An imminent lawsuit will formally accuse the New York Police Department (NYPD) along with unnamed government agencies of a conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Malcolm X, according to civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
The lawsuit’s announcement is expected to be made on Tuesday, which marks the 58th anniversary since the civil rights icon was shot to death while giving a speech in New York City’s famed Harlem neighborhood.
Crump will be joined at a press conference by co-counsel Ray Hamlin to file a notice of claim “with intent to sue government agencies and the NYPD for the alleged assassination and fraudulent concealment of evidence surrounding Malcolm X’s murder,” according to a press release emailed to NewsOne.
Also present at the announcement will be Malcolm X’s daughters.
The press conference will be held at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, formerly known as the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was shot dead at 39 on Feb. 21, 1965.
The intent to file a lawsuit comes two years after it was revealed that Ray Wood, an NYPD officer who was working undercover when Malcolm X was assassinated, “confessed in a deathbed declaration letter that the NYPD and the FBI conspired to undermine the legitimacy of the civil rights movement and its leaders,” Crump and Hamlin said in a statement at the time.
Wood’s letter was read aloud by Reggie Wood, a relative and administrator of Malcolm X’s estate, and handed to three of Malcolm X’s children — Qubiliah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz and Gamilah Shabazz — who were in attendance.
“I participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own Black people,” the letter attributed to Wood says in part. “My actions on behalf of the New York City Police Department were done under duress and fear.”
The letter also stated that Thomas…
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