Malcolm X's Family Files Lawsuit Against FBI, CIA and the NYPD Over Assassination

The family of the late civil rights activist Malcolm X filed a $100 million federal lawsuit against the FBI, CIA and New York Police Department in connection with his death, 60 years after his assassination. 

In a press conference on Friday, Nov. 15, Ilyasah Shabazz and her sister Qubilah Shabazz were joined by attorney Ben Crump and his legal team on behalf of the revolutionary Muslim minister (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz), who was shot and killed on Feb. 21, 1965, at the age of 39. 

“We believe that they all conspired to assassinate Malcolm X, one of the greatest thought leaders of the 20th century,” said Crump, as reported by Reuters.

While discussing the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, Crump expressed hope that federal and city officials would read it “and learn all the dastardly deeds that were done by their predecessors and try to right these historic wrongs,” per the Associated Press.

Malcolm X’s family is claiming that law enforcement officials concealed crucial evidence involving a plot to kill the religious leader, but did intervene.

According to the AP, the lawsuit alleges there was a “corrupt, unlawful, and unconstitutional” relationship between law enforcement officials and “ruthless killers that went unchecked for many years and was actively concealed, condoned, protected, and facilitated by government agents,” leading up to the murder of Malcolm X.

The FBI declined PEOPLE’s request for comment, and a spokesperson for the NYPD said the “NYPD will decline comment on pending litigation.”

The CIA did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Ilyasah, along with her siblings and mother, were with Malcolm X at the time of his assassination at New York’s Audubon Ballroom, where he was for a speaking engagement.

His family claims none of the undercover agents protected him at the event.

The slain activist married Betty Sanders on Jan. 14, 1958. The couple had six daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba, Malikah and Malaak.

“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 alleges, per the AP. “The damage caused to the Shabazz family is unimaginable, immense, and irreparable.”

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In 2020, prosecutors promised to reopen the investigation into Malcolm X’s assassination following the release of a six-part docuseries titled Who Killed Malcolm X?

The docuseries stated that two of the three men convicted of the crime were innocent, and were not even present when Malcolm X was fatally shot.