The Rise of the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X
The Nation of Islam (NOI) was founded on July 4, 1930, in Detroit, Michigan, by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad. Although Elijah Muhammad was its leader for decades, Malcolm X greatly influenced the NOI and helped to launch the organization into national and international prominence.
Noble Drew Ali and the Moorish Science Temple
The seeds of the NOI were planted in the soil of the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA) founded by Noble Drew Ali (1886–1929) in Newark, NJ in 1913. The establishment of the Canaanite Temple in Newark, NJ two years before Garvey’s arrival in 1915 places Noble Drew Ali at the forefront of a major black migration from the South to the North.
Drew Ali was a Freemason and was familiar with the black Shriners (the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order, Nobles Mystic Shrine) which migrated to Newark about 1901. It is then conceivable that the organization served as a model for Drew Ali’s MSTA. There is also evidence that Drew Ali was strongly influenced by The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ written by Levi H. Dowling and published in 1908 as well as the writing and dogma of the Rosicrucian (Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis) or AMORC. From such material, Drew Ali generated the Circle 7 Koran and some of the teachings of the Nation of Islam could be traced back to this prime narrative.
Drew Ali’s combination of Black nationalism and religion was as popular as Garvey’s movement and by 1928, Ali had established seventeen temples in fifteen states with Chicago being the largest one. It was at the Detroit temple where Elijah Muhammad was first introduced to the teachings of Islam. It was the belief that Drew Ali was the Seal of God’s Prophets although this opposed the Koran which taught that Muhammad was the Seal of the Prophets.
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Being a Mason Drew Ali could have also been aware of the works of people like Count Volney (!757-1820) author of The Ruins of Empires, Gerald Massey (1826-1907) author of Ancient Egypt Light of the World and the prolific Freemason writer and student of Massey, Albert Churchward (1852–1925) author of Proof that the Nilotic Blacks were the Founders of Ancient Egypt and their assertion that the black man was indeed the original man and the father of civilization. This was based on anthropology and the belief that Ancient Egypt was a black civilization.
A close friend of the Founding Fathers, Volney wrote the following in his Ruins of Empires:
“Those piles of ruins which you see in that narrow valley watered by the Nile, are the remains of the opulent cites, the pride of the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia… There a people, now forgotten discovered while others were yet barbarians, the elements, of the arts and sciences. A race of men now rejected from society for their sable skin and fizzled hair, founded on the study of the laws of nature, those civil and religious systems which still govern the universe “
The Ruins of Empires was a popular book in its day and was partly translated from French to English by Thomas Jefferson and read by Abraham Lincoln.
Not only was Drew Ali a Mason but so were prominent men in government, such as J. Edgar Hoover, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Therefore, they may have also been familiar with the works of Massey and Churchward and recognized some of the aspects of Freemasonry in Drew Ali’s movement and considered it an existential threat. We all know of the Shriners, through their work with children hospitals and their parades, but few make the connection between the Shriners and Islam.
If Drew Ali turned certain aspects of Freemasonry and the NOI into a race-based religion, it wouldn’t be the first time. Joseph Smith has long been accused of doing the same thing with Mormonism. In addition to rituals that have their birth in Freemasonry, the Mormons believed that black people were the descendants of “the curse of Cain”, and therefore unworthy of priesthood. This aspect of the Mormon Church was kept sub rosa until they were forced to change their racial dogma in 1978.
It appears that at the turn of the century, with it being the last century of the millennium, the apocalyptic millennium theory of a savior was in full force, with black people like Father Devine (1876–1975), and Sweet Daddy Grace (1884–1960), as well as Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), preaching similar doctrine. This theme resonated with black people many of them former slaves or their progeny.
These were also the days of strong occult influence. For example, the teachings of Madame Helen Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society influenced Mahatma Gandhi, Henry A. Wallace (who became FDR’s Vice President and the man responsible for putting Masonic Symbols on the Dollar Bill) as well as many within Hitler’s Nazi Party. Some scholars argue that the Swastika and the Aryan race theory prevalent in Germany were first introduced by Blavatsky.
Madame Blavatsky also had a profound effect on Gandhi and the independence movement in India which later had a major influence on Martin Luther King. Such teaching may have also influenced Nobel Drew Ali and later Master Fard as there were many spin-offs and interpretations of her teachings outlined in Isis Unveiled (1877) and the Secret Doctrine (1888). Therefore, the occult aspects of the Nation of Islam could be attributed to the pervasiveness of occultism at the turn of the century. Blavatsky’s influence, although often hidden behind a veil of secrecy, on the occult cannot be understated.
After a member of MSTA who had conflicts with Drew Ali over his number of women and extravagant spending was murdered, Drew Ali was arrested for conspiring in his murder and subsequently, he died while in jail. The absence and death of Drew Ali allowed others within the organization to rise. One such rising star was David Ford, who later became Wallace D. Fard and later Wallace D. Fard Muhammad and later Master Fard.
The Founding of the Nation of Islam
Many NOI members dispute that Fard was a student of Drew Ali, but instead, the incarnation of Allah. Yet the Moroccan Fez wore by Noble Drew Ali, the establishment of Islam and the distribution of temples was adopted by Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Religions often spring from the soil of their times. And when we examine the tree of the NOI its roots are apparent.
The changed behavior of Elijah Muhammad confirmed the teaching of Master Fard. Before he was enlightened by him, Elijah was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic. Afterward, he completely stopped drinking. Master Fard’s teaching provided three essential things. First, a reason why the white race was so evil. Second, the ability to lift the self-esteem of black people as well as a sense of unity or strength in numbers. Third, a means of steering away from the evils, such as alcohol and drugs that habitually pulled the black race down. These three things not only resonated with Elijah Muhammad, and a young Malcolm, but with tens of thousands of blacks in the following decades.
Perhaps the oddest and most ironic thing about Master Fard was that he appeared to be a white man, a John Brown so to speak, peaching the destruction of the white race and the freeing of the black race from the shackles of oppression. As part of this philosophy, Fard instructed his members to abandon their slave names, in favor of the letter X for the unknown.
Fard also gave his movement the name: The Nation of Islam (NOI). He set up the infrastructure that Elijah Muhammad was soon to inherit. He established The Fruit of Islam (FOI) a para-military group for men, The Muslim Girls Training (MGT) designed to teach women home economics and the University of Islam for the education of children. What Master Fard set up, was a race-based organization akin to the Mormons, a nation within a nation.
However, in 1934, Fard disappeared never to be seen or heard of again. The disappearance of Fard, like the death of Noble Drew Ali, allowed Elijah Muhammad to reshape the movement. There is evidence to suggest that Elijah Muhammad may not have comprehended the source of Drew Ali’s dogma as articulated and implemented by Fard. He began to preach that Master Fard was God (Allah) incarnate and that he was the Elijah of the Book of Malachi of the Bible and the Messenger of God.
Henceforth, Fard was God and Elijah was the Messenger of God. Just as Muhammad had received his revelations from Allah in the form of the angel Gabriel, Elijah Muhammad received his revelations from Allah in the form of Master Fard. There were, however, some in the NOI that did not believe that Fard was Allah. Most noted was Elijah Muhammad’s brother John. Some claimed that this was a way of Elijah solidifying his power over the NOI after the disappearance of Fard. His son Wallace was also skeptical of the divinity of Fard.
Like the Prophet Muhammad before him, Elijah converted his immediate family and friends to his newly found theology. He later outlined the NOI philosophy in his book entitled: Message to the Black Man in America, published in 1965. The following is a listing of the key beliefs that became the theology of the Nation of Islam.
