Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center

Memorial in Manhattan, New York

40°50′21″N 73°56′26″W / 40.83917°N 73.94056°W / 40.83917; -73.94056

The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, also called the Shabazz Center, is a memorial to Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz located at 3940 Broadway and West 165th Street in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The building which once housed the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965. It opened on May 19, 2005, the 80th anniversary of Malcolm X's birth.

The center is home to documents related to Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. The center is decorated with a 63-foot (19-meter) mural depicting the life of Malcolm X and a life-size bronze statue of the human rights activist. It includes six interactive kiosks that provide information about the lives of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz. The kiosks were developed by Columbia University's Digital Knowledge Ventures and Professor Manning Marable of the university's African American Studies department.

History

The Audubon Ballroom had fallen into disrepair after the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, and by the mid-1970s it had become the property of New York City. In the early 1980s, Columbia University proposed the construction of a modern biotechnology center on the site, a plan that later grew to include a research park. After community protests and legal attempts by preservationists to save the building, Columbia sought Betty Shabazz's approval for the project. She appealed for the preservation of the ballroom where her husband had been shot, and a compromise was worked out which allowed the building of the biotechnology center, but also preserved and restored the facade of the Audubon Ballroom building, which would be developed into a museum.

After a decade of wrangling between the university, the city, and historic preservation organizations, the Audubon Business and Technology Center was completed. Betty Shabazz oversaw the development of the Malcolm X Educational Foundation, which she hoped would host international conferences and educate the public about human rights. Plans for the site briefly stalled after Shabazz's death in 1997, but the scope of the center was expanded and it eventually was completed although it struggled in its early years.

The daughters of Malcolm and Betty Shabazz continue the family's advocacy work through the museum.

References

^ Kilgannon, Corey (February 21, 2005). "Remembering Malcolm X in the Place Where He Fell". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
^ "Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Launches". Columbia University. May 17, 2005. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
"Malcolm X Remembered on 40th Anniversary of His Death; Memorial Center Planned". Jet. March 14, 2005. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
Rickford, Russell J. (2003). Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks. p. 528. ISBN 1-4022-0171-0.
^ Stephen, Curtis (July–August 2005). "Renovated Audubon Ballroom Honors Legacy of Malcolm X". The Crisis. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
Ajamu, Amadi (2023-02-23). "Re-establishing history: the fight to save the Audubon Ballroom". Retrieved 2023-02-24.
^ "Audubon Ballroom". New York Preservation Archive Project. 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2016.
Rickford, Betty Shabazz, pp. 428–430.
Rickford, Betty Shabazz, pp. 527–529.
Mooney, Jake (2008-04-11). "Staging a Play Where Malcolm X Died". Retrieved 2023-02-24.
"Our History". The Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. Retrieved May 8, 2010.
Richardson, Clem (August 23, 2010). "Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Continues to Define Itself". Daily News. Archived from the original on 2015-11-21.
Wills, Cheryl (2015-02-20). "Site of Malcolm X's Murder Now a Memorial and Education Center in Memory of Him and His Wife". NY1. Retrieved 2023-02-24.

External links

Official website

Washington Heights

Manhattan, New York City

Green spaces
Fort Tryon Park Fort Washington Park Inspiration Point Gorman Park Highbridge Park J. Hood Wright Park McKenna Square Plaza Lafayette

Religion

Current

Former

Culture

Current	Audubon Terrace Hispanic Society of America The Cloisters United Palace
Former	181st Street Ice Palace Boxers NYC Washington Heights Coliseum Theatre Coogan's Fort George Amusement Park Hilltop Park

Buildings and structures

Current	555 Edgecombe Avenue Bridge Apartments Castle Village Duke Ellington House Fort Washington Avenue Armory Hudson View Gardens Morris–Jumel Mansion
Former	Fort George Fort Washington Highbridge Reservoir Paterno Castle

Health
Columbia University Irving Medical Center Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research Columbia University School of Nursing Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital Sloane Hospital for Women Incarnation Children's Center Wadsworth Hospital

Education

Current	George Washington Educational Campus Gregorio Luperón High School for Math & Science Incarnation School Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch Yeshiva University
Former	Mother Cabrini High School

Transportation

Subway stations	155th Street/St. Nicholas 157th Street 163rd Street–Amsterdam Avenue 168th Street 175th Street 181st Street/St. Nicholas 181st Street/Fort Washington 190th Street 191st Street
Streets and roads	178th–179th Street Tunnels Amsterdam Avenue Audubon Avenue Broadway (Manhattan) Cabrini Boulevard Fort Washington Avenue Plaza Lafayette St. Nicholas Avenue
Other	George Washington Bridge Bus Station

