
human304
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Long before he met and married his Black Muslim wife, Betty Shabazz, the first great love of Malcolm X’s life was a white woman, a tango-dancing blonde, whom Malcolm named ‘Sophia’ in his Autobiography but whose real name was Beatrice Caragulian Bazarian also known as ‘Bea’ or perhaps even ‘Betty.’
The photo above depicts Bazarian as she appeared in the 1940 Watertown High School yearbook when she would have been around seventeen years of age.

Bea’s ballroom exploits with Malcolm may have inspired her pursuit of a career as a professional tango dancer with her late White husband, Mehran Martin Bazarian, to whom she was married for 55 years and who passed away in 1999.
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