ICYMI: “Who Killed Malcom X?”
Who Killed Malcom X, new to Netflix, is a documentary series researched and narrated by Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a historian and tour guide in Washington, D.C who has devoted his life to the study of Malcolm X and his untimely assassination. The series addresses the suspects, including those who appear to have been wrongfully accused and those who had never been investigated by the police, as well as the NYPD themselves, the FBI, and the co-conspirators who may have inspired Malcolm’s assassination. It briefly covers Malcolm’s biography, his rise to fame through the Nation of Islam and his relationship to their own militia, the Fruit of Islam, and his departure from the organization while remaining faithful to Allah. As Muhammad connects the dots that the police were absent to address, he discovers new and painful truths that reverberate throughout the history of civil rights in America and how we unite to take back our agency today.
Growing up in predominantly white schools, Malcolm X was always a divisive figure in short chapters or paragraphs in history books that elementary addressed the civil rights movement in this country. In a paragraph praising Martin Luther King Jr. for his peaceful sit-ins, Malcolm X appears in footnotes as his counterpoint, described often as a violent criminal espousing Black superiority over equality. It was as though they were trying to erase the measures he took to attain rights for everyone in this country, only because his rhetoric brought displeasure to the white majority of that era. Its echoes continue to define history for youth (many of whom who so often feel erased by the very same history books) and promote a euro-centric narrative about what an American is supposed to be. But Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little, is a figure of much greater import than that. Like many of my family members, and by the religious dogma that most appeals to me, Malcolm X was a devout Muslim that helped to bring popularity to Islam preceding the Iranian Revolution and the Arab Spring. He demanded equality through justice, and while his rhetoric was insistent against white authority, it was grounded not in anti-whiteness but in opposition of policing and injustice imposed by local and federal law enforcement against Black Americans. It wasn’t until the last few years of my life, through personal research alone, that I ever was given an opportunity to explore his efforts and appreciate his egalitarian posture.
Despite the Malcolm’s celebrity, this series plays out like a murder mystery, no different from popular documentary shows like Making A Murderer or the Jinx. This largely unsolved assassination is explored in real time by the documentarians themselves (Rachel Dretzin and Phil Bertelsen), and supplemented by interviews with historians on the Civil Rights Movement and Malcolm X specifically. Each episode touches on a different theory based on overlooked evidence, leads that had never been followed, and possible suspects that were never thoroughly interviewed. More than anything, it grants agency to Malcolm’s family, friends, and followers by suggesting that various organizations intended to omit evidence in the trials that convicted three Fruit of Islam soldiers for murder and conspiracy. Now, that may sound like a spoiler, but let’s be realistic — regardless of celebrity, this behavior still happens today. Need I remind you of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice? Or the hundreds of civilians killed overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq? How about those illegally detained crossing the Mexican-American border? We live in a world bent on protecting a specific kind of citizen, and those of us that don’t meet that specificity are murdered, imprisoned, tortured, or simply banned from being here. These are the reverberations of Malcolm X’s activism that push me forward, today.
But this series makes no effort to sugarcoat Malcolm’s sins, including the crimes leading to his arrest preceding his activism or his unpopular criticisms of President John F. Kennedy. It shares in interviews the unfavorable opinions that the Nation of Islam felt toward Malcolm X following his departure from the NOI, many of whom are still alive today to share their criticisms. Even those who allege to have been wrongfully convicted for his death will go so far to say, “I would have killed him, if I could.” Many of the police and FBI investigators following Malcolm X’s rise and death are still alive today to contribute, too, some damning Malcolm for the life he led while others take responsibility for their forfeiture of justice. Malcolm was always divisive in the history books, but he’s made that much more divisive by those who knew him and knew of him, followed him through his rise from obscurity until his death, or became aware of his incredible following only after his assassination.
Yet others see Malcolm in a much different light. This documentary shares both sides of the story, showing the influence he that he spread to invigorate independence from a broken system, how he compelled Black Americans to stand up for themselves and unite against the forces that stoke hate against them, and the allies he had (including his relationships with Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr.) in the fight to bring rights against the supremacist organizations that impeded Blacks from attaining their dreams. His family and friends are supported by his followers in these admirations, some of whom weren’t even born during the time of his death. But they’ve read his work and seen his charismatic approach to motivating people while standing as a strong, antagonistic figure against those who would strip rights from Black Americans, and like myself, they’re moved to speak up posthumously for a man who, had he lived, would have crafted a different America than the one that we live in today.
Like Martin Luther King Jr., I suppose there was no way that system would ever let Malcolm X go on living and fighting. Nonetheless, today, I among many comrades continue fighting in his legacy for egalitarian rights, opposing oligarchs and billionaires who confound our freedom, and therefore, I am proud to add Malcolm X to my pantheon of heroes, like Lula Da Silva, Che Guevara, Simon Bolivar, Eugene Debs, or Voltaire. The Marxist ideologies that these revolutionaries espoused have brought us as close as we’ve ever been to overcoming the dictatorships or faux-democracies than we’ve ever been as we watch the rise of Bernie Sanders and other progressives demanding power for the people. And with the help of this documentary, Malcolm X’s legacy may yet find justice as this case has been reopened as a result of Muhammad’s findings. For those who long for that justice, I recommend you check out the trailer:
Bonus: it makes Cory Booker like a fresh buffoon.
