Three of Malcolm X’s daughters have filed a lawsuit against the FBI, CIA, and the New York Police Department, accusing them of playing a role in the 1965 assassination of the legendary leader and demanding $100m in recompense.
The lawsuit, announced on Friday, was filed by his three daughters and the estate of Malcolm X, and accuses the US government agencies and New York law enforcement of being aware of – and involved in – the plot to kill Malcolm X, and saying they did nothing to stop it.
The lawsuit accuses the prosecution team of suppressing the US government’s role in the assassination.
“Their entire family have suffered the pain of the unknown” for decades, according to 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 lawsuit reads.
“The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”
Malcolm X was assassinated at the age of 39 on 21 February 1965 by three men who opened fire on him while speaking at the Audobon Ballroom in New York City. Three men were convicted and sentenced for his murder. However, decades later, two of those men were exonerated.
Malcolm X was one of the most powerful voices in the fight against racism before his shooting death in New York in 1965.
He rose to fame as the Nation of Islam’s chief spokesperson, proclaiming the Black Muslim organisation’s message at the time: racial separatism as a road to self-actualisation.
X famously urged Black people to claim civil rights “by any means necessary.”
Malcolm X spent more than a decade building the Nation of Islam before becoming disillusioned and breaking acrimoniously with it in 1964. In April 1964, he embarked on the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. He said the experience transformed his religious, political, and social outlook.
