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0-19 {Rev. 1-26-66) pic Jadgment of Gods By-Murray ‘Kemptan Tue widow of the wie cn vey Malcolm X and the police called Mal ittle and his family called Malik Shabazz was a witness last week at the trial of the three young men the state says murdered him. She turned out to be a monument of august simplicity, one white strand of pearls on the neck, the rest all black. Maleoim X lived in the most ragged social } setting known to Americans; yet he willed him- self to be a great foreign prince. How odd to be reminded that, no matter where they are born or how they live, kings end up marrying queens. “Betty Shabazz,” she said to the stenographer. ‘S, like Sam, h, a, b, like boy, a, b, a, z, like zebra, z."" Sam," “Boy,” the little nicknames white people used to call Negroes before history made us self-conscious; there is irony in every word spoken by a queen in exile. She had gone to the Audubon Ballroom, she told Assistant District Attorney Dermody, with “my four babies” last Feb. a to sii in a box at her husband's last meeting. She had watched her husband come to the stage and ‘‘give the oustamary greeting” and then a man siood up on the jeft hand and said something “in a Joud and demanding voice.” Ber husband had said everything would be all right, and then there was a shot and chairs falling and people running. “My babies started erying and I was trying to quiet them. They ated wil somebody wanted to kill us. I pushed theerunder a bench. I covered the bench with my body. One of them cried out they couldn't breathe or see. I turned to help quiet them and then I looked toward the stage and I couldn't see my husband.” AS &@ presence she was magnificent; as a witness, she was of very little use even a queen, with the charge of fout little girls, can be asked to observe very little else. From behind the district attorney her look seemed fixed, brooding, without anger or hatred. She was looking at the defendants: and one of their counsel who bore its froatal force talked about that look as tho it had been a flame. It was the terrible force of the assumption without much chance of knowledge that these were the murderers of her husband. And” these three young men sat looking straight ahead, under the shadow of a curse that might have been a thousand years ok because it was that impersonal and devoid of any sign of Tolson ———y<— 7 ee Lp b1d Sper Callahan ———__ Conrad —__ Felt Gale Rose = Sullivan —# Tavel Trotter Tele, Room Holmes Gandy | | ———— The Washington Post and Times Herald The Washington Daily News 24 The Evening Star New York Hetald Tribune New York Journal-American ork Daily News Yorks Post New resonate [fe 0-3 993A The New York Times And then, departing, she stopped right by the defendants anf ——a raised hee arm, Who knows the motives of queens? Some of us enieckete eae 5 The Baltimore Sun thought she was about to strike them, and some of us that ee The Worker was only about to remonstrate with them 9. psar 2 me) The New Leader A court attendant took her elbow. ‘‘Let go of my arm,” she said. . a She had begun at last to cry. ‘They killed my husband.” Her, | — — —eem = The Wall Street Zeurnal “they” sounded as if she were talking about everybody. And thea abe was gone, and Judge Marks instructed the jury to disregard her final scene. You doubted that any juror could fit an event of this size into his judgment criminal case. What is relevant aboutthe_aager of the daar absurdity of everything? - . DEAT a a A yb Gs ving Five rar - r v2 ~ . in “St The National Observer People’s World \ Pate ru oo Wc