Born: 28 May 1934 or 1936, United States
Died: 23 June 1997
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Betty Dean Sanders, Betty X
Educator and civil rights activist Dr Betty Shabazz was the wife, and later widow, of Malcolm X.
Shabazz was born Betty Dean Sanders in either Detroit or Georgie to unwed parents when her mother was still a teenager; abused by her mother, she was taken in by foster parents when she was around 11. She later recalled of her experience growing up in Detroit, “Race relations were not discussed and it was hoped that by denying the existence of race problems, the problems would go away. Anyone who openly discussed race relations was quickly viewed as a ‘troublemaker.’
As such, Southern racism was a shock when she moved to Alabama to study education at the Tuskegee Institute. She changed her focus from education to nursing and moved to New York City in 1953 to study at the Brooklyn State College School of Nursing. There, she met Malcolm X and joined the Nation of Islam in 1956 and changing her surname to X. The couple married on 14 January 1958 – the same day Betty became a licensed practical nurse.
While their marriage initially followed the Nation of Islam patriarchal ideals, their relationship shifted to a more balanced dynamic, with Betty later recalling, “He concluded our marriage should be a mutual exchange.” They left the Nation of Islam in 1964, becoming Sunni Muslims. The couple had six daughters, starting in 1958; their youngest, twins, were born in 1965 after Malcolm’s assassination.
Betty and her daughters were in the audience on 21 February 1965 when her husband was shot and killed by members of the Nation of Islam. She immediately grabbed her children, shielding them with her body behind a bench. When the shooting stopped, she ran to her husband and attempted CPR, but he had been shot 16 times.
Devastated by the loss, Betty made her hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca the following month. She later recalled, “That is what helped put me back on track. … Going to Mecca, making Hajj, was very good for me because it made me think of all the people in the world who loved me and were for me, who prayed that I would get my life back together. I stopped focusing on the people who were trying to tear me and my family apart.”
The family was supported financially by royalties from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, donations from supporters, selling the movie rights to the book and allowing publication of his speeches. Betty was very active in her childrens’ school, and also began accepting speaking engagements, where she would discuss her husband’s philosophies and their life together.
In 1969, she returned to her education, enrolling at Jersey City State College to complete her undergraduate degree in nursing, which she did in a year and went on to her master’s degree in health administration. In 1972, she returned to her original passion and began her doctorate in higher education administration and curriculum development at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, earning her Ed.D in 1975.
The following January, Dr. Shabazz became an associate professor of health sciences with a concentration in nursing at Medgar Evers College in New York. She would work there for the rest of her life. By 1980, she oversaw the health sciences department, and was then promoted to Director of Institutional Advancement, promoting and raising funds for the college. A year later, she was given tenure. In 1984, Shabazz was given a new title, Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs, a position she filled for the remainder of her career.
Betty also volunteered her time for important causes in the 1970s and 1980s, such as serving on a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advisory committee on family planning. In 1984, she hosted the New York convention for the National Council of Negro Women. Shabazz became active with civil rights organisations including the NAACP, the National Urban League and The Links. When Nelson and Winnie Mandela visited Harlem in 1990, Betty was asked to introduce Winnie Mandela. She also befriended Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of Medgar Evers, and Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. They shared the experience of losing their husbands at a young age and raising their children as single mothers. The press referred to the three, who made public appearances together, as the “Movement widows”. Evers-Williams and King were frequent guests at Medgar Evers College.
In 1995, Betty’s second daughter, Qubilah, was arrested for allegedly conspiring to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in retaliation for her father’s assassination. Because of this, Betty took in her ten-year-old grandson Malcolm, who set fire to her apartment two years later. She suffered severe burns over 80% of her body, dying three weeks later as a result. Malcolm, who was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention for his actions, later explained that he had been acting out in the hopes of being sent back to his mother. “I set a fire in the hallway, and I didn’t think the whole thing through thoroughly, but she didn’t have to run through that fire … There was another way out of the house from her room. I guess what she thought was, I was stuck, and she had to run and get me because it was in front of my room as well. She ran through the fire. I did not picture that happening, that she would do that.”
More than 2,000 mourners attended her memorial service, including Coretta Scott King and Myrlie Evers-Williams, poet Maya Angelou and actor-activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson released a statement, saying “She never stopped giving and she never became cynical. She leaves today the legacy of one who epitomized hope and healing.” Evers-Williams described her as a “free spirit, in the best sense of the word. When she laughed, she had this beauty; when she smiled, it lit up the whole room.”