Ilyasah Shabazz

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Ilyasah Shabazz

Ilyasah Shabazz (b. 1963) was only two years old when her father, Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. The only knowledge her mother, Betty Shabazz, gave her about her father was that he was a very important martyred civil rights leader. In fact, she had to read books to gather any other information she wanted to know about her father. However, the presence of her father was still kept very strong in their household. Ilyasah’s mother placed many pictures of he deceased husband all over they home and they had many books about him in their library. Her mother even kept all of his suits and his briefcase in her closet. Being one of the six daughters of Malcolm X many people assumed that she would follow in her father’s footsteps. However, this was not he case since her upbringing included minimal political aspects. Instead she and her sisters were raised in Mount Vernon, New York in an integrated community by their mother. They were a middle class family and she attended private schools, took ballet lessons and attended elite summer camps. Therefore, as a result of her normal middle class upbringing when she attended college her peers were quite surprised when she wasn’t the powerful, speech giving African American woman they expected. However, they still moved her into the black dormitory and she was elected to be in officer in the Black Student Union. Ilyasah wrote a book about being Malcolm X’s daughter called Growing Up X in 2002. She was very nervous about releasing the book because she did not want to ruin anyone’s expectations about her. Little did she know, but many people enjoyed her work and she was featured in magazines and newspapers and was also nominated for an NAACP image award. Before her book came out, Ilyasah thought she wanted to be a songwriter or a model, however, she seems to have found her love of writing (Blake).

Blake, John. Children of the Movement. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 2004.