The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad,The first full biography of Elijah Muhammad, the,controversial founding father of the Nation of,Islam and the forbearer to Louis Farrakhan. Product Identifiers. Muhammad died from congestive heart failure at the age of 77 on February 25, 1975, the day before Saviours' Day, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.[1]. He struck a note nowhere near as assertive toward the Klan as Malcolm had hoped. Although details had not been hashed out, it was clear that Elijah Muhammads request for Klan assistance in acquiring a parcel of land had figured somehow in the Klan leaders boast. And he had grown up convinced beyond all arguments that this same Ku Klux Klan had killed his father. Malcolm X is credited with playing a critical role in the evolution of Ali's religious views by steering him towards the Nation of Islam. The Klan saw him as a dangerous threat to white hegemony. He entered Mercy Hospital Jan. 30. "Second, I was 45 years of age and was NOT, according to the law, required to register.". After World War II ended, Mr. Muhammad won his release from prison and returned to Chicago. Otherwise, civil rights integrationists would end Black and white progress, or at least shatter racial tranquility. Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 - February 25, 1975) was an African-American religious leader, who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975. However, in 1982, Cook County Judge Henry Budzinski ruled that the money was given to Elijah Muhammad for his personal use and should be turned over to his children . Still, like Elijah Muhammads request for Klan assistance in land acquisition, the issue was left dangling. Doubling down, Malcolm made it clear that his objection to such collusion with the Klan was as stark and impenetrable as Stone Mountain. By 1934, the Michigan State Board of Education disagreed with the Muslim's right to pursue their own educational agenda, and the Muslim Teachers and Temple Secretary were jailed on the false charge of contributing to the delinquency of minors. I tell you what, Malcolm, Fellows finally said, we can get yall some purple robes., Oh, no, no, no. said Malcolm, unwilling to let the opposing leader slip the leash. Similarly, he was a religious mentor to the likes of Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X. Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole on October 7th, in 1897. Fard, bestowed him with the name Muhammad. His parents were sharecroppersand former slaves. As a white man unaccustomed to Black resistance, and with his Klan cohort cutting their eyes, Fellows maintained the air of a man who had every right to expect compliance. During World War II he advised followers to avoid the draft, as a result of which he was charged with violating the Selective Service Act and was jailed (194246). 2. It is our brother in Detroit and Chicago or New York. It also kept secret whatever covert follow-up action the bureau may have taken against the Klan and the Black Muslims, as well as against civil rights leaders. It was the name the white slave-master of my grandfather after the so-called freedom of my fathers.". There were some good n-----s, he said to the nodding grins of his colleagues. Elijah Muhammad was a prominent American Muslim who advocated black nationalism for African Americans. Thirty-four years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad was born on or about Oct. 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia. Omissions? Staring through the window at the dusty scene, a somewhat paler Malcolm seemed transfixed with mixed emotions. Mr. Kuntsler cited a declassified memo obtained through the Freedom of Information Act that revealed that the U.S. Government played a role in the 1965 assassination of Brother Malcolm X. Canting his head to look around Jeremiahs shoulder, the Witch Hat inquired, Are you that Malcolm X? The reply rang just as determinedly, Yes, sir.. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. his contributions helped the african american race during a time of social struggles that could have been detrimental to its future. After all, the assigned NOI mission was neither to score debating points nor to humiliate the Klansmen by smashing their credo to smithereensas Malcolm forthrightly would have preferred. The gray-haired Fellows, apparently more comfortable now that his buddies were in the room, removed his high hat and repaired with his hosts and associates to the kitchen table, which was spread with sandwiches, cold drinks and cookies from Jeremiahs wife, Elizabeth. He asked Malcolm and Jeremiah directly if the Muslims would reveal where King resided and supply the Klansmen a schedule of his habits and real-time movements when he was in town. After getting expelled from the Muslims three years later, Malcolm would in passing attack the Klan from the podium. