| Biography - Sister Betty X Shabazz | | | | a 10 percent chance of going on living, so Betty X died |
| Nobody seems to know about Betty Sanders early life | | | | of third degree burns on June 23, 1997. She was 61 |
| and family background. She was born, however, in | | | | years old. Her grandson served only eighteen months |
| Detroit, Michigan, and is the daughter of Shelman | | | | in juvenile detention for his heinous crime, even though |
| Sandlin and a woman named Sanders. Sanders was | | | | it had resulted in the death of his grandmother. |
| an illegitimate child, one with a troubled upbringing, and | | | | About the time that she died, Betty X had headed the |
| she was given over to foster parents, growing up in a | | | | Office of Institutional Advancement and Public |
| nice, middle class house in Detroit. Due to her difficult | | | | Relations at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn. A |
| childhood, she devoted her life to African American | | | | larger crowd than the one attending Malcolm X's |
| childcare, health and sexual education. | | | | funeral came to her memorial service at New York |
| After high school, Shabazz left the comfortable home | | | | City's Riverside Church. Prominent Black Community |
| of her adoptive parents in Detroit to study at the | | | | and other civic leaders spoke at the service: Coretta |
| Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University), a | | | | Scott King, widow of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., |
| well-known historically black college in Alabama. It was | | | | Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Medgar Evers, Maya |
| at Alabama that she encountered her first racial | | | | Angelou, famous poet, Ossie Davis, actor, and four |
| hostilities. She did not understand the causes for the | | | | New York City mayors: Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins, |
| racial issues, and her parents refused to acknowledge | | | | Edward Koch and Abraham Beame; Maxine Waters, |
| these issues. She mentioned this in an autobiographical | | | | US Representative, and Governor George Pataki of |
| essay she wrote in 1992, published in Essence | | | | New York. Plus, the US Secretary of Labor, Alexis |
| Magazine: "They thought [the problems] were my | | | | Herman, gave a tribute from Pres. Bill Clinton. Black civil |
| fault."' | | | | rights leader Jesse Jackson released a statement |
| Betty moved to NYC to get away from the narrow | | | | saying, "She never stopped giving and she never |
| minded views of the white South, studying nursing at | | | | became cynical. She leaves today the legacy of one |
| Brooklyn State Hospital. One night, her friends took her | | | | who epitomized hope and healing." |
| to hear Malcolm X speak about the Nation of Islam at | | | | They held Betty X's funeral at NYC's Islamic Cultural |
| an Islamic temple in Harlem. Essence Magazine, a | | | | Center, and her wake was held at the Unity Funeral |
| magazine specifically for American black women, | | | | Home in Harlem, where her husband's wake had been |
| stated in 1992 that Betty's friend offered to introduce | | | | held 32 years ago. Then Sister Betty X Shabazz was |
| her to Malcolm X after he was done speaking. | | | | buried next to her husband, Brother Malcolm X |
| Betty's reaction to that was "Big deal!" But she went to | | | | Shabazz, at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New |
| the speech. She later continued in the interview: "But | | | | York. There is also a large mosque, major in Harlem, |
| then, I looked over, and saw this man on the extreme | | | | named after Sister Betty X Shabazz. |
| right aisle sort of galloping to the podium. He was tall, | | | | Malcolm X - Betty X's Husband |
| he was thin, and the way he was galloping, it looked as | | | | Malcolm was largely into Truth and Justice - but not |
| though he was going someplace much more important | | | | the American Way. He felt "patriotism" was a crutch |
| than the podium...well, he got to the podium, and I sat up | | | | certain people were using to get at his own kind, as |
| straight." | | | | they were not letting them have their full civil and |
| Betty was quite impressed with Malcolm X's speech. | | | | human rights. However, potent patriotic forces, albeit |
| Afterwards, she caught him backstage, and they | | | | Black Nationalist ones, were what inevitably killed him. |
| discussed racism in Alabama. She started attending all | | | | He had stood up to the leadership of the Nation of |
| of his speeches and lectures, and by the time she | | | | Islam, perhaps mostly as a political power play, and it |
| graduated nursing school, she was a member of the | | | | had cost him. But he had grown in his appreciation of |
| Nation of Islam. As Elijah Muhammad bestowed the | | | | desegregation and the human rights of all people, and |
| last name "X" on all of his followers, she was now | | | | in his acceptance of the Islamic faith. |
| Betty X, like Malcolm X, no longer encumbered with "a | | | | Many people would talk to him strangely about his life. |
| slave name." | | | | They asked him when he was going to become a |
| Betty X stated further in her autobiographical Essence | | | | college bound law student, and enter reality. I feel like |
| interview: "I never 'dated' Malcolm as we think of it | | | | he had entered circumstances from the moment he |
