Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole, later Elijah Karriem; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an American religious leader who led the Nation of Islam from 1933 until his death in 1975. Under his leadership, the Nation of Islam grew from a small Detroit-based movement into a nationwide organization with tens of thousands of members in the United States during the civil rights movement. He promoted black nationalism and a distinctive theology which taught that white people were a race of "devils" created by an evil black meccan scientist named Yakub, and that there were multiple gods, each a black man named Allah whom he was the messenger of.
In the 1930s, Muhammad formally established the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that originated under the leadership and teachings of Wallace Fard Muhammad and that promoted black power, pride, economic empowerment, and racial separation. Muhammad taught that Fard Muhammad is the 'Son of Man' of the Bible, and after Fard's disappearance in 1934, Muhammad assumed control over Fard's former ministry, formally changing its name to the "Nation of Islam".
Muhammad's views on race and his call for black people having an independent nation for themselves made him a controversial figure, both within and outside the Nation of Islam. He has been variously described as a black nationalist and a black supremacist.
Muhammad died on February 25, 1975, after a period of declining health. He was succeeded as head of the Nation of Islam by his son, Wallace Muhammad.
Early years and life before Nation of Islam
Elijah Muhammad was born Elijah Robert Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, on October 7, 1897, the seventh of thirteen children of William Poole Sr. (1868–1942), a Baptist lay preacher and sharecropper, and Mariah Hall (1873–1958), a homemaker and sharecropper.
Elijah's education ended at the fourth grade, after which he went to work in sawmills and brickyards. To support the family, he worked with his parents as a sharecropper. When he was 16 years old, he left home and began working in factories and at other businesses.
Elijah married Clara Evans (1899–1972) on March 7, 1917. In 1923, the Poole family was among hundreds of thousands of black families forming the First Great Migration leaving the oppressive and economically troubled South in search of safety and employment. Elijah 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".Claude Andrew Clegg III, An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad, St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.
Moving his own family, parents, and siblings, Elijah and the Pooles settled in the industrial north of Hamtramck, Michigan. Through the 1920s and 1930s, he struggled to find and keep work as the economy suffered during the post World War I and Great Depression eras. During their years in Detroit, Elijah and Clara had eight children, six boys and two girls.Richard Brent Turner, "From Elijah Poole to Elijah Muhammad", American Visions, October–November 1997.
Conversion and rise to leadership
While he was in Detroit, Poole began taking part in various black nationalist movements within the city. In August 1931, at the urging of his wife, Elijah Poole attended a speech on Islam and black empowerment by Wallace Fard Muhammad (Wallace D. Fard). Afterward, Poole said he approached Fard and asked if he was the "Mahdi" (redeemer), Fard responded that he was, but that his time had not yet come. Fard taught that black people, as original Asiatics, had a rich cultural history which was stolen from them in their enslavement. Fard stated that African Americans could regain their freedom through self-independence and cultivation of their own culture and civilization.
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.The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad (2001). This source claims the first encounter between Poole and Fard took place at the Poole's dinner table. His younger brother Kalot Muhammad became the leader of the movement's self-defense arm, the Fruit of Islam.
Fard 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.The Messenger (2001) suggests the name was changed to convince the authorities that Allah's Temple of Islam had disbanded. Muhammad and Wallace Fard continued to communicate until 1934, when Wallace Fard disappeared. Muhammad succeeded him in Detroit and was named "Minister of Islam". After the disappearance, Muhammad told followers that Allah had come as Wallace Fard, in the flesh, to share his teachings that are a salvation for his followers.An Original Man: One NOI tenet states: "There is no God but Allah, Master W. D. Fard, Elijah, his prophet"Charles Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994.Chronology of the Nation of Islam, Toure Muhammad.
In 1934, the Nation of Islam published its first newspaper, Muhammad Speaks, 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 Muhammad in 1934 and to violent confrontations with police. Elijah was put on probation, but the university remained open.
Leadership of the Nation of Islam 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, Elijah left Detroit and settled his family in Chicago. Still facing death threats, Elijah 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.Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience, University of Indiana Press 1997"A Historical Look at the Honorable Elijah Muhammad", Nation of Islam web site.
On May 8, 1942, 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 a seven-year absence. Muhammad was arrested there, charged with eight counts of sedition for instructing his followers to not register for the draft or serve in the armed forces. Acquitted of sedition, but found guilty of draft evasion, Muhammad served four years in prison, 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.E. U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism, University of Chicago Press, 1962
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.Bowman, Jeffrey. "Elijah Muhammad". Elijah Muhammad (2006): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. December 16, 2013
Muhammad preached his own version of Islam to his followers in the Nation. According to him, blacks were known as the "original" human beings, with "evil" whites being an offshoot race that would go on to oppress black people for 6,000 years. The origins of the white race would come to be known as Yacub's History within Muhammad's teachings. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X talks about when he first encounters this doctrine, though he would later come to regret that he ever believed in it.
Some scholars and commentators have noted parallels between certain teachings, symbolism, and rhetorical themes within the Nation of Islam and elements associated with Freemasonry and other esoteric traditions. Elijah Muhammad demonstrated sustained interest in the subject through his publication The Secrets of Freemasonry, which discussed Masonic symbolism, history, and religious themes. Academic studies of the Nation of Islam have also identified influences from broader currents of esotericism, Black nationalist religious thought, and symbolic initiation traditions, while generally distinguishing such intellectual or symbolic influence from evidence of formal Masonic membership by Elijah Muhammad himself.
He preached that the Nation of Islam's goal was to return the stolen hegemony of the inferior whites back to blacks across America. Much of Muhammad's teachings appealed to young, economically disadvantaged, African-American males from Christian backgrounds. Traditionally, black males would not go to church because the church did not address their needs. 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.
By the 1970s, the Nation of Islam owned bakeries, barber shops, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, night-clubs, 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.In the Name of Elijah Muhammad. In 1972, Muhammad told followers that the Nation of Islam had a net worth of $75 million.Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad Random House, 2001.
Dietary advice
Muhammad authored a two volume How to Eat to Live which promoted pseudoscientific views about diet and nutrition.Tucker, S. D. (2018). Quacks!: Dodgy Doctors and Foolish Fads Throughout History. Amberley Publishing. pp. 94-100. Muhammad argued that only one meal should be eaten a day at the most and if black people eat only one meal every three days they will never get sick and may possibly live for 1000 years. He argued that eating pork will bring about depraved behaviour and culture of White westerners. According to Muhammad, beef, lamb, and camel were permissible but should be avoided if possible.Berg, Herbert. (2009). Elijah Muhammad and Islam. New York University Press. p. 94. He stated that "Allah forbids us to eat the flesh of swine or of fish weighing 50 pounds or more".