Malcolm X Was Viewed Through Glass in a 6-Foot-9 Bronze Casket

At 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23, 1965, a bomb warning reached Unity Funeral Home in Harlem. Outside, rock salt covered the sidewalk beneath the green canopy while police searched packages and watched from the roof. Inside, Malcolm X lay in an unusually long casket as mourners passed. This film follows the identification at the medical examiner’s office, the casket decision made with Unity manager Joseph E. Hall, the preparation details the surviving records do and do not reveal, the transition to a Muslim shroud, and the guarded journey from Harlem to Ferncliff Cemetery. Every step comes from funeral records, official files, and contemporary reporting. Where were you when you heard that Malcolm X had died? What state, and how old were you? Which part of his four-day viewing would you most want to see documented from Unity’s side? Tell us in the comments. Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:56 Three Thirty 2:42 2352 Eighth Avenue 4:43 What the File Does Not Say 7:00 Six Feet Nine 9:30 Four Days 11:12 The Roof 12:54 A Church Says Yes 14:32 One Thirty-Five 17:22 Fifty-Two Cars 19:39 The Bronze Plate 21:09 CLOSE Sources Alex Haley, epilogue to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Grove Press, 1965 Suzanne E. Smith, To Serve the Living, Harvard University Press, 2010 Time, “Death and Transfiguration,” March 5, 1965 FBI, Malcolm Little (Malcolm X) New York File 30, 1965 FBI, memorandum on bomb threats to Unity Funeral Home, February 24, 1965 Manchester Evening Herald, February 24, 1965 Library of Congress, Betty Shabazz leaving the morgue, 1965 Archival photographs and film are in the public domain or used for commentary and historical documentation. Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... (CC BY 2.0, Tony the Misfit); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... (CC BY-SA 2.0, The All-Nite Images from NY, NY, USA); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... (CC BY 2.0, Jay Tamboli); https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... (CC BY-SA 4.0, Beyond My Ken) #MalcolmX #FuneralHistory #TheFuneralFiles