1934

Amiri Baraka, also called Imamu Amiri Baraka, original name (until 1968) (Everett) LeRoi Jones     (b. October 7, 1934, Newark, New Jersey — d. January 9, 2014, Newark, New Jersey), was an African American writer who presented the experiences and anger of black Americans with an affirmation of black life.

Jones graduated from Howard University (B.A., 1953) and served in the U.S. Air Force. After military duty, he joined the Beat movement, attended graduate school, and published his first major collection of poetry, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, in 1961. In 1964, his play Dutchman appeared off-Broadway to critical acclaim. In its depiction of an encounter between a white woman and a black intellectual, it exposes the suppressed anger and hostility of American blacks toward the dominant white culture. After the assassination of Malcolm X, Jones took the name Amiri Baraka and began to espouse black nationalism.

In 1965, Baraka founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre in Harlem. He published much during this period, including Black Art (1966) and Black Magic (1969). In addition to poetry and drama, Baraka wrote several collections of essays, an autobiographical novel (The System of Dante’s Hell [1965]), and short stories. In the mid-1970s he became a Marxist, though his goals remained similar. “I [still] see art as a weapon and a weapon of revolution,” he said. “It’s just now that I define revolution in Marxist terms.” In addition to writing,  Baraka taught at several American universities. The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka was published in 1984.

The works of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka include:

Poetry

• 1961: Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
• 1964: The Dead Lecturer: Poems
• 1969: Black Magic
• 1970: It's Nation Time
• 1970: Slave Ship
• 1975: Hard Facts
• 1980: New Music, New Poetry (India Navigation)
• 1995: Transbluesency: The Selected Poems of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones
• 1995: Wise, Why’s Y’s
• 1996: Funk Lore: New Poems
• 2003: Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems
• 2005: The Book of Monk

Drama

• 1964: Dutchman
• 1964: The Slave
• 1967: The Baptism and The Toilet
• 1966: A Black Mass
• 1969: Four Black Revolutionary Plays
• 1978: The Motion of History and Other Plays

Fiction

• 1965: The System of Dante's Hell
• 1967: Tales
• 2006: Tales of the Out & the Gone

Non-fiction

• 1963: Blues People: Negro Music in White America
• 1965: Home: Social Essays
• 1968: Black Music
• 1971: Raise Race Rays Raize: Essays Since 1965
• 1979: Poetry for the Advanced
• 1981: reggae or not!
• 1984: Daggers and Javelins: Essays 1974–1979
• 1984: The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
• 1987: The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues
• 2003: The Essence of Reparations

Edited works

• 1968: Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (co-editor, with Larry Neal)
• 1969: Four Black Revolutionary Plays
• 1983: Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women (edited with Amina Baraka)
• 1999: The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
• 2000: The Fiction of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka
• 2008: Billy Harper: Blueprints of Jazz, Volume 2 (Audio CD)

Filmography

• One P.M. (1972)
• Fried Shoes Cooked Diamonds (1978) .... Himself
• Black Theatre: The Making of a Movement (1978) .... Himself
• Poetry in Motion (1982)
• Furious Flower: A Video Anthology of African American Poetry 1960–95, Volume II: Warriors (1998) .... Himself
• Through Many Dangers: The Story of Gospel Music (1996)
• Bulworth (1998) .... Rastaman
• Pinero (2001) .... Himself
• Strange Fruit (2002) .... Himself
• Ralph Ellison: An American Journey (2002) .... Himself
• Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (2004) .... Himself
• Keeping Time: The Life, Music & Photography of Milt Hinton (2004) .... Himself
• Hubert Selby Jr : It'll Be Better Tomorrow (2005) .... Himself
• 500 Years Later (2005) (voice) .... Himself
• The Ballad of Greenwich Village (2005) .... Himself
• The Pact (2006) .... Himself
• Retour à Gorée (2007) .... Himself
• Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place (2007)
• Revolution '67 (2007) .... Himself
• Turn Me On (2007) (TV) .... Himself
• Oscene (2007) .... Himself
• Corso: The Last Beat (2008)
• The Black Candle (2008)
• Ferlinghetti: A City Light (2008) .... Himself
• W.A.R. Stories: Walter Anthony Rodney (2009) .... Himself
• Motherland (2010)

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Shabazz, Betty 

Betty Shabazz (b. Betty Dean Sanders, May 28, 1934, Pinehurst, Georgia – d. June 23, 1997, New York City, New York), also known as Betty X, was an American educator and civil rights advocate. She was married to Malcolm X. 

Shabazz was born in Pinehurst, Georgia, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where her foster parents largely sheltered her from racism.  She attended the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama,  where she had her first encounters with racism. Unhappy with the situation in Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she became a nurse. It was there that she met Malcolm X and, in 1956, joined the Nation of Islam. The couple married in 1958.

Along with her husband, Shabazz left the Nation of Islam in 1964. She witnessed his assassination the following year. Left with the responsibility of raising six daughters as a widow, Shabazz pursued higher education, and went to work at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York.

Following the 1995 arrest of her daughter Qubilah for allegedly conspiring to murder Louis Farrakhan, Shabazz took in her ten-year-old grandson Malcolm. In 1997, her grandson, Malcolm, set fire to her apartment. Shabazz suffered severe burns and died three weeks later as a result of her injuries.