Who was Betty Shabazz?

Betty Shabazz (May 28, 1934 – June 23, 1997), born Betty Dean Sanders and also known as Betty X, was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She was the wife of Malcolm X.

Shabazz grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster parents largely sheltered her from racism. She attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where she had her first encounters with racism. Unhappy with the situation in Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she became a nurse. It was there that she met Malcolm X and, in 1956, joined the Nation of Islam. The couple married in 1958.

Along with her husband, Shabazz left the Nation of Islam in 1964. She witnessed his assassination the following year. Left with the responsibility of raising six daughters as a single mother, Shabazz pursued a higher education, and went to work at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

Following the arrest of her daughter Qubilah for allegedly conspiring to murder Louis Farrakhan, Shabazz took in her young grandson Malcolm. He set a fire in her apartment that caused severe burns to Shabazz. Shabazz died three weeks later as a result of her injuries.

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How Federal Policy Designed the American Suburb..

Redlining: the racist housing policy from the Jim Crow era that still affects us today.

Who was Coretta Scott King?

Coretta Scott King (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, civil rights

1964

leader, and the wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.from 1953 until his death in 1968. Coretta Scott King helped lead the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. King was an active advocate for African-American equality. King met her husband while in college, and their participation escalated until they became central to the movement. In her early life, Coretta was an accomplished singer, and she often incorporated music into her civil rights work.

King played a prominent role in the years after her husband's 1968 assassination when she took on the leadership of the struggle for racial equality herself and became active in the Women's Movement. King founded the King Center and sought to make his birthday a national holiday. King finally succeeded when Ronald Reagan signed legislation which established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. She later broadened her scope to include both opposition to apartheid and advocacy for LGBT rights. King became friends with many politicians before and after Martin Luther King's death, most notably John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy. John F. Kennedy's phone call to her during the 1960 election was what she liked to believe was behind his victory.

In August 2005, King suffered a stroke which paralyzed her right side and left her unable to speak; five months later she died of respiratory failure due to complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral was attended by some 10,000 people, including four of five living US presidents. She was temporarily buried on the grounds of the King Center until being interred next to her husband. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame and was the first African-American to lie in State in the Georgia State Capitol. King has been referred to as "First Lady of the Civil Rights Movement".

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An Asian student society responds to racism with a riveting photo series

Last October the editor in chief of the New York Times, Michael Luo, wrote an open letter after a

woman told him to “go back to China”. He started the hashtag #thisis2016 on social media, inciting Americans of Asian descent across the US to respond by sharing their own experiences of everyday racism.

The Asian student society at the prestigious Bowdoin College in Maine decided to respond with a striking photo series. The students posed one by one, facing the camera, carrying a sign describing the kind of racist phrases they hear on a daily basis. Racism is an everyday occurrence in our country, with clichés and stereotypes being thrown about with little consideration.

This photo series is the occasion to take a look at these backwards societal interactions, and to remind ourselves that even in 2016, the way view each other still needs to evolve.

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