(originally published Aug. 2006)

This is a follow up to The Black House News (BHN) feature, “The True History of Malcolm X and the NOI,” an account relayed by Abdul Wazir Muhammad (AWM), Emeritus Minister for the  NOI who has long resided in the Los Angeles, California area.  Formerly the Western Regional Minister for the NOI, he remains active today traveling and assisting the younger ministers now serving in the NOI’s vast Western region.  In this BHN interview, he shares more of his recollections of Malcolm X and others including Brothers Jabril, Lucius Bey, Abdul Allah and Khalid Abdul Muhammad.

(BHN) –  You were previously talking about Malcolm X bringing Bro. Jabril and four others from New York to Los Angeles in the 1950s.
(AWM) –  Bro. Jabril was brought to L.A.  We didn’t have a [temple] number then but it was the fastest growing [temple] in the nation at that time.  It is now Mosque #27, [headquarters for the Nation of Islam's Western region.]  What had happened, there was a brother named Thomas J. who went to San Diego and asked Min. Majied,  the Minister of [Temple] #8 which was the first [temple] on the west coast, to come down.  [Bro. Thomas] was having meetings in his home and [things] spread fast enough to the point where we had secured – not we, because I wasn’t a Muslim then, matter of  fact, I was in jail as usual – but they were having meetings in the house and it was very successful.  They started meeting first over on Washington in the theater, after that, they had the Masonic Hall which was on Normandy and Jefferson.

There was a group of brothers on the street that heard Islam from a brother that had come from New York.  I think [he was] originally a 5 percenter but at that time the difference wasn’t all that pertinent because there was no established Islam period.  When we got that hall, Bro. Malcolm started coming and all those brothers came together and formed the foundation of the temple].  It was growing so fast that Malcolm brought five brothers from New York to  help us get organized and get the temple established.  Out of those five, Bro. Jabril – who at that time was Bernard E. X, slave name Moore – he was brought to become the secretary.  There was a brother named Henry who was out of  [Temple] #7 and he was the minister; a brother named Larry was [the] captain, and two other brothers:  Adam D., who was a teacher and I can’t remember the other brother’s name.

At the time they came, the minister in San Diego, was in an industrial accident.  He was buried under tons of dirt [with] a Caucasian – one of his fellow workers who [died] – but Allah  blessed him, got air to him and he was hospitalized and then convalescent for awhile.  Two of the brothers  went down [to San Diego] and manned that temple and Brothers Jabril, Larry and Henry stayed with us to show us how an Islamic program went.

(BHN) –  Was it Malcolm’s decision to bring the five from N.Y. or  did he have to clear that through Elijah Muhammad?
(AWM) -  I’m certain he cleared it  because Malcolm’s dedication and obedience to Elijah Muhammad is not the kind of thing that is portrayed by the media.  [He] was a very devoted and very obedient person in the work that he did.  He got the wisdom to do it from Elijah Muhammad; the way to do, what to do and all of that.  He was just an executor of the kinds of things that Allah sent him to do.  He more or less went around the country working, setting up and organizing [temples] – this is the kind of work he was doing.  Everything he did, he did it in the name of Elijah Muhammad.

However there were things, because he was the man in front of our face, there were certain things that we thought were Elijah Muhammad,  [but they weren't]. (Not talking about the doctrine).  Like, we all used to wear white socks and we thought Elijah Muhammad always wore white socks and [when] we saw him, he had on colored socks.   It was Malcolm who wore white socks because he had trouble with his feet and the dye in the socks would cause trouble.  We [were] all doing something we thought The Lamb was doing but Malcolm was doing it.  That, [however], didn’t make a big difference.

Bro. Jabril’s impact in the West
Although Bro. Jabril was not brought to be the minister, he had a greater knowledge of Islam, he knew the program.  He knew The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s word and that it was in fact the source of what we were about so he studied it very well.  We didn’t have books but he had gotten Elijah Muhammad’s articles out of the Pittsburgh Courier Newspaper.  He showed us how to study and get Elijah Muhammad’s word so that when we started reading Quran and Bible we would really understand what it was because the understanding was in understanding the word of Elijah Muhammad.

Because of the knowledge that [Bro. Jabril] had, the people who emerged as the laborers, who consequently are responsible for the Islam that was established out on the West Coast, all of them gravitated to him.  Bro. Henry was a wonderful brