American author and social activist Ilyasah Shabazz spoke to an audience of about 500 people Tuesday evening in Trinity University’s Laurie Auditorium, focusing on themes of social injustice and opportunities for today‘s children. Shabazz was invited to San Antonio by Trinity University and the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. Commission in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
Shabazz’s message, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and her father Malcolm X, urged adults to keep working toward eliminating social injustice in the world and to create a path filled with more opportunities for today’s children.
“My premise is simple,” Shabazz said. “I feel that every child, regardless of race, creed or gender should feel safe and secure.” She also stressed the responsibility of adults to make sure the doorways of opportunity for children are never blockaded by social injustices.
Shabazz is one of six daughters of civil rights activist Malcolm X. She was raised by her mother Dr. Betty Shabazz along with her five sisters. Her father was assassinated when she was two years old.
She described the few hardships growing up in the shadow of her father.
“It wasn’t challenging up until I went to college,” Shabazz said. “In college, people were following me around asking me ‘Are you Malcolm X’s daughter?’ I didn’t know who they were expecting me to be.”
Whereas publications describe Malcolm X as an angry controversial black leader, Shabazz described her father as a loving and compassionate family man who loved all people. She added he was not scared to be vocal about social injustice and also said he was a martyr.
She explained there is still cause for civil rights activism and that society should recognize the Trans-Atlantic slave trade just as the Jewish Holocaust is recognized across the world. Shabazz explained that social inequality is still alive in the education system, the legal system and in the workplace.
Shabazz said that the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, beginning in the 15th century, lasted nearly 350 years and described it as the brutal capture and enslavement of black African men, women and children and their forced migration across the Atlantic Ocean to the American continents.
“Once we touch upon the truth, we can truly make a difference,” Shabazz explained, “especially in a country that encompasses all ethnicities.”
Shabazz ended her San Antonio visit with a book signing of her critically-acclaimed autobiography “Growing Up X.”
