By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large<\/p>\n
Malcolm X would have been 101 years old on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026.
The Brooklyn-based December 12th Movement is once again organizing the annual Harlem 125th Street tradition of a \u2018Moment of Commercial Silence,\u2019 closing down all the stores in honor of \u201cOur Black Shining Prince\u201d Malcolm X.<\/p>\n
Attorney Roger Wareham told Our Time Press, \u201cThis May 19th will be the 36th year that the December 12th Movement has led the community in a tribute to Malcolm X by having businesses across 125th Street close for three hours. This annual \u2018moment of commercial silence\u2019 is a unique and historic homage to one of Black people\u2019s greatest heroes on the day of his birth. It reflects the power of and sets an example for what an organized Black community can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commemorative events will also include two celebratory events at the Audubon Ballroom \u2013 now The Shabazz Center (The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center), and the annual pilgrimage to Malcolm\u2019s grave, where he is interred with his wife in Ferncliff Cemetery, Ardsley.<\/p>\n
El Hajj Malik El Shabazz \u2013 Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, during a speech in the Audubon Ballroom. After organized pressure by grassroots activists, the building was landmarked as Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center \u2013 also known as The Shabazz Center.<\/p>\n
Last summer, celebrating the icon\u2019s 100th birthday, the 110th Street subway stop in Harlem was renamed Malcolm X Plaza.
There will also be another rally for the ongoing quest to rename the Bed Stuy-Utica Avenue subway station. Organizer and Our Time Press writer, Kazembe Batts told Our Time Press that activists will be on the corner of Fulton Street and Malcolm X Blvd., in Bed Stuy, on Tuesday, May 19th at 5pm, to honor \u201cMalcolm\u2019s 101st birthday\u2026in a simultaneously celebratory and serious activation, community members, activists, and poets will share thoughts about \u2018Our Black Shining Prince.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Batts encouraged, \u201cAll elected officials for the area are invited to update us on what they have done and how they can help get the Utica Avenue A-train subway station to be renamed to Malcolm X Blvd., and to build a complementary plaza above ground.\u201d
Senator Zellnor Myrie told Our Time Press, \u201cMalcolm X had a profound and lasting influence on Black history and New York history. It is only fitting that we honor his legacy by renaming the subway station located at the first NYC street named in tribute to him. I look forward to working with my colleagues to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assemblywoman Stefani Zinerman\u2019s bill has passed in the Assembly, she told Our Time Press, \u201cPreserving the history and culture of Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights is central to my mission as Assemblymember for the 56th District. Last year, we advanced legislation to rename the Utica Avenue train station Malcolm X Boulevard\u2013Utica Avenue, and this year, as we mark the 101st anniversary of Malcolm X\u2019s birth, we have renewed our efforts and once again passed the bill in the Assembly. <\/p>\n
We are determined to see this recognition finalized by the May 19 event. Aligning the name of the train station with the surrounding streets is more than symbolic; it creates an opportunity to drive economic development along the commercial corridor, bring vital cultural programming to the open plaza, and honor the pride, power, and purpose Malcolm X brought to Brooklyn and to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malaak Shabazz told Our Time Press, \u201cWe should have the subway station renamed after my father, Malcolm X, especially as Brooklyn is home to many people from the Caribbean Diaspora, and my father was Grenadian-American. My grandmother, my father\u2019s mother [Louise Langdon Norton Little], was from Grenada. But, given that he is a human rights activist, there should be one in every borough.<\/p>\n
My mother worked at Medgar Evers for 20 years and worked so hard to remind people who he was and the importance of his role in promoting the African Diaspora and the Caribbean Diaspora. She worked in Harlem with Ed Koch, even with opposition, to get Lenox Avenue renamed Malcolm X. Blvd.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was in 1987. Also facing some opposition, Reid Avenue in Brooklyn was renamed Malcolm X Boulevard in 1985.
\u201cShe was committed to Brooklyn, and I am sure if she were still alive, she would be absolutely, 100 % for it. She was totally Brooklyn. Her heart was in Brooklyn. She could have taught anywhere, and she chose Medgar Evers College in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. She was an Assistant Professor of health sciences, and worked there for 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another special connection\u2013all six Shabazz daughters were delivered in Brooklyn by Dr. Josephine English, the first Black woman to open a private obstetrical practice in New York, and she founded the Adelphi Medical Center in Fort Greene in 1979.
Although born in Nebraska, Malcolm Little grew up in New York.<\/p>\n
After he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, husband to Dr. Betty Shabazz, and father to Attallah, Qubilah, Ilyasah, Gamilah, Malaak, and Malikah, grew internationally as a civil and human rights advocate till the day he was gunned down in 1965, aged 39.
\u201cMalcolm and his ever-insistent call for a United Front is as relevant as ever,\u201d Zayid Muhammad, chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, told Our Time Press. \u201cWhether we are talking about police brutality and fascism here or oil addicted imperial wars abroad, the clarion call for a radical United Front, rooted in principled, unapologetic solidarity, is the order of the day! X as in Malcolm is the Answer.\u201d
On Monday, May 18th, 2026, at The Shabazz Center, Betty and Malcolm\u2019s daughter, Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, will be hosting a 7pm book signing for her latest tome, \u2018Malcolm In The Desert: Wisdom From the Spiritual Transformation of Malcolm X.\u2019<\/p>\n
For weeks, December 12th Movement (D12) chairman Omowale Clay and members visited 125th Street to remind the stores about the annual 3-hour shutdown in honor of Malcolm X\u2019s birthday. The odd holdouts out of the dozens, upon dozens of stores, experience instant storefront rallies, where marchers shout chants such as, \u201cNo Respect for Malcolm X.\u201d<\/p>\n
Activist attorney Wareham concluded, \u201cMalcolm stood for Black people\u2019s rights to self- determination, self-defense, and Black Power. His teachings are as valuable today as they were 60 years ago. We invite the community to join us to honor \u2018Our Black Shining Prince,\u2019 and demonstrate the unity we need to survive in these perilous times.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, May 19th, there will be a caravan of cars and coaches for the pilgrimage to Malcolm X\u2019s gravesite in Ardsley, gathering at the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building on 125th Street, leaving at 9 am.
On the same day, at the same location, at 12 noon, begins the D12 \u2018Commercial Moment of Silence and Black Power Walk.\u2019<\/p>\n
That evening at 7 pm, the Shabazz sisters will host their annual tribute to Malcolm X at The Shabazz Center.
For more information, contact info@theShabazzCenter.org<\/a>, or phone: (332) 345-9620
For the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee bus text 973 202 0745 or 917 346 8142.
For more information about the Brooklyn rally contact bkmalcolmx100@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nayaba ArindeEditor-at-Large Malcolm X would have been 101 years old on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026.The Brooklyn-based December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-226276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}