Malcolm X’s family on Saturday released a letter allegedly written by a now-deceased police officer, claiming that New York police and the FBI were behind the murder of the black civil rights leader in 1965.
Why it matters: Scientists and civil rights advocates have long said that men charged with the murder of Malcolm X, later known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, in New York’s Audubon Ballroom. were wrongly convicted. Some have claimed that police and federal agents played a role in his death.
Driving the news: The family made public the letter attributed to Raymond Wood, a former NYPD undercover officer, who confessed before his death that the NYPD and the FBI were conspiring in the murder.
- Wood wrote that he had been ordered to ensure that Malcolm X had no door security in the Harlem building where he would be speaking.
- Malcolm X’s daughters released the details of the letter at the former site of their father’s murder, saying they were waiting until Wood’s death to speak out for fear of retaliation from the authorities.
- “Any evidence that provides further insight into the truth behind that terrible tragedy must be thoroughly investigated,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters, at the press conference.
Flashback: Muhammad Aziz, Mujahid Abdul Halim and Khalil Islam were convicted of killing the civil rights leader and sentenced to life in prison.
- Aziz and Islam denied that they were connected to a plot to kill Malcolm X. Halim had said the two were not involved.
- Malcolm X was murdered after publicly breaking up with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and while under close surveillance by the FBI.
Between the lines: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s office last year announced that his office would revisit the 1965 murder following the release of a Netflix series questioning the investigation into Malcolm X’s death.
NYPD said in a statement that it “has provided all available data relevant to that case to the prosecutor”.
- “The department remains committed to assisting in that assessment in any way.”
- The FBI declined to comment.
The big picture: Malcolm X sees a renewed interest in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement, calling on advocates to diversify school history lessons to tackle systemic racism.
- “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X” written by the late journalist Les Payne and his daughter Tamara won the 2020 National Book Award for non-fiction.
- The book shows how Malcolm X’s intellectual development as a black nationalist stemmed in part from his pastor father and his multilingual mother, who worked as a journalist.
- The book also revealed Malcolm X’s experience at a school with white students where he gained popularity and how he learned to grow better marijuana from Mexican immigrants in Michigan.