Elijah Poole was born in Sandersville, Georgia, the sixth child of 13 children of Willie Poole, Sr. (1868–1942), a Baptist pastor, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958). Both were sharecroppers. By the fourth grade, Poole left school to join his family working in the fields. And by the age of 16, he had left home to work in factories and businesses in the area. In 1917, at age 20, Poole married Clara Evans, later to be known as Sister Clara Muhammad.
In 1923 Poole and his extended family joined the Great Migration of African Americans leaving the rural southeast and moving to the industrial north. The Pooles settled in Detroit, Michigan, where Elijah found work in an automobile factory. Poole later remembered that he had witnessed three lynchings of Blacks by Whites before the age of 20 in rural Georgia. He later said he had "seen enough of the white man's brutality to last me 26,000 years."[1] During their years in Detroit, they had eight children, six boys and two girls.
In Detroit, he may have briefly joined the first Muslim organization known to have originated in the US, the Moorish Science Temple of America.[2] He may also have been active in the Universal Negro Improvement Association formed by Marcus Garvey, until Garvey's arrest and deportation.[3][4]
[edit] Conversion
Part of a series on
Nation of Islam
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Famous leaders
Wallace Fard Muhammad · Elijah Muhammad · Malcolm X · Warith Deen Mohammed · Louis Farrakhan
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History and beliefs
Saviours' Day · Nation of Islam and antisemitism · Tribe of Shabazz · Yakub · Million Man March
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Publications
The Final Call · How to Eat to Live · Message to the Blackman in America · Muhammad Speaks
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Subsidiaries and offshoots
American Society of Muslims · Fruit of Islam · The Nation of Gods and Earths · New Black Panther Party · United Nation of Islam · Your Black Muslim Bakery
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In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment held in a packed basement meeting room by Wallace Fard Muhammad. After the speech, Poole said he approached Fard and asked if he was the redeemer. Fard responded that he was, but that his time had not yet come.[5][6] Poole soon became a disciple of Fard's and converted to Islam, along with his wife and several brothers. Soon afterward, Poole changed his name, first to Karriem, and later, at Fard's behest, to Muhammad, as he assumed leadership of the Temple.[7]
Little is definitively known about Fard. He claimed to have come from Mecca. The FBI believed him to be a petty criminal from California named Wallace Ford[8], though this is strongly debated. He was working as a door-to-door salesman in Detroit's black communities in addition to preaching. By 1930 he had formed Allah's Temple of Islam in Detroit and was attracting crowds and as many as 8,000 members with his proto-Islamic, Afro-centric teachings.[9] The beliefs taught by Fard, although similar to orthodox Islam in some ways, differed from it in various essentials, and added elements geared toward the Black nationalism started by Marcus Garvey. Fard conducted a series of lessons and correspondence with Muhammad and others, which eventually would be set down as the Nation of Islam's doctrine. The organization continued to grow and organize. Muhammad soon became 'Supreme Minister' in the new organization. Fard developed the Fruit of Islam (leadership was given to Elijah's younger brother, Kalot Muhammad), Muslim Girls Training & General Civilization Classes and the University of Islam, to provide NOI education outside the school system.
In 1932 a mentally unbalanced member of Fard's "voodoo cult" committed a highly-publicized ritualized murder. Fard was initially arrested and then released by police on the condition that he leave Detroit. Fard headed to Chicago, where he started 'Temple No. 2. He turned over leadership of the growing Detroit group to Muhammad and the Allah Temple of Islam changed its name to Nation of Islam.[10] Muhammad and Fard continued to communicate until 1934, when Fard vanished and Muhammad was named 'Minister of Islam'. Following the final disappearance of Fard, Muhammad deified the temple's original leader, calling him an incarnation of God and predicting his eventual return to earth.[11][12]
As the temple grew in membership, it also expanded its reach. In 1934, the Nation of Islam published its first newspaper, the Final Call to Islam to build membership. Temple children attended classes at the newly-created ‘University’, but this soon led to challenges by Boards of Education both in Detroit and later, Chicago, which considered the children truants. It led to the jailing of several board members in 1934 and to violent confrontations with police. Muhammad received a sentence of probation for the altercations and the temple continued the practice.
