USA Today reported that 60 years after his death, the family of Malcolm X is officially requesting the declassification of the files surrounding the civil rights activist and political leader’s assassination.
According to USA Today, several multi-million dollar lawsuits accusing the US government of being involved in X’s assassination have been filed over the years after three men were arrested for the act but two were exonerated.
Ilysah Shabazz, Malcolm X’s third daughter, shared her frustration in an interview with USA Today.
“First of all, it would be good to know what happened, who killed him, why he was killed, and correct our history books, because it's not accurate,” she said.
According to NPR, the lawsuit filed by three of his daughters, beginning its journey in Manhattan Federal Court back in November, suggests that the CIA, FBI, New York City Police Department, and others were aware of, and even part of, the plot against Malcolm X and failed to stop it.
The lawsuit also points out that the NYPD arrested X’s security detail and removed their officers from the ballroom where X would give his final speech before eventually being assassinated in that same room.
Malcolm X is considered a crucial member in the advancement of Black Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, though he wasn’t always well received by the collective due to his encouraging Black people to seek liberation “by any means necessary.”
Amaya Washington, a HU first year marketing major with a passion for civil rights, shared why she believed Malcolm X was so influential, and potentially threatening, to the American government.
“Malcolm X represented a fraction of the African American culture that was ready to revolutionize…This was one of the first mass push backs buy African Americans in the US so the government knew they couldn’t control it,” she said.
Ilyasah Shabazz told USA Today that her mother, Dr. Betty Shabazz always made sure her children knew who their father was.
“My mother kept pictures, paintings of him everywhere in our house. I vividly recall his hat, his shoes, his coat, his briefcase, his books," she said.
USA Today stated that Dr. Betty Shabazz strives to keep X’s legacy alive both inside and outside of her household with the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center in New York City, where a celebration of his life was held on Feb 21.
According to CBS News, Ben Crump, the attorney representing the Shabazz family, is urging the courts by pointing out President Trump’s recent order to declassify other high-profile assassinations like those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former President John F. Kennedy.
Crump told CBS that the family is persistent in their efforts to gain clarity of X’s assassination and, on behalf of the Shabazz family, he stated, “We think that Malcolm X's FBI files are more relevant now than ever on the 60th anniversary of his death.”
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