美国国家公共电台 NPR--Malcolm X's family is suing the CIA, FBI and NYPD

Malcolm X's family is suing the CIA, FBI and NYPD

Transcript¹

At a press conference on Tuesday, Malcolm X's third daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, along with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, announced plans to file a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit² against the NYPD, the FBI, the CIA, and other government agencies.

"When I think of the challenges that my mother suffered, witnessing the assassination³ of her husband, I think now is the best time that we have to seek justice for a man who gave his life for human rights," said Shabazz in an interview with Morning Edition's Leila Fadel.

"We'd like our father to receive the justice that he deserves."

This week marks the 58th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader. Decades of questions remain about what really happened at the Audubon Ballroom⁴ in Upper Manhattan after several men shot 39-year-old Malcolm 21 times at a rally.

Crump claims the agencies fraudulently concealed⁵ evidence from the family. He says pursuing legal action is not just about holding those who pulled the trigger accountable, but all the entities⁶ that conspired⁷ to make it happen.

"The government had factual and exculpatory⁸ information that they kept from the gentlemen who were wrongly convicted, and more importantly from his family," Crump said in the same interview with Fadel.

The two men Crump mentioned, Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, were exonerated⁹ in 2021 after being wrongly convicted of the 1965 assassination.

He poses the question: "The city [New York City] and the state paid tens of millions of dollars to the two gentlemen who were wrongfully convicted... What is due to those who suffered the most?"

Shabazz says this case is about painting an accurate history and preserving her father's legacy¹⁰. She laments¹¹ that the circumstances leading to his death are unresolved and that the trauma¹² that happened in the ballroom all those years ago still stings.

Crump compares the circumstances surrounding Malcom X's death to other black liberation leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party, citing the surveillance of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The families of King and Hampton were both compensated¹³ following successful lawsuits¹⁴.

"They [the government] were afraid of the rise of a Black messiah," said Crump.

News of the pending¹⁵ lawsuit follows the release of a letter, allegedly written by late NYPD officer Raymond Wood before he died in 2020. The letter states that he participated in a plot to kill Malcolm by infiltrating¹⁶ his organization and luring¹⁷ his security team into committing criminal acts so that they could be arrested days before the assassination.

He wrote: "I participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental¹⁸ to my own Black people."

The FBI has yet to make a public statement on the matter. NPR reached out to the CIA and the NYPD and both declined to comment

Shabazz, now 60, was just two years old when she witnessed her father's murder. She watched with three of her sisters and pregnant mother Betty Shabazz as one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights movement unfolded.

The excerpts¹⁹ include some quotes from the interview with Ilyasah Shabazz that were not aired in the broadcast version.

We think the truth about the circumstances leading to the death of our father is important. When we look at that letter that he wrote from hajj, it's our hope that litigation of this case will provide some unanswered questions and that the legacy of Malcolm X is appropriated. We want justice served for our father.

As I wrote in Growing Up X in 2004, certainly there were government agencies involved in the assassination of our father... Hoover said stop the rise of a Black messiah... I think that what we'll discover is that Malcolm was in fact a brilliant man. He wasn't all of these descriptives that are often written about him.

I just want the history books to be accurately²⁰ reflected. The legacy that is there now is so inaccurate²¹.

On witnessing her father's assassination

LF: Now, you were also there [the assassination] that day. You were very young, two years old, right?

That's right. My oldest sister, Attallah, was six years old. My sister Qubilah was four. All of us were there, and my mother was pregnant with our youngest sisters — the twins.

On Malcolm X's enduring legacy

When I think about my mother, she safeguarded her husband's legacy for the remainder of her life and I think of the challenges she endured raising her six daughters... and now people are discovering the truth about Malcolm.

Malcolm had a profound reaction to injustice²²; he had a lot of faith; he worked so hard for the advancement²³ of human rights and it's the reason why his message is still sought after because he spoke²⁴ the truth, and we know that truth is timeless.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

3 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

4 ballroom   

n.舞厅

参考例句：

• The boss of the ballroom excused them the fee.舞厅老板给他们免费。
• I go ballroom dancing twice a week.我一个星期跳两次交际舞。

5 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

6 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

7 conspired   

密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致

参考例句：

• They conspired to bring about the meeting of the two people. 他们共同促成了两人的会面。
• Bad weather and car trouble conspired to ruin our vacation. 恶劣的气候连同汽车故障断送了我们的假日。

8 exculpatory   

adj.辩解的，辩明无罪的

参考例句：

9 exonerated   

v.使免罪，免除( exonerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The police report exonerated Lewis from all charges of corruption. 警方的报告免除了对刘易斯贪污的所有指控。
• An investigation exonerated the school from any blame. 一项调查证明该学校没有任何过失。 来自辞典例句

10 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

11 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

12 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

13 compensated   

补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款）

参考例句：

• The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
• I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。

14 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

15 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

16 infiltrating   

v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Be vigilant against the danger of enemy agents infiltrating the government and boring from within. 要警惕敌特渗入政府内部进行暗中破坏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The metastatic melanoma is seen here to be infiltrating into the myocardium. 图示转移性黑色素瘤浸润到心肌。 来自互联网

17 luring   

吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Cheese is very good for luring a mouse into a trap. 奶酪是引诱老鼠上钩的极好的东西。
• Her training warned her of peril and of the wrong, subtle, mysterious, luring. 她的教养警告她：有危险，要出错儿，这是微妙、神秘而又诱人的。

18 detrimental   

adj.损害的，造成伤害的

参考例句：

• We know that heat treatment is detrimental to milk.我们知道加热对牛奶是不利的。
• He wouldn't accept that smoking was detrimental to health.他不相信吸烟有害健康。

19 excerpts   

n.摘录，摘要( excerpt的名词复数 )；节选（音乐，电影）片段

参考例句：

• Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句

20 accurately   

adv.准确地，精确地

参考例句：

• It is hard to hit the ball accurately.准确地击中球很难。
• Now scientists can forecast the weather accurately.现在科学家们能准确地预报天气。

21 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

22 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

23 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

24 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。