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Malcolm X’s daughters file suit over civil rights leader’s assassination

Umito November 16, 2024

NEW YORK — Three daughters of Malcolm the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader.

In the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the daughters — along with Malcolm X’s estate — claimed the agencies knew of and were involved in the assassination plot and failed to stop the killing.

At a morning news conference, attorney Ben Crump stood alongside family members as he described the lawsuit, saying he hoped federal and city officials would read it “and learn about all the dastardly acts committed by their predecessors and would attempt to right these historical wrongs. »

The NYPD and CIA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the Justice Department, which was also sued, declined to comment. The FBI said in an email that it is its “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.

For decades, more questions than answers Tensions rose over who was responsible for the death of Malcolm he was speaking to several hundred people. Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, Malcolm X later changed his name to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

Three men were convicted of deadly crimes, but two of them were exonerated in 2021, after investigators re-examined the case and concluded that some evidence was flimsy and that authorities had withheld some information.

In the lawsuit, the family said the prosecutor’s team ignored the government’s role in the killing.

The lawsuit alleges there was a “corrupt, illegal and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively covered up, tolerated, protected and facilitated by government agents,” leading to murder. by Malcolm

According to the lawsuit, the New York Police, in coordination with federal law enforcement, arrested the activist’s security guards days before the assassination and intentionally removed their officers from inside the ballroom where Malcolm X was killed. Meanwhile, he adds, federal agencies had personnel, including undercover agents, in the ballroom but failed to protect it.

FILE – Malcolm X speaks to reporters in Washington, DC, May 16, 1963. (AP Photo, File)

The lawsuit was not filed sooner because the defendants withheld information from the family, including the identity of the undercover “informants, agents and provocateurs” and what they knew about the planning that preceded the attack .

Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, the plaintiffs, “and their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, the lawsuit says.

“They did not know who assassinated Malcolm concealed their role”, we can read. . “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense and irreparable. »

The family announced his intention sue law enforcement early last year.