Ilyasah Shabazz

Ilyasah Shabazz (born July 22, 1962) is an American author, most notably of a memoir, Growing Up X, community organizer, social activist, and motivational speaker, and the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. Early life Shabazz was born in Brooklyn, New York, on July 22, 1962. She was named after Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, the religious and Black nationalist group to which her parents belonged. Shabazz is of African-American, African-Grenadian, English and Scottish descent. In February 1965, when she was two years old, Shabazz was present, with her mother and sisters, at the assassination of her father. She says she has no memory of the event. Shabazz had an apolitical upbringing in a racially integrated neighborhood in Mount Vernon, New York. Her family never took part in demonstrations or attended rallies. Together with her sisters, she joined Jack and Jill, a social club for the children of well-off African Americans. She considered an acting career, though her mother was not supportive. Her mother instead took interest in trying to keep her father's presence alive, and baked her cookies, which she would break a piece off to give the impression that her father had eaten it before she arrived.