Series Review: "Who Killed Malcolm X?" (2020).

"A Netflix original documentary series" comes Who Killed Malcolm X. This documentary miniseries directed by Rachel Dretzin and Phil Bertelsen. Decades after the assassination of African American leader Malcolm X, an activist embarks on a complex mission seeking truth in the name of justice.

Born May 19, 1925, Malcolm Little (ٱلْحَاجّ مَالِك ٱلشَّبَازّ‎, al-Ḥājj Mālik ash-Shabāzz), better known as Malcolm X, was born. X went on to become a prominent American Muslim minister, human rights activist, and civil rights movement figure. He is best known for his staunch and controversial black racial advocacy, and for his time spent as the vocal spokesperson of the Nation of Islam. A controversial figure accused of preaching racism and violence, X is a widely celebrated figure within African-American and Muslim American communities for his pursuit of racial justice.

Since his birth in Omaha, Nebraska, X spent his teenage years living in a series of foster homes, after his father's death and his mother's hospitalization, and engaged in several illicit activities. In 1946, he was eventually sentenced to ten years in prison for larceny and breaking and entering. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam and adopted the name Malcolm X. In 1952, after being paroled, X quickly became one of the organization's most influential leaders. X then served as the public face of the organization for a dozen years, where he advocated for black supremacy, black empowerment, and the separation of black and white Americans, and publicly criticized the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on nonviolence and racial integration. X also expressed pride in some of the Nation's social welfare achievements, namely its free drug rehabilitation program. Throughout his life beginning in the 1950s, X endured surveillance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for the Nation's supposed links to communism.

In the 1960s, X began to grow disillusioned with the Nation of Islam, as well as with its leader Elijah Muhammad. He subsequently embraced Sunni Islam and the civil rights movement after completing the Hajj to Mecca, and became known as el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. After a brief period of travel across Africa, he publicly renounced the Nation of Islam and founded the Islamic Muslim Mosque, Inc. (MMI) and the Pan-African Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU). Throughout 1964, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. Since his death, speculation about the assassination and whether it was conceived or aided by leading or additional members of the Nation, or with law enforcement agencies, have persisted for decades.

For Netflix to make a documentary about who really assassinated Malcolm X seems about as likely as for the Koch Bros. to sponsor Bernie Sanders. But surprisingly it is really good - a fair forum for the legacy of Malcolm's assassination and an exceptional visual chronicle of how that came to be and how is remembered in the history books.

Simon says Who Killed Malcolm X? receives: