Shabazz Ilyasah - Growing Up X

Ilyasah Shabazz's Growing Up X brings to light the significance of being loved and knowing that one is lovable. Love has been the foundation that has united and fortified the Shabazz family so they could go through astounding obstacles.

C AMILLE O. C OSBY

This is a warm and engaging book about how the family of Malcolm X survived and adapted after his assassination in 1965. Ilyasah and his five other daughters were raised by a nurturing and strong mother, Betty Shabazz. The picture painted here is a personal one that helps us to see Malcolm X and his family free from the typical media highlight of his so-called violent rhetoric. Malcolm's main mission, as passed on to his daughter, was to empower black people and to empower his children. Growing Up X is an enlightening contribution to our understanding of the legacy of Malcolm X. This eye-opening book is wonderful reading for all Americans.

A LVIN F. P OUSSAINT , M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

What makes this book so worthy is its painfully honest account of the Shabazz family life. A heartwarming story, Growing Up X is an intriguing look into the world of a daughter whose father would be proud.

Heart and Soul magazine

that is an inspiration to people of all ages and backgrounds. [It] is a true testament to the power of the human will and, most important, to staying strong in the face of adversity.

T ERRIE M. W ILLIAMS
Author of The Personal Touch

In Growing Up X, Ilyasah Shabazz has crafted a compelling testimony of coming of age in the wake of the '60s' triumphs and traumas, and the special challenge of overcoming expectations to become her own person. Though it begins and ends in unspeakable loss, her story is yet one of sweetness and sadness and joy, a fitting tribute to the mother's courage of Betty Shabazz.

R UBY D EE

The daughters Shabazz had the trials and triumphs of growing up with the legacy of two extraordinary parentsMalcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazza father of mythic stature and a mother of courage, determination, and accomplishment. In this sensitive and candid memoir, Ilyasah bears witness to her own life and reflects on the times and events that helped shape it. Hers is a story of faithreligious faith, faith in the bonds of family, and, despite cataclysmic tragedies that tested those beliefs, an unshakable faith in the future.

Professor D ERRICK B ELL
Author of Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Ilyasah Shabazz offers a portrait of a husband, a father, a friend that breathes life into El Hajj Malik Shabazz, making him more than a poster on a college dormitory wall or a face on a T-shirt. She also allows the reader to stumble with her as she makes her own discovery of her father, through conversations with family and friends. And she does not hide her quiet tears over his absence. Ilyasah Shabazz's powerful but simply told story is a wonderful contribution to our history.

J ONETTA R OSE B ARRAS
Author of Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl?

Ms. Shabazz has written an important and moving tribute to her family. Perhaps her greatest homage to her illustrious father's legacy is her uncanny ability to relate to her audience honestly. This book paints as clear an impression of Black family values as any ever written, and also reflects the pride of a child who knows she was raised right.' Growing Up X might therefore be as important to America as her father's autobiography.

Congresswoman S HEILA J ACKSON L EE (D-Texas)

Riveting Candid, intimate, and revealing.

The New York Amsterdam News

First and foremost, I'd like to give praise and thanks to our Creator, God, Allah, for inner peace, continued love, and patience toward understanding the essence of life itself and its bountiful blessings. To the Ancestors that predated the Holocaust of Brown people, when Black really was Beautiful (let's say 10,000 b.c.), thank you for leaving us history (the pyramids, the Sphinx, the Nile Valley, and all the uses of natural resources, the Stars, the Sciences, Math, Architecture, Music, Fashion, Perfumes, and so much more); the fundamental principles of our African cultureUniversal Spirit and Intellect. To the enslaved Ancestors, for making a majestic way out of no way, cultivating the soil of the earth for all of us today.

Mommy and Daddy, for your unconditional love and servitude for living an exemplary life with faith in the Most High, of human decency, and determination; for shedding Light on our ancestors' true contributions to world history. My Big Sis, Attallah, for keeping me whole when I questioned my existence. Thank you, Sis! Qubilah, for being in the right place at the right time. My baby sisters: Gamilah, for keeping me laughing; the twins, Malikah, for being so smart, kind, and sweet, and Malaak, for your intellect and continued talking over and over and over again.

To my mother and father's families before and after them, God bless you, including my nephews, Malcolm and Malik, and my niece, Bettih-Bahiyah. May you clearly understand your lineage, make a commitment to Justice, live life in honor of a great Legacy, carrying on the struggle of human decency in the name of Allah while enjoying without limitations a happy and productive life of your own.

My most dear and special Aunt Hilda and Uncle Wesley Little.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

The Wallace Family (Thomas, Antoinette, Tommy, and Gail Wallace-Miller), words are simply not enough for when my parents in turn needed true love; they found peace in each of you. Mr. Percy Sutton, thank you for being with us from the beginning and after the end. Sister Aisha al-Adawiya, Dr. Maya Angelou, Laura Ross Brown, Haki Madabuhti, Auntie Mary Redd, Dr. Niara Sudarkasa, thank you for your warm comfort.

My dearest sisterfriends Lisa Anthony, Crystal Christmas, Ayala Donchin, Dawn Ellerby, Claudine Grier, Kathy Hill, Liz Loblack, Danielle Philogene, Kathy Rimmer, Lisa Simone Stroud, Tammy Taylor, Sybil and Adrienne Testamarkthrough the mountains, rivers, and valleys, we sisters are a constant. My most dear cousin Ilyasah LeAsah Little-Brown. Cousin? You are my Light! Nadia Gourzong, I could not have been blessed with a finer goddaughter. Robert, God has certainly brought us together. Thank you for sharing you. Thank you for your love, your peace, and your faith.