"Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyrical
coming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tribute to
her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become a classic."
–Spike Lee
February 21, 1965:
Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. June 23,
1997: After surviving for a remarkable twenty-two days, his widow,
Betty Shabazz, dies of burns suffered in a fire. In the years
between, their six daughters reach adulthood, forged by the memory of
their parents' love, the meaning of their cause, and the power of
their faith. Now, at long last, one of them has recorded that
tumultuous journey in an unforgettable memoir: Growing Up X.
Born in 1962,
Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewire who fought
for—and won—attention in an all-female household. She carried on
the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable mother while
navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do the hustle.
She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet, years
later as a young woman, was not radical enough for her college
classmates. Her story is, above all else, a tribute to a mother of
almost unimaginable forbearance, a woman who, "from that day at
the Audubon when she heard the shots and threw her body on [ours,
never] stopped shielding her children."
