Betty Shabazz is an American educator and activist who is the widowed wife of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X). In 1976 Shabazz began working at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, first as a professor, then as the director of its department of communications and public relations. She also lectured occasionally, addressing such topics as civil rights and racial tolerance. Shabazz died in 1997 from severe burns suffered in a fire set by her 12-year-old grandson.