Ilyasah Shabazz
Ilyasah Shabazz | |
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![]() Shabazz at the 2014 Brooklyn Book Festival | |
Born | Brooklyn, New York, United States | July 22, 1962
Alma mater | State University of New York at New Paltz Fordham University |
Occupation |
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Parents |
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Ilyasah Shabazz (born July 22, 1962) is the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. She is an author, most notably of a memoir, Growing Up X, community organizer, social activist, and motivational speaker.
Early life[]
Shabazz was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 22, 1962. She was named after Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, the religious and Black nationalist group to which her parents belonged.[1]
In February 1965, when she was two years old, Shabazz was present, with her mother and sisters, at the assassination of her father.[2] She says she has no memory of the event.[3]
Shabazz had an apolitical upbringing in a racially integrated neighborhood in Mount Vernon, New York. Her family never took part in demonstrations or attended rallies.[4] Together with her sisters, she joined Jack and Jill, a social club for the children of well-off African Americans.[5] She considered an acting career, though her mother was not supportive.[6] Her mother instead took interest in trying to keep her father's presence alive, and baked her cookies, which she would break a piece off to give the impression that her father had eaten it before she arrived.[7]
Concerning her father, Shabazz told an interviewer, "My mother always talked about our father, her husband, but ... she didn't talk about these things that defined my father as the icon."[8] To learn about her father, Shabazz read his autobiography as a college student,[9] and enrolled in a class to learn more.[10]
Shabazz was a student at Hackley School.[11] After high school, she attended State University of New York at New Paltz.[12] When she arrived, other African-American students expected her to be a firebrand. They had already elected her an officer of the Black Student Union.[9]
After graduating, Shabazz earned a master's degree in Education and Human Resource Development from Fordham University.[13]
Career[]
Shabazz worked for the city of Mount Vernon for more than a dozen years, serving at different times as Director of Public Relations, Director of Public Affairs and Special Events, and Director of Cultural Affairs.[14]
Shabazz wrote Growing Up X, her memoir of her childhood and her personal views on her father, in 2002.[15] It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Nonfiction.[16] A devout Muslim, she made the pilgrimage to Mecca, the hajj, in 2006 as her father had in 1964 and her mother did in 1965.[13][17]
In 2014, Shabazz wrote Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X, a children's book about her father's childhood.[18] It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Children's.[19] The following year, she wrote a young-adult novel, X, about the same subject.[20] The book was among the ten finalists considered for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature[21][22] and it won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Youth/Teens.[23] It also won honors from the Coretta Scott King Awards[24] and the Walter Dean Myers Awards for Outstanding Children's Literature.[25] Her middle-grade novel about her mother's childhood, Betty Before X, was published in January 2018.[26][27]
Shabazz is a trustee for the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, the Malcolm X Foundation, and the Harlem Symphony Orchestra. As of 2017, she is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.[14]
Personal life[]
Shabazz is a longtime resident of Southern Westchester. She grew up in Mount Vernon and presently lives in New Rochelle.[28][29]
Bibliography[]
- with Kim McLarin (2002). Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X. New York: One World. ISBN 978-0-345-44495-0.
- ——— (2014). Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X. Illustrated by A.G. Ford. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4424-1216-3.
- Boyd, Herb; ———, eds. (2014). The Diary of Malcolm X: 1964. Chicago: Third World Press. ISBN 978-0-88378-351-1.
- with Kekla Magoon (2015). X: A Novel. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press. ISBN 978-0-763-66967-6.
- with Renée Watson (2018). Betty Before X. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-30610-6.
- with Tiffany D. Jackson (2021). The Awakening of Malcolm X. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 9780374313296.
References[]
- ^ Rickford, Russell J. (2003). Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-4022-0171-4.
- ^ Rickford, pp. 226–232.
- ^ "Daughter of Malcolm on 'Growing Up X'". CNN. 10 July 2002. Archived from the original on 22 June 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ Blake, John (2004). Children of the Movement. Chicago: Lawrence Hill. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-55652-537-7.
