Overview
The compelling biography of Elijah Muhammad. The visionary leader whose ideals and political actions have shaped a century of African-American History.
Elijah Muhammed, the founding father of The Nation of Islam and the forbear to Louis Farrahkhan, has no emerged as one of the most significan black leaders of this century. Claude Andrew Clegg II examines Muhammad's life from his birth in 1897 in Georgia, to his creation of the American Nation of Islam, to his final split with Malcolm X. Through this brilliant biography, we are finally able to understand the origins of Islam and black nationalism that has helped form the consciousness of African-American society for the last half-century.
Elijah Muhammad, the visionary figure whose religious ideals and political actions helped shape African-American history in this century, was born in Georgia in 1897 and dreamed of living a better life than his slave ancestors. Here Clegg demonstrates that, as the head of the Nation of Islam for more than 40 years, Muhammad, heretofore ignored for decades by scholars and biographers, was one of the most significant African Americans of our time. 16 pp. of photos. 384 pp. National publicity.
Editorials
Anthony Walton
...well researched and tightly written...[Clegg] is deeply informed on the ins and outs of the group.—Harper's Magazine
Kirkus Reviews
A meticulous, absorbing reconstruction of the life of the "Messenger of Allah" who led the Nation of Islam for more than four decades, until his death in 1975.Clegg (History/North Carolina A&T State Univ.) has crafted a careful portrait of the enigmatic Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Poole), a man revered by some as a divinely appointed messenger and derided by others as a black supremacist hate-monger (promulgating a chauvinist "white-devil" racial theory). Clegg maneuvers skillfully between these extremes to delineate the complexities of the leader's historical world while still offering a subtle critique of the more disturbing ideologies of the Nation, especially its propensities for violence and avaricious acquisition. This first full-length scholarly biography of Elijah Muhammad benefits greatly from interviews with the leader's family and from recently declassified FBI files on the Nation. J. Edgar Hoover's relentless pursuit of the "Black Muslims" included tapping Elijah Muhammad's phone at his Phoenix retreat, infiltrating the Nation with undercover officers, and following its leader at all times. The records of this surveillance, especially the phone tapping, reveal a complex and somewhat duplicitous Elijah Muhammad—reassuring Malcolm X of his secure role in the movement and then urging another follower to "close Malcolm's eyes and chop off his head." Clegg also details the controversies surrounding Elijah Muhammad's extramarital affairs with at least eight women, by whom he sired more than a dozen children. What Clegg is perhaps less adept at demonstrating is why, despite all the scandals, Elijah Muhammad remained so beloved by his followers, who were aware of his indiscretions but overwhelmingly rallied to his support.
In all, though, this is both an outstanding biography and an important contribution to the history of the Nation of Islam.