Qubilah Shabazz was convinced that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan was responsible for the 1965 assassination of her father, Malcolm X — and in 1995, she was arrested for conspiring to have Farrakhan killed.
ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoQubilah Shabazz, the second daughter of Malcolm X.
Qubilah Shabazz’s life was never easy. The daughter of Malcolm X, Shabazz was a victim of violence from an early age — and witnessed the assassination of her father at just four years old.
That moment, understandably, left an impact on Shabazz. Beyond the struggle of growing up without her father, Shabazz had difficulties fitting in. As an adult, she drifted from city to city and job to job, drank heavily, and relied on the goodwill of family and friends to help her raise her son, Malcolm.
By the early 1990s, however, Shabazz had developed an obsessive resentment toward Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. She believed Farrakhan was responsible for her father’s assassination, and the anger she felt towards him would lead Shabazz to plot Farrakhan’s own assassination.
The plan ultimately failed, and Shabazz was required to undergo psychiatric counseling and substance abuse treatment to avoid prison time. However, Shabazz’s hardships didn’t end there.
Qubilah Shabazz’s Grief-Stricken Early Life
Qubilah Shabazz, named after the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, was born on Dec. 25, 1960. She was the second of Malcolm X and his wife Betty Shabazz’s six daughters.
As author Russell J. Rickford wrote in the biography Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X, Qubilah would eventually become “the most visibly wounded of the Shabazz daughters.”
Perhaps she never stood a chance in a world that would show her its darkest truths in her early years. At the age of four, Shabazz awoke in the middle of the night to her home being firebombed.
American Photo Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoMalcolm X’s home after it was firebombed in February 1965.
One week later, on Feb. 21, 1965, Shabazz’s father Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. He was shot at least 15 times in front of an audience of people that included Qubilah Shabazz, her three sisters, and her pregnant mother. “Qubilah was the only Shabazz daughter who seemed to realize that her father was not coming home,” Rickford wrote.
Life didn’t get any easier for Shabazz from there.
The family eventually attempted to settle in Mount Vernon at a time when the NAACP was demanding integrated schools and better housing on the South Side. Unfortunately, many Black professionals at the time were also trying to distance themselves from Malcolm X’s legacy — and that included Betty Shabazz and her children.
Ilyasah Shabazz/FacebookMalcolm X and Qubilah Shabazz the day before his assassination.
“The first people who reached out to me in Mount Vernon were white,” Betty would later recall.
Her children, meanwhile, struggled with being outcasts at school and dealing with the trauma of their father’s death. Qubilah Shabazz began to develop an intense rage within her.
According to a 1998 article in The Baltimore Sun, at the age of eight, Shabazz wrote an essay titled “Malcolm X, A Black Leader” that read:
“Malcolm X was a brave leader, he fought for rights for all black people. His black preachings were in everybody’s heart. In 1964 he was at the autobaum preaching. And everyone was listening instead of falling asleep. Listening to his black word. Then for not long he was shot. He dyed, but his black beautiful soul is in every black person’s heart.”
Qubilah Shabazz’s rage would continue to grow — and she would carry it into adulthood.
A Descent Into Substance Abuse And Violent Rage
Qubilah Shabazz was a bright child with a promising future. Her intelligence and hard work eventually led to her acceptance at Princeton University, but she once again struggled to fit in.
She felt that the white students shunned her, and she found little common ground with the other Black students who were active in trying to convince the university to disinvest in South Africa in the wake of apartheid. Shabazz seemingly had no interest in joining their efforts.
Ilyasah Shabazz/InstagramMalcolm X holding two of his daughters, Attallah (right) and Qubilah (left).
After just two semesters, Shabazz left Princeton and moved to Paris, France. She worked there for some time as a translator and eventually met an Algerian man named L. A. Bouasba. While their relationship didn’t last, they one child together: a son named Malcolm.
A few months after Malcolm was born, Shabazz returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Not long after, she moved back to New York City, but she struggled to find a solid foothold anywhere.
As Shabazz bounced between jobs, she often left Malcolm in the care of her mother and sisters. Meanwhile, she began to drink heavily, often crashing with friends when she couldn’t afford housing.
At the same time, Betty Shabazz was becoming more outspoken against the Nation of Islam — especially its new leader, Louis Farrakhan. She blamed him explicitly for her husband’s death, saying the assassination was “a badge of honor” for him.
Ilyasah Shabazz/FacebookBetty Shabazz (right) holding Qubilah.
Qubilah Shabazz shared her mother’s belief that Farrakhan had played a major part in her father’s death, but she also had a new fear. She thought Farrakhan was going to kill Betty.
Seeking to take matters into her own hands, Shabazz contacted a high school friend named Michael Fitzpatrick and asked him to kill Farrakhan. He agreed, but unbeknownst to Shabazz, Fitzpatrick had recently been arrested on drug charges and was working as an FBI informant.
According to a 1995 article from the Chicago Tribune, Fitzpatrick’s ruse ran so deep that Shabazz fell in love with him.
When she was eventually arrested in relation to the alleged plot to kill Farrakhan, she claimed that she took the fall to protect Fitzpatrick — and that she had only been joking when she asked Fitzpatrick to kill Farrakhan.
“He knew I was joking. We both laughed,” Shabazz said.
John Mathew Smith/Wikimedia CommonsLouis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, in 1997.
Shabazz ultimately accepted a plea deal in the case that required her to undergo psychological counseling and treatment for her substance abuse disorders as well as avoid further legal troubles for two years.
Shockingly, Farrakhan came to Shabazz’s defense during her trial. He even appeared with Betty Shabazz on stage at the Apollo Theater during an event to raise money for Qubilah’s legal defense. Together, they raised more than $250,000.
Tragically, however, this period of peace would not last long.
Betty Shabazz’s Tragic Death At The Hands Of Her Grandson
As part of her court-appointed treatment, Shabazz moved to San Antonio, Texas. Her son Malcolm, who was 10 at the time, was sent to Yonkers to live with his grandmother, Betty.
Two years later, Shabazz held up her end of the plea deal. She had avoided legal trouble, and her counseling and substance abuse treatment were going well. Her indictment was dismissed.
John Mathew Smith/Wikimedia CommonsBetty Shabazz, the outspoken widow of Malcolm X.
But two years without his mother was too much for Malcolm to bear.
He was briefly reunited with Shabazz in January 1997, which should have been a joyous occasion for the two. But according to family and friends, he lashed out at his mother when she couldn’t drive him to school because she “had been drinking again,” as The New York Times reported in 1997.
Malcolm was sent back to New York to live with his grandmother once again. There, his anger seemingly took hold of him — and he set her apartment on fire with gasoline.
As a result, Betty Shabazz suffered severe burns over 80 percent of her body. Three weeks later, she died from her injuries. Malcolm pleaded guilty to the juvenile equivalents of arson and manslaughter charges and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center.
Francis Specker / Alamy Stock Photo13-year-old Malcolm Shabazz at his arraignment in 1997.
But his troubles didn’t end there, either. In 2013, when he was 28, Malcolm Shabazz was beaten to death during a bar fight in Mexico.
Qubilah Shabazz largely disappeared from the public eye after her son’s death. However, it seems the fight for justice for Malcolm X is never-ending for Shabazz. In February 2023, she sued the FBI, CIA, and NYPD for the wrongful death of her father.
Hopefully, one day, Malcolm X’s family can find the closure they seek.
After reading about the turbulent life of Malcolm X’s daughter Qubilah Shabazz, learn more about the moment Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met for the first and only time. Then, dive into 21 profound quotes from Malcolm X.
