From [HERE] Malcolm X, who grew up in Lansing, was assassinated Feb. 21, 1965, in New York City at age 39.

The civil rights leader upset some people after splitting from the Nation of Islam, which was founded in Detroit. In 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

A week before gunmen opened fire at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, Malcolm X's home in Queens, N.Y., was firebombed. The Nebraska native's birth name was Malcolm Little, though he later was known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. His nickname when he was a young hustler was Detroit Red. Malcolm X's wife -- a Detroiter born Betty Sanders, better known as Betty Shabazz -- died in 1997.

Last April, Thomas Hagan (above), the only person who ever admitted shooting Malcolm X, was released on parole.

Hagan was one of three men convicted of killing Malcolm. Hagan along with Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, all members of the Nation of Islam, were convicted in the death of Malcolm X. Malcom was shot 16 times, most from short range by a shot-gun and handguns.  Hagan was shot in the thigh in trying to flee the scene and arrested. [MORE] and [MORE]