This is a rush transcript. Copy may well not be in its closing kind.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We keep on to search at the lifetime and legacy of Malcolm X, born 98 decades back right now, as we transform to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, symbolizing Malcolm’s household in a $100 million wrongful loss of life lawsuit versus the FBI, the CIA, New York City and condition, and the New York police, as properly as the District Attorney’s Business, for concealing evidence of their involvement in Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination. Three men were convicted of his murder, two of them entirely exonerated in 2021. Ben Crump spoke on February 21st at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Academic Centre, housed in the former Audubon Ballroom, the place Malcolm was shot lifeless on that day in 1965.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: I think, “What would have come of Malcolm, had they not, 58 several years back, on this working day, assassinated one particular of the finest assumed leaders that was ever developed in the 21st century?” How substantially more Malcolm experienced to give the entire world? And I frequently think about that, Dr. Davis, when I believe about Trayvon: What would have appear of 17-calendar year-old Trayvon, experienced he not been shot in the coronary heart by some wannabe cop? What would have grow to be, Marc, Breonna Taylor, this queen who was just two semesters from receiving her university degree, remaining a nurse, but she was executed with nine bullets in her house whilst she was basically bare? What would have turn out to be of Botham Jean, young Black gentleman who was in his personal condominium, minding his very own business, when this white policewoman arrived and shot him while he was taking in ice product and observing Tv? And then she experienced the audacity to say, Gina, “Self-defense. It was self-protection.” But, Tamara, it was not her house. It was Botham’s home. And so, we have to proceed to stand up, discuss up and fight for our children and our cherished kinds, due to the fact if we really don’t battle for our little ones and our liked kinds, we can not anticipate no one else to battle for our young children and loved types.
And lastly, eventually, I consider about the Shabazz Heart and the targets of trying to make absolutely sure we educate the upcoming generations with the history that has been contributed, Rob, by our ancestors. And I am ever reminded — at any time reminded — that we have to battle racism and discrimination, Dominique, where ever it rears its unsightly head. And so, you know, all of individuals superior-profile law enforcement instances we fight, there are other battles that are just as significant, no matter whether it is health care racism with Henrietta Lacks, whether or not it’s the $100 million lawsuit submitted on behalf of Malcolm X’s daughters, since we can hardly ever enable them believe that we will fail to remember about Malcolm X. We will go on to fight each working day.
And we have to battle these who would test to rob our small children and all little ones of finding out about Black historical past, like our governor in Florida, Ron DeSantis, who is making an attempt to prohibit the training of Highly developed Placement African American scientific tests. And so, I am on document, Attorney O’Neill, if he does not capitulate and allow the teaching of Black history, we’re likely to sue him. We are likely to sue him, mainly because, as Dr. Carter G. Woodson mentioned, also recognised as the “father of Black background,” if a race does not have a heritage, if it has no traditions that are revered and taught to the younger individuals, then it turns into a negligible component in the imagined of the planet and becomes in threat of getting exterminated. And we refuse to let Governor DeSantis exterminate Black historical past in Florida. We refuse to let any person exterminate Black history in any state in the United States of The usa, due to the fact Black historical past is American history. And not only do Black young children require to know about Black history, but white children primarily will need to know about Black record. And so, we will struggle, due to the fact our young children need to have to know that our record manufactured this place what it is now.
AMY GOODMAN: That was civil legal rights attorney Ben Crump talking on February 21st on the 58th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom, now the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center.