4.9 Black Religious Nationalism and the Black Power Movement

The Nation of Islam (NOI) was founded in Detroit in 1930. It combined basic beliefs and practices of Islam, such as devotion to Allah and study of the Qur'an, with its own mythology and Black nationalist ideas. From 1934 it was led by Elijah Muhammad from its headquarters in Chicago.

Elijah Muhammad urged followers to drop the surnames inherited from slavery. Many members used 'X' as a symbol of the unknown African name taken from their ancestors, until they received a new name. The NOI built businesses, schools and its own newspaper, Muhammad Speaks; the required 1965 photo shows men selling it.

The NOI has been controversial. Its leaders' antisemitic and homophobic statements have drawn criticism from civil rights organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and many Muslim leaders don't consider it part of mainstream Islam.

By the mid-1960s, some African Americans felt that the Civil Rights movement's focus on integration, equal rights and nonviolence didn't address the poverty, powerlessness and danger they faced every day, especially in Northern cities. Many turned to Black Power. It stressed self-determination, accepted force as a legitimate means of self-defense and set out to change how Black people saw themselves, through pride in Black culture. SNCC's Stokely Carmichael popularized the phrase 'Black Power' in 1966.

Malcolm X joined the NOI while in prison and became its most famous minister. He championed Black autonomy: African Americans should build their own social, economic and political institutions instead of making integration the main goal. He encouraged them to vote, and also to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, arguing that Black people should defend themselves when the government was unable or unwilling to protect their lives and property.

In 'The Ballot or the Bullet' (1964), a required source, Malcolm X told Black Americans to use their votes as a powerful weapon and warned that if the political system kept denying them their rights, they had the right to defend themselves. He called for Black control of the politics and economy of Black communities and for treating Black Americans' struggle as one for human rights, which could be taken before the United Nations.

His ideas changed over time. In 1964 he left the NOI, made the hajj to Mecca and embraced Sunni Islam, taking the name el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. He pursued Black nationalism, pan-African ties and human rights. He was assassinated in February 1965. His emphasis on self-defense, dignity and solidarity shaped the Black Power groups that followed, like the Black Panther Party (4.11).

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. are often presented as opposites: self-defense and Black nationalism versus nonviolence and integration. They did disagree, often sharply. But both fought racism, both changed their views over time, and by the end of their lives some of their ideas had moved closer, with King focusing more on poverty and Malcolm X more open to working with other groups. They met only once, briefly, at the US Capitol in 1964, during the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act; the required photo captures that moment.