-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 10, 1997
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Thousands pay tribute to Betty Shabazz
By Monica Moorehead
They began gathering outside the church more than four hours before the public memorial. Thousands baked in the hot sun. The crowd was overwhelmingly Black with a sprinkling of other nationalities.
What united this crowd of diverse political, religious and cultural backgrounds was the desire to pay homage to Dr. Betty Shabazz.
Those who came to pay tribute ran the gamut of friends and foes of civil rights.
Dr. Shabazz's closest friends included Myrlie Evers Williams and Coretta Scott King--the widows, respectively, of slain civil-rights leaders Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. These women gave moving testimony on the parallels in all their lives and how their individual personal tragedies brought them together.
Shabazz's daughters spoke of their mother's courage.
The foes included New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki, two Republicans who staged a phony act of concern for the Shabazz family for the benefit of the Black community in an election year.
A life of dedication
Dr. Shabazz, the widow of martyred revolutionary leader Malcolm X, was only 61 when she died on June 23. She succumbed to third-degree burns over 80 percent of her body. Her 12-year-old grandson, Malcolm Shabazz, is being held in juvenile custody for setting the fire that broke out in her apartment on June 1.
Racist prosecutors in Westchester County are attempting to charge Malcolm, who has a well-documented history of mental problems, with first-degree murder--a move the family opposes.
Who was Betty Shabazz? She was not a Black nationalist when she first met Malcolm X in 1956 at a Harlem mosque. Nor was she involved in the struggle for civil rights. She was a dedicated Muslim studying to be a nurse. She gave up her studies to marry Malcolm X in 1958 and raise a family.
Betty Shabazz made the sacrifice of caring for their four daughters as Malcolm X traveled all over the country and to Africa spreading the word of the right of Black people to defend themselves against racist oppression, especially inside the United States, by any means necessary. She was no different from many other housewives and mothers, except that she was the mate of the most dynamic Black revolutionary of his time.
Target of government plot
Malcolm X had become a primary target of the notorious Cointelpro program, initiated by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Once Malcolm X became a target of the racist power structure, so did his family.
As Malcolm X adopted a more anti-imperialist position, the Shabazz family faced increased death threats. The day before Malcolm X was murdered, their home in Queens was firebombed.
Betty Shabazz, two months pregnant, and her four daughters witnessed the brutal assassination of Malcolm X at New York's Audubon Ballroom on Feb. 21, 1965. She was to become a single parent of six daughters with no sustainable income.
This did not stop her from going back to school and earning a doctorate in education. In 1976, she joined the staff of Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, where she became a director of communications and public relations. At her death, she was director of institutional advancement, raising money for scholarships and books.
Besides being an educator, Betty Shabazz toured the country speaking about Malcolm X's program of the right to militant self-defense against a repressive state apparatus. It was for this "crime" of keeping her husband's legacy alive that the U.S. government never let the Shabazz family alone.
In 1995, the government tried to indict Betty Shabazz's daughter Qubilah Shabazz for planning to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis Farakkhan. Minister Farakkhan has been accused in many circles of plotting the assassination of Malcolm X. Betty Shabazz has publicly stated that she felt Minister Farakkhan had nothing to do with the murder of her husband.
The case against Qubilah Shabazz was dropped following mass outrage against the government's continuing harassment of the Shabazz family.
Now the racist New York state judicial system is trying to demonize Qubilah's son, Malcolm, in the public domain and railroad him to prison. Clearly what Malcolm Shabazz needs more than anything else is the best medical care and attention. Without a doubt, this is what his grandmother would have wanted for him.
Thousands of people poured into Riverside Church and hundreds more overflowed into the streets on a hot summer day because Betty Shabazz had evolved into a heroic symbol of survival and courage against all the challenges this racist, capitalist system threw in her face. She met each challenge with dignity and perseverance until her untimely death.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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