“We are working to transform this site of the tragic death of my father into a center of support of the international struggle for justice and equality for which he gave his life,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm’s six daughters. She was joined by two of her sisters, Malaak and Gamillah. They are heading a project to convert the ballroom into a community center, which will also house a multimedia presentation using films and books to make Malcolm’s views available. The center, which will honor the life and work of Malcolm and his wife Betty Shabazz, is scheduled to open on May 19, marking Malcolm’s 80th birthday.

Among the speakers were Benjamin Karim and Abdullah H. Abdur-Razzaq (James Shabazz), Malcolm’s closest collaborators in the OAAU, as well as Peter Bailey, who edited the OAAU newsletter Blacklash. This was the first time they had appeared together on the same platform in decades, and each noted they had not returned to the Audubon since Malcolm’s death. Karim was recruited by Malcolm to the Nation of Islam in 1957, became an assistant minister, and remained with Malcolm following the break with the NOI. Shabazz was a co-leader of the OAAU.

Among other speakers were Congressman Charles Rangel, Democratic politician Alfred Sharpton, Shabazz family lawyer and former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton, Mount Vernon mayor Ernest Davis, and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The event at the Audubon was one of several commemorations held throughout the city. Noting the increase in Malcolm’s popularity and interest in his ideas, several speakers commented that at the time of his death no church in the city was willing to hold his funeral.

Drawing on the rich experience of his collaboration with revolutionary fighters in Africa and the Middle East, Malcolm began organizing the OAAU among Afro-Americans living in Ghana during his visit there. “You tell me what kind of country this is,” he said at the OAAU’s founding rally in June 1964. “Why should we do the dirtiest jobs for the lowest pay?… I’m telling you we do it because we…have a rotten system. It’s a system of exploitation, a political and economic system of exploitation, of outright humiliation, degradation, discrimination.”  
 
 
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