All About His Daughters Who Are Continuing His Legacy: Malcolm X's 6 Children

It's been decades since Malcolm X was assassinated, but his legacy has lived on through his six daughters: Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah Lumumba, Malikah and Malaak.

According to Russell J. Rickford's 2003 book Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X, the civil rights activist met Betty Sanders in 1956 when she joined the temple where he served as chief minister. Two years later, Malcolm called her from a gas station to propose, and they were married on Jan. 14, 1958. The couple later adopted the last name Shabazz.

Betty and Malcolm welcomed their first child, Attallah, in 1958. Qubilah was born in 1960, and Ilyasah arrived in 1962. Gamilah, born in 1964, was only an infant when she witnessed her father's assassination on Feb. 21, 1965. At the time of Malcolm's murder, Betty was pregnant with twins Malikah and Malaak, born in September of that year.

Ilyasah told The Harvard Law Record in 2015 that growing up, their mother spoke more of their late father's character than his significance in the civil rights movement.

"Before we understood the icon that is Malcolm X, our mother made sure that we knew him primarily as 'Daddy' or 'Mommy’s husband,' the loving and compassionate man," she said. "It was at school where I learned about him as one of the leaders in the civil rights movement."

So, who are Malcolm X's children? Here's everything to know about his daughters Attallah Shabazz, Qubilah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz, Gamilah Lumumba Shabazz, Malikah Shabazz and Malaak Shabazz.

Malcolm and Betty's first child, Attallah, was born on Nov. 16, 1958, in New York City.

Though Rickford wrote in Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X that Attallah was named after Attila the Hun, she told New York Magazine in 1992 that her name is Arabic for "the gift of God." The eldest Shabazz daughter was only 6 years old when she (along with Betty, Qubilah, Ilyasah and Gamilah) witnessed her father’s assassination at a rally in Harlem.  

“I had — and still have — flashbacks,” she told PEOPLE in 1983. “I would bump into people from the Nation of Islam, and I thought they were going to do the same thing to me.”

According to Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X, Attallah gave birth to a daughter in high school. Betty looked after the child until Attallah graduated and then placed the girl for adoption. 

In 1979, Attallah formed a friendship with Dr. Martin Luther King's eldest daughter, Yolanda King, after they met for an interview with Ebony. When they were both asked to come speak at schools, the then-aspiring actresses decided to create a play instead. Eventually, they formed a theater troupe called Nucleus and, according to a 1989 interview with Rolling Stone, worked together for a decade, performing in 50 cities a year.

Attallah has spoken fondly of Malcolm as a father, saying she had no awareness of who he was outside of being her dad.

"It was wholesome, it was quaint," she told Rolling Stone of her childhood. "As grand a nationalist as Malcolm X was, he was an even grander parent. He was big fun."

The family welcomed their second daughter, Qubilah, on Dec. 25, 1960.

Malcolm named her after a 13th-century emperor named Kubla Khan. When the family home was attacked with firebombs on Feb. 14, 1965, she was the first to wake up and alert her parents. She was only 4 years old at the time of that incident and her father's death.

After graduating from high school in Manhattan, Qubilah attended Princeton University for two semesters before dropping out and moving to Paris. There, she worked as a translator and had a son, who she named Malcolm Shabazz after her father. When her relationship in Paris ended, she and her son Malcolm moved to Los Angeles.

In 1995, Qubilah was arrested for conspiring to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who she and Betty believed was behind her father's assassination. But, according to HISTORY, the former high school classmate she contacted for help turned out to be an FBI informant. Qubilah accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to complete a two-year drug and psychiatric program, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After getting into multiple disagreements, Qubilah sent her son -

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to live with Betty in Yonkers, N.Y. On June 23, 1997, the 12-year-old started a fire in Betty's home that left her with third-degree burns on more than 80% of her body, per CNN. She died from her injuries three weeks later, and Malcolm was sent to juvenile detention for 18 months for arson and manslaughter. In 2013, he was murdered in Mexico City.

On July 22, 1962, Betty and Malcolm welcomed their third daughter, Ilyasah, whom they named after Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

She was 2 years old when her father was killed. She told CNN in 2002 that she had no recollection of the event. 

Ilyasah attended the State University of New York's New Paltz campus after high school, where she earned her bachelor's degree in biology, according to her LinkedIn profile. She later earned her master's in education and human resource development at Fordham University.

In addition to her work as a professor and educator, Ilyasah has also written multiple books about her father's legacy. Her memoir Growing Up X was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2003, and her young adult novel about her father's childhood, X, won an NAACP Award for outstanding literary work in 2016, per Essence.

In a 2020 interview, she told Essence that she hopes continuing to share her father's message will help the world see who he really was.

“People used to say, Malcolm — he was angry, he was violent,” she said. “Now we’re able to see he simply had a profound reaction to injustice.”

Malcolm and Betty's fourth daughter, Gamilah Lumumba, was born on July 1, 1964.

According to Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X, Malcolm named her after Patrice Lumumba, a Congolese leader who was assassinated a few years earlier.

Though she majored in theater arts in college and attempted a rap career, Gamilah has remained largely out of the spotlight. In 2018, The New Yorker reported that she and her five sisters had launched a clothing line called Malcolm X Legacy to rebrand their father's message because they felt it was misappropriated in the years he was alive.

Gamilah said in Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X that although she grew up not knowing him, she still felt his spirit.

"He was there," she said. "Society, especially this culture, has given you this impression that you're supposed to see a ghost. But you can feel something guiding you. And if you ask any of my sisters, they'll tell you. It wasn't just that Mom talked about him. His presence was there."

On Sept. 30, 1965 — seven months after their father was assassinated — Malikah and her twin sister, Malaak, were born.

Betty named both daughters in honor of Malcolm's Arabic name, Malik.

After high school, Malikah studied architecture and created a mentorship organization for African students. In January 1998, a year after her mother died, she gave birth to a daughter named Bettih Bahiyah.

Malikah was found dead in her Brooklyn apartment on Nov. 23, 2021. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told the New York Post that foul play was not suspected and that she had been "ill for a period of time." She was 56.

According to Betty Shabazz: Surviving Malcolm X, Malikah was born first on Sept. 30, 1965, and Malaak was born second, making her the baby of the family. Even though Malcolm died before the twins were born, Betty made sure they knew who their father was.

"One day one of the twins had a little friend over who said something about her father," Betty wrote in a 1969 essay for Ebony. "Suddenly I noticed Malaak pulling her friend into the living room where she pointed to the large painting hanging there, letting her friend know that this was her father. I felt kind of misty behind that."

Malaak studied biochemistry after high school, and she occasionally speaks about her father's legacy.

"Frankly, I don’t think things would be this bad if he was still alive," she told FRANCE 24 in 2015. ”He was an advocate in every country ... I think today, he would be the Mandela, be the Kofi Annan, who they called on. There’s really nobody to do that. But it was his passion to make sure injustice was heard."

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