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Historic event1965Audubon / W 165th St

Malcolm X and the Audubon Ballroom

Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom, 3940 Broadway. The restored building now houses a memorial center.

Audubon Ballroom, 3940 Broadway

Black-and-white portrait photograph of Malcolm X in 1964 wearing glasses, a suit and tie.
Herman Hitler, World Telegram staff photographer (opens in a new tab)Public domain
The restored Audubon Ballroom facade, now the Shabazz Center
Beyond My Ken (opens in a new tab)CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)
The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center
ajay_suresh (opens in a new tab)CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab)

The Audubon Ballroom was built on Broadway at W 165th St as a vaudeville and movie theater by William Fox of the Fox Film Corporation, Wikipedia’s Washington Heights article says. From the 1930s it was a meeting space for unions and other groups. On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated there during a rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

The city seized the building for unpaid taxes in 1967, and in the late 1980s it was slated for demolition to make way for a Columbia University medical research building. After pushback from community members and Columbia students, the university agreed in 1990 to restore part of the original facade and ballroom. Today the site houses Columbia’s Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building and the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center at 3940 Broadway.

The Shabazz Center’s website says the memorial opened in 2005 through the efforts of Dr. Betty Shabazz, the Shabazz family, Columbia, and community advocates, and that it preserves the ballroom with murals, sculptures, and a bronze statue of Malcolm X.