| February 19, 2020 | Jill Bold | editor-in-chief |
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The truth behind who assassinated Malcolm X may be an open secret, and filmmaker Abdur-Rahman Muhammad brought to light the mystery and cover-up surrounding the black Muslim leader.
“There’s a justice in telling the truth, establishing or correcting a historical record once and for all,” Muhammad asserts in his Netflix miniseries.
“Who Killed Malcolm X?” explores his story in six episodes. It begins as a historical documentary and transitions to a tale told in a true-crime format. The storytelling presents a fresh look at the murder of an intellectual and polarizing figure in black history.
Much of what is known of Malcolm X’s final years are derived from FBI surveillance notes and wiretapping records. He spread a message of enacting radical change in civil rights and the upheaval of the white racist system that infiltrated American society. The FBI had a relentless obsession with stopping this message he was spreading. The FBI investigated him extensively in the 1950s and 60s, believing that he was a major threat.
On Feb. 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot to death at the Audubon Ballroom by members of the Nation of Islam in Manhattan in front of his family and an audience of more than 400. Five black Muslim men were eventually arrested and convicted of murdering the prolific and misunderstood black leader.
Interviews with former police, FBI agents and other investigators are intertwined with the interviews of those who knew Malcolm X and former leaders and members of the Nation of Islam. These accounts are woven together in a patchwork tale of Malcolm X’s life.
Muhammad forces the subjects of his interviews to answer point-blank questions about the unresolved nature of Malcolm X’s assassination. Muhammad brings together all the details of his investigation with an open accusation to the man whom he believed was the gunman who murdered Malcolm X.
How this resulted in the reinvigoration of the investigation of Malcolm X’s murder is a must-see for any viewer with an interest in justice and truth in the face of an infuriating tale of a decades-old assassination.
The release of a Netflix miniseries is usually a cue to grab some laundry and settle in for a binge, but this series deserves the audience’s full and undivided attention for each 45-minute episode.
Graphic images and mature subject matter appear throughout, but the message requires an uncensored view into Malcolm X’s assassination to properly convey the story of his life and death.
