By Gus Newport

Part I-The Last Days of Malcolm X

Shareef Nasir, a young African American man born and raised in the Bay Area who received his undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University and master’s degree in East African studies from UCLA, has spent the past five years researching and documenting a film on the assassination of Malcolm X.

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The film reveals the relationship between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. I fortunately learned about Shareef as he was searching out more information from people who had known or met Malcolm X or had been involved with him, especially near the end of his life.

I traveled with Malcolm X to and from Rochester, New York, where he gave a speech at Cornhill Methodist Church, four days before he was assassinated.

The film Shareef is producing reveals the role that both the New York Police Department and the FBI played in the assassination of Malcolm X. It also reveals the growing relationship and mutual support between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders, and leaders of African and Asian countries.

This film will show the depth, brilliance and approach to the worldwide Diaspora that Malcolm X was championing.

The film documents the interconnectedness of Black struggles in the United States and the similarities to colonial practices toward people in the Diaspora.

This never before revealed information will be of great benefit to understanding the historic and ongoing practices of the United States that have been used to justify its imperialism and dominance over people of color.

Malcolm X had made plans to go before the United Nations with this information, and Martin Luther King Jr. and leaders of the Third World had vowed to stand with him.

It was this threat against America’s hegemony that prompted the U.S. to quiet the voices of Malcolm X and King.

Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post News Group, who met Malcolm X in Oakland in 1962 at the “Mind of the Ghetto” conference at Oakland McClymonds High School, brought Shareef Nasir, Danny Glover and me together to assist with this project.

As a result, we will be filming Clarence Jones, Martin King’s lawyer, and Juanita Poitier (Sidney Poitier’s first wife), who pulled together a major meeting that included Malcolm X, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Bayard Rustin, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

The film will raise serious questions about research here in America that perpetuates propaganda rather than true history of what really happened. The film will be narrated by Danny Glover.

As this film goes to production, Paul Cobb and I will publish the schedule of upcoming film festivals.

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