Attorney wants Malcolm X FBI/CIA files to be declassified
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Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) poses for a portrait on February 16, 1965, in Rochester, New York. Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
A civil rights attorney is asking the Trump administration to declassify the FBI and CIA files linked to Malcolm X on the 60th anniversary of his assassination.
Why it matters: The plea comes on the heels of President Trump ordering the declassifying of FBI files connected to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Zoom in: Civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump is scheduled Friday to make a public demand for the files of Malcolm X, later known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz, at the New York City site where he was assassinated.
- Crump, who has represented several Black families of victims of high-profile police shootings, will be accompanied by Malcolm X's family.
- Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment in the evening.
Context: Malcolm X was assassinated at age 39 on February 21, 1965 while speaking at the then-Audubon Ballroom.
- He was shot 21 times by a group of men in front of his wife and daughters.
- Scholars and civil rights advocates have long said the men later charged with killing Malcolm X were wrongly convicted.
- Some have alleged police and federal agents played a role in his death.
The intrigue: In early 2021, the family of Malcolm X released a letter reportedly written by a now-deceased police officer alleging that the New York Police Department and FBI were behind the assassination of the Black Civil Rights Movement leader.
- The city of New York agreed in October 2022 to pay $26 million in lawsuit settlements filed on behalf of two men exonerated in late 2021 in the assassination.
Between the lines: Scholars believe the files could give clues to tensions between Malcolm X and his former group, the Nation of Islam, after a public breakup.
- Some scholars and historians believe the Nation of Islam and/or the FBI may have been behind the assassination.
- They also believe that the CIA followed Malcolm X as he took international trips to the Holy City of Mecca and London, U.K.
- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said in a 2000 "60 Minutes" interview that he regrets his writings may have led others to murder Malcolm X. Farrakhan has denied ordering the assassination but in 1994 admitted to having "helped create the atmosphere" that led to it.
Zoom out: The CIA and FBI put Malcolm X under surveillance after witnessing him drawing large crowds where he spoke of Black nationalism and urged Black Americans to defend themselves against violence.
- FBI leader J. Edgar Hoover and others in the U.S. government sought to prevent the rise of what they feared would be a Black "messiah" who could unify African Americans.
- Malcolm X, King, other Black leaders, and some Latino civil rights figures were under FBI surveillance.
Yes, but: King's family is concerned that Trump's order to release records about his assassination could revive the FBI's attempts to discredit him — efforts that sought to exploit his indiscretions with women and undermine his legacy, sources close to his relatives told Axios.
- The family requested a sneak preview of the records before their release. Trump declined, a White House official said, but not out of animus toward the family.