1. The black man was the original man and the father of civilization.
2. The white race is a race of devils grafted by an evil black scientist by the name of Yakub.
3. Yakub was born near Mecca more than six thousand years ago.
4. Yakub taught his followers that there was no God but him and that they would rule the world with a religion-based science known as tricknology.
5. Yakub noticed in his genetic experiments that the further they moved away from blackness the eviler they became.
6. The white race became so evil that finally they were driven away from Mecca into Europe and lived like cavemen.
7. The pig was: part rat, part cat, and part dog and that Muslims should not eat it.
8. Because white people were the incarnation of the devil, they were not allowed to become members of the NOI.
The bourgeoning of World War I in Europe, the lynching of black people in America along with the rise of the Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow laws only reinforced such beliefs within the African American community.
We have both retrospection and the introspection of modernity to trace the evolution of the Nation of Islam. It was from the chrysalis of Islam, Freemasonry, Christianity and racist myth that the theology of the Nation of Islam developed; and like a moth, it was driven toward a flame of hate. It was not based on the truth, but rather, the belief in the truth.
To its members, the white man was a blue-eyed devil that had an innate hatred for the black man because he knew that the black man was the original man and the father of civilization. Although some of the beliefs may seem bizarre, nonetheless, they had the power to transform those that believed in them.
The Influence of Malcolm X on the NOI
It was while in prison that Malcolm became familiar with the stories about the NOI and Elijah Muhammad’s divine relationship with Master Fard. Just as Fard’s teachings had rehabilitated Elijah in his youth, they begin to rehabilitate young Malcolm. Furthermore, he recalls having a vision of Master Fard while in prison.
The acceptance of Master Fard and his Messenger Elijah Muhammad was vital to establishing the hierarchy and rules of engagement within the NOI. Because of his devotion and diligence, Malcolm was able to establish direct correspondence with Elijah Muhammad while in prison. This was a nexus that would prove beneficial after his parole.
Members of Malcolm’s family Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, and Reginald were members of the NOI, and this further established and helped to foster a deeper familial relationship. Perhaps more than anything, it was the aspects of the Marcus Garvey movement that were imbued in them as children by their parents and now transformed into the rhetoric of the NOI that drew the family closer to Elijah Muhammad and his organization. The family believed that their father was murdered because he supported Garvey.
With Elijah Muhammad and his family in his corner, Malcolm began to grow both spiritually and intellectually. He was baptized not only into the waters of a new religion but a new way of life and like so many religious transformations before him, he changed his name from Malcolm Little to Malcolm X. Thus, a chapter in his life was now closed and a new one opened.
Although serendipity or perhaps fate brought him to a place where he could develop, his transformation was the result of dedication, God-given ability and persistence. He was not only able to reinvent himself but to fold a turbulent past into a prospective future.
Because he had lived the life of the streets and because of his time in foster care and on welfare, he could not only relate to the disenfranchised, but he became proof of the NOI’s power to transform. In retrospect, Malcolm was always in training. His early life provided the narrative for his later success.
He entered the prison as a high school dropout and by the time he left he was a scholar debating among scholars. He became the voice of his people; the chief accuser of the white man’s lies and injustice and a leader of his race. However, the road that Malcolm traveled after his parole was not one of Milk and Honey.
Malcolm built the NOI as much as it had built him. Before Malcolm, there were NOI Mosques in Chicago and Detroit, but the NOI presence on the East Coast was small. When Malcolm got out of prison and was sent to the Detroit Mosque, he immediately notices its sparse attendance. He changed the recruiting methods and went out into the streets looking for converts.
Building the Detroit Mosque was a family affair and one of Malcolm’s brothers became the minister of the Mosque. The truth is that before Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam was a nation in name only with little demographic and national presence. It was through the devotion of Malcolm, that the Mosques in Boston, Philadelphia and New York rose to prominence. Malcolm helped to start the Muhammad Speaks newspaper, and he gave the NOI national and later international recognition.
