"I hope this means that individuals have changed and grown. My father spent his whole life fighting for people to become whole. This is a tribute to his life and an honor," said Attallah Shabazz about the new 33-cent stamp featuring her father, Malcolm X.
Shabazz added that the release of the stamp by the U.S. Postal Service on Jan. 20 represents a significant change in attitudes toward the slain black leader.Shabazz was 6 when she saw her father fatally shot Feb. 21, 1965, while giving a speech in New York City. His daughter admitted she never thought the stamp honoring him would come to pass.
"This doesn't mean the world has embraced Malcolm or his philosophy," Shabazz pointed out. "It simply means that his philosophy has not been disregarded."
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in 1925. In the early 1960s, he disavowed his previous separatist preaching and supported a more integrationist approach to racial problems.
Monica Hand, a Postal Service spokeswoman, said 100 million stamps featuring a 1964 photo of Malcolm X will be printed as part of the Black Heritage series, which began in 1978. -- Syd Kronish