Just as they fought to overcome the hate directed at their fathers, several daughters of civil rights leaders pledged to fight for the daughter of Malcolm X charged with conspiring to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
The daughters of Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson, Medgar Evers and Andrew Young gazed reverently Wednesday at Qubilah Shabazz's mother, Betty Shabazz, who sat with her head held high, a tear running down her cheek."We are indeed one in the spirit," said the Rev. Bernice King of Atlanta.
King said her father and Malcolm X may have had some differences but shared "a passion for the liberation of black people."
King and the other women had kind words for Betty Shabazz, who raised six daughters alone after she and four of the children - including Qubilah - witnessed her husband's assassination in 1965.
"I know what it's like to grow up with just a picture of your father," said airline manager Rena Evers of San Francisco. "The loneliness, the crying . . . that pain you suffered for the liberation of our people."
King noted she was 5 when she lost her father; Qubilah Shabazz was 41/2 when she lost hers. The children were brought up "not to hate but to love those responsible for our fathers' deaths," King said.
Evers agreed: "Our families overcame the diseases of hate and unforgiveness."
Quibilah Shabazz, 34, was not at the meeting. She has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of hiring a hit man to kill Farrakhan. Betty Shabazz said last year she thought Farrakhan was involved in Malcolm X's killing; Farrakhan denies it.
Jewell Jackson McCabe, chairman of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, announced the formation of a defense fund. She said although Shabazz's lawyers are working for free, money is needed to investigate the case and fly experts and witnesses to Minnesota.
Singer-activist Santita Jackson of Washington, D.C., declared a "profound and unshakeable belief" in the character of the entire Shabazz family.