This Saturday marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of famed civil rights leader Malcolm X, and there are still many questions surrounding his death. Washington bureau reporter Geoff Bennett reports on the growing effort to get the federal government to release its files on Malcolm X's murder.

Before his assassination, Malcolm X was locked in a bitter feud with the Nation of Islam, the independent black Muslim group that once supported his rise to prominence.

Just a week before he was killed, he and his family escaped a firebomb attack on their home in Queens. Malcolm X believed members of the group to be responsible. 

"They had planned to do it from the front and the back, so that I couldn’t get out," he said at the time.

When Malcolm X was gunned down during a rally in the Audubon Ballroom by three gunmen with ties to the Nation of Islam, it appeared to be a revenge killing. But 50 years later, questions continue to linger over whether there was more -  much more - behind Malcolm X’s murder.

"I think the jury is still out on exactly what happened on the events of February 21, 1965," said Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and a great-grandson of former Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

A small but serious grassroots effort, driven by online petitions and social media, is trying to pressure the federal government to release all of its files surrounding the civil rights leader’s death. 

There are questions about the government's role. Current FBI Director James Comey has, for instance, condemned the smear campaigns the FBI waged against Martin Luther King, Jr. before his assassination.

"So we shouldn’t be surprised if the FBI has something to hide with regard to the assassination of Malcolm X, though we don’t know with certainty," Muhammad said.

While there is no evidence that the FBI had a direct role in the murder of Malcolm X, those pushing for a full historical record of his death say their questions deserve answers. We asked for answers, but the Justice Department did not respond to our repeated requests for a comment.

"Police were implicated, as well as the Nation of Islam, as well as the FBI," Muhammad said. "How all of those various organizations came together on that fateful day remains a mystery to this day."

A mystery that will likely persist for years to come.