Black Muslim Mosque Gutted: Firemen aim hoses at flames pouring from a gap after a wall collapsed in a Black Muslim mosque in Harlem. The fire erupted in the fourth floor Mosque early this morning, after police on guard outside heard one or more explosions. Five firemen were injured when the wall collapsed. Police were stationed at the mosque following the slaying of Malcolm X on Sunday and threats against the Muslims by his followers.

Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, formerly known as Mosque No. 7, is a Sunni Muslim mosque in Harlem, New York. It was formerly a Nation of Islam mosque, where Malcolm X preached until he left it for Sunni Islam in 1964. Opened as Temple No. 7 of the Nation of Islam at the Harlem YMCA in 1946, it was moved to Lenox Casino at 102 West 116th Street on the southwest corner of Lenox Avenue. When Malcolm X split from Elijah Muhammad in 1964, he started a Sunni Muslim mosque named The Muslim Mosque Inc. The successor to that mosque is The Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood Inc. at 130 West 113th Street in Harlem. In January 1964, Elijah Muhammad stripped Malcolm X of his offices. Muhammad promoted James 3X as the new minister of Mosque No. 7. Mosque No. 7 was destroyed in a bombing in 1965 after Malcolm X's assassination, forcing Nation of Islam to move the mosque to 106 West 127th Street. The building was redesigned by Sabbath Brown. In 1976, Wallace D. Muhammad, the new leader of the Nation of Islam, renamed the mosque Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, or Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, to honor the memory and contributions of Malcolm X.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: manuscript date and Associated Press stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Assassinations
• Black Muslims
• Civil Rights Movements
• Fire engines
• Firefighters
• Fires
• Harlem
• Injustice
• Malcolm X
• Masjid Malcolm Shabazz
• Nation of Islam
• Racial Discrimination

• Image Dimensions: 6 11/16 x 9 1/4 in. (16.99 x 23.5 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 6 11/16 x 9 9/16 in. (16.99 x 24.29 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen