"On February 21, 1965, my mother, sisters and I witnessed the assassination of her husband, our father, Malcolm X. He was only 39 years old. I’m old enough to be his mother today."
That was one of the first things that Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz told a room of MSU students and community members about her father when she visited campus Tuesday.
Shabazz was a featured speaker at the fourth annual Malcolm X Muslim Studies Community Forum, which was organized by the MSU Muslim Studies Program and MSU Libraries. After her speech, Shabazz signed copies of her most recent novel, "The Awakening of Malcolm X: A Novel," released in 2021.
Muslim Studies Program Director Mohammed Khalil and Jabbar R. Bennett, vice president and chief diversity officer, began the forum by thanking those who sponsored and attended the event.
"As we reflect tonight, we recognize … that if Malcolm X (was) still with us, he would be turning 100 years old," Bennett said in his opening remarks.
Bennett added that 2025 is also a "momentous" year for MSU, as decades of student and employee activism was realized with the completion of the new multicultural center.
Like his daughter, Malcolm X spoke to MSU students 62 years ago. In fact, it was in the same Erickson Kiva room that he delivered a call to action to MSU students on Jan. 23, 1963, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
This time, it was his daughter's turn to address the room. She told them that "(her) father's brilliance was not accidental."
She also took the time to rectify misconceptions about her father, including his desires for the Civil Rights Movement, his relationship with Martin Luther King Jr., and who Malcolm X was as a person.
"When we allow others to control our narrative, what we hear is that you can go to prison and be illiterate and miraculously walk out as Malcolm X, an icon," Shabazz said. "But this kind of narrative diminishes the importance of family. It diminishes the importance of one’s foundation. It diminishes the importance of one’s moral values and mentors. It invalidates the village needed to raise a child and diminishes the importance of critical thinkers in the roles of responsibility, and it is the reason why I wrote my books."
Much of Malcolm X’s foundations were nurtured in Lansing, where he spent the majority of his youth after moving from Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 3. He would return to Lansing in his adulthood to marry his wife, the late Dr. Betty Shabazz, and then again in 1963.
Shabazz’s talk focused on the importance of becoming "agents of hope" and making a "creative society that works for everyone" in an act of preserving her parents’ legacy.
Part of this process, Shabazz said, requires us to "nurture the aspirations of all our young people, provide them with mentors who encourage them to see beyond the limits others might place on them."
"When we deny students the opportunity to imagine themselves as architects of the future, we create (a) self-fulfilling prophecy," Shabazz said. "However, when we support and uplift them, we nurture a generation of thinkers, leaders and change-makers who will carry forward to work of justice for all of us."
Riley Crane, a junior studying communications, said the event was inspiring.
"Wow, we still have to fight for this, especially in this day and age," Crane said. "I think it’s beautiful that she’s sharing the message and trying to help everyone else fight for the same cause."
Shabazz ended her speech with an encouraging statement toward the room.
"Together, you have the power to create meaningful change and build a world that reflects the values of love, truth and compassion," she said. "Let us replace division with unity, complacency with action, and fear with hope."
She was met with a standing ovation.
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