Three daughters of Malcolm X are suing the CIA, FBI, the New York Police Department, and more for their alleged role in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.
On Friday (November 15), Malcolm X’s daughters and estate filed a $100 million lawsuit in Manhattan federal, alleging that law enforcement officials were aware of and involved in the assassination plot, per the Associated Press.
Attorney Ben Crump said he hoped federal and city officials would read the lawsuit and “learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”
Speculation and questions have surrounded Malcolm X’s death for decades. The 39-year-old civil rights icon was killed while he was speaking to a crowd of hundreds at Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965.
Three men were convicted of crimes in connection to the killing but two were exonerated in 2021 after investigators determined they were tried on shaky evidence and withheld information.
The lawsuit accuses the prosecution team of suppressing the government’s role in the assassination. According to the suit, law enforcement officials had a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship with “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents.”
The suit further alleges that NYPD and federal law enforcement agencies arrested Malcolm X’s security detail days before the assassination and intentionally removed officers from inside the ballroom where he was killed. Federal agencies also had personnel in the ballroom who failed to protect him, according to the suit.
Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, per the lawsuit.
“They did not know who murdered Malcolm X, why he was murdered, the level of NYPD, FBI and CIA orchestration, the identity of the governmental agents who conspired to ensure his demise, or who fraudulently covered-up their role,” the suit states. “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”
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