Three of the daughters of the late Malcolm X filed a $100 million lawsuit on Nov. 15, which accuses the FBI, CIA, and the New York Police Department among other groups of playing a role in the assassination of the civil and human rights activist in 1965.
According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, alleges that the named defendants were aware of a plot against their father’s life and did not act to prevent it.
Nicolas Biase, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which was also a named defendant in the lawsuit, declined comment.
The NYPD and CIA did not respond to requests from AP for comment, and the FBI stated in an email that it is their “standard practice” not to comment on litigation.
Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Estate of Malcolm X, said in a press release that the cover up from multiple organizations spanned decades.
“This cover-up spanned decades, blocking the Shabazz family’s access to the truth and their right to pursue justice,” Crump said. “We are making history by standing here to confront those wrongs and seeking accountability in the courts.”
In a news conference held on the same day as the filing of the lawsuit, Crump stood with members of the Shabazz family and said it was his hope that city and federal officials would read the lawsuit “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs.”
According to the lawsuit, there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between various law enforcement agencies and the “ruthless killers” that allowed for the assassination to take place.
In February 2023, the family announced their plans to seek a lawsuit, which they have now made good on.
JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike, executive director of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, supported Ilaysha Shabazz and the rest of the Shabazz family via a statement provided to the Nebraska Examiner.
According to LeFlore-Ejike, the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation “fully supports the Shabazz family in their quest for justice and an accurate historical account of Brother Malcolm’s life and his tragic assassination.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit filed by the family argues that the ties between the parties “went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents.”
According to Al-Jazeera, Crump also summed up the family’s claim against the agencies at the news conference.
“We believe that they all conspired to assassinate Malcolm X, one of the greatest thought leaders of the 20th century,” Crump said.
He continued, “We are not just making history, but we’re making a path for justice. We believe, a precedent-setting path for justice for those who have been denied justice by the American legal system for far too long.”
The lawsuit follows decades of speculation and a review of the initial investigation ordered by the then-Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance in 2020.
Vance’s review resulted in the acquittals of two of the men who had been convicted of the murder of Malcolm X, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, after the probe into the investigation unearthed evidence that prosecutors, the NYPD and the FBI withheld that could have cleared them.
The lawsuit also argues that as a result of the uncertainty around Malcolm X’s murder, his family has suffered for decades.
“They (the family) 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 lawsuit continued, “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”
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