Related topics
Audubon Park Hudson Heights Jumel Terrace

Malcolm X

Family

Louise Little (mother)
Betty Shabazz (wife)
Attallah Shabazz (daughter)
Qubilah Shabazz (daughter)
Ilyasah Shabazz (daughter)
Malcolm Shabazz (grandson)

Organizations

Assassination

Places

Media

Books and
speeches

Authored	"Message to the Grass Roots" (1963) "The Ballot or the Bullet" (1964) The Diary of Malcolm X (1964) The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
About	Growing Up X (2002) Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention (2011) A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable's Malcolm X (2012) The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (2020)

Docu films
and series

v t e Museums in Manhattan
Financial District and Battery Park (Below Chambers St)	Castle Clinton China Institute Federal Hall National Memorial Fraunces Tavern George Gustav Heye Center Mercer Labs Museum of Art and Technology Mmuseumm Museum of American Finance Museum of Jewish Heritage National September 11 Memorial & Museum New York City Police Museum Skyscraper Museum South Street Seaport
Lower Manhattan (Chambers-14th Sts)	Asian American Arts Centre Drawing Center Eldridge Street Synagogue FusionArts Museums Hall des Lumieres International Center of Photography Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art Lower East Side Tenement Museum Merchant's House Museum Museum of Chinese in America New Museum New York City Fire Museum The Theatre Museum Ukrainian Museum Whitney Museum of American Art
Chelsea, Flatiron, Gramercy (14th-34th Sts)	Center for Jewish History Dia Chelsea Fotografiska New York John J. Harvey The Museum at FIT Museum of Sex National Museum of Mathematics Print Center New York Poster House Rubin Museum of Art The Shed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace Tibet House
Midtown (34th-59th Sts)	Houdini Museum of New York Intrepid Museum Japan Society John M. Mossman Lock Museum Madame Tussauds New York Morgan Library & Museum Museum of Arts and Design Museum of Broadway Museum of Modern Art New York Public Library Main Branch New York Transit Museum Paley Center for Media Scandinavia House United Nations Art Collection
Upper West Side (59th-125th Sts west of 5th Av)	American Folk Art Museum American Museum of Natural History Rose Center for Earth and Space Carnegie Hall (Rose Museum) Children's Museum of Manhattan New York Historical New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Nicholas Roerich Museum
Upper East Side and East Harlem (59th-125th Sts on or near 5th Av)	The Africa Center Asia Society Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum El Museo del Barrio Frick Collection Frick Madison Gracie Mansion Grolier Club Guggenheim Museum Jewish Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art Mount Vernon Hotel Museum Museum of Motherhood Museum of the City of New York National Academy Museum and School Neue Galerie New York
Upper Manhattan (Above 125th St)	American Academy of Arts and Letters The Cloisters Dyckman House Hamilton Grange National Memorial Hispanic Society of America Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center Morris–Jumel Mansion National Jazz Museum in Harlem National Track and Field Hall of Fame Yeshiva University Museum Studio Museum in Harlem
Islands	Ellis Island Statue of Liberty Statue of Liberty Museum
Defunct	Chelsea Art Museum Dahesh Museum of Art Forbes Galleries Girl Scout Museum and Archives KGB Espionage Museum Met Breuer Museum of Biblical Art Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art Museum of Primitive Art Rock&Roll Hall of Fame: NYC
Related	Museum Mile

Structures on Broadway in Manhattan and the Bronx

Buildings (The Battery – Houston Street)

Buildings (Houston Street – Times Square)
611 (Cable) 640 721 (Tisch School) 770 800 (Grace Church) 828 (Strand Bookstore) 889 (Gorham) 900 (Goelet) 935–939 Flatiron Building Madison Green 1181 (Baudouine) 1200 (Gilsey) 1232 (Grand Hotel) 1260 (Martinique Hotel) 1300 (Hotel McAlpin) 1313 Macy's 1328 (Marbridge) 1352 (Greenwich Savings Bank) Holy Innocents Church Times Square Tower 1466 (Knickerbocker Hotel)

Buildings (Times Square – Columbus Circle)

Buildings (Columbus Circle – The Bronx)

Parks and plazas
Bowling Green Zuccotti Park City Hall Park Union Square Madison Square Greeley Square Herald Square Times Square Columbus Circle Verdi Square Van Cortlandt Park

Subway stations

Former

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