Visiting Malcolm X’s Last Known Residence in East Elmhurst, Queens
Standing on 97th Street between 23rd and 24th Avenues in East Elmhurst, Queens, I found myself in front of the last known residence of Malcolm X. This quiet block holds an important piece of history—one that speaks to the final chapter of a man who changed the course of civil rights and Black empowerment in America.
Malcolm X, along with his wife Betty Shabazz and their children, lived here in the mid-1960s. It was from this home that he continued his work after breaking from the Nation of Islam, forming the Organization of Afro-American Unity and broadening his message of justice and self-determination. Tragically, in 1965, just weeks after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan.
Today, there are no official markers at the site, but the energy of his presence lingers. Walking the block, I imagined Malcolm X leaving this home, stepping onto these very streets, carrying the weight of a movement. His legacy remains alive—not just in books and speeches, but in the places he once walked, the communities he fought for, and the ideas that continue to inspire generations.
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