The files show that from the time of his break with the Nation of Islam in March 1964 until his February 21, 1965, assassination, Malcolm X was the subject of one of the most intensive spy operations conducted by the FBI.

When Malcolm X emerged as an independent Black leader in March 1964, a new mood was sweeping the Black communities of the country. Tired of waiting for an end to segregation, growing ever more impatient with gradualism, Blacks were demanding "Freedom now!"

This new mood burst dramatically onto the scene in two marches of more than 200,000 people--one in Detroit, the other in Washington, D.C.--in the summer of 1963.

In 1964 the "Freedom now!" slogan lent its name to the independent Black party that challenged the Democrats and Republicans in the Michigan state elections.

Malcolm X, more than any other individual Black leader, articulated and sought to embody in organization and action these new militant sentiments.

He brought to the Black movement a revolutionary perspective. He championed independent Black political action--at the polls and in the streets.

Malcolm X was clearly dangerous in the estimation of the FBI and the government. The newly released files document their concern. The files help penetrate the secrecy surrounding the FBI's surveillance of Malcolm X. However, they are far from complete.

March 24, 1952
Backed by American banking interests who control the Cuban economy and with the secret connivance of the U.S. State Department, General Fulgencio Batista on March 10 set up a military dictatorship over Cuba. Boasting "I did it with captains and lieutenants ...we formed a military junta of fifteen or twenty of them," Batista violently overthrew the constitutionally elected government of president Carlos Prio Socarras.

Batista, who ruled Cuba from 1933 to 1944 with a brutal military dictatorship, staged his latest seizure of power three months before presidential elections scheduled for June 1. He cynically claimed he acted to forestall an alleged attempt by Socarras to suspend the elections by "gangster" actions. This claim is "accepted with general skepticism," conceded the March 11 N.Y. Times, as "it has been General Batista, rather than Prio Socarras who anticipated defeat at the polls."

Formally and publicly, the U.S. State Department has adopted what the Times calls a "wait-and-see" attitude toward recognition of Batista dictatorship. But Batista will be recognized "in due time if Washington is satisfied that the regime actually was in control, that it had come to power without foreign help, and that it had demonstrated its intentions to live up to the country's international obligations."  
 
 
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