Muslims and African-Americans in Metro Detroit are mourning the death of Malcolm Lateef Shabazz, Malcolm X's oldest grandson, as Niraj Warikoo describes in the Free Press.
Malcolm Shabazz
[Photo from San Francisco Bay View]They remember his warmth and activism. Shabazz, 28, was reportedly killed in Mexico City on Thursday, according to his family in a statement released Friday.
On Saturday, a special service will be held at 10 a.m. at Historic King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit to remember Shabazz; his grandfather delivered noted speeches at the Detroit church in the 1960s. . . .
In recent years, Shabazz had visited Michigan several times to speak in local mosques and attend services. His grandfather, an iconic black leader, was raised in Michigan, where the Nation of Islam started.
Given Michigan's sizeable Muslim and African-American communities, his death has been felt by many in the area. He was mentioned at some mosques Friday during their weekly sermons.
The son of Qubilah Shabazz, reportedly was attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. In 2010, Malcolm Shabazz made the hajj to Mecca, according to the Amsterdam News, a Manhattan newspaper.
An African-American media site, News One, quotes Juan Ruiz of a California-based labor organization called Rumec, as saying Shabazz was in Mexico City with a member of that group and was fatally beaten in an apparenty robbery attempt.
"He’s a supporter of our organization,” said Ruiz. "He was murdered. He was in Mexico City and I believe they attempted to rob him and he didn’t allow it, so they beat him to death and he died on his way to the hospital.
"This is all I can confirm. Everything else is under investigation."
His grandfather, a Muslim minister and civil rights activist, was known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. He spent childhood years in Lansing, later lived in Flint and served during the 1950s as assistant minister of the Nation of Idslam's Temple Number One in Detroit, according to Wikipedia. He was called "Detroit Red" because of reddish hair inherited from his Scottish maternal grandfather.
Malcolm X married Betty Sanders in January 1958. Qubilah Shabazz, 52, is the second of their six daughters.
The nationally prominent speaker and human rights figure was slain Feb. 21, 1965 as he prepared to address an Upper Manhattan audience. Qubilah was present, her son said in a New One interview last year:
"She was there. She was four years old and sitting right there. I don’t think she’s ever recovered from that.”
-- Alan Stamm
