Elijah Muhammad

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Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad speaking in 1964.

Leader of the Nation of Islam

In office

1934–1974

Preceded by Wallace Fard Muhammad

Succeeded by Warith Deen Mohammed

Personal details

Born Elijah Robert Poole

October 7, 1897

Sandersville, Georgia, United States

Died February 25, 1975 (aged 77)

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Spouse(s) Clara Muhammad

 Occupation Leader of the Nation of Islam

Religion Nation of Islam

Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an African-
American religious leader, who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975. He was a mentor
to Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali; and his son Warith Deen Mohammed.

Contents

[hide]

1 Early life

2 Marriage and family

3 Conversion and rise to leadership

4 Leadership of the Nation of Islam

5 Death

6 Legacy

7 Controversies

o 7.1 George Lincoln Rockwell

o 7.2 Wives and children

8 Honors

9 Portrayals in film

10 Personal life

o 10.1 Children with Clara Muhammad

11 See also

12 Notes

13 External links

Early life[edit]

Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, the seventh of thirteen children to
William Poole, Sr. (1868–1942), a Baptist laypreacher and sharecropper, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958), a
homemaker and sharecropper.

Poole's education ended at the fourth grade. 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.
Marriage and family[edit]

Poole married Clara Evans (1899–1972) on March 7, 1917. In 1923, the Pooles, like hundreds of thousands of
other African Americans in those years, migrated from the Jim Crow South to the northern states for safety and
employment opportunities in the industrial cities. 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".[1]

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.[2][3]

Conversion and rise to leadership[edit]

Main article: Nation of Islam

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 theredeemer. Fard
responded that he was, but that his time had not yet come.[1][2] Poole soon became an ardent follower of Fard
and joined his movement, as did his wife and several brothers. Soon afterward, Poole was given the Muslim
surname, first to Karriem, and later at Fard's behest, to Muhammad. He assumed leadership of the Nation's
Temple No. 2 in Chicago.[4] 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.[5] 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.[6][7][8]

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.

Leadership of the Nation of Islam[edit]

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 Master Fard Muhammad at the Library of
Congress.[1][9][10]

On May 8, 1942, Elijah Muhammad was arrested for failure to register for the draft during World War II. After he
was released on bail, Muhammad fled Washington D.C. on the advice of his attorney, who feared a lynching,
and returned to Chicago after seven years' absence.[citation needed] Muhammad was arrested there, charged with
eight counts of sedition for instructing his followers not to register for the draft or serve in the armed forces.
Found guilty, Elijah Muhammad served four years, from 1942 to 1946, at the Federal Correctional
Institution in Milan, Michigan. During that time, his wife, Clara, and trusted aides ran the organization;
Muhammad transmitted his messages and directives to followers in letters.[1][10][11]

Following his return to Chicago, Elijah Muhammad was firmly in charge of the Nation of Islam. The organization
had retained its membership level during his imprisonment, and its membership increased after his return.
From four temples in 1946, the Nation of Islam grew to 15 by 1955. By 1959, there were 50 temples in 22
states.[11]

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 tractor trailers, plus farmland in
Michigan, Alabama, and Georgia. In 1972 the Nation of Islam took controlling interest in a bank, the Guaranty
Bank and Trust Co. Nation of Islam-owned schools expanded until, by 1974, the group had established schools
in 47 cities throughout the United States.[12] In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a
net worth of $75 million.[3]

Death[edit]

Elijah Muhammad died from congestive heart failure at the age of 77 on February 25, 1975, the day
before Saviours' Day, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.[13]

Legacy[edit]

In his time as leader of The Nation of Islam he served as mentor to many notable members, such as Malcolm
X, Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan and Warith Deen Mohammed. The Nation of Islam is estimated to have
between 20,000 and 50,000 members,[14] and 130 mosques offering numerous social programs.[15] Upon his
death, his son Warith Deen Mohammed succeeded him. Warith disbanded the Nation of Islam in 1976 and
started an orthodox mainstream Islamic organization, that came to be known as the American Society of
Muslims. The organization would dissolve, change names and reorganize many times. In 1977, Louis
Farrakhan resigned from Warith Deen's reformed organization and reinstituted the original Nation of Islam upon
the foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad. Farrakhan regained many of
the Nation of Islam's original properties including the National Headquarters Mosque #2 (Mosque Maryam)
and Muhammad University of Islam in Chicago, IL.