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Also, after assuming the leadership of the Temple of Islam by the order of the Founder of the Nation of Islam, Mr. Muhammad faced a death plot at the hands of a few disgruntled members. Elijah Muhammad (born October 7, 1897) is famous for being politician. He left the Nation in 1963 over theological differences with other leaders. Malcolm X was Elijah Muhammad's most prominent apostle. Explains that elijah muhammad was one of the most ethnologically involved and influential critical thinkers of our time. Although more nondescript than the diminutive Fellows, his buddies were no less tight-lipped and hard-eyed. Deeply religious as a boy, he became active in the St. Cyprians Episcopal Church in his Roxbury neighbourhood. Fellows indeed requested that King be tracked so that his group, which had the motive and the means, could kill him. Moreover, America's racial situation continued its downward spiral. Detroit was a bustling upwardly mobile city with its burgeoning auto industry. The son of sharecroppers and former slaves, Muhammad moved to Detroit in 1923 where, around 1930, he became assistant minister to the founder of the sect, Wallace D. Fard, at Temple No. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. He prevented Black Muslims from participating in the country's political process, including any political activity on behalf of a separate state, because, he contended, what was to be achieved by the Nation of Islam was to be achieved divinely, through natural catastrophes and warring among whites on a national and international scale. The group gained more followers due to his renewed efforts in getting more members to join. The Atlanta showplace, with a sweeping marquee that had headlined such movie extravaganzas as Billy Grahams Souls in Conflict, was this night staging a massive anti-integration rally featuring the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Inc., as the nations largest Klan group was officially called. Another group, retaining both the name and the founding principles of Elijah Muhammads original Nation of Islam, was established under the leadership of Louis Farrakhan. In a faceoff with the most murderous white devils in America, the Nations separate state program sounded like a plea rather than the assertion that Malcolm envisioned. Like many of his fellow migrants, Poole found a job in the automobile industry until the Depression forced his family to go on relief for two years. Mr. Muhammad was considered by Black Muslims as the Last Messenger of Allah. Strict adherence to that belief might cause some problems of succession, but it is expected generally that one of his sons will assume the leadership. The Detroit experience was as critical to his later activities as were his modest beginnings. Mr. Fard and Mr. Muhammad were building a Northern urban movement in bad economic times with predominantly Southernborn blacks. He was succeeded by his son Wallace, who led the Nation of Islam to a more Orthodox Islam. After the assassination of Brother Malcolm X, the New York mosque was fire bombed and the Muslim community was reeling. Elijah Muhammad was a religious leader, author, and self proclaimed Messenger of Allah (God) who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his death in 1975. As Malcolm maneuvered for the key role at the Messengers table, Jeremiah X listened quietly. Economic development combined with moral and spiritual renewal began to show signs of progress with the establishment of farms, livestock and vegetable cultivation, rental housing, private home construction and acquisitions, other real estate purchases, food processing centers, restaurants, clothing factories, banking, business league formations, import and export businesses, aviation, health care, administrative offices, shipping on both land, sea and air, and men's and women's development and leadership training units. This stark distinction seemed to puzzle Fellows and the other Klansmen, who nodded quizzically to one another as Malcolm honed more finely the Messengers point. Director J. Edgar Hoover had long targeted both the Klan and the NOI for surveillance, infiltration and disruption. In 1965, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad promoted Minister Louis Farrakhan to the post of National Representative. During his unemployment, Poole met Wallace Fard, the founder of the Nation of Islam who preached a gospel of black Islam and racial supremacy. "We have with us today," the Messenger continued, "our great national preacher. There were rumors that he had even taken on armed guards. Along with nonMuslims, Elijaah Muhammad was arrested in Chicago in 1942 and charged with sedition and violation of the Selective Service Act. Its all the same thing to us, Fellows said finally. AboutPressCopyrightContact. Mohammed reformulated the Nations teachings, rejecting the beliefs that white people were blue-eyed devils and that Elijah Muhammad was a prophet. In the 10 years since Malcolm X's assassination by three said to be Black Muslims, Elijah Muhammad ruled his movement from its Chicago headquarters. The unbridgeable racial chasm could be explained, and the need for the Messengers separate state highlighted, all in a highly publicized, Atlanta extravaganza with the white knightsfeaturing Minister Malcolm X. ", Consequently, Mr. Muhammad, while in Washington, D.C. Was arrested on May 8, 1942, for allegedly evading the draft. Having officially placed Elijah Muhammads pet proposal on the agenda, Malcolm shifted into fervent, personal eloquence on a major point of clarification: We are in favor of complete separation of the racesnot segregation, separation!. In abandoning their pursuit of integration, Malcolm stated, Black folks would need a nest egg so they could strike out on their own with a separate but appropriate share of the wealth they had helped accumulate in America. He has been featured in Ebony Magazine's December 2017 issue and has earned 120,000 followers on Instagram. (A rousing round of applause ensued). Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Give us ours and you have yours. On October 7, 1897, in Sandersville, Georgia, Elijah Muhammad was born into a low-income African-American family that included former slaves. He moved to Detroit in the 1920s, where he met Wali Farad, founder of the movement there. His doctrine included the legend of the tribe of Shabazz, the first black people on Earth who had been tricked out of their power by the evil scientist Yacub, the creator of the white devils. To throw off the yoke of white oppression, Muhammad told blacks, they had to follow Islam. Al Freeman, Jr. played him in the 1992 movie Malcolm X. The F.B.I 's declassification of its files on Muhammad and the cooperation of his sons helped Muhammad's biographer paint a portrait of a man who left his mark on race relations indelibly stamped on the American consciousness. Even before Malcolm X was born, night-riding Klan horsemen terrorized his pregnant mother and her three older children in Omaha, Nebraska. Health issues forced Farrakhan to reduce his role in the Nation of Islam in the early 21st century. We hear him every week, and I say continue to hear our Min. Farrakhan disagreed with Wallace Muhammads attempts to move the Nation to orthodox Sunni Islam and to rid it of Elijah Muhammads radical Black nationalism and separatist teachings, which stressed the inherent wickedness of whites. 773 324 6000, As Salaam Alaikum (Peace be upon you) | 90+ years of service and counting, Nation of Islam | All logos are property of the Nation of Islam. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. By 1964, Minister Malcolm X decided to separate from the Nation of Islam and formed his own religious and political organization. The informants notes disclosed to date no record of the death threat the Klan proposed against King. However, he was quickly arrested again this time he was imprisoned for four years at the Federal Correctional Institution situated in Michigan. In 1934 Master W. Fard Muhammad departed the scene and left the Honorable Elijah Muhammad with the mission of resurrecting the Black man and woman. All Rights Reserved. When Fard left the United States, Elijah Muhammad rose to power. Earlier in his career, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and was appointed National Representative of the Nation of Islam by then NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm X to the post of National Spokesman, and began to syndicate his weekly newspaper column, "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," in Black newspapers across the country. But it was not until 1946, when Muhammad had served his four-year prison sentence for preaching sedition and avoiding the draft during World War II, that he could build the Nation of Islam according to his beliefs. His Teacher, Master W. Fard Muhammad, was also harassed by the police and was forced out of Detroit and moved to Chicago where he continued to face imprisonment and harassment by the police. The Founder of the Nation of Islam gave him the name "Karriem" and made him a minister. Used with permission of the publisher, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. His birth name was Elijah Robert Poole and he was the seventh of thirteen children born to William and Mariah Poole. We want to be totally separated from you. During the 1950s, Mr. Muhammad promoted Min. Although Mr. Muhammad personally enjoyed disasters that befell whites, seeing them as Allah's work, he sought to prevent any public expression of Muslim enjoyment of the event. While in prison he studied the Qurn and the Bible and considered the words of the sentencing judge: The boy is dominated by his father.. At least one of the Klansmen was an FBI informer (a fact likely unknown to the other vigilantes, including Fellows). Where home, school and church had failed many of the followers, Mr. Muhammad had succeeded. Farrakhan to come before the religious community and then the following announcement while digressing from his previously stated remarks: "I want you to remember, today, I have one of my greatest preachers here-what are you hiding behind the sycamore tree for brother? Malcolm X to the post of National Spokesman, and began to syndicate his weekly newspaper column, "Mr. Muhammad Speaks," in Black newspapers across the country. These principles also brought down upon the Nation of Islam scorn from black and white Americans. Louis X first proved himself at Temple No. Forerunning transcendental meditation and other modern popular sects, he saw the need for 20thcentury religions to declare themselves based on science, not faith. Sundays | 10am CST The documentary misrepresents the message of the Nation of Islam, calling it a hate teaching. Growing up, Elijah did not get an adequate education for it ended when he was only in his third grade. 2. This would be the first of many publications he would produce. He was on a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 about the heroin trade, and he was a finalist for the award for international reporting two years later for an 11-part series on South Africa. Indeed, life in the rural South at the turn of the century was quite hard. In this period Elijah Muhammad was arrested for contributing to the delinquency of a minor because he sent his children to the University of Islam instead of to Detroit's public schools. He adopted the name Louis X, before being named Louis Farrakhan. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Alternate titles: W. Deen Mohammed, Wallace D. Muhammad, Warith Deen Muhammad. