ABOUT THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
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Biographical
Sketch of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
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. The exact date of his birth remains unknown
because record keeping in rural Georgia for the descendants of slaves
was not kept current, according to historians and family members.
Nevertheless, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said his birth took
place some time in the first or second week of October in 1897 and
set forth Oct. 7th as the anniversary date of his birth.
Indeed, life in the rural South at the turn of the century was
quite hard. Poverty and survival were at war with each other. Elijah
Poole, the son of a minister, and whose parents, William (later
named Wali) and Marie Poole, had 12 other children, had to quit
school after barely finishing the third grade to work in the fields
as a sharecropper so his family could eat.
Just before the roaring twenties came in, Elijah Poole married
the former Clara Evans, also of Georgia. They had eight children,
Emmanuel, Ethel, Lottie, Nathaniel, Herbert, Elijah, Jr., Wallace
and Akbar.
In April 1923, Elijah Poole moved his young family from Macon,
Georgia, where he worked for the Southern Railroad Company and the
Cherokee Brick Company to Detroit, Mich. Black families, like the
Pooles, were leaving the south, at that time, in search of better
economic and social circumstances. Detroit was a bustling upwardly
mobile city with its burgeoning auto industry.
The stock market crash in 1929 was the gateway to economic misery
that sparked the fuel of the "Great Depression" of the
1930s. Moreover, America's racial situation continued its downward
spiral. Lynchings, race riots and other forms of terrorism against
Blacks continued unabated. But Detroit, with its huge population
of 1.5 million people including 250,000 thousand Blacks, was beginning
to see changes in its social scene.
On July 4, 1930, the long awaited "Saviour" of the Black
man and woman, Master W. Fard Muhammad, appeared in this city. He
announced and preached that God is One, and it is now time for Blacks
to return to the religion of their ancestors, Islam. News spread
all over the city of Detroit of the preachings of this great man
from the East. Elijah Poole's wife first learned of the Temple of
Islam and wanted to attend to see what the commotion was all about,
but instead, her husband advised her that he would go and see for
himself.
Master Fard Muhammad
Hence, in 1931, after hearing his first lecture at the Temple of
Islam, Elijah Poole was overwhelmed by the message and immediately
accepted it. Soon thereafter, Elijah Poole invited and convinced
his entire family to accept the religion of Islam.
The Founder of the Nation of Islam
gave him the name "Karriem" and made him a minister. Later
he was promoted to the position of "Supreme Minister"
and his name was changed to Muhammad. "The name 'Poole' was
never my name," he would later write, "nor was it my father's
name. It was the name the white slave-master of my grandfather after
the so-called freedom of my fathers."
Mr. Muhammad quickly became an integral part of the Temple of Islam.
For the next three and one-half years, Mr. Muhammad was personally
taught by his Teacher non-stop. The Muslim community, in addition
to establishing religious centers of worship, began to start businesses
under the aegis of economic development that focuses on buying and
selling between and among Black companies. Mr. Muhammad establishes
a newspaper, "The Final Call to Islam," in 1934. This
would be the first of many publications he would produce.
Hon. E. Muhammad with wife Sister Clara, departing from one of the
Nation of Islam's planes.
Meanwhile, Mr. Muhammad helped establish schools for the proper
education of his children and the community. Indeed, the Muslim
parents felt that the educational system of the State of Michigan
was wholely inadequate for their children, and they established
their own schools. 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.
Mr Muhammad said he committed himself to jail after learning what
had happened.
Ultimately, the charges were later dropped, and the officials were
freed and Mr. Muhammad received six months' probation to take the
Muslim children out of the Islamic school and put them under white
Christian teachers. "This I did not do," he said. He moved
to the city of Chicago in September of that same year. 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. On February 26,
1934, Master W. Fard Muhammad, departed the scene and left the Honorable
Elijah Muhammad with the mission of resurrecting the Black man and
woman.
By 1935, Mr. Muhammad faced many new challenges. 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. 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. Mr. Muhammad avoided their evil plan and went to Washington,
D.C. to study and build a mosque there. He was known under many
names, "Mr. Evans," his wife's maiden name, "Ghulam
Bogans," "Muhammad Rassoull," "Elijah Karriem"
and "Muhammad of 'U' Street."
Always taking time for the people he worked to redeem, the Most
Hon. Elijah Muhammad greets an elderly sister during an event.
Consequently, Mr. Muhammad, while in Washington, D.C. Was arrested
on May 8, 1942, for allegedly evading the draft. "When the
call was made for all males between 18 and 44, I refused (NOT EVADED)
on the grounds that, first, I was a Muslim and would not take part
in war and especially not on the side with the infidels," he
wrote in "Message To The Blackman." "Second, I was
45 years of age and was NOT, according to the law, required to register."
