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Betty Shabazz
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Dr. Betty Shabazz (born Betty Jean Saunders) (May 28, 1936 – June 23 1997), also known as Betty X, was the wife of Malcolm X.
e is an air of uncertainty about Betty Shabazz's background and early life. Shabazz was born in Detroit, Michigan as Betty Saunders; reportedly the daughter of Shelman Sandlin and Ollie Mae Saunders. Shabazz was an illegitimate child and had a scattered childhood.
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Dr. Betty Shabazz (born Betty Jean Saunders) (May 28, 1936 – June 23 1997), also known as Betty X, was the wife of Malcolm X.
Background
There is an air of uncertainty about Betty Shabazz's background and early life. Shabazz was born in Detroit, Michigan as Betty Saunders; reportedly the daughter of Shelman Sandlin and Ollie Mae Saunders. Shabazz was an illegitimate child and had a scattered childhood. Still a child, Betty was taken in by foster parents after her troubled childhood and grew up within their sheltered, loving, middle-class household in Detroit.
Early years
After high school, Shabazz left the comfortable home of her foster parents in Detroit to study at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), a well-known historically black college in Alabama. It was in Alabama that she encountered her first racial hostilities. She did not understand the causes for the racial issues, and her parents refused to acknowledge these issues. She mentioned this in an autobiographical essay she wrote in 1992, published in Essence Magazine: "They thought [the problems] were my fault."'
Shabazz moved to New York City to escape Southern racism, and enrolled as a nursing student at the Brooklyn State Hospital School of Nursing. While in New York, Shabazz's friend invited her to hear Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X from the Nation of Islam speak at an Islamic temple (Temple No. 7 in Harlem). According to the Essence essay, Shabazz's friend offered to introduce her to Malcolm X after his speech. Betty's initial reaction was "big deal". She continues: "But then, I looked over and saw this man on the extreme right aisle sort of galloping to the podium. He was tall, he was thin, and the way he was galloping it looked as though he was going someplace much more important than the podium... Well, he got to the podium and I sat up straight. I was impressed with him." They discussed the racism she encountered in Alabama, and she began to understand its causes, pervasiveness, and effects. Soon, Betty was attending all of Malcolm's lectures. By the time she graduated from nursing school in 1958, she was a member of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad bestowed of his followers the last name "X", representing the African family name they would never know. She changed her name to "Betty X" a result of her Nation of Islam influence.
Marriage
In her autobiographical essay for Essence Magazine in 1992, Shabazz said, "I never 'dated' Malcolm as we think of it because at the time single men and women in the Muslims did not 'fraternize' as they called it. Men and women always went out in groups." In 1958, after she had completed nursing school, Malcolm X, who was traveling the country at the time, called her from Detroit and proposed marriage. Before the week was out, Betty aged 22 and Malcolm aged 33 were married.
After their split from The Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm and Betty X adopted the last name, Shabazz. Together, they had six daughters — Attallah (b. 1958), Qubilah (b. 1960), Ilyasah (b. 1963), Gamilah (b. 1964) and twins Malaak and Malikah (b. 1965, seven months after Malcolm X's death).
Husband's Assassination
In February 1965 their family survived the firebombing of their home. On February 21, 1965, Shabazz and her four young children witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. It was reported that Shabazz was in the audience and covered her girls with her own body on the ballroom floor as the assassins' bullets flew.
Alex Haley wrote in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, "Sister Betty came through the people, herself a nurse, and people recognizing her moved back; she fell on her knees, looking down on his bare, bullet-pocked chest, sobbing, 'They killed him!' "
One of the three assassins was captured at the scene, and all three were members of the Nation of Islam. Later, each was convicted and sent to prison.
Life after Malcolm X's assassination
Hajj
She performed the Hajj in Mecca and considered herself a Sunni Muslim. Shabazz held her conviction about the role of the Nation of Islam in Malcolm X's assassination until 1995 when she had a public reconciliation with Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam.
In the essay for Essence Magazine in 1992, Shabazz confessed, I really don't know where I'd be today if I had not gone to Mecca to make Hajj shortly after Malcolm was assassinated. . And that is what helped put me back on track. I remembered one of the things Malcolm always said to me is, 'Don't be bitter. Remember Lot's wife when they kill me, and they surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do what it is you have to do.'
Education
When Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, the couple had four daughters. Shabazz was pregnant with twins at the time of his assassination. She was a registered nurse, having earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the Brooklyn State Hospital School of Nursing in 1958. She continued her education by enrolling in Jersey City State College. Shabazz was determined to provide for her family and serve as a role model for her children. She received a Bachelor of Arts in public health education from Jersey City State College. She returned to pursue her Master of Arts in public health education from Jersey City State College in 1970. In 1975, she received her Ph.D. in education administration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Raising family
Betty Shabazz raised her six daughters, Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, and twins Malikah and Malaak, in the Islamic faith.
