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Violence in Harlem after anti-Segregation Rally

May 15, 1963 - A television newsman was beaten and 11 store windows were broken in the aftermath of an anti-segregation rally last night in Harlem. The rally, attended by 3,000 persons, was addressed by a leader of the Birmingham desegregation movement and by Malcolm X (pictured at the rally), leader of the Black Muslims, who advocate separation of whites and Negroes. The street-corner meeting was held at 125th Street and Seventh Avenue. The newsman, Ben Holman of CBS-TV, was beaten on the head as he climbed a staircase at the Theresa Hotel, at the intersection. Mr. Holman, a Negro, who had gone into the hotel to try to get an interview, told police his six assailants were Black Muslims. He said they had told him the beating was in retaliation for a series on the Nation of Islam he wrote recently for The Chicago Daily News. The assailants escaped. Mr. Holman was taken to Harlem Hospital to be treated for injuries. Prior to a speech by the Rev. A.D. King, younger brother of Dr. Martin Luther King, whose home was bombed last weekend, Malcolm X addressed the crowd and criticized the leaders of the nonviolent movement. He said these leaders were “closing their eyes to what’s going on here in New York and in California.” “I don’t condone what is going on in Birmingham, but we have segregation here,” said Mr. X.


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