| because at the time single men and women in the | | | | was born that precluded such a thing, not because he |
| Muslims did not 'fraternize' as they called it. Men and | | | | was incapable of studying law, but because of the |
| women always went out in groups." Once she had | | | | extreme oppression against him. Primarily, he had to |
| completed her nursing studies in 1958, Malcolm X | | | | deal with that by becoming a militant, anti the USA, and |
| proposed marriage, and by the time Betty X was 23 | | | | anti everything white society stood for, including to |
| and Malcolm X was 32, they were legally wed in the | | | | some extent the law. |
| Moslem church. | | | | But Malcolm X did manage to become a kind of |
| Like her husband, Betty walked the Hajj to Mecca, | | | | amateur lawyer. He kept some black men from going |
| becoming a Sunni Muslim, and she maintained her faith | | | | to jail, by lining them up, well dressed, outside of a |
| in the Nation of Islam's role in Malcolm X's | | | | courtroom in a famous and televised incident. They all |
| assassination until 1995. She then had a public | | | | seemed to want leadership from him. He kept trying to |
| reconciliation with Louis Farrakhan, then the leader of | | | | relate to and lead what was going on, but as he knew, |
| the Nation of Islam. | | | | his life was predestined to be short. |
| Betty X further stated in her Essence Magazine | | | | Robin DG Kelley, a famous black historian, wrote: |
| interview: "I really don't know where I'd be today if I had | | | | "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan African, |
| not gone to Mecca to make Hajj shortly after Malcolm | | | | father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet |
| was assassinated. And that is what helped put me | | | | conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to |
| back on track. I remembered one of the things | | | | society. The meaning of his public life, his politics and |
| Malcolm always said to me is, 'Don't be bitter. | | | | ideology, is contested in part because his entire body |
| Remember Lot's wife when they kill me, and they | | | | of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a |
| surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do | | | | collaborative autobiography whose veracity is |
| what it is you have to do." | | | | challenged...Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, |
| After the assassination, Betty X had at least six girl | | | | or blank slate, on which people of different positions |
| children to raise as a single mother. Her six daughters | | | | can write their own interpretations of his politics and |
| were: Attalla, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, and the twins | | | | legacy. |
| Malikah and Malaak. She was determined to raise her | | | | "Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy and Supreme |
| daughters in the Islamic faith, and one of them, Ilyasah | | | | Court Justice Clarence Thomas can both declare |
| Shabazz, wrote a famous autobiography, "Growing Up | | | | Malcolm X their hero." |
| X." | | | | I am certain that to Sister Betty X Shabazz, Brother |
| Betty X was a registered nurse, continuing her | | | | Malcolm X Shabazz was her greatest hero, and that |
| education at Jersey City State College, as she needed | | | | he was also a hero to their six (or eight) children as |
| to provide for her large family. She also wanted to set | | | | well, not to mention most of Black America during the |
| a good example and provide a strong female role | | | | 1950s and 1960s. |
| model for them. She received a degree in public health | | | | In his book about Malcolm X, "The Autobiography of |
| education, next attaining her Master of Arts in the | | | | Malcolm X," in the final scenes about his assassination, |
| same area in 1970. She finally received a Ph.D. in | | | | Alex Haley wrote: "Sister Betty came through the |
| education administration at the University of | | | | people, herself a nurse, and those recognizing her |
| Massachusetts in Amherst, and was a member of | | | | moved back. She fell on her knees, looking down at his |
| Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. | | | | bare, bullet pocked chest, sobbing, 'They killed him!'" |
| Disaster Strikes - Betty X Dies | | | | At least the two of them, Brother Malcolm X Shabazz |
| Malcolm Shabazz, Betty X's 12 year old grandson, set | | | | and Sister Betty X Shabazz, met and loved each |
| fire to her apartment in June of 1997. He had been | | | | other, however briefly. They became a famous and |
| living with his grandmother, and it was said he was | | | | beloved pair, about whom one story says they met |
| unhappy about this, wanting to live with his mother | | | | during the taping of a Nation of Islam radio show, and |
| Qubilah in Texas. Betty X suffered burns over 80 | | | | another story says they met after a speech given by |
| percent of her body and underwent five skin | | | | Malcolm X. At any rate, they finally made it to being |
| replacement operations, being in intensive care for | | | | with each other. This is an event which many people |
| three weeks in the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, | | | | born on this Earth are not fortunate enough to enjoy in |
| New York. Doctors said most patients like her had only | | | | the course of their lifetimes. |