[edit] Leading the Nation of Islam
Muhammad took control of the Temple only after bitter, internecine battles with other potential leaders including his brother. In 1935, fearing his life as these battles became increasingly fierce, Muhammad left Detroit and settled his family in Chicago. Soon, facing death threats still, Muhammad left his family there and traveled to Milwaukee (where he established Temple No. 3) and eventually Washington, D.C.. Muhammad established Temple No. 4 in the District and spent much of his time studying at the Library of Congress.[13][14][15]
In 1942, Muhammad was arrested for failure to register for the draft. After he was released on bail, he fled Washington at the urging of his attorney, who feared a potential lynching, and returned to Chicago after seven years' absence. But Muhammad was soon arrested again and charged with eight counts of Sedition for instructing his followers not to register with Selective Service or serve in the Military. Found guilty, Muhammad served four years, from 1942 to 1946, in federal prison at Milan, Michigan. During that time his wife and trusted aides ran the organization and transmitted his messages to followers from his letters from jail.[16][17][18]
Following his return to Chicago, Muhammad found himself firmly in charge of the NOI. The organization had held its membership steadily during his years of imprisonment, and began to grow once he returned. From four temples in 1946, the NOI grew to 15 by 1955 and by 1959 there were 50 temples in 22 states.[19] One of Muhammad's top lieutenants during this period, generally credited with growing and expanding the NOI, was Malcolm X. Converted while in prison, Malcolm X became involved in the organization in 1952 and moved across the country opening and organizing temples. During this time, NOI also began expanding economically, as well. By the 1970s, the nation owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, cleaners, a printing plant, retail stores, real estate (including three apartment buildings in Chicago), a fleet of tractor trailers and farmland in Michigan, Alabama and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the Guaranty Bank and Trust Co. The NOIs schools expanded until by 1974, children could attend its separatist schools in 47 cities in the U.S.[20] In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.[21]
Muhammad died at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on February 24, 1975 (the day before Saviours' Day) after battling heart problems, diabetes and asthma. The cause of death was congestive heart failure.
[edit] Children
By most accounts Elijah Muhammad had 21 children by eight women. He had eight children with his wife, Clara Muhammad and at least 13 other children with seven other women, mostly secretaries for the Nation of Islam. This was a source of great strain in his marriage. And the perceived infidelity (some in the Nation of Islam considered the women to be additional wives) came to be a source of disenchantment with Malcolm X and others. Particularly since Muhammad preached the importance of faithfulness in marriage and allegedly used NOI funds to support the other women[22][23][24]. After his death, 19 of his children filed lawsuits against the NOI and its accounts seeking status as heirs. Ultimately the court ruled that the NOI could keep the funds.[25][26]
[edit] Teachings
Main article: Beliefs and theology of the Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam as envisioned by W.D. Fard and Elijah Muhammad, does not fit into any other Islamic doctrines or practices. As leader of the Nation of Islam, Muhammad established that Fard was literally Allah, and Muhammad, his messenger on earth. Muhammad codified and expanded on Fard's teachings and writings into the doctrine of the NOI, teaching it in its schools and temples.
Like mainstream Islam, NOI members are expected to abstain from eating pork, from smoking and drinking, the use of drugs, profanity and gambling. They are expected to dress conservatively. Until recently, members did not fast during Ramadan and did not perform Salaat (Islamic prayer).[27][28]
The Nation of Islam teaches a black separatist doctrine. Blacks, according to its beliefs, were the original people on the Earth but had been tricked out of their power, conquered and oppressed by the Caucasian people via a global system of white supremacy.[29] According to NOI doctrine, the white race was produced through a series of genetic breeding experiments conducted by an evil scientist known as "Dr. Yakub".[30][31][32]
Officially, the Nation of Islam seeks: "a full and complete freedom, equal justice under the law applied equally to all, regardless of race or class or color and equal membership in society with the best in civilized society." The NOI as formed by Muhammad is a nationalist organization seeking "complete separation in a state or territory of our own." [33] NOI teaches that black people must develop independence in society, economics, religion, and nationhood.
