About

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad is an independent scholar based in Washington, DC. He is a historian, journalist, writer, and activist, widely regarded as one of the most respected authorities on the life and legacy of the civil rights-era black leader Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz).

Born Kenneth W. Oliveira, Jr. in Providence, RI in 1962, Muhammad received his education at Howard University, one of the nation’s most prestigious historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) where he earned a BA degree in philosophy. At Howard, Muhammad would first be exposed to the many social, political, and cultural movements for black empowerment then flourishing during the early 1980’s Washington, DC. Active during this period were the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP), The King Holiday Movement, the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa, and the one that would have the most lasting impact on his life, the Black Islam Movement.

Inspired by the life and example of Malcolm X, Muhammad accepted Islam in 1986 and continued to work tirelessly as an activist and teacher in the role of an imam, attempting to emulate the career of the great Muslim leader by working to reform lives and make a positive contribution to the struggle of African American people in their quest for justice. During these years he remained committed to research and scholarship and saw himself following in the tradition of the “activist scholar”, a proud tradition with a long and rich history in the black community. Muhammad, who also speaks Arabic, would go on to devote over thirty years of his life to understanding the facts pertaining to the assassination of Malcolm X and in due course would emerge as one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the life of this major historical figure.  

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks Muhammad began to direct more of his attention to research and writing, and his articles appeared in many newspapers and scholarly journals. He became an outspoken critic of religious extremism and was called to testify on Capitol Hill to offer his thoughts on how the nation should go about combating it.    

In 2005 Muhammad struck up a friendship and in time a working relationship with Dr. Manning Marable of Columbia University, who was then years away from publishing his monumental new biography entitled, Malcolm X, A Life of Reinvention. Released in 2011, the book would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for biography. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad assisted Marable in setting up and collaborating on interviews with key Malcolm X associates and is the only non-contemporary of the subject to be quoted directly in the work as an expert.

 Muhammad’s most important scholarly contribution to date has been the explosive revelation he published in 2010 of the identity of William Bradley, aka Al-Mustafa Shabazz, the alleged shotgun assassin of Malcolm X who reportedly fired the first and deadliest shot on February 21, 1965. His face had never been seen in the historical record in the forty-five subsequent years of the killing. Muhammad’s identification of Bradley was reported in all the major papers in the country, the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Newark Star Ledger, and many others.

Muhammad is featured in the documentary entitled, “Who Killed Malcolm X?” that aired on Fusion Television during the fall of 2019 and began streaming on Netflix in January 2020 which is currently being streamed to wide acclaim.

Historians and commentators universally agree that “Who Killed Malcolm X?” is directly responsible for the re-investigation of the of Malcolm X assassination by Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance and the exoneration of two innocent men after 55 years! Muhammad A Aziz and Khalil Islam both served over twenty years for the murder.

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