OMAHA, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) – The family of Omaha-born Malcolm X filed a $100 million lawsuit Friday that accuses multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies of playing a role in the killing of the civil rights leader last year. almost 60 years.

With Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz at his side, nationally known civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the family’s legal team has been busy “unearthing” new evidence since the 2021 exoneration of two of the three men convicted of killing Malcolm X.

“We’re not just making history, we’re making a path to justice,” Crump said at a news conference broadcast live from New York. “We believe it is an avenue that sets a precedent for justice for those who have been denied justice by the American legal system for far too long.”

85 page process

The 85-page lawsuit details nine causes of action against the Justice Department, the FBI, the CIA and the New York Police Department. Announced earlier, the case was formally filed Friday in a U.S. District Court in New York.

The legal team led by Crump alleges that government agencies, having played a “significant role” in the events leading up to the assassination of Malcolm X, engaged in a decades-long cover-up to protect their involvement.

The agencies named as defendants either declined to comment or did not respond to a reporter’s request for comment.

Malcolm X’s supporters in Nebraska—where a long and bumpy road ahead Malcolm X’s induction this year into his home state’s Hall of Fame — said he appreciates the obscene pursuit of justice.

State Sen. Terrell McKinney, who also led this year’s effort to honor Malcolm X with a state recognition daysaid he hopes recent events will bring more attention to the often-misunderstood vocal advocate’s contributions to black empowerment.

“I feel like the perception of Malcolm X is changing, which is good,” said the lawmaker who represents the North Omaha district where the icon was born. “The more things that highlight who he was and what actually happened bring more light and support to the things he fought for and the steps that still need to be taken.”

Now, nearly a century after he was born in 1925 as Malcolm Little, plans are underway in Omaha to expand a memorial at his birthplace. A $20 million state grant awarded earlier this year kicked off fundraising for a museum and cultural education center on the 18-acre property near 35th and Pinkney streets.

JoAnna LeFlore-Ejike of Omaha, executive director of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, has helped lead other local efforts to draw attention to Malcolm X and his work. She recently spoke alongside Ilyasah Shabazz when an artist’s bust of Malcolm X was unveiled to be placed in the State Capitol Hall of Fame.

On Friday, LeFlore-Ejike said the foundation “fully supports the Shabazz family in their quest for justice and an accurate historical account of Brother Malcolm’s life and his tragic assassination.”

February 21, 1965

Malcolm X was 39 when he was shot 21 times by multiple gunmen as he was about to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York on February 21, 1965. His wife, Betty Shabazz, and three older children, including Ilyasah, were there at the time.

Ilyasah told reporters Friday that she was grateful, on behalf of her five sisters, to be with a team of lawyers seeking to correct history.

A photo displayed at the event showed her mother, pregnant with twins at the time, trying to help her husband as he lay on the ground.

Ilyasah reflected on how her mother, who had survived a firebombing in their home a week earlier, tried to save Malcolm X with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She noted how her mother later transformed the ballroom into the current Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center — “a place of triumph … to carry her work forward.”

According to the legal complaint, federal agencies and the New York Police Department were aware of threats to Malcolm X’s life and did not intervene. She alleges that entities under J. Edgar Hoover, then the head of the FBI, conspired to reduce his protections and leave him open to an attack that the legal team says the agency knew was imminent.

Crump said that for decades, the FBI and its leaders saw black activism as a threat to national security.

The suit says the defendant Hoover in 1956 codified a secret, nationwide program known as the Counterintelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, which labeled prominent black activists as extremists and targeted leaders such as Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., members of Black. Panther Party and others.

A press release said the Malcolm X family and legal team are seeking “accountability for the systemic negligence and willful actions that deprived Malcolm X’s family and the world of his life and legacy.”

Crump said his team, which is seeking a jury trial, will outline how the FBI and CIA worked with undercover agents within the Nation of Islam. The team argued in the lawsuit that despite knowing the threats at hand, law enforcement arrested key security agents days before Malcolm X was killed, reducing his protection.

The security guards came forward with statements that they were drawn in, Crump said, to make Malcolm X an easier target.

He said his team also learned that federal agents, including undercover agents, were in the ballroom during the assassination and did not intervene.

In the lawsuit, Malcolm X is described as one of the greatest black liberation leaders and public intellectuals of his generation: a minister, teacher, human rights activist, founding member of the Organization of African American Unity and the Muslim Mosque, who ” fought against racism, colonialism and oppression and advocated for black people to engage in self-determination”.

Crump spoke with several other prominent civil rights attorneys who are members of the legal team, including Shabazz family attorney Ray Hamlin.

Hamlin said the family’s battle for justice has been going on for decades and has been bolstered by new information that recently emerged, and since two of the three men convicted of Malcolm X’s death were exonerated three years ago.

Law enforcement investigators, during renewed probe led by then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, found shocking evidence and that authorities withheld information. The exonerated men later received a $36 million settlement from the city and state of New York.

“We will make sure that his message continues,” Hamlin said of Malcolm X, “and that he is not silenced.”

Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. The Nebraska Examiner maintains its editorial independence. Contact editor Cate Folsom with questions: [email protected]. Follow the Nebraska Examiner on Facebook and X.

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