101st Anniversary of the Birth of Malcolm X
May 19, 1925

Historic Meeting of Malcolm X and Fidel Castro in Harlem

Meeting between Fidel Castro and Malcolm X at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem in September 1960

Writing for The Peoples’ Forum in New York in September 2025, Manolo De Los Santos, Executive Director of The People’s Forum, speaks about the historic meeting in September 1960 between Fidel Castro and Malcolm X at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. He writes: “The meeting between Fidel and Malcolm X at the Hotel Theresa was not a mere photo-op; it was a potent symbol of an era of revolution and national liberation struggles crystallized in an embrace between two young revolutionaries facing the wrath of the US empire and sending a powerful statement against U.S. hegemony and racial oppression.”

Castro was in New York as part of the Cuban delegation to the 15th session of the UN General Assembly. The delegation was greeted with hostility by the U.S. government and the management of the hotel where the delegation was booked demanded a U.S.$20,000 damage deposit and the U.S. State Department restricted their movements. Malcolm X and other Black leaders stepped in and invited the Cuban delegation to the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. The author points out that “Fidel accepted, turning a diplomatic insult into a powerful political statement against the Eisenhower Administration’s attempt to silence him. By moving to Harlem, Fidel would create a headache for Washington by intentionally highlighting the hypocrisy of a nation that claimed to be a champion of democracy and freedom abroad while its Black citizens faced systemic segregation and oppression at home.” In the words of Malcolm X, speaking of the thousands of people who came out in the rain to cheer the Cuban delegation, Fidel “achieved a psychological coup over the U.S. State Department when it confined him to Manhattan, never dreaming that he’d stay uptown in Harlem and make such an impression among the Negroes.”

De Los Santos reports:

“The Hotel Theresa meeting was a crucial moment in the history of internationalism and anti-imperialist solidarity. It demonstrated a clear understanding that the struggle against racial oppression and for human rights in the U.S. was inextricably linked to the struggle against colonialism and imperialism abroad” which symbolized an era of decolonization and human rights struggles by Black and colonized peoples globally, a powerful rejection of the Cold War narrative that sought to frame these movements as isolated and illegitimate.

“The meeting exposed the hypocrisy of U.S. claims of being a beacon of freedom while its own Black citizens faced systemic segregation and violence, not just in the U.S. South under Jim Crow, but even in the urban centers of the U.S. North. Fidel’s decision to move to Harlem and his subsequent meetings with world leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt from his ‘new headquarters’ transformed him from a hemispheric figure into a global one. As Simon Hall writes in ‘Ten Days in Harlem,’ Fidel’s actions highlighted that ‘the stain of segregation was alive and well in the urban north,’ and placed the politics of anti-imperialism and racial equality at the center of the Cold War.”

Describing the meeting between Malcolm X and Fidel on September 24, he says, “The encounter was a profound, if brief, exchange between two men who recognized the mirror of their struggles in one another, a shared fight for what Fidel would later call, two days later, in his historic four-hour-long UN speech, ‘the full human dignity’ of all oppressed people. Only a few Black journalists were permitted inside, where Fidel, speaking in English, expressed his admiration for the resilience of African Americans. ‘I admire this,’ he said. ‘Your people live here and are faced with this propaganda all the time, and yet, they understand. This is very interesting.’ Malcolm X’s reply was succinct and powerful: ‘There are twenty million of us, and we always understand.’ As he left the hotel, facing a throng of hostile journalists asking about his sympathies for the Cubans, Malcolm X defiantly replied ‘Please don’t tell us who should be our friends, and who should be our enemies.’

“Though Fidel and Malcolm X would never again meet in person, their lives became intertwined through a shared commitment to internationalism. Just a few years after their historic encounter, Malcolm X would travel to Gaza, where he met with the newly formed Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and wrote his powerful essay ‘Zionist Logic,’ describing Zionism as ‘a new form of colonialism.’ This solidarity mirrored that of the Cuban Revolution; earlier Cuban delegations, including Raúl Castro and Che Guevara, had also visited Gaza, and Cuba would become one of the first countries to recognize both the PLO and the Palestinian state.”

Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Eduardo Rodríguez Parrilla speaks in Riverside Church at meeting on the 65th anniversary of Fidel’s visit to Harlem and meeting with Malcolm X. Meeting also celebrates the 100 year birth anniversaries of Fidel and Malcolm X (Photo: Jaylen Strong)

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