As dedicated Nation of Islam members traveled from city to city sharing the message, selling Muhammad Speaks newspaper as well as Whiting H&G fish, African Americans became more interested in what the NOI offered. This was during the 1960s and 1970s when civil rights for African Americans was foremost in the minds of the people
“Up, you mighty race. Accomplish what you will.”
Marcus Garvey
“Up, you mighty nation. You can accomplish what you will.”
Honorable Elijah Muhammad
During the Jim Crow Era, it seems that a “genetic memory” of Islam was truly re-awakened within African Americans. Noble Drew Ali and his Moorish Science Temple, Marcus Garvey, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammed brought the religion back into the consciousness of many in the public. These movements shared some similarities, but they had some differences. (Note the two quotes above).
Each movement promoted knowledge of self, self-sufficiency, and nationalistic and pro-separatist activities. Garvey’s followers differed from Elijah Muhammad’s NOI followers and the followers of Noble Drew Ali. The NOI and Ali’s Moorish Science Temple promoted a version of Islam that attracted the long suffering African American. For example, both Ali’s and Muhammad’s members were encouraged to change their last name to Bey or X. They stressed dignified behavior and dress, and they referred to their places of worship as temples.
These movements show a people’s evolution towards full human dignity and an ability to fully express their G-d given human potential. The primary objective of each movement was to uplift the spirit of the African American and point him towards productivity because the legacy of slavery and continued racism cast them all as inferior, not fully human and not entitled to full and complete privileges that other human beings on earth enjoyed.
Earlier visionaries and fighters for human dignity include: Phillis Wheatley, Nat Turner, John Brown, Elizabeth Freeman (aka Mum Bett), and Frederick Douglas to mention a few. There is an unfolding over time…and the journey continues…
A book by Imam A.K. Hasan aptly illustrates how his family evolved through these three movements.
Imam Hassan “details African-American life in the years following the civil war, and the extreme challenges that followed. Hasan reveals his family’s adverse history in the south, and subsequent migration north where they encountered the birth of Black Nationalism. Through stunning family and personal accounts he then reveals a chain-of-events showing beyond doubt how the foundation was paved for the emergence of Muslims in America…
Beginning with The Honorable Marcus Garvey and The Honorable Noble Drew Ali early in the 20th century, Hasan discusses the nationalistic movements that helped shape this unique social development. Utilizing his family’s remarkable history, along with his noted personal experiences with The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Nation of Islam, Hasan provides profound insight into this unparalleled occurrence.” Synopsis from Amazon.
Image of Imam Abdul Karim Hasan author of Our Family’s Evolution From Nationalism to Al-Islam. Image courtesy of The Masjid Bilal Islamic Center.
The arc of Hasan’s family narrative is an important contribution to understanding the historical evolutions of Islam in African American communities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Muslim African Americans in North Carolina 