Elijah Muhammad | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Elijah Muhammad in 1964 | |
| Leader of theNation of Islam | |
| In office 1933–1975 | |
| Preceded by | Wallace Fard Muhammad[1] |
| Succeeded by | Warith Deen Mohammed |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Elijah Robert Poole (1897-10-07)October 7, 1897 Sandersville, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | February 25, 1975(1975-02-25) (aged 77) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | at least 23 (8 with his wife, 15 with other women), includingJabir,Warith, andAkbar |
| Occupation | Leader of theNation of Islam |
Elijah Muhammad (bornElijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an American religious leader,black separatist, and self-proclaimedMessenger ofAllah who led theNation of Islam (NOI) from 1933 until his death in 1975.[1][2][3] Muhammad was also the teacher and mentor ofMalcolm X,Louis Farrakhan,Muhammad Ali, and his son,Warith Deen Mohammed.
In the 1930s, Muhammad formally established the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that originated under the leadership and teachings ofWallace Fard Muhammad and that promotedblack power,pride, economicempowerment, and racial separation. Muhammad taught that Master Fard Muhammad is the 'Son of Man' of the Bible, and after Fard's disappearance in 1934, Muhammad assumed control over Fard's former ministry, formally changing its name to the "Nation of Islam".
Under Muhammad's leadership, the Nation of Islam grew from a small, local black congregation into an influential nationwide movement. He was unique in his combination ofblack nationalism with traditionalIslamic themes. Muhammad promoted black self-sufficiency and self-reliance over integration, and he encouragedAfrican Americans to create a separate state of their own. Muhammad also rejected thecivil rights movement for its emphasis on integration, instead promoting a separate black community.
Muhammad's views on race and his call for black people having an independent nation for themselves made him a controversial figure, both within and outside the Nation of Islam. He has been variously described as a black nationalist and ablack supremacist. He is also known to have engaged in multiple instances of adultery.[4][5][6]
Muhammad died on February 25, 1975, after a period of declining health. He was succeeded as head of the Nation of Islam by his son,Wallace Muhammad.
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Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole inSandersville, Georgia on October 7 1897, the seventh of thirteen children of William Poole Sr. (1868–1942), aBaptistlay preacher andsharecropper, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958), a homemaker and sharecropper.
Elijah's education ended at the fourth grade, after which he went to work in sawmills and brickyards.[7] To support the family, he worked with his parents as asharecropper. When he was 16 years old, he left home and began working in factories and at other businesses.
Elijah marriedClara Evans (1899–1972) on March 7, 1917. In 1923, the Poole family was among hundreds of thousands of black families forming theFirst Great Migration leaving the oppressive and economically troubledSouth in search of safety and employment.[8] Elijah later recounted that before the age of 20, he had witnessed thelynchings of three black men by white people. He said, "I seen enough of the white man's brutality to last me 26,000 years".[9]
Moving his own family, parents, and siblings, Elijah and the Pooles settled in the industrial north ofHamtramck, Michigan. Through the 1920s and 1930s, he struggled to find and keep work as the economy suffered during the postWorld War I andGreat Depression eras. During their years inDetroit, Elijah and Clara had eight children, six boys and two girls.[10]
While he was in Detroit, Poole began taking part in variousblack nationalist movements within the city. In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Elijah Poole attended a speech onIslam and black empowerment byWallace Fard Muhammad (Wallace D. Fard). Afterward, Poole said he approached Fard and asked if he was the"Mahdi" (redeemer), Fard responded that he was, but that his time had not yet come.[9][10] Fard taught that black people, as original Asiatics, had a rich cultural history which was stolen from them in their enslavement. Fard stated that African Americans could regain their freedom through self-independence and cultivation of their own culture and civilization.[11][better source needed]
Poole, having strong consciousness of both race and class issues as a result of his struggles in the South, quickly fell in step with Fard's ideology. Poole soon became an ardent follower of Fard and joined his movement, as did his wife and several brothers. Soon afterward, Poole was given a Muslim surname, first "Karriem", and later, at Fard's behest, "Muhammad". He assumed leadership of the Nation's Temple No. 2 inChicago.[12] His younger brother Kalot Muhammad became the leader of the movement's self-defense arm, theFruit of Islam.
