Daughter of Malcolm X speaks at MLK Breakfast

That was one of several aspects revealed by Malcolm X’s daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, at the 18th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at Texas A&M University on Thursday.

“I had five sisters, and the Kings had four children, and we were very close,” Shabazz said. “Our mothers were very close. People are often surprised when I reference Aunt Coretta because we called her Aunt Coretta, and they called my mother Aunt Betty. We are always super grateful that each of our mothers had this opportunity to have this sense of sisterhood and sense of trust and reliance and that they could come together and counsel one another.”

Shabazz was the honored guest at this year’s breakfast and spoke before a full room in the Memorial Student Center’s Bethancourt Ballroom. The Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast is put on each year by the MSC Carter G. Woodson Black Awareness Committee (MSC WBAC).

Two years ago, the breakfast’s guest of honor was King’s daughter, Bernice King. On Thursday, Shabazz spoke on how the King children were helpful many years ago when Shabazz was trying to start a foundation to honor her parents, similar to the King Center in Atlanta that had been founded by King’s widow not long after his assassination in 1968.

“I was particularly close with Yolanda and with Bernice but when I was curious as to how to build a center, I went to go see [Martin’s son] Dexter King who at the time was head of the King Center,” Shabazz said. “I would say that the Shabazz Center is somewhat based on a similarity with the King Center.”

The Shabazz Center in New York is the site where Shabazz’s father was assassinated in 1965. It has become part memorial to his legacy but also a memorial to the legacy of Betty Shabazz.

Another of Shabazz’s daughters, Qubilah, Ilyasah’s sister, accepted a plea agreement in the mid-1990s for trying to hire a hitman to kill Louis Farrakhan, whom members of the Shabazz family believed responsible for Malcolm X’s murder. Under the terms of the agreement, Qubilah was required to undergo psychological counseling and treatment for drug and alcohol abuse for a two-year period during which her son, Malcolm — Ilyasah’s nephew — stayed with Betty Shabazz. Malcolm Shabazz, age 12 at the time in 1997, set a fire in his grandmother’s apartment and she died several weeks later from third-degree burns suffered in the arson.

“My mother looked at the glass half full. Her motto was find the good and praise it,” Shabazz said. “When I think about her life, my mother witnessed the firebombing of her home and a week later the assassination of her husband. When I think about myself if I witnessed this, the death of my husband, you know the challenge it would be let alone trying to raise six girls, but my mother was this ray of light. Lots of joy, lots of love, lots of humor.”

The breakfast opened with Voices of Praise singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before Mariot Valcin Jr., a Texas A&M Class of 2028 Ph.D student and the special projects director at MSC WBAC, gave the welcoming remarks. Valcin was followed by Col. (Ret.) Kenneth Allison, the associate director in the office of the commandant for the Corps of Cadets.

Allison spoke on what the legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who was noted for nonviolent approaches toward protesting for civil rights as opposed to Malcolm X’s calls for violence, and the tradition of the breakfast at Texas A&M meant to him. Allison says work still needs to be done.

“I’m truly excited this morning,” Allison said. “As an Aggie I truly enjoy the traditions that we hold so dear. If we do it more than once it becomes a tradition. I don’t know how many of these breakfasts we’ve had but I know I’ve been to a few of them. So let’s rejoice in this Aggie tradition. I have seen progress at Texas A&M, however I have seen things that concern me. We have work to do. Our train is on the right track but it is not moving fast enough.”

Makayla Caesar, a member of the MSC WBAC and Texas A&M Class of 2027, introduced Texas A&M professor Amir Jaima as the facilitator of the conversation with Ilyasah Shabazz. Jaima introduced Shabazz and then the two spoke on Shabazz’s life, her memoir, “Growing Up X,” published in 2002 and learning about her father’s legacy.

One thing Shabazz learned in writing the book is a greater appreciation for her mother Betty, who raised six daughters as a widow but who instilled valuable beliefs in all of them.

“She never saw herself as a victim or gave into despair,” Shabazz said. “She never accepted no or I can’t as an answer for herself. She protected us in a bubble of love. She raised us so that we could have this sense of self-love. It was so we’d grow up with a good sense of our identity and wouldn’t rely on others to determine our self-worth.”

Shabazz also spoke of what it was like to go to college and learn more about her father whom she had not really known because his death happened when she was 2 years old.

“There is this misconception of who Malcolm is but the reality is Malcolm challenged a government that was historically unjust to its own people,” Shabazz said. “He put a mirror up and said we want liberty and justice for all of our citizens, we want an opportunity for all of our citizens to love one another, to cohabitate, especially in America where we have a representation of every nationality on this earth living together. What a beautiful opportunity for us to learn from one another rather than to push against one another.”