6/23/2015
Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz says his message still resonates
Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz
says his message still resonates
Ilyasah Shabazz, a daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz, speaks at CSULB about her late father during a Black
History Month event on Wednesday, February 19, 2014. The event, which drew an overflow crowd, was put on by the
Department of Africana Studies. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze) By Josh Dulaney, Long Beach Press Telegram
POSTED: 02/20/14, 10:39 PM PST |
UPDATED: ON 02/20/2014 0 COMMENTS
LONG BEACH >> The daughter of fiery civil rights leader Malcolm X told an audience of Cal State Long Beach
students this week that her father’s life and message continues to resonate today.
“I think he’s identifiable because he shows the transformational power that we all possess, that no matter what
you say, what you may think of me, or what you may say I should be, that I know that I can be great, and I can
continue to evolve and do all these wonderful great things as Malcolm X did,” said Ilyasah Shabazz, who spoke
Wednesday in the packed Karl Anatol Center as part of the school’s 2014 Black History Month Distinguished
Lecture Series.
Titled “A Conversation with Ilyasah Shabazz: History and a Daughter’s Memory of Malcolm X,” the activist
and speaker, who has written much about her father, including “Growing Up X,” fielded questions from an
audience of about 200, and talked about her children’s picture book “The Boy Who Grew Up to Become
Malcolm X,” which she worked on with illustrator AG Ford.
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6/23/2015
Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz says his message still resonates
The audience, mostly students at CSULB, often applauded Shabazz, and gave her a standing ovation when she
was introduced. Among them was Stacy Castellanos, a 22­year­old psychology major. For Castellanos,
Shabazz provided a living connection to the lessons he’s learning in a class on women of color in the United
States.
“I thought it was going to be interesting,” he said. “I’ve been learning about the black and political rights
movement of the ’60s.”
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Neb. His father, a Baptist preacher who
supported Marcus Garvey, a black nationalist leader, was killed after enduring threats from the Ku Klux Klan.
Little immersed himself in the religious and political doctrines of the Nation of Islam while serving a six­year
prison term for robbery after being arrested in 1946. He changed his name to X and preached black
separatism “by any means necessary” in contrast to the calls of peaceful resistance by his contemporary,
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In response to his fiery messages, the Nation of Islam grew from 500 members to 30,000 by 1963. A year
later he split from the Nation of Islam, and after an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, started repudiating black
separatism.
Malcolm X was slain in 1965 at the age of 39 during a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, N.Y.
Shabazz was 2 when her father was killed.
Shabazz is the founder of Malcolm X Enterprises and a trustee for The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz
Memorial and Educational Center in New York, among several other programs and projects with which she’s
involved.
“I just think that it is so important that we adults, that we understand our role in society, that we’re not
supposed to just sit back and let things happen but that we’re supposed to participate, that we’re supposed to
lead these purpose­driven lives as Malcolm (did).”
The free lecture was sponsored by CSULB’s Africana Studies Students Association, the CSULB Black Faculty
and Staff, and University Outreach and School Relations.
Maulana Karenga, department chair and adviser in the Department of Africana Studies, said Malcolm X gave
his life so that others could live fuller and more meaningful ones.
“He had wanted us to think deep about ourselves and about the world we live in, ask ourselves how do we push
back the boundaries of oppression and begin to create an ever­expanding realm of human freedom and
human fortune,” Karenga said.
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