Elizabeth Murray

Free Press Staff Writer

A daughter of human rights activist Malcolm X stood at a podium, looking out at a sea of faces Sunday at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington during an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day remembrance.

Ilyasah al Shabazz smiled and said she used to visit Vermont when she was a young girl to attend camp in Pittsford. At that time, Vermonters she met were not accustomed to meeting black people, and she was very aware of the color of her skin, she said.

"They used to touch our hair and they would touch our skin, and it was just something new," Shabazz said. "I'm really astonished to see so many colorful faces here today."

Shabazz provided the keynote address for the annual remembrance, organized by the Greater Burlington Multicultural Resource Center. The one-hour program also included performances by the New Alpha Missionary Children's Choir of Burlington and the Montreal West Gospel Choir. Mayor Miro Weinberger also attended to provide an update on the city's diversity plan and introduce Shabazz.

Shabazz's remarks touched on her experiences growing up with Malcolm X as a father and Dr. Betty Shabazz as a mother, and how she came to see the world as the "daughter of two great leaders."

Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X, is now an educator, social activist and motivational speaker, and she has written several books about her life and her family. She was three years old when her father was assassinated in 1965, she said.

Shabazz encouraged young people to continue speaking out against hatred and injustice, and to seek out solutions to the problems, as did her father and Dr. King. Shabazz said her father was in his 20s when he began traveling the world and speaking to other leaders about human rights and social justice.

"As protesters, this generation of young people expressed discontent and skillfully used social media to organize, galvanize and educate the masses on the important human rights issues," Shabazz said. "What we must understand is just because we've tweeted a social media hashtag, it does not end there. It does not make you an activist, or a social change agent. You must have a well-thought-out plan, a strategy for getting from point A to Z, colleagues to discuss and assign leadership roles to your task at hand."

Compassion, humanity and equality were large parts of the visions of Malcolm X and Dr. King, Shabazz said — ideas which still have not been fully implemented years later. Those behaviors must be taught as children grow, so they might learn to work together and give back to their world, Shabazz said.

"We teach our children to hate, and if we teach our children to hate someone else, then in actuality we're teaching them to hate themselves," Shabazz said.

She later added, "I believe that every child must have the opportunity to be their greatest selves, to conquer all obstacles that stand in their way, to be inspired, motivated, and truly believe they are worthy of quality education, so that each and every one of us is properly prepared and recognizes his or her true value."

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.