The
Audubon Ballroom was a theatre and ballroom located on Broadway at 165th Street in the
Washington HeightsWashington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
neighborhood of
Upper ManhattanUpper Manhattan denotes the more northerly region of the New York City Borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary may be defined anywhere between 59th Street and 155th Street. Between these two extremes lies the most common definitions of Upper Manhattan as Manhattan above 96th Street...
, north of
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It is best-known as the site of
Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against...
's
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
on February 21, 1965.
The Audubon Ballroom was built in 1912 by
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
William FoxWilliam Fox , born Wilhelm Fried , was a pioneering American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
, who later founded the Fox Film Corporation. Fox hired
Thomas W. LambThomas White Lamb was one of the foremost American theater and cinema architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is noted for designing New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, as well as the second Madison Square Garden...
, one of the foremost
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theater
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
s, as its designer. Among the architectural highlights in the
façadeA facade or façade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
of the Audubon Ballroom are brown foxes between the windows on the second floor, intended to flatter Fox.
During its history, the Audubon Ballroom was used as a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
house, a
movie theaterA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, and a meeting hall.
The
Audubon Ballroom was a theatre and ballroom located on Broadway at 165th Street in the
Washington HeightsWashington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in the northern reaches of the borough of Manhattan. It is named for Fort Washington, a fortification constructed at the highest point on Manhattan island by Continental Army troops during the American Revolutionary War, to defend the area from the...
neighborhood of
Upper ManhattanUpper Manhattan denotes the more northerly region of the New York City Borough of Manhattan. Its southern boundary may be defined anywhere between 59th Street and 155th Street. Between these two extremes lies the most common definitions of Upper Manhattan as Manhattan above 96th Street...
, north of
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. It is best-known as the site of
Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against...
's
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
on February 21, 1965.
The Audubon Ballroom was built in 1912 by
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
William FoxWilliam Fox , born Wilhelm Fried , was a pioneering American motion picture executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s...
, who later founded the Fox Film Corporation. Fox hired
Thomas W. LambThomas White Lamb was one of the foremost American theater and cinema architects in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is noted for designing New York's Ziegfeld Theatre, as well as the second Madison Square Garden...
, one of the foremost
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theater
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
s, as its designer. Among the architectural highlights in the
façadeA facade or façade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
of the Audubon Ballroom are brown foxes between the windows on the second floor, intended to flatter Fox.
During its history, the Audubon Ballroom was used as a
vaudevilleVaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
house, a
movie theaterA movie theater, movie theatre, picture theatre, film theater or cinema is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
, and a meeting hall. In the 1930s, Congregation Emes Wozedek, a synagogue whose members were predominantly
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish immigrants from
GermanyJews have lived in Germany, or "Ashkenaz", at least since the early 4th century, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of antisemitic violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the near-destruction of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe, the subsequent division of Germany and...
, began to use the Audubon Ballroom to conduct its
religious servicesJewish services are the prayer recitations that form part of the observance of Judaism...
. In 1950, the congregants purchased the building, and they continued to hold services there until 1983.
After
Malcolm XMalcolm X , also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against...
left the
Nation of IslamThe Nation of Islam is a religious organization founded in Detroit, Michigan, United States by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930, with the self-proclaimed goal of resurrecting the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of the black men and women of America. The N.O.I. also promotes...
in 1964, he founded the
Organization of Afro-American UnityThe Organization of Afro-American Unity was an organization formed by Malcolm X to promote cooperation between African-Americans.On June 28, 1964, six weeks after Malcolm X's return to New York from Africa, he announced the formation of the Organization of Afro-American Unity . “It was formed in my...
(OAAU). The weekly meetings of the OAAU were held at the Audubon Ballroom and it was at one of those meetings, on February 21, 1965, that Malcolm X was assassinated.
In 1992,
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
began the process of
demolishingDemolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
the Audubon Ballroom and replacing it with the Audubon Business and Technology Center, a university-related
biotechnologyBiotechnology is technology based on biology, agriculture, food science, and medicine. Modern use of the term usually refers to genetic engineering as well as cell- and tissue culture technologies...
research park that is a
public-private partnershipPublic-private partnership describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies...
between
Columbia University Medical CenterColumbia University Medical Center is a medical complex associated with Columbia University, covering several blocks in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan...
and the New York
stateNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and
cityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
governments.
Historic preservationHistoric preservation or heritage conservation is a professional endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historic significance...
groups unsuccessfully sued to prevent its demolition, and a group of Columbia students
occupiedAn occupation, as an act of protest, is the entry into and holding of a building, space or symbolic site. As such, occupations often combine some of the following elements: a challenge to ownership of the space involved, an effort to gain public attention, the practical use of the facilities...
Hamilton HallHamilton Hall is an academic building on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. It is home to the university's highly selective undergraduate arts and sciences school, Columbia College. The building is named for Alexander Hamilton, one of the most famous...
on campus in protest. Eventually, the University reached a compromise with local community groups.
Under the agreement, the University restored a portion of the original façade of the Audubon Ballroom and built a museum inside to honor Malcolm X. In 2005 the University announced the opening of the museum, the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.
External links