Malcolm X’s three daughters joined civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump on Saturday to reveal what they say is evidence that proves the NYPD and FBI conspired to murder him.
The civil rights activist and a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam was killed at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan in February 1965.
Family members and Crump said the charges were in a deathbed letter to a former police officer, Raymond Wood.
In the letter of 25 January 2011, Wood, who was on duty on the day of Malcolm X’s death, said that he “participated in actions that, in retrospect, were deplorable and detrimental to the progress of my own black people”.
“Under the direction of my officers, I was told to encourage leaders and members of civil rights groups to commit criminal acts,” Wood said in the letter.
Wood said he was coerced by his NYPD supervisors to lure members of Malcolm X security to commit crimes that resulted in his arrest days before the deadly shooting.
“It was my mission to lure the two men into a federal criminal crime so that they could be arrested by the FBI and kept away from managing the security of Malcolm X’s door on February 21, 1965,” wrote Wood. “At that time, I didn’t know that Malcolm X was the target.”
These arrests were part of a conspiracy between the NYPD and the FBI for Malcolm X to be killed, according to the letter.
Malcolm X was a human rights activist and prominent black nationalist leader who served as a spokesman for the Nation of Islam, an African American Muslim group that embraced black separatism, during the 1950s and 1960s. Skilled speaker, Malcolm X encouraged blacks fighting racism by any means necessary.
The civil rights leader broke with the Nation of Islam shortly before his assassination in the ballroom, where he was preparing to speak to the Organization of African American Unity. Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the shooting.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, Cy Vance, began reviewing the convictions last year.
After Saturday’s press conference, Vance’s office released a statement saying his “review of this issue is active and in progress”. The NYPD also provided a statement saying that “it provided all available records relevant to that case to the district attorney” and “remains committed to helping with this review in any way.”
Malcolm X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, said she always had doubts about her father’s death.
“Any evidence that provides a greater understanding of the truth behind this terrible tragedy must be thoroughly investigated,” she told a news conference.