other two gunmen were innocent.

Three years later in 1968, MLK was assassinated. Dr. King had been invited by Reverend Lawson and the Community on the Move for Equality (COME) committee to speak at the Sanitation Workers Strike that had begun in February of that year. Lawson had been helping the worker’s organize nonviolent marches. On March 28th Dr. King led a nonviolent march with Reverend Lawson however as violence began to erupt, Lawson and King urged demonstrators to go back to the church. King planned to return to Memphis as he felt the nonviolent struggle for economic justice could succeed there. He arrived Wednesday April 3rd and gave a speech to the sanitation workers about his mortality and how they will get to the promised land even if he himself will not be there to see it. The following day as he prepared for dinner, Dr. King was fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The FBI later connected James Earl Ray, an escaped fugitive from Missouri prison to the assassination. Ray was arrested and sentenced to 99 years in prison’ although there was controversy about Ray’s innocence. He died in prison on April 23, 1998.

Only a few months later, during his presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot on June 5, 1968. Throughout his political career, RFK served as Attorney General to John F. Kennedy’s administration and gained public respect for his dedication to economic and racial justice. He collaborated with JFK in proposing the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and after the death of JFK, became a U.S. Senator from New York. As a Senator, RFK pushed to address the needs of the underprivileged in the U.S., which included programs for living improvement, employment assistance, and children with disabilities. He announced his candidacy for presidential nomination on March 16 1968, giving hope to many Americans that much change was coming. After winning California’s Democratic primary, Robert F Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and pronounced dead shortly after.

Sources:
“Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/assassination-martin-luther-king-jr. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
“Feb. 21, 1965: Malcolm X Assassinated during Speech in Manhattan.” Equal Justice Initative , calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/feb/21#:~:text=On%20February%2021%2C%201965%2C%20Malcolm,twins%20born%20after%20his%20death. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
“JFK Assassination Records: Findings.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-1c.html. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.
“Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, kinginstitute.stanford.edu/memphis-sanitation-workers-strike. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.

“November 22, 1963: Death of the President.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/november-22-1963-death-of-the-president. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.

“Robert F. Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy. Accessed 25 Oct. 2023.

Trent, Sydney. “Malcolm X: Who Was He, Why Was He Assassinated, and Who Did It?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 3 Dec. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/17/malcolm-x-assasination-who-why/.

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In Frame 375 of the Zapruder film, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy crawls toward the back of the presidential limousine as Secret Service agent Clint Hill scrambles to help her. Photo: Zapruder Film ©, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza - Fifty-eight years ago in Dallas, Texas, Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, but since Oswald himself was killed shortly after the assassination, questions lingered about whether anyone else was involved, feeding conspiracy theories. President Joe Biden ordered the release of the documents in October but it's being done in stages, with thousands remaining secret amid intelligence agency concerns about what they could reveal.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, an event that sent shock waves reverberating around the world. A Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), King had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of impassioned speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.
After spending a year as a hunted man, Malcolm X was shot and killed during a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, New York, on February 21, 1965. The assailants, at least three in number, were members of the Black Muslim group the Nation of Islam, the group with which Malcolm X had been a prominent minister for ten years before he split with them in March 1964. Exactly who shot Malcolm X has been hotly debated over the decades. One man, Talmage Hayer, was arrested at the scene and was definitely a shooter. Two other men were arrested and sentenced but were most likely wrongly accused. The confusion over the identity of the shooters compounds the question of why Malcolm X was assassinated and has led to a wide range of conspiracy theories The Assassination On the morning of Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X woke up in his 12th-floor hotel room at the Hilton Hotel in New York. Around 1 p.m., he checked out of the hotel and headed for the Audubon Ballroom, where he was to speak at a meeting of his OAAU. He parked his blue Oldsmobile nearly 20 blocks away, which seems surprising for someone who was being hunted. When he arrived at the Audubon Ballroom, he headed backstage. He was stressed and it was beginning to show. He lashed out at several people, shouting angrily. This was very out of character for him. When the OAAU meeting was to start, Benjamin Goodman went out on stage to speak first. He was to speak for about a half an hour, warming up the crowd of about 400 before Malcolm X was to speak. Then it was Malcolm X’s turn. He stepped up to the stage and stood behind a wooden podium. After he gave the traditional Muslim welcome, “As-salaam alaikum,” and got the response, a ruckus began in the middle of the crowd. A man had stood up, shouting that a man next to him had tried to pick-pocket him. Malcolm X’s bodyguards left the stage area to go deal with the situation. This left Malcolm unprotected on the stage. Malcolm X sidestepped away from the podium, saying “Let’s be cool, brothers.” It was then that a man stood up near the front of the crowd, pulled out a sawed-off shotgun from beneath his trench-coat and shot at Malcolm X. The blast from the shotgun made Malcolm X fall backward, over some chairs. The man with the shotgun fired again. Then, two other men rushed the stage, firing a Luger and a .45 automatic pistol at Malcolm X, hitting mostly his legs. The noise from the shots, the violence that had just been committed, and a smoke bomb that had been set off in the back, all added to the chaos. En masse, the audience tried to escape. The assassins used this confusion to their advantage as they blended into the crowd—all but one escaped. The one who did not escape was Talmage “Tommy” Hayer (sometimes called Hagan). Hayer had been shot in the leg by one of Malcolm X’s bodyguards as he was trying to escape. Once outside, the crowd realized that Hayer was one of the men who had just murdered Malcolm X and the mob started to attack Hayer. Luckily, a policeman happened to be walking by, saved Hayer, and managed to get him into the back of a police car. During the pandemonium, several of Malcolm X’s friends rushed to the stage to try to help him. Despite their efforts, Malcolm X was too far gone. Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, had been in the room with their four daughters that day. She ran up to her husband, shouting, “They are killing my husband!” Malcolm X was put on a stretcher and carried across the street to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Doctors tried to revive Malcolm X by opening up his chest and massaging his heart, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
1963 - After an altercation where a cop was shot, LAPD officers attacked the Black Muslim temple, a block away, where unarmed members were leaving after evening prayers. The final tally: one Muslim man dead, seven others seriously wounded, fourteen arraigned on felonies, and the temple ransacked. Malcolm, at the funeral, praised LA Black organizations for protesting the attack: "Our unity shocked them and we should continue to shock the white man by working together." (Set the Night on Fire L.A. n the Sixties, Mike Davis and Jon Wiener)
“Famous photograph that was in “Life” magazine in March of 1964 and again in “Ebony” in September of that same year. In the picture, Malcolm X is holding a M1 Carbine in his right hand, and pulling back the blinds on his window with his left hand, looking outside his Queens, NY, home to keep watch. He had good cause. On Feb. 14, 1965, his house was firebombed. A week later, on Feb. 21, 1965, while giving a speech, with his family in the audience, Malcolm X was assassinated.”
April 27: An altercation leads to police entering the Los Angeles Temple and killing its unarmed secretary, Ronald Stokes. "They're going to pay for it," Malcolm declares, and goes to Los Angeles to eulogize Stokes at a funeral attended by 2,000 people. He says the police shot "innocent unarmed Black men in cold blood" and urges action. But Elijah Muhammad resists calls for an aggressive response. An all-white coroner's jury deliberates about Stokes' killing for 23 minutes and terms it "justifiable homicide." By contrast, 14 Nation of Islam members are indicted for assault in the incident and 11 are found guilty. Later this year, Malcolm confirms that Elijah Muhammad has engaged in repeated adultery and had children with at least three of his young secretaries. "I felt almost out of my mind," Malcolm says. Herbert Muhammad asks Muhammad Speaks to minimize coverage of Malcolm X.