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Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an African-American religious leader, who led the Nation of Islam (NOI) from 1934 until his death in 1975. He was a mentor to Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, and his son, Warith Deen Mohammed.
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Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole in Baptist lay preacher and sharecropper, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958), a homemaker and sharecropper.
Elijah's education ended at the fourth grade to work in sawmills and brickyards.[1] To support the family, he worked with his parents as a sharecropper. When he was sixteen years old, he left home and began working in factories and at other businesses.
Poole married [2] Poole later recounted that before the age of 20, he had witnessed the lynchings of three black men by white people. He said, "I seen enough of the white man's brutality to last me 26,000 years".[3]
Moving his own family, parents and siblings, Elijah and the Pooles settled in Hamtramck, Michigan. Through the 1920s and 1930s, Poole struggled to find and keep work as the economy suffered during the Great Depression. During their years in Detroit, the Pooles had eight children, six boys and two girls.[4][5]
While he was in Detroit, Poole began taking part in various Black Nationalist movements within the city. Most prominently, he joined the Universal Negro Improvement Association founded by Marcus Garvey.[6] In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Elijah Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment by Wallace D. Fard. Afterward, 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.[3][4] Fard taught that Blacks, as original Asiatics, had a rich cultural history which was stolen from them in their enslavement. Fard stated that African Americans could regain their freedoms through self-independence and cultivation of their own culture and civilization.[7] 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 in Chicago.[8] His younger brother Kalot Muhammad became the leader of the movement's self-defense arm, the Fruit of Islam.
Fard was arrested during a police investigation of a ritual murder and later released on the condition that he leave Detroit. He relocated to Chicago and continued to oversee the movement from Temple No. 2. He 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.[9] Elijah Muhammad and Wallace Fard continued to communicate until 1934, when Wallace Fard disappeared. Elijah Muhammad succeeded him in Detroit and was named "Minister of Islam". After the disappearance, Elijah Muhammad told followers that Wallace Muhammad had literally been Allah on earth.[10][11][12]
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 created Muhammad University of Islam, but this soon led to challenges by boards of education in Detroit and Chicago, which considered the children truants from the public school system. The controversy led to the jailing of several University of Islam board members and Elijah Muhammad in 1934 and to violent confrontations with police. Muhammad was put on probation, but the university remained open.
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, Muhammad left Detroit and settled his family in Chicago. Still facing death threats, Muhammad left his family there and traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he founded Temple No. 3, and eventually to Washington, D.C., where he founded Temple No. 4. He spent much of his time reading 104 books suggested by Wallace Fard at the Library of Congress.[3][13][14]
On May 8, 1942, Elijah Muhammad was arrested for failure to register for
Silis Muhammad (1977),
Louis Farrakhan (1978) (split)
Muhammad was also thanked in the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings, and the film is dedicated to him.
Elijah Muhammad was notably portrayed by Al Freeman, Jr. in Spike Lee's 1992 motion picture Malcolm X. Albert Hall, who played the composite character "Baines" in Malcolm X, later played Muhammad in Michael Mann's 2001 film, Ali.[32]
In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Elijah Muhammad on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[31]
In the early 1990s the city of Detroit co-named Linwood Avenue "Elijah Muhammad Boulevard."
They had eight children, including two daughters and six sons:
Malcolm X as well as other former believers in Nation of Islam theology were also indignant that Muhammad allegedly used the organization's funds to support his many children and their mothers, as well as his own family.[17][28] After Elijah Muhammad's death, nineteen of his children filed lawsuits against the Nation of Islam's successor, the World Community of Islam, seeking status as heirs. Ultimately the court ruled against them.[29][30]
Elijah married Tynnetta Muhammad and is rumored to have also fathered several children from other relationships. In total, it is estimated that he had 21 children.[27]
Muhammad's pro-separation views were compatible with those of some American Nazi Party once called Muhammad "the Hitler of the black man."[25] At the 1962 Saviour's Day celebration in Chicago, Rockwell addressed Nation of Islam members. Many in the audience booed and heckled him and his men, for which Muhammad rebuked them in the April 1962 issue of Muhammad Speaks.[26]
In 1963, Malcolm X made a controversial statement on John F. Kennedy's assassination. Stating that the "Chickens have come home to roost", was misunderstood that Malcolm approved of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, when in fact, he was referring to how this assassination condoned hate. As punishment, Muhammad ordered a suspension of Malcolm as spokesman for the Nation of Islam. This suspension along with claims that Mr. Muhammad had immoral sexual relations with his female secretaries caused a rift between the two men, with Malcolm eventually leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964 to form his own organization, Muslim Mosque Inc.[21] After dealing with death threats and attempts on his life for nearly a year, Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Many people suspected that the Nation of Islam was the group behind the killing, which Muhammad denied. Still, the accusations left a permanent stain on the Nation of Islam and Muhammad himself.
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.[18] As a leader, Muhammad served as mentor to many notable members, such as Mosque Maryam) and Muhammad University of Islam in Chicago, IL.
On January 30, 1975, Muhammad entered Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, suffering from a combination of heart disease, diabetes, bronchitis, and asthma. He died of congestive heart failure on February 25, the day before Saviours' Day. He was survived by many children, including his two daughters and six sons by his wife, most notably future leader Warith Deen Muhammad.[18] He is buried at Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens.
[5] In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.[17] By the 1970s, the Nation of Islam owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, a printing plant, retail stores, numerous real estate holdings, and a fleet of
Muhammad preached his own version of Islam to his followers in the Nation. According to him, blacks were known as the 'original' human being, with 'evil' whites being an offshoot race that would go on to oppress black people for 6,000 years. He preached that the Nation of Islam's goal was to return the stolen hegemony of the inferior whites back to blacks across America.[2] Much of Elijah Muhammad's teachings appealed to young, economically disadvantaged, African-American males from Christian backgrounds.[16] Traditionally, Black males wouldn't go to church because the church did not address their needs. Elijah 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.[16]
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.[6] From four temples in 1946, the Nation of Islam grew to 15 by 1955. By 1959, there were 50 temples in 22 states.[15]
[15][14][3]
Ali, Muhammad, Alevism, Quran, Islam