Betty Shabazz was a prominent social activist, health professional, and educator. Betty Shabazz (born Betty Dean Sanders, later on known as Betty X) was raised in Detroit, Michigan by adoptive parents and attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. After two years in Alabama, Betty moved to New York to begin nursing school at Brooklyn State Hospital. It was during her time as a student there that Betty Shabazz met Malcolm X, the dynamic civil rights leader and Nation of Islam member. They married in 1958, two years after meeting. In 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated while giving a speech in Harlem, New York, leaving Betty to raise their six daughters on her own. Soon after her husband’s death Betty, returned to school and earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1975. She then began working as an administrator at Medgar Evers College, eventually overseeing the college’s Office of Institutional Advancement and Public Relations. In addition to her work, Betty traveled extensively, speaking on racial equality and civil rights. During the 1970s and 1980s, Shabazz continued her volunteer activities. In 1975, President Ford invited her to serve on the American Revolution Bicentennial Council. Shabazz served on an advisory committee on family planning for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 1984, she hosted the New York convention of the National Council of Negro Women. Shabazz became active in the NAACP and the National Urban League. When Nelson and Winnie Mandela visited Harlem during 1990, Shabazz was asked to introduce Winnie Mandela. Betty died in 1997 three weeks after suffering from third degree burns from a house fire set by her grandson, Malcolm. More than 2,000 people attended her memorial service.