Muhammad opposed the back to Africa movement supported by Marcus Garvey and other 20th Century black leaders. Instead he believed in seeking aid and support from independent African and Muslim nations to improve conditions for blacks in the United States. Eventually, Muhammad preached that Allah would destroy 'White America' and faithful followers of Islam in America would emerge as conquerors and settlers of a new world.[34]
[edit] Leadership
While the organization had a board of directors and ministerial leadership, Elijah Muhammad was ultimately the unquestioned leader of the Nation of Islam. The man who led the Nation of Islam for more than 40 years was slender and stood only 5'6". He was soft-spoken and light-skinned with a thick Georgia accent. His speech in public was halting and he often struggled to find words. Some researchers have said that this made him a disarming figure for listeners, who responded to his earnestness and simplicity.[35]
Muhammad made the nation of Islam a very public organization, putting converts in the streets of urban areas, selling newspapers, writing weekly newspaper columns (his columns in the Pittsburgh Gazette brought in more letters to the editor than any other feature[36]) and even parading the Fruit of Islam at times. Visitors to temples found smartly-dressed members, usually wearing bow ties, and a militaristic discipline. They found a compelling vision of strong black leadership that was so often lacking in the world outside the temple.[37]
[edit] Legacy
There are 6 to 8 million Muslims in the United States, and nearly 30 percent of them are African-American (nearly all from mainstream denominations). During his lifetime, Muhammad saw Islam become an important presence in the black community and saw his organization grow to tens, if not hundreds of thousands of members. The Nation of Islam grew to become an enterprise with assets reportedly worth $75 million. Some have claimed that in the 1970s it was the most successful black-owned enterprise in the country.[38][39]
In addition to its particular brand of Islam, the Nation of Islam encourages its followers to build stable families, become self-sufficient, live disciplined lives and reject drugs, alcohol and criminal activity. While temples have had mixed success in these areas, the Nation of Islam has encouraged tens of thousands of followers to avoid many of the traps of urban low-income life.[40] In the words of historian Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar "In many ways the Nation was on a civilizing mission to rebuild, redeem and rejuvenate a downtrodden and backward people."[41]
The Nation of Islam went through an upheaval following the death of Elijah Muhammad. Eventually three splinter factions formed.
Elijah Muhammad wished his son, Warith, to take leadership of the Nation of Islam after his death. Under Warith Deen Muhammad, the NOI moved toward mainstream Sunni Islam, away from Black Nationalism. It accepted white members, rejected the idea of W.D. Fard as Allah and disbanded the Fruit of Islam. Eventually, his faction would be renamed the American Society of Muslims and Warith Muhammad would become a less polarizing figure. He delivered the first Muslim invocation in the U.S. Senate, and in 1993 gave an Islamic prayer during the first Interfaith Prayer Service of President Bill Clinton.[42][43] At his death in 2008 he was eulogized as "America's Imam"[44]
Louis Farrakhan left the Nation of Islam over disagreements with Warith Muhammad's direction and formed a new organization which hewed more closely to Elijah Muhammad's ideology, including the tenet that W.D. Fard was Allah on earth and reestablished the Fruit of Islam. He began publishing the Final Call newspaper and eventually took back the name "Nation of Islam." He is the leader of the organization today.
A third faction, the Lost Found Nation of Islam, was formed by Elijah Muhammad's son-in-law Silas Muhammad.
[edit] Honors
In the early 1990s the city of Detroit, Michigan, added the name "Elijah Muhammad Blvd." to its Linwood Avenue neighborhood.
One of Muhammad's grandsons, Ozier Muhammad,[45] is a photographer for The New York Times who has won a Pulitzer Prize.
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Elijah Muhammad on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[46]
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Malcolm X
Some writers have suggested that formal orders from top Nation of Islam officials played a role in the assassination of Malcolm X. This fact is under dispute by followers of the NOI. Louis Farrakhan later stated, however, that the group's "incendiary rhetoric" may have led to the assassination.
[edit] Hanafi Murders
In 1973 seven killers, who were later identified as Nation of Islam members from the Philadelphia temple's Black Mafia, broke into the Washington home of Hanafi Leader Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. Weeks earlier Khaalis had written open letters criticizing and mocking Muhammad and Fard. The men brutally murdered five of Khaalis' children, his nine-day-old grandson and a follower. Khaalis, who was not at home, escaped the carnage. Five of the men responsible were captured, tried and convicted of life sentences. Muhammad was never found to have ordered the murders, though many had suspected he had some direct or indirect involvement.[47] Khaalis swore revenge and years later his movement attacked and held hostages in the Washington D.C. offices of B'nai B'rith in the 1977 Hanafi Muslim Siege.
[edit] Racism
Main article: Nation_of_Islam_and_antisemitism
Nation of Islam ideology is considered racist and often Anti-Semitic, placing the black (or Asiatic in their parlance) race above others and demonizing whites. Muhammad referred to whites as "devils" repeatedly in his writings.
[edit] Notes
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