Feb. 21 (GIN) – Years after a visit by El Hajj Malik El Shabazz to Smethwick, Birmingham, England, the community has erected a plaque in his honor on the date of his assassination in New York’s Audubon Ballroom.
Malcolm X visited Smethwick, after addressing the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations in London.
“The American civil rights activist … made the walk after being invited to view some of the residential houses being denied to African Caribbean and Asian property seekers in the Smethwick,” according to the Nu Jak media release.
“At the time the council had a policy of segregated housing,” the release said. “The visit by Malcolm X to Marshall Road brought international media attention to the issue, and within a few months a new administration had been sworn in and the policy was overturned.
“Almost half a century later, visitors and site-seers from all over the world still visit Marshall Street to follow in the footsteps of his historic walk.”
To commemorate this, on Feb. 21, 2012, 47 years to the day of his passing, a coalition of local groups will honor Malcolm X with a blue heritage plaque on Marshall Road in Smethwick.