NEW YORK — Exactly 58 years to the date that Malcolm X was assassinated in a hail of gunfire on a Manhattan stage, his family announced plans to file a lawsuit against the NYPD accusing cops and various government agencies of intentionally concealing evidence of his murder.
Flanked by two of the slain Muslim activist’s daughters, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said Malcolm X’s family intends to file a wrongful-death lawsuit for $100 million against a long list of agencies including city of New York, the state of New York, the NYPD, the district attorney’s office, the FBI and the CIA.
The announcement comes two years after a state judge exonerated two of the three men convicted and jailed in connection with Malcolm X’s 1965 murder.
Last year the city paid $26 million and the state paid $10 million to Muhammad Aziz, and the family of Khalil Islam to settle lawsuits related to their wrongful convictions.
“The rhetorical question is this: If the government compensated the two gentlemen that were wrongfully convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X with tens of millions of dollars, then what is to be the compensation for the daughters who suffered the most from the assassination of Malcolm X?” Crump said
“We intend to have vigorous litigation of this matter, to have discovery, to be able to take depositions of the individuals who are still alive, 58 years later, to make sure that some measure of justice can be given to Malcolm X’s daughters. The truth of what happened and who was involved has always been critical.”
Crump along with Qubilah Shabazz and Ilyasah Shabazz, two of Malcolm X’s six daughters, made the announcement at The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center in Washington Heights.
The building, which opened as a memorial site commemorating Malcolm X and Shabazz, his late wife, was once home to the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was gunned down on Feb. 21, 1965.
“The connection between his death and federal and New York government agencies, including the NYPD, FBI and CIA has long been contested,” Crump said in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s news conference. “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.”
Crump reiterated the family’s accusations that law enforcement and powerful government leaders conspired to have Malcolm X killed.
An NYPD representative declined to comment citing pending litigation.
In the months after his public split from the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was gunned down on the stage of the Audubon Ballroom as he prepared to make a speech to supporters of his new group, The Organization of Afro-American Unity.
He was shot 21 times as his wife and children looked on.
