The Royal Family

This chapter examines the complicated Royal Family, Elijah and Clara Muhammad and their daughters, Ethel Sharrieff and Lottie Muhammad. By the 1960s the Nation of Islam had blossomed into a financially rich organization with an expansive membership. Elijah Muhammad secretaries were central to the organizations communication efforts. Some of the secretaries, Evelyn Williams, Lucile Rosary and Tynnetta Deanar, for example, were also the secret wives of Elijah Muhammad. The tensions produced by these relationships and Minister Malcolm X’s role in exposing Elijah Muhammad’s personal life beyond the membership signal the difficulties in maintaining a patriarchal movement. How polygamy impacted rank and file women, and Mrs. Clara Muhammad, conclude the chapter.

Controlling the Black Body

This chapter introduces Burnsteen Sharrieff, W.D. Fard’s secretary, and the Final Call to Islam, a newspaper edited by Elijah Mohammad. Obsessed with maintaining a slim body, Allah Temple of Islam member’s critiqued obesity as evidence of self-indulgence. Willing to defend Fard’s teachings at any cost, black women converts were jailed in Chicago’s Cook County Jail during the Great Depression.

Building a Movement, Fighting the Devil

This chapter discusses the core of W.D. Fard’s Islamic teachings. Fard’s religious instruction blends Christianity and Black Nationalism in an effort to build a Black Islamic movement. Often critiqued as a “cult” by Detroit authorities, Fard’s converts were harassed by the city’s police and jailed. Clara and Elijah’s dedication to Fard’s movement are evidenced by the changing of their surname to Mohammad and the publication of letters in the Baltimore Afro-American.

Mrs. Clara Poole

This chapter introduces Clara and Elijah Poole and their early exposure to W.D. Fard and the Allah Temple of Islam. Fard’s home grown Islamic teachings critique Jim Crow America during the Great Depression. Why Clara and Elijah Poole were receptive to Fard’s racial analysis anchors the chapter.

Epilogue

This conclusion discusses the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad’s 1975 death. Wallace D. Muhammad, the son of Clara and Elijah was his successor but not all Nation members accepted his leadership, which shifted the movement away from his father’s teachings. Louis Farrakhan, Silis Muhammad, and Yusuf Bey gave former Nation of Islam member’s Islamic options beyond Wallace D. Muhammad. Their splinter groups both embraced and changed aspects of Elijah Muhammad’s teachings. Farrakhan re-introduced Tynnetta Muhammad, and brought elements of the Church of Scientology into his teachings. Silis Muhammad and his wife Sister Harriet Abubakr, located its Lost Found Nation of Islam in Atlanta GA. Lastly, Yusef Bey’s Oakland, CA. group concentrated on acquiring businesses and court documents detail how his leadership included the molestation and rape of girls.

Modesty, Marriage, and Motherhood

This chapter brings together multiple voices to discuss why women made the decision to join a patriarchal movement. By embracing modesty, marriage, and motherhood, female members debunked stereotypes of hypersexualized black women. Agency was found in patriarchal marriage because in theory a male breadwinner freed wives from financial burdens and the assaults often experienced working outside of the home. By accepting a religious identity anchored in patriarchal precepts, Nation of Islam women counted on the promise of protection and freedoms on their own terms.

The Appeal of Black Nationalism and the Promise of Prosperity

This chapter explores the Nation of Islam conversion of activists Sonia Sanchez and Gwendolyn Simmons, after the assassination of Minister Malcolm X. Why political activists found a political home in the Nation post-1965 underscores how the Nation filled a vacuum as a Black Power alternative. Believers wanted the promises of wealth and protection, and the University of Islam evidenced the building of an independent Nation and it served to ground the movement’s teachings to children. Sonsyrea Tate’s schooling underscores how girls and teenagers were made into Muslim women for a Black Nation. The remaking of women into an Islamic womanhood at times clashed with revolutionary change.

Nation of Islam Womanhood, 1960–1975

This chapter explores how black women experienced the Nation of Islam during the call for Black Power. Blues singer Etta James, Minister Louis X (later Farrakhan), Minister Malcolm X, heavy weight boxer Muhammad Ali, and Belinda Boyd (wife of Muhammad Ali) frame the radicalization of the movement. Courtship, birth control, and the pressures to build a patriarchal black nation highlight why some women engaged in trumping patriarchy, in the service of supporting nationhood goals.

Introduction

I became initially drawn to women and the Nation of Islam (NOI) as a scholarly project when Spike Lee’s movie Malcolm X premiered in 1992. As a young assistant professor, I was asked to participate on a panel after the movie for a question-and-answer session with the audience. Given that I was the only female panelist, I knew I would be expected to answer any woman-related question. It was during my preparation for the event that the glaring void in the literature on women in the original NOI became evident. I published an essay in 1998 based on my initial findings and assumed I was done!...

Flexing a New Womanhood

This chapter details the Muslim Girls Training and General Civilization Class (MGT-GCC) instruction for women. The role of Sister Captain Burnsteen Sharrieff is highlighted along with Lottie and Ethel Muhammad, the daughters of Clara and Elijah Muhammad. Sister Thelma X, a vocal member of the Nation of Islam and her publication, Truth, are examined for both its pro-black and anti-Jewish rhetoric. Sisters Louise Dunlap and Ernestine Scott, two Nation women who defied Jim Crow laws by sitting in a “White Only” section of a railroad station, bring Minister Malcolm X and his future wife, Sister Betty X into the narrative.