Malik Zulu Shabazz

A practicing attorney and a frequent speaker on college campuses, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a J.D. from Howard University Law School. During his undergraduate college years, Shabazz was an aggressive campus organizer. In 1988 he founded Unity Nation, a self-described “black revolutionary” student group.

In the 1990s, Shabazz’s militant temperament caught the eye of Khalid Abdul Muhammad, protégé of Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan. Muhammad, who was the chairman of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) at that time, called the young Shabazz “one of the greatest student leaders of all time.” Before long, Muhammad became Shabazz’s revered mentor who, according to Shabazz, “helped to shape my life and was a captain and minister over me.”

In 1996 Shabazz established Black Lawyers for Justice, a legal-advocacy organization promoting the notion that black inmates have been unjustly railroaded into their prison cells.

In 1997 Shabazz joined the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) and quickly became the organization’s national attorney and spokesman.

In 1998 Shabazz was named “Young Lawyer of the Year” by the National Bar Association. That same year, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Washington, D.C. city council'

Also in 1998, Shabazz co-organized (along with Khalid Abdul Muhammad and Al Sharpton) an NBPP-sponsored “Million Youth March” in Harlem, New York, which drew about 6,000 people and ended in clashes between the attendees and city police. Just prior to that event.

When Khalid Abdul Muhammad died unexpectedly in February 2001, Shabazz was disconsolate. “I was beyond hurt,” said Shabazz. “I was devastated. I was crushed…. He was so strong. He was so beautiful. He was so brilliant.” On another occasion, Shabazz said, in tribute to his late mentor: “I could never thank God enough for a bold, bald-headed black man who taught me what I know, and I come in his spirit today in what seems to be walking in his footsteps…. Uncompromising and fearless – the enemy didn’t like him. But I love him. The minister and doctor Khallid Abdul Muhammad.”

With Muhammad gone, Shabazz took the reins of NBPP and relocated the organization’s headquarters from New York to Washington, D.C. As the head of NBPP, Shabazz traveled to various cities across the United States—among them Cincinnati (Ohio), Louisville (Kentucky), and Decatur (Alabama)—to recruit new members, stirring their passions by letting the people know that police brutality against black Americans was reaching epidemic proportions. In large part as a result of Shabazz’s efforts, NBPP grew rapidly into an organization with 47 separate chapters.