More than any other person, including Elijah Muhammad’s sons, Malcolm was responsible for the NOI’s growth. He was simultaneously, the chief minister in New York, Philadelphia and Boston before turning the Boston Mosque over to his protégé Louis X (Farrakhan). In addition to being the chief minister, between 1954–1955, Malcolm also founded mosques in Springfield, Massachusetts, Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh, PA, Newark, NJ and Miami, FL. Although they both were iconoclasts and Elijah Muhammad possessed many skills, he was not charismatic, was not a good orator and did not have the young enthusiasm of Malcolm X.
Malcolm could articulate the truth that struck right at the heart of the issue. His rhetoric could be caustic and humorous at the same time. For example, he would say something like this: Weez been robbed, bamboozled, hoodwinked, … tricked into believing that the white man’s ice is always colder. Or, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us.” He believed that the Founding Fathers had one tyrant three thousand miles away and they rebelled. But the black man had three thousand tyrants one mile away and was expected to be peaceful and silent. Such juxtapositions of the white man and the black man were among his most effective tools.
His messages were so powerful because he could not only talk the talk, he had walked the walk. In this regard, Malcolm’s life was the amalgamation and personification of the black man’s life in the white man’s world. Although other Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King possessed good oratory skills, it was Malcolm’s ability to debate the issues that set him apart.
Even though NOI Mosques were strung up and down the East Coast like pearls on a necklace, it was Mosque №7 in New York that was its center pearl. It was the highest-grossing temple in the country. When Malcolm arrived at the Mosque in 1954, it was just a storefront with few members. This was to become Malcolm’s Mosque and the pulpit from which he preached the NOI’s agenda. Unlike other cities on the East Coast, New York was a large cosmopolitan city with many Civil Rights organizations competing against each other for membership.
It was through the outstanding work of Malcolm and Captain Joseph (Yusuf Shah) that the NOI presence was established and maintained in America’s largest city. Malcolm had rescued Captain Joseph from alcoholism and for many years Joseph was his right-hand man. In many ways, Mosque №7 was the icon of Malcolm’s evangelism and his ability to attract members to the NOI.
Perhaps Malcolm was the victim of his own success and some within the NOI became jealous of his fame and notoriety. He was seen by many within as being bigger than the organization, and moreover, bigger than Elijah Muhammad. As a result, he had to be put in his place. Members within the NOI as well as the Federal Government began to see him as a threat. They worked in tandem to pull Malcolm down as some members of the NOI covertly worked with law enforcement.
Malcolm’s departure from the NOI
When Malcolm made “the chicken coming home to roost” statement after President Kennedy’s assassination, in November of 1963, along with the scandal within the NOI regarding Elijah Muhammad’s affairs with female members within the NOI, it gave his enemies inside and outside the excuse to coalesce and ostracize him from the NOI. After all the talk and rhetoric about blue-eyed devils, the NOI appeared to have a legitimate fear of a government composed of such men.
After his trip to Mecca and Africa, Malcolm was transformed and moved by the vastness and diversity of Islam. He changed his name and grew facial hair, perhaps as a sign of his transformation and independence from the NOI. Many saw this as a sign that Malcolm now believed that he was bigger than the NOI and that he no longer viewed Elijah Muhammad as divine, but rather, as human with human frailties. He had crossed the Rubicon, and he could no longer subscribe to the theology of the NOI.
Many of his friends including, Captain Joseph, Muhammad Ali, and Louis Farrakhan, abandoned him and his only supporter within the NOI was Elijah Muhammad's son Wallace. It was Malcolm who was the mentor and spiritual advisor to a young Cassius Clay. Before his fight with Sonny Liston in 1964, not many NOI members believed that Clay could defeat Liston. However, when he became heavyweight champion of the world, they embraced him as one of their own. He changed his name to Muhammad Ali; a name given to him by Elijah Muhammad. His victory and conversion sent shockwaves throughout the sports world.
