Press Statement as Senator Cleare commemorates the 100th Birthday of Malcolm X, an advocate for human rights.

On Monday, May 19th, 2025, I will join the Harlem residents of the 30th Senatorial District to celebrate Malcolm X's 100th birthday, the singularly most important Black Liberation Leader of our times.To honor the century in which he promoted and selflessly advocated for human and civil rights, I am introducing to the Legislative Body–Senate Resolution No. 962.

Malcolm X was a Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist; to his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African-Americans in the face of institutionalized racism.

He walked these streets of Harlem, spoke to attentive crowds, and encouraged the ongoing people's fight for human rights in these United States and beyond.

He was a world leader indeed, but he was also a husband, a father, and a son, and we are fortunate that he devoted his time and, ultimately, his life to leaving this world a better place than when he found it.

Malcolm X was born in Nebraska, but called the Village of Harlem home.  While he spent part of his transformative youth in Harlem in the 1940s, he was to return to Harlem in the 1950s, becoming a world-class leader and heading Temple Number 7 on 116th Street in Harlem, which today is known as Masjid Malcolm Shabazz.

On February  21, 1965, El Hajj Malik El Shabazz – Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a lecture in the Audubon Ballroom.

After a protracted campaign, it was designated as the landmarked Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.

 In 1987, we renamed Lenox Avenue in Harlem after  Malcolm  X.

We also have Malcolm X Plaza here in Harlem, and streets and boulevards are named after him nationwide.

After he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He then became a Sunni Muslim, and after his holy pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, he became El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He shared his thoughts and beliefs with different cultures and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive. 

Reinforced by his beliefs that mankind must do better for the humanity of all, he has become an international icon.

Malcolm X's birthday is one of the most significant annual events in my district and other parts of New York City.  

 Every year, the neighborhood honors the man Harlem’s adopted artistic phenom, Ossie Davis, called ‘Our Shining Black Prince.’

His 100th Birthday is on May 19th. His legacy lives on, his teachings live on, and his vision lives on, and hundreds of people line the blocks of 125th Street in Harlem, waving Black Liberation Flags and showing love and respect for Malcolm X on his birthday.