By The Karl Anatol Center was overflowing with people who came to hear Malcolm X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, speak as part of the Black History Month Distinguished Lecture Series yesterday.
The lecture, titled “A Conversation with Ilyasah Shabazz: History and a Daughter’s Memory of Malcolm X,” focused on the misconceptions the media has formed about her father, a civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1965 when Shabazz was just two years old.
“In the movie about my father, there was a scene where they showed that my father beginning his transformation in prison after receiving a dictionary from one of the characters,” Shabazz said. “In reality, his mother gave him the dictionary when he was just a kid … When he was in this quiet place of jail, he was able to come back to the values that his parents gave him.”
In fact, Shabazz said, there was much more to her father than the militant image the media portrayed of him.
“He was corny … He was this sensitive guy who read Shakespeare and who was very sensitive in his private life,” she said.
The event was sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies and co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Students Association, the Black Faculty and Staff Association and University Outreach and School Relations.
Maulana Karenga, chair of the Africana studies department, spoke about the importance of Black History Month.
“We come to honor Malcolm X because this is the month of his martyrdom,” Karenga said. “We are honored here because Malcolm X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, carries on her father’s legacy.”
Freshman theatre arts major Cynthia Harris, who grew up admiring Malcolm X, said she enjoyed how Shabazz humanized his image.
“I came because I am very attached to Malcolm X,” Harris said. “I grew up learning about Malcolm X. I really wanted to see what his daughter had to say. I think she did an amazing job putting him in a better light.”
Before taking questions from the audience, Shabazz said that her new book, “Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X,” discusses the relationship her father had with his parents, as well as the role parenting had on shaping Malcolm X as a person.
Shabazz also authored “Growing up X,” a memoir that focuses on her experiences growing up in the shadow of her father.
Senior political science major John Oney said he attended the event because he was inspired by Malcolm X’s activism.
“She did a really good job at breaking down the image of her parents,” Oney said. “It’s good to get the more human story attached to it because there’s so much information about Malcolm X out there.”