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a black liberal and a civil rights lawyer in 1959, said then that Mr. Muhammad's organization was run by a bunch of thugs organized from prisons and jails and financed, I am sure, by Nasser [Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt] or some Arab group. Justice Marshall added that followers of Mr. Muhammad were vicious and a threat to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and state law enforcement agencies. He currently resides in GA. Muslim leader who believed in black nationalism for African Americans. He was credited with controlling the Nation of Islam from his prison quarters. Subsequently, television commentator Mike Wallace, in conjunction with Louis Lomax, a Black journalist, aired the documentary, "The Hate That Hate Produced," on a local New York City station. (Occasionally, he spent time in Phoenix, where the climate relieved some of his asthmatic dikomfort.). Youd lahk ta come in, sir? asked Jeremiah, mouthing as much of a drawl as the native Philadelphian could muster. He was a major promoter of independent, black-operated businesses, institutions, and religion. He was serious but witty and verbally creative. The starkness of the request left Malcolm reeling. Muhammads humbling outreach to the murderous Klan had served, finally, to open Malcolms eyes. Fellows, and he was a local Klansman. Media related to Elijah Muhammad at Wikimedia Commons. Disappointed that he was not named Elijahs successor, Farrakhan led a breakaway group in 1978, which he also called the Nation of Islam and which preserved the original teachings of Elijah Muhammad. His teacher had instructed him to go to Washington, D.C. to visit the Library of Congress in order to research 104 books on the religion of Islam, among other subjects. Elijah Muhammad was born on October 7, 1897 in Sandersville, Georgia, USA. New York . A small donation would help us keep this available to all. They had eight children. Under Farrakhans leadership, the Nation was one of the fastest growing of the various Muslim movements in the country. Estimates of the number of marchers, most of whom were men, ranged from 400,000 to nearly 1.1 million, making it, at the time, the largest gathering of its kind in American history. Everywhere he advises you to go, go. Who exactly was this W.S. October 7, Once and for all, a squaring-off with the Klan leader could clarify the Muslim stances on integration, Christianity, mixed marriage, the Jews, miscegenation and even violence. 1897-1975 Elijah Muhammad guided the Nation of Islam from its modest beginnings during the Great Depression, when a handful of African Americans met in a Detroit storefront, to its meteoric rise after World War II. Poole joined the organization in 1931, changed his name to Elijah Muhammad and soon became such a devoted disciple that Fard made him Chief Minister of Islam. We want white robes., Returning to the stalemate over racial segregation versus separation, Malcolm chided the Klansmen that they shouldnt be able to segregate him and give him what they want him to have, instead of what he should have. In later speeches he blamed the U.S. government for what he claimed was a conspiracy to destroy Black people with AIDS and addictive drugs. When Elijah Muhammad died in February 1975, the Nation of Islam fragmented. Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Poole, the son of a Georgia sharecropper. Suddenly, the convoy drivers all revved their engines noisily and sped off in the direction of the patrol car. Although devoted to his father, Mohammed began a spiritual pilgrimage that took him toward orthodox Islam. ISBN-10. God Himself didnt intend for them to get along together as brothers and sisters because we are two distinct people, and therefore, the Muslims want complete, total separation, Malcolm stated. He was the seventh born child to William Poole Sr. His father was a religious leader. [4] In discussing how Martin Luther Coon had excited Southern n-----s to push for integration, Fellows could barely contain his anger, and his companions flashed tight grins. 1897, Sandersville, Georgia, United States of America. Yet, they diddled with Elijah Muhammads division-of-the-wealth proposition like so many day laborers contemplating the breakup, say, of the United Kingdom. We can work together, Fellows said, and put a stop to this integration. The direct offer brought a wicked smile across Malcolms face that he just as quickly wiped away. His place of birth was in Sandersville in Georgia. At the time of the meeting, race relations in America had been rocked by the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which had outlawed school segregation. Everywhere you see him, look at him. Both the Klan and the NOI, Muhammad summarized, opposed integration and race mixing. Farrakhan was appointed head minister of Boston Temple No. Finally, playing his fingers across his lips, Elijah Muhammad calmly instructed a restrained Malcolm and a resigned Jeremiah X: You can meet with them devils., We want what they want, Jeremiah remembered the Messenger stating plainly. Farrakhan also moved his group closer to orthodox Sunni Islam in 2000, when he and Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, the leading American orthodox Muslim, recognized each other as fellow Muslims. But this was not an ambush. Lynchings, race riots and other forms of terrorism against Blacks continued unabated.