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HISTORY
February 21, 1965—Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem’s
Audubon Ballroom.
June 23, 1997—After surviving for a remarkable twenty-two
days, his widow, Dr. Betty Shabazz, passes away from
burns suffered in a fire.
In the years between, their six daughters reach adulthood,
forged by the memory of their parents’ love, the
meaning of their cause, and the power of their faith.
Now, at long last, one of the daughters has recorded
that touching and tumultuous journey in an unforgettable
memoir: Growing Up X.
Ilyasah was the middle Shabazz child, a rambunctious
live wire and self-described
"mommy’s girl" who fought for—and
won—attention in an all-women household, a warm
place as full of fun as of learning, chaos, and love.
From the first days after her father’s assassination
when the family was left homeless to the years of private
schools and personal body guards . . . from studying
the Muslim faith to understanding the mystery of boys
. . . from coming to terms with their father’s assassination
to the shock of her mother’s passing, Ilyasah’s
life is one of stunning contradictions: deprived and
privileged, unique and endearingly normal.
Here is a girl carrying on the legacy of a renowned father
and an indomitable mother while navigating childhood
and, along the way, learning to do the hustle. Here is
a child who was a different color from the other children
at camp and yet, years later as a young woman, was not
radical enough for her college classmates. Above all
else, here is a tribute to a mother of almost unimaginable
forbearance, a woman who "from that day at the Audubon
when she heard the shots and threw her body on [ours,
never] stopped shielding her children."
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