By Shae Peters, The Online Current, Eckerd College
Attallah Shabazz, daughter of human rights activist Malcolm X, will speak at Eckerd on Feb. 27 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in Fox Hall. Invited by the Unity Center, she will speak about the importance of diversity and human rights as a part of the EC Classic CPS Speaker Series.
Director of Equal Access and Campus Community Ann Sherman-White ’06, who also directs the Unity Center, reached out to Shabazz’s entertainment agency, American Program Bureau to begin working on bringing Shabazz to Eckerd to speak.
Sherman-White revealed she had recently learned her uncle, a civil rights advocate, had been close colleagues with Malcolm X.
“My uncle actually wrote a book about Malcolm…He was his right-hand man after Malcolm had left the Nation of Islam,” stated Sherman-White.
This motivated Sherman-White to reach out to family members to connect with Malcom X’s daughters. Sherman-White also shared what can be learned from this experience of having Shabazz speak to students at Eckerd at this point in time.
“Our community, both Eckerd and beyond, is in a potentially transitional period in time. So when we have found ourselves in that same transitional realm we needed someone to motivate, articulate and show us how to step out of this,” Sherman-White said.
Sherman-White also explained how Shabazz is the ideal candidate for this type of motivational speaking in relation to diversity and community.
“Her talk can be applied no matter what your ideology is or what side of the aisle you are on. There is a certain strength and precision that has to come with navigating adversity. She had to navigate a space without her dad and eventually without her mom,” stated Sherman-White.