- ^ Rickford, pp. 347–348.
- ^ Rickford, p. 123.
- ^ Rickford, p. 297.
- ^ Duke, Lynne (10 July 2002). "A Life All Her Own: In Her Autobiography, Malcolm X's Daughter Steps From His Shadow". The Washington Post. ProQuest 409303702.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Blake, p. 109.
- ^ Blake, p. 114.
- ^ "Ilyasah Shabazz '79 visits the Hilltop". Hackley School. 12 March 2010. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ Rickford, pp. 421.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Mishkin, Budd (26 February 2007). "One On 1: Ilyasah Shabazz, Carrying On The Legacy Of Her Father, Malcolm X". NY1. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Ilyasah Shabazz". New Jersey Education Association. November 2017. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ "Malcolm X's Daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, Writes Book, 'Growing Up X'". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 3 June 2002. p. 12. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
- ^ "2003 NAACP Image Award". Awards and Winners. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Saad, Shirley (4 February 2003). "Book of the Week: 'Growing Up X'". UPI. Retrieved 16 January 2011.
- ^ "Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X". Publishers Weekly. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ "All 223 NAACP Image Award Winning and Honored Books". AALBC.com. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ de la Peña, Matt (6 February 2015). "Becoming Malcolm X". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ "Malcolm X's Daughter Ilyasah Shabazz Among Book Awards Finalists". EURWeb. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ "2015 National Book Awards". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Lewis, Taylor (5 February 2016). "See the Complete List of Winners from the 2016 NAACP Image Awards". Essence. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
- ^ "Coretta Scott King Book Awards - All Recipients, 1970-Present". American Library Association. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ Baker, Jennifer (19 March 2016). "At Inaugural Walter Award Honorees Ask Industry To Make Change Happen And Encourage Diverse Readers". Forbes.com. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
- ^ "Betty Before X". Kirkus Reviews. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
- ^ "Betty Before X". Publishers Weekly. 30 October 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
- ^ Yarnell, Laurie (22 September 2009). "Living the High Life". Westchester Magazine. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
- ^ Higgins, Lee; Rauch, Ned P. (13 May 2013). "2 arrested in death of Malcolm X's grandson". The Journal News. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
Further reading[]
- Rothenberg Gritz, Jennie; Nodjimbadem, Katie; Shaer, Matthew; Stackpole, Thomas (September 2016). "The Children of Civil Rights Leaders Are Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize". Smithsonian.
- Shabazz, Ilyasah (2 February 2013). "How Betty Shabazz Persevered After Her Husband, Malcolm X, Was Killed". The Daily Beast.
- Shabazz, Ilyasah (21 February 2015). "What Would Malcolm X Think?". The New York Times.
- Shabazz, Ilyasah (27 February 2018). "My Mother, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Taught Me Every Child Deserves to Know They're Worthy". NBC News.
- "Faces of New Paltz – Ilyasah Shabazz". State University of New York at New Paltz. February 2005. Archived from the original on 18 November 2005.
- Vorwald, John (5 November 2008). "Ilyasah Shabazz on Obama". New York Observer.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ilyasah Shabazz. |
- Official website
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Ilyasah Shabazz at IMDb
- "An Interview with Malcolm X's Daughter". MSNBC. 22 February 2005.
- Blumberg, Nick (15 November 2017). "Ilyasah Shabazz on the Legacy of Her Father, Malcolm X". Chicago Tonight. WTTW.
- 1962 births
- Living people
- Activists from New Rochelle, New York
- African-American Muslims
- African-American non-fiction writers
- American non-fiction writers
- American memoirists
- American motivational speakers
- American women activists
- Fordham University alumni
- Malcolm X family
- Writers from New Rochelle, New York
- State University of New York at New Paltz alumni
- American women memoirists
- Hackley School alumni
- Women motivational speakers