Fard turned over leadership of the growing Detroit group to Elijah Muhammad, and the Allah Temple of Islam changed its name to the Nation of Islam.[13] Muhammad and Wallace Fard continued to communicate until 1934, when Wallace Fard disappeared. Muhammad succeeded him in Detroit and was named "Minister of Islam". After the disappearance, Muhammad told followers that Allah had come as Wallace Fard, in the flesh, to share his teachings that are a salvation for his followers.[14][15][16]
In 1934, the Nation of Islam published its first newspaper,Final Call to Islam, to educate and build membership. Children of its members attended classes at the newly createdMuhammad University of Islam, but this soon led to challenges byboards of education in Detroit andChicago, which considered the childrentruants from the public school system. The controversy led to the jailing of several University of Islam board members and Muhammad in 1934 and to violent confrontations with police. Elijah was put onprobation, but the university remained open.[citation needed]
Elijah Muhammad took control of Temple No. 1, but only after battles with other potential leaders, including his brother. In 1935, as these battles became increasingly fierce, Elijah left Detroit and settled his family in Chicago. Still facing death threats, Elijah left his family there and traveled toMilwaukee,Wisconsin, where he founded Temple No. 3, and eventually toWashington, D.C., where he founded Temple No. 4. He spent much of his time reading 104 books suggested by Wallace Fard at theLibrary of Congress.[9][17][18]
On May 8, 1942, Muhammad was arrested for failure to register forthe draft duringWorld War II. After he was released on bail, Muhammad fled Washington, D.C., on the advice of his attorney, who feared alynching, and returned to Chicago after a seven-year absence.[citation needed] Muhammad was arrested there, charged with eight counts ofsedition for instructing his followers to not register for the draft or serve in thearmed forces. Acquitted of sedition, but found guilty of draft evasion, Muhammad served four years in prison, from 1942 to 1946, at theFederal Correctional Institution inMilan, Michigan. During that time, his wife,Clara, and trusted aides ran the organization; Muhammad transmitted his messages and directives to followers in letters.[9][18][19]
Following his return to Chicago, Elijah Muhammad was firmly in charge of the Nation of Islam. While Muhammad was in prison, the growth of the Nation of Islam had stagnated, with fewer than 400 members remaining by the time of his release in 1946. However, through the conversion of his fellow inmates as well as renewed efforts outside prison, he was able to redouble his efforts and continue growing the Nation.[20]
Muhammad preached his own version of Islam to his followers in the Nation. According to him, blacks were known as the "original" human beings, with "evil" whites being an offshoot race that would go on to oppress black people for 6,000 years. The origins of the white race would come to be known asYacub's History within Muhammad's teachings. InThe Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X talks about when he first encounters this doctrine, though he would later come to regret that he ever believed in it.[21]
He preached that the Nation of Islam's goal was to return the stolen hegemony of the inferior whites back to blacks across America.[8] Much of Muhammad's teachings appealed to young, economically disadvantaged, African-American males from Christian backgrounds. Traditionally, black males would not go to church because the church did not address their needs. Muhammad's program for economic development played a large part in the growth in the Nation of Islam. He purchased land and businesses to provide housing and employment for young black males.
