This weekend will mark 50 years since the assassination of civil rights leader Malcolm X.

At Barnard College Wednesday night, a special event remembered his final public speech, delivered at the campus just three days before he was killed.

Students gathered at the gymnasium where Malcolm X spoke and heard from alumni who organized the speech.

Ellen Friedman, a Barnard alum from the class of 1966 who organized that speech, talked to current students about it. 

"His house had been firebombed the weekend before he came, and yet, he came to speak at a college of predominantly white women at the time," Friedman said. "And everyone was very interested. The auditorium was packed."

"There are a lot of alums and a lot of, sort of, events in Barnard's history that we hear about all the time, and even with the plaque outside the gym, we don't really know what happened here, what really was sort of the context behind the speech. So it's really exciting," said Gabrielle Davenport, a senior at Barnard College.

Organizers said they arranged the speech without the college's permission. They had to defend their decision and seek approval from the board of trustees, which was granted.