These African American men embraced Islam to fight racial injustices in America during the civil rights movement

Elijah Mohammed

Born Elijah Poole in Sandersville, Ga., on October 7th, Muhammad was born in poverty as one of 13 children in the rural area. His father was a sharecropper and his mother a domestic worker. He dropped out of school in the fourth grade to help earn money for his family, working odd jobs to make ends meet.

Escaping the rampant racism and violence they had to contend with in the Deep South, Muhammad moved his entire family to Detroit, Mich., in search of a better life in 1923. There, around 1930, Muhammad became assistant minister to the founder of the sect, the Nation of Islam, sometimes known as the Black Muslims, Wallace D. Fard, at Temple No. 1.

Muhammad would succeed Fard when he disappeared in 1934 as head of the movement, with the title “Minister of Islam.” He moved to Chicago to establish temple no. 2 because of dissension within the Detroit temple. During World War II, he advised followers to avoid the draft, and he was subsequently charged with violating the Selective Service Act and was jailed (1942-46).

He  called for the establishment of a separate nation for Black Americans and the adoption of a religion based on the worship of Allah and on the belief that Blacks are his chosen people. Muhammad became known, especially for his flamboyant rhetoric directed at white people, whom he called “blue-eyed devils.”

In his later years, however, he moderated his anti-white tone and stressed self-help among Blacks rather than confrontation between the races.