THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam

• The religious organization that became the Nation of Islam (NOI) originated in Detroit in 1930 with the teaching of W.D. Fard, also known as Fard Muhammad.

Nation of Islam• Fard’s theology, combining

Islam and Black Nationalism, captured the imagination of Elijah Poole.

• Born in Sandersville, Georgia, in 1897, Poole's formal education ended with elementary school.

• At age ten he witnessed the lynching of a black man—an event that profoundly impressed him.

• At fourteen he joined the Baptist church.

• In 1923 Poole, migrated to Detroit with his wife and two children, where he became a factory worker.

Black Muslims

Black Muslims believe that white men are devils.

Hon. Elijah Muhammad By 1934, Fard

Muhammad had disappeared and Poole, now Elijah Muhammad, assumed leadership of the organization, whose small membership was concentrated in Detroit and Chicago.

NOI Message

1. Economic self‐reliance

2. Black nationalism

3. Virtuous living

a. No alcohol,

tobacco, or

drugs

Malcolm X

• The NOI's growth was furthered by Malcolm X, the former Malcolm Little, a charismatic recruit who led a successful Harlem mosque and helped launch NOI's widely sold weekly newspaper, Muhammad Speaks.

• Prisons supplied many recruits.

• Membership estimates vary, but at its peak, the NOI had perhaps 100,000 adherents.

Malcolm X v NOI

• Malcolm X broke with Elijah Muhammad in the early 1960s, and was assassinated in 1965.

New LeadershipWallace D. Muhammad

After Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975, his son, W.D. Muhammad, changed the organization's name to the World Community of Islam in the West and sought to turn believers toward orthodox Islam.

Minister Farrakhan

• This led to more defections. The minister Louis Farrakhan (1933– ), moving into Elijah Muhammad's former residence in Chicago, revived both the NOI name and the discarded theology.

NOI: 1995 Million Man March

• The NOI's “Million Man March” of October 1995, which brought thousands of (mostly) African American males to Washington, D.C.,

• It confirmed the disillusionment of many African Americans with the failed promise of racial equality and integration

• It showed the continued attraction of the NOI's blend of racial chauvinism, capitalism, and strict standards of personal morality.