Malcolm X’s family announced on Tuesday — the 58th anniversary of his assassination on February 21, 1965 — their plan to sue the CIA, FBI, New York Police Department (NYPD), and other institutions “for their handling” of his murder.
Benjamin Crump — an attorney known for his involvement with deaths focused on by news media, such as those of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd — joined two of Malcolm X’s daughters for a livestreamed announcement of the family’s planned lawsuit.
Crump’s law firm issued the following statement:
Tomorrow will mark 58 years since Malcom X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, at age 39 while speaking at the Audubon Ballroom. He was shot a total of 21 times by a group of men in front of his wife and daughters. The connection between his death and federal and New York government agencies, including the NYPD, FBI, and CIA has long been contested. The governmental agencies had factual and exculpatory evidence that they fraudulently concealed from the family of Malcolm X and the men wrongly convicted of crimes surrounding the assassination of Malcolm X.
Three men, all members of the Nation of Islam, were convicted of the murder of Malcolm X. Two of these men were exonerated in 2021 and awarded $36 million for wrongful conviction by New York City and New York State.
After being asked if government agencies conspired to assassinate Malcom X, Crump replied, “That is what we are alleging, yes. They infiltrated many civil rights organizations.”
“We’re going to make sure that we follow the evidence where it leads, and we have sued the federal government and their entities because … we have evidence that they infiltrated many civil rights organizations to be able to destroy them and destroy their leaders.” He added, “I think J. Edgar Hoover [stated] that, ‘We must not have a black Messiah.'”