Having the heavyweight champion of the world in your corner was a huge step for the NOI. With Malcolm out of the picture, Ali became their new shining object. Many, however, did not care much for boxing and saw Ali as a cash cow and celebrity that could represent their organization on the world stage. The truth of the matter is that Malcolm had outgrown the NOI. He was an international figure that became the symbol of black oppression around the world.
No longer restricted by Elijah Muhammad's myopic view of the world, he was free to seek his own agenda. He accepted, as Wallace D. Muhammad later did, Islam in its orthodox form. Within the Islamic world, the NOI was seen as a pariah and an organization based on myth and not the truth. Their racist theology and the notion that Elijah Muhammad was the Messenger of God was a bridge too far for most traditional Muslims.
In this regard, Malcolm created a nexus between the Middle East and Africa at a time when Africa was revolting against European colonialism. He became a greater threat to those outside of the NOI. While inside the NOI, he could be contained and somewhat controlled. Outside, however, he was free to establish a new organization based on Pan-Africanism and black unity. Furthermore, debunking the theology of the NOI was one thing, but an attack on Islam would alienate America’s allies in the Middle East.
In America, Martin Luther King was the voice of Southern blacks and a champion of the black Christian movement. Malcolm, however, was the voice of urban oppression and the young. He dispelled the myth that racial discrimination was a Southern thing. He believed in the liberation of his people By Any Means Necessary whether it be the ballot or the bullet. Moreover, no longer bounded by the dogma of the NOI, Malcolm and King could combine forces against the oppression of African Americans and perhaps bring a case against the United States to the United Nations.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union pointed out the racial hypocrisy of the United States. With African nations in rebellion, America’s post-World War II inheritance as the standard-bearer of freedom and democracy, along with the bourgeoning of war in Vietnam, America could not afford additional criticism from within. Surveillance on King and Malcolm was conducted by America’s Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agencies and some argue that they were viewed, by J. Edgar Hoover, as enemies of the state. Both men were assassinated before their fortieth birthday.
Assassination
The assassination of Malcolm X by Black Muslims on February 21. 1965 at the Audubon ballroom in front of his children and pregnant wife was the end of his earthly journey and a sad day for African Americans. Many argue that his assassination was initiated by the Federal Government and that it was important that he died by the hands of his own people.
Malcolm’s life was full of irony and so was his death. It was difficult to find a Mosque that would take his body for service and its was also difficult to find a church. In the end, his body lay in state and his funeral was held at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in West Harlem. It was Ossie Davis that delivered Malcolm’s Eulogy. Ossie recalls Malcolm’s burial:
When we got to the cemetery, the professional grave diggers were standing there with their shovels, but some of the Black brothers said, no, uh uh. We dig this grave. We cover this brother with dirt. And it was a moving moment, and I was proud at that moment to be Black. And proud that my community and people, no matter what had been said by the outside world, said to the brother, we loved you and respected and admired you. And we buried him, and there it is.
To people of African descent around the world, Malcolm was a hero and true to the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald: show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy. His death was a tragedy. Yet, like so many martyrs before him, he gave birth to something greater than himself. The struggle for equality did not die with Malcolm and in the coming years, violence ensued in cities across America. He became the inspiration of the Black Panther Party which started a year after his death.
It is most unfortunate that today, Malcolm’s accomplishments are often hidden in the shadows of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and other icons of the Civil Rights movement, and at times, the caustic rhetoric of Farrakhan. He was a seminal figure of which any race would be proud to call one of their own.
In the aftermath of his death, many members of the NOI bragged about what the NOI did for Malcolm and some even boasted about his killing. Yet few recognized what Malcolm had done for the NOI. They viewed him as a traitor, a Judas within their midst, because he had the courage and the fortitude to speak truth to power. He died poor, and everything he had, including his house, belonged to Elijah Muhammad and the NOI. It is left to posterity to judge whether Malcolm betrayed the NOI; or the NOI betrayed Malcolm?
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