Many other male members of the Nation of Islam at that time were
imprisoned for being conscientious objectors to World War II. After
World War II ended, Mr. Muhammad won his release from prison and
returned to Chicago. From Chicago, the central point of the Nation
of Islam, Mr. Muhammad expanded his membership drive to new heights.
Among the many new members enrolled in the ranks of Islam included
Brother Malcolm X and his family.
During the 1950s, Mr. Muhammad promoted Min. 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. Membership was increasing when, in 1955, Minister Louis
Farrakhan, then Louis Walcott, an entertainer, enrolled in the Nation
of Islam after hearing Mr. Muhammad deliver a speech in Chicago.
Persecution of the Muslims continued. Members and mosques continued
to be attacked by whites in Monroe, La., Los Angeles, Calif., and
Flint, Mich., among others. Publicity in the white owned and operated
media began to circulate anti-Nation of Islam propaganda on a large
scale. By the early 1960s, the Readers Digest magazine described
Mr. Muhammad as the most powerful Black man in America. In Washington,
D.C., Mr. Muhammad delivered his historic Uline Arena address and
was afforded presidential treatment, receiving a personal police
escort.
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.
The documentary misrepresents the message of the Nation of Islam,
calling it a hate teaching. James Baldwin, a famous Black author,
released the book, "The Fire Next Time," based largely
upon his interview with Mr. Muhammad. At the same time, white political
leaders such as Senator Al Gore Sr., began to denounce the Nation
of Islam and hold hearings on alleged "un-American" activities.
Minister Louis Farrakhan and the ministers of Islam defended the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam against these
attacks in mass media in their public speeches, written editorials
and other public relations thrusts.
Min. Louis Farrakhan, (L-R) adjusts microphone
for Hon. Elijah Muhammad while Malcolm X and Min. Abdul Allah Muhammad
look on.
By 1964, Minister Malcolm X decided to separate from the Nation
of Islam and formed his own religious and political organization.
His very public defection from the Nation of Islam was based on
his misinterpretation of the domestic life of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad
Nevertheless, the atmosphere of rancor on both sides made ripe the
environment for the secret police to meddle in the affairs of the
Nation of Islam, according the late attorney, William Kuntsler.
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.
After the assassination of Brother Malcolm X, the New York mosque
was fire bombed and the Muslim community was reeling. Mr. Muhammad
then dispatched Minister Louis Farrakhan to New York City to take
over the mosque there and begin the rebuilding effort. In 1965,
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad promoted Minister Louis Farrakhan
to the post of National Representative.
By the mid-sixties, Mr. Muhammad's ever-growing Islamic movement
extended itself to more than 60 cities and settlements abroad in
Ghana, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America among others places,
according to the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, the religion's chief
information apparatus.
A host of Islamic and African governments all over the world received
him and donated generously to his mission. He made Hajj, (holy pilgrimage)
to Mecca on more than one occasion and advocated worldwide brotherhood
and sisterhood.
Every February 26, he brought together the faithful for Saviour's
Day conventions in Chicago to remember his Teacher's birthday, to
re-emphasize his message of moral and spiritual renewal and to announce
his plans and agenda for the upcoming year. 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. In 1972, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad
opened a $2 million mosque and school in Chicago. During this important
grand opening of Mosque No. 2, he praised and let it be known who
his top helper was in his work.
He asked Min. 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? (He chuckled)-c'mon around here where they can
see you. (A rousing round of applause ensued).
"We have with us today," the Messenger continued, "our
great national preacher. The preacher who don't mind going into
Harlem, New York, one of the most worst towns in our nation or cities.
It is our brother in Detroit and Chicago or New York. But, I want
you to remember every week he's on the air helping me to reach those
people that I can't get out of my house and go reach them like he.
"I want you to pay good attention to his preaching. His preaching
is a bearing of witness to me and what God has given to me,"
he declared. "This is one of the strongest national preachers
that I have in the bounds of North America. Everywhere you hear
him, listen to him. Everywhere you see him, look at him. Everywhere
he advises you to go, go. Everywhere he advises you to stay from,
stay from. For we are thankful to Allah for this great helper of
mine, Min. Farrakhan." (Another rousing round of applause ensued).
"He's not a proud man," he said. "He's a very humble
man. If he can carry you across the lake without dropping you in;
he don't say when you get on the other side, 'You see what I have
done?' He tells you, 'You see what Allah has done.' He doesn't take
it upon himself. He's a mighty fine preacher. We hear him every
week, and I say continue to hear our Min. Farrakhan. I thank you."
In watching Minister Louis Farrakhan and the followers of the Hon.
Elijah Muhammad, the legacy of the Nation of Islam continues to
make unlimited progress as witnessed in the miracle of the Two Million
Man March among other truly amazing accomplishments. |
