Minister Malik Shabazz, the longtime Detroit activist and civil rights leader who has spent decades confronting injustice and advocating for his community, said from his hospital bed that he is “facing death” from an incurable bacterial infection.
Shabazz, the founder of the New Black Panther Nation/Marcus Garvey Movement, is being treated at Henry Ford Hospital, where doctors recently told him there is nothing more they can do. He said he will soon be discharged for home care.
“For a while things were looking great, then bad news,” the 62-year-old said in a statement shared Friday. “I am facing death, a devastating stroke or heart attack because my body cannot handle blood thinners due to an incurable bacterial infection.”
Shabazz said he is experiencing “bleeding and extreme discomfort” but remains grateful to those who have prayed for him through years of serious health problems.
“Our prayers, all of our prayers and efforts of doctors enabled me to survive to this point,” he said. “Continue to pray. Prayer works.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan plans to visit Shabazz on Friday at Henry Ford Hospital. The two men have known each other since Duggan served as Wayne County prosecutor in the early 2000s, and Shabazz has been among the mayor’s staunchest allies during his three terms in office.
Shabazz’s family said he will continue receiving care at home, where relatives are being trained to administer medication and help with therapy. They expressed gratitude to the hospital staff and the community for their continued support.
The activist has been hospitalized several times since suffering a massive heart attack in June 2023. He was revived multiple times, spent weeks on a respirator, and later received a permanent heart pump implant. After months in rehabilitation, Shabazz told Metro Times in October 2023 that he was determined to return to activism.
“I’m in the biggest battle of my life,” Shabazz said at the time. “I was truly dead. God brought me back. The ancestors brought me back to continue this great work.”
For decades, Shabazz has been a visible and often fearless presence in Detroit. He has confronted drug dealers and predatory landlords, led searches for missing people, and organized countless rallies for justice.
He gained prominence in the 1990s and 2000s as one of Detroit’s most outspoken community activists, known for fighting injustice wherever it struck, from police shootings and neighborhood blight to corruption at City Hall.
As his health declines, Shabazz asked for continued prayers and support. He said doctors have revived him three times before.
“My family is being trained to monitor the administration of medications with a physical therapist that will work with me so that I might function with some degree of normalcy,” he said. “Yes, I am sick. Again, I am facing death as surely as I did three times before when I literally died and was revived.”