According to daughter Ilyasah Shabazz's autobiography, Growing Up X (2002), after Malcolm X's demise, Betty Shabazz got help from wealthy close friends and celebrities to acquire a large, beautiful home in Mount Vernon, New York for her family. Malcolm and Betty had split from The Nation of Islam in 1964 and in turn, the Nation had recently evicted Malcolm and family from the small house it had provided during Malcolm X's ministry, just before the assassination. In her book, Ilyasah writes that Betty Shabazz worked very hard to ensure that her daughters were well provided for. They led sheltered, comfortable, upper class lives, complete with the luxury of housekeepers, chauffeured cars, exclusive social clubs, and expensive, predominantly white private schools, private tutors and summer camps.
Middle years
Social work
In 1976, Shabazz worked at New York's Medgar Evers College as an assistant professor. She taught health sciences and then became head of public relations at Medgar Evers College. She traveled widely, speaking on topics such as civil rights and racial tolerance. She became a great advocate for the goal of self-determination for African Americans. She also served on many boards, including the African-American Foundation, the Women's Service League and the Day Care Council of Westchester County, New York.
Later years
In 1994, Shabazz spoke out for the first time against the Nation of Islam and linked its current leader, Louis Farrakhan, to Malcolm X's assassination. Farrakhan denied the allegations. He blamed the turbulent and racially hostile atmosphere of the 1960s as the root causes for Malcolm's death.
In January 1995, Betty and Malcolm X's daughter Qubilah Shabazz were charged in Minneapolis with trying to hire an assassin to murder Farrakhan in retaliation for the murder of her father. The assassin turned out to be a government informant. Farrakhan surprised everyone by defending Qubilah. He claimed that she had been manipulated by government agents who wanted to breed ill feelings within the Nation of Islam and throughout the African American community. In May 1995, Shabazz eventually reconciled with Farrakhan, shaking his hand on the stage of Harlem's Apollo Theater at a fundraiser for her daughter's defense. The fundraiser had been arranged by Farrakhan to help pay for Qubilah's legal fees. Betty Shabazz spoke at Farrakhan's Million Man March in October 1995.
Qubilah was not imprisoned for her plot to assassinate Farrakhan. However, she was required to undergo psychological counseling and treatment for drug and alcohol abuse for a two-year period. During this period, Qubilah's 12-year-old son, Malcolm, was sent to live with Shabazz at her apartment in Yonkers, New York.
Death
On June 1, 1997, Betty Shabazz's grandson, Malcolm, set fire to her apartment. Malcolm Shabazz had been living with Shabazz for a few months at the time of the incident and it was reported that he was unhappy he had been sent to live with his grandmother in Yonkers and that he had wanted to re-join his mother Qubilah in Texas. Shabazz suffered burns over 80 percent of her body and remained in intensive care for three weeks at the Jacobi Medical Center in Bronx, New York. She underwent five skin-replacement operations as doctors struggled to replace damaged skin and save her life. At the time, doctors had forewarned that patients with her severity of injuries usually had less than a 10 percent chance of survival. Rita Connelly of the Jacobi Medical Center stated that doctors removed 72% of her burned tissue by June 9. Supporters of Shabazz held a blood drive to help her.
Shabazz died of third degree burns on June 23, 1997, at the age of 61.
Police arrested Malcolm Shabazz within hours of the fire being started and accused him of setting the blaze. He was later sentenced to eighteen months in juvenile detention for manslaughter.
At the time of her death, Betty Shabazz headed the Office of Institutional Advancement and Public Relations at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn (part of the City University of New York). More than 2,000 mourners attended a memorial service for Shabazz at New York City's Riverside Church. Many prominent leaders including Coretta Scott King (widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.), Myrlie Evers-Williams (widow of Medgar Evers), poet Maya Angelou, actor-activist Ossie Davis, four New York City mayors—Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins, Edward Koch and Abraham Beame; U.S. Representative Maxine Waters and New York Governor George Pataki were present for her memorial service. U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman delivered a tribute from President Bill Clinton. In a statement released after Shabazz's death, black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said, "She never stopped giving and she never became cynical. She leaves today the legacy of one who epitomized hope and healing."
Shabazz's funeral service was held at the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City. Her wake was at the Unity Funeral Home in Harlem (the same location where Malcolm X's wake was held 32 years before). Betty Shabazz was buried next to her husband, Malcolm X, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
There is a major mosque in Harlem named after Shabazz.
Further reading
Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X (Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, 2003).
External links
The Washington Post
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