By the 1970s, the Nation of Islam owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, night-clubs, a printing plant, retail stores, numerous real estate holdings, and a fleet oftractor trailers, plus farmland in Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. Nation of Islam-owned schools expanded until, by 1974, the group had established schools in 47 cities throughout the United States.[22] In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.[23]
Muhammad authored a two volumeHow to Eat to Live which promotedpseudoscientific views about diet and nutrition.[24] Muhammad argued that only one meal should be eaten a day at the most and if black people eat only one meal every three days they will never get sick and may possibly live for 1000 years.[24] He argued that eatingpork will bring about depraved behaviour and culture of White westerners.[24] According to Muhammad,beef, lamb, and camel were permissible but should be avoided if possible.[25] He stated that "Allah forbids us to eat the flesh of swine or of fish weighing 50 pounds or more".[25]
In regard tofowl, only baby pigeons were seen as clean and if eaten should be taken straight from the nest.[24] According to Muhammad, peas and sweet potatoes are forbidden by Allah and many foods white in colour are automatically bad for health.[24] Muhammad argued that white people were attempting to destroy black people by weakening their health with inappropriateprocessed foods such as biscuits andwhite bread. Muhammad considered most fruits and vegetables safe to eat "except collard greens and turnip salad". In regard to beans, onlynavy beans could be eaten. Lima beans were considered a poison which Muhammad believed made black men's stomachs explode.[24] Rice and spinach were allowed in moderation. There were no restrictions on garlic, onions orwhole wheat bread.[25]
Muhammad stated that he obtained his dietary advice from "God in Person Master Fard Muhammad".[26]
_and_Elijah_Muhammad_(1897%25E2%2580%25931975)_at_Mount_Glenwood_Memory_Gardens_South.jpg)
On January 30, 1975, Muhammad enteredMercy Hospital, known asInsight Chicago inChicago,Illinois, suffering from a combination ofheart disease,diabetes,bronchitis, andasthma. There, he died ofcongestive heart failure nearly one month later at the age of 77 on February 25, the day beforeSaviours' Day. He was survived by many children, including his two daughters and six sons by his wife, most notably, he was survived by the future Muslim leaderWarith Deen Muhammad.[27]
He was buried alongside Clara at Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens South inGlenwood, Illinois.
During his time as leader of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad had developed the Nation of Islam from a small movement in Detroit to an empire consisting of banks, schools, restaurants, and stores across 46 cities in America. The Nation also owned over 15,000 acres of farmland, their own truck- and air- transport systems, as well as a publishing company that printed the country's largest black newspaper.[27]As a leader, Muhammad served as a mentor to many notable members, includingMalcolm X,Muhammad Ali,Louis Farrakhan and his sonWarith Deen Mohammed. The Nation of Islam is estimated to have between 20,000 and 50,000 members,[28] and 130 mosques offering numerous social programs.[29]
Upon his death, his son Warith Deen Mohammed succeeded him. Warith disbanded the Nation of Islam in 1976 and founded anorthodox mainstream Islamic organization, that came to be known as theAmerican Society of Muslims. The organization would dissolve, change names and reorganize many times.
In 1977, Louis Farrakhan resigned from Warith Deen's reformed organization and reinstituted the original Nation of Islam upon the foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan regained many of the Nation of Islam's original properties including the National Headquarters Mosque #2 (Mosque Maryam) andMuhammad University of Islam in Chicago.
Ernest 2X McGee was the first national secretary of the NOI and had been ousted in the late 1950s.[30] McGee went on to form a Sunni Muslim sect and changed his name toHamaas Abdul Khaalis. Khaalis attractedLew Alcindor, whom Khaalis renamedKareem Abdul-Jabbar. Jabbar donateda house for use as the Hanafi Madh-Hab Center. Khaalis sent letters that were critical of Muhammad and Fard to Muhammad, his ministers, and the media.[30]
The letters stated blacks had been better off "from a psychological point of view" before Fard came along because it weaned them from Christianity to a fabricated form of Islam. Both, in his opinion, were bad.[30] His letters also revealed what he knew of Fard, alleging he was John Walker ofGary who had come to America at 27 from Greece, had served prison time for stealing, and raping a 17-year-old girl, and had died inChicago, Illinois, at 78.[30]
After the letters were sent,seven of Khaalis' family members were murdered at the Hanafi Madh-Hab Center. Four men from NOIMosque No. 12 were accused of the crime.[31]
On December 1, 1963, when asked for a comment about theassassination of President John F. Kennedy,Malcolm X said that it was a case of "chickens coming home to roost". He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad."[32]The New York Times wrote, "in further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders ofPatrice Lumumba, Congo leader, ofMedgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of theNegro girls bombed earlier this year in aBirmingham, Alabama, church. These, he said, were instances of other 'chickens coming home to roost'."[32] The remarks prompted a widespread public outcry. The Nation of Islam, which had sent a message of condolence to the Kennedy family and ordered its ministers not to comment on the assassination, publicly censured their former shining star.[33] Malcolm X retained his post and rank as minister, but was prohibited from public speaking for 90 days.[34]
Rumors were circulating that Elijah was conducting extramarital affairs with young Nation secretaries—which would constitute a serious violation of Nation teachings. After first discounting the rumors, Malcolm X came to believe them after he spoke with Muhammad's sonWallace and with the girls making the accusations. Muhammad confirmed the rumors in 1963, attempting to justify his behavior by referring to precedents set by Biblical prophets.[4][5] Over a series of national TV interviews between 1964 and 1965, Malcolm X provided testimony of his investigation, corroboration, and confirmation by Muhammad himself of multiple instances of adultery and extramarital affairs.
During this investigation, Malcolm X learned that seven of the eight girls had become pregnant by Muhammad, and publicly shared the information.[6] Malcolm X also spoke of an attempt made to assassinate him, by means of an explosive device discovered in his car, and of death threats he was receiving, which he believed were in response to his exposure of Muhammad.[35] Years later in a series of lectures titled "Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad 28 years later" Louis Farrakhan would give a defense of Elijah Muhammads relationships by referring to Biblical and Quranic precedents. Farrakhan further states that one of women whom Elijah Muhammad eventually had a child with, Evelyn, was someone who Malcolm had fallen in love with before his relationship with Betty Shabazz, leading to a greater sense of hurt and betrayal when he found about the relationship[36]
The extramarital affairs, the suspension, andother factors caused a rift between the two men, with Malcolm X leaving the Nation of Islam in March 1964 to form his own religious organization,Muslim Mosque Inc.[37] After dealing with death threats and attempts on his life for a year,[38] Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965.[39] Many people suspected that the Nation of Islam was responsible for the killing of Malcolm X. Five days after Malcolm X was murdered, in a public speech at the Nation of Islam's annualSaviours' Day on February 26, Elijah justified the assassination by quoting that "Malcolm got just what he preached", but at the same time denied any involvement with the murder by asserting in the same speech: "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him. We know such ignorant, foolish teaching would bring him to his own end."[40][41]
Some believed that Elijah's pro-separation views were compatible with those of somewhite supremacist organizations in the 1960s.[42] He met with leaders of theKu Klux Klan (KKK) in 1961 to work toward the purchase of farmland in theDeep South.[43] For more than ten years Elijah received major financial support from white supremacist Texas oil baronH. L. Hunt due to Elijah's belief in racial separation from whites. The money helped Elijah to acquire opulent homes for himself and his family and establish overseas bank accounts.[44] Yet, there are also those who believe that the black separatism movement to be a consequence of historic social, political and financial disenfranchisement of the blacks. Many also believed that the narrative of racial superiority as a black construct to upend the white power structure is inconsistent with history.
Muhammad eventually established Temple Farms, nowMuhammad Farms, on a 5,000-acre (20 km2) tract inTerrell County, Georgia.[45]George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of theAmerican Nazi Party, once called Elijah "theHitler of the black man."[46] At the 1962Saviours' Day celebration in Chicago, Rockwell addressedNation of Islam members. Many in the audience booed and heckled him and his men, for which Elijah rebuked them in the April 1962 issue ofMuhammad Speaks.[47]
Elijah marriedClara Muhammad in Georgia in 1917, and he had eight children with her. He also fathered at least nine children from extra-marital relationships.[48] In total, it is estimated that he had 23 children, of whom 21 are documented.[49][50]
After Elijah's death, nineteen of his children filed lawsuits against the Nation of Islam's successor, theWorld Community of Islam, seeking status as his heirs. Ultimately, the court ruled against them.[51][52][53]
Children via his wife, Clara Muhammad:Two daughters and six sons including notable:
Children via mistresses:
In 2002, scholarMolefi Kete Asante listed Elijah Muhammad on his list of100 Greatest African Americans.[54]
Elijah Muhammad was portrayed byAl Freeman Jr. inSpike Lee's 1992motion pictureMalcolm X.Albert Hall, who played thecomposite character "Baines" inMalcolm X, later played Muhammad inMichael Mann's 2001 filmAli.[55] He was also portrayed byClifton Davis in the seriesGodfather of Harlem. He was most recently portrayed byRon Cephas Jones in the Drama Biography by National Geographic "Genius: MLK/X".
'We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him,' he explained. 'We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end.'
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Booknotes interview with Claude Andrew Clegg III onAn Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad, March 30, 1997,C-SPAN |
| Preceded by | Nation of Islam 1934–1975 | Succeeded by |
