“I’d photographed Malcolm X a couple times at his headquarters on 125th Street and at various public gatherings, but on March 12, 1964, Time magazine assigned me to cover his momentous 11:00 A.M. press conference in the Tapestry Room at the Park Sheraton Hotel on 7th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan. He read a telegram he’d sent to Elijah Muhammad the day before, then clarified that while he was no longer a member of the Nation of Islam, he was still a Muslim supporting the separation of blacks from white America and a return to their African homeland.
"Malcolm X professed nonviolence, but his bodyguards were burly guys, clearly packing heat, and he openly advocated blacks defending themselves and their property. I’d photographed Martin Luther King on his Selma march, and felt that as different as the two iconic leaders were, they were beginning to find common ground.
He was prim, always impeccably well groomed and reserved, especially around whites. That day at the press conference, I photographed Malcolm X looking stern and uncompromising . . . but also caught a rare image of him smiling.”