Controversies[edit]
George Lincoln Rockwell[edit]
Muhammad's pro-separation views were compatible with some white supremacist organizations in the
1960s.[16] He allegedly met with leaders of the Ku Klux Klan in 1961 to work toward purchase of farmland in the
deep south.[17] He eventually established Temple Farms, now Muhammad Farms, on a 5,000 acres (20 km2)
tract in Terrell County, Georgia.[18] George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of theAmerican Nazi Party once called
Muhammad "the Hitler of the black man."[19] 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.[20]

Wives and children[edit]

Malcolm X as well as other former believers in Nation of Islam theology were also upset that Muhammad
allegedly used the organization's funds to support the mothers, their children, as well as his own
family.[12][21] 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.[22][23]

Honors[edit]

In the early 1990s the city of Detroit co-named Linwood Avenue "Elijah Muhammad Boulevard."[citation needed]

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Elijah Muhammad on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.[24]

Portrayals in film[edit]

Elijah Muhammad was notably portrayed by Al Freeman, Jr. in Spike Lee's 1992 motion picture Malcolm X. Co-
star Albert Hall, who played the composite character "Baines" in the film, later played Muhammad in Michael
Mann's 2001 film, Ali.[25]

Muhammad was also thanked in the 1996 documentary When We Were Kings, and the film is dedicated to
him.[citation needed]

Personal life[edit]
Elijah married Clara Muhammad in Georgia in 1917, with whom he had eight children. Elijah also had four
children with Tynetta Muhammad and is rumored to have also fathered several children from other
relationships. In total, it is estimated that he had 21 children.[26]

Children with Clara Muhammad[edit]

They had eight children, including two daughters and six sons. The two daughters are Ethel and Lottie. The
sons include:

Jabir Herbert Muhammad

Warith Deen Mohammed

Akbar Muhammad

Nathaniel Muhammad

Emmanuel Muhammad
See also[edit]

The Hate That Hate Produced (1959 documentary)

Notes[edit]

a b c d
1. ^ Claude Andrew Clegg II, An Original Man: The Life and Times of

Elijah Muhammad, St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.

a b
2. ^ Richard Brent Turner, "From Elijah Poole to Elijah
Muhammad", American Visions, October-November 1997.
a b
3. ^ Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah
Muhammad Random House, 2001.

4. ^ The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad(2001). This

source claims the first encounter between Poole and Fard took place at
the Pooles' dinner table.

5. ^ The Messenger (2001) suggests the name was changed to convince the

authorities that Allah's Temple of Islam had disbanded.

6. ^ An Original Man: One NOI tenet states: “There is no God but Allah,

Master W. D. Fard, Elijah, his prophet”

7. ^ Charles Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America, Wm. B. Eerdmans

Publishing Company, 1994.

8. ^ Chronology of the Nation of Islam, Toure Muhammad.

 9. ^ Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience,

University of Indiana Press 1997

a b
10. ^ "A Historical Look at the Honorable Elijah Muhammad", Nation of

Islam web site.

a b
11. ^ E. U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism, University of Chicago Press,

1962.
a b
12. ^ In the Name of Elijah Muhammad.

13. ^ "Elijah Muhammad Dead". New York Times. February 26, 1975.

Retrieved 2011-11-15. "Elijah Muhammad, spiritual leader of the nation's

Black Muslims, died here today of congestive heart failure."

14. ^ Neil MacFarquhar, "Nation of Islam at a Crossroad as Leader

Exits", New York Times, February 26, 2007.

15. ^ "Nation of Islam", Intelligence Files, Southern Poverty Law Center.

16. ^ Herbert Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam, NYU Press, 2009, p. 41.

17. ^ Marable, Manning, Along the Color Line, reprinted in the Columbus Free

Press, January 17, 1997.

18. ^ Rolinson, Mary, Grassroots Garveyism, p. 193, UNC Press Books, 2007.

19. ^ "The Messenger Passes", Time Magazine, March 10, 1975.

20. ^ George Lincoln Rockwell Meets Elijah Muhammad

21. ^ The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Page needed.

22. ^ "19 Children of Muslim Leader Battle a Bank for $5.7 Million". The New

York Times. November 3, 1987.

23. ^ "Court Gives Leader's Money to Black Muslims", The New York Times.

January 2, 1988.

24. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002), 100 Greatest African Americans: A

Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN

1-57392-963-8.

25. ^ Ali (2001) at IMDb.

26. ^ MacFarquhar, Neil (February 26, 2007). "Nation of Islam at a Crossroad

as Leader Exits". The New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2013.

External links[edit]

Elijah Muhammad's Teachings

Nation of Islam official biography

 Seventh Family of the Nation of Islam

Elijah Muhammad History

Malcolm X Reloaded: Who Really Assassinated Malcolm X?

FBI file on Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad at the Internet Movie Database

Booknotes interview with Claude Andrew Clegg III on An Original Man: The
Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad, March 30, 1997.

Succeeded by
Warith Deen Muhammad(1975),
Preceded by Nation of Islam
Wallace D. Fard 1934-1975 Silis Muhammad (1977),

Louis Farrakhan (1978) (split)

Authority control VIAF: 35268125

Categories:
African-American religious leaders
African Americans' rights activists
Members of the Nation of Islam
COINTELPRO targets
Nation of Islam
People from Washington County, Georgia
1897 births
1975 deaths

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