Malcolm X’s family released a letter on Saturday, allegedly written by a deceased police officer, alleging that the New York Police Department and the FBI were behind the 1965 murder of the black civil rights leader.
Why it matters: Academics and civil rights advocates have long said that men accused of killing Malcolm X, later known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, in New York’s Audubon Ballroom were unjustly condemned. Some claim 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 disguised NYPD officer, who confessed before he died that the NYPD and the FBI conspired in the murder.
- Wood wrote that he had been ordered to see to it that Malcolm X had no security at the door of the Harlem building where he was supposed to speak.
- Malcolm X’s daughters released details of the letter at the old site of his father’s murder and said they waited until Wood’s death to talk about it for fear of retaliation by the authorities.
- “Any evidence that provides a greater understanding of the truth behind this terrible tragedy must be investigated thoroughly,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s daughters, at the news conference.
Flashback: Muhammad Aziz, Mujahid Abdul Halim and Khalil Islam were convicted of the murder of the civil rights leader and sentenced to life in prison.
- Aziz and Islam denied being linked to any conspiracy to kill Malcolm X. Halim said the two were not involved.
- Malcolm X was killed after publicly breaking with the leader of the Nation of Islam Elijah Muhammad and while being closely monitored by the FBI.
Between the lines: Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance’s office announced last year that his office would revisit the 1965 murder after the launch of a Netflix series questioning the investigation into Malcolm X’s death.
NYPD said in a statement that “it provided the public prosecutor with all available records relevant to that case”.
- “The department remains committed to helping with this review in any way.”
- The FBI declined to comment.
The big picture: Malcolm X is seeing renewed interest amid the Black Lives Matter movement and pleas from advocates to diversify school history classes to combat 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 Non-Fiction Book Award.
- The book shows how Malcolm X’s intellectual development as a black nationalist originated in part from his preaching father and his multilingual mother, who worked as a journalist.
- The book also revealed Malcolm X’s experience attending a school with white students, where he became popular, and how he learned to grow marijuana better with Mexican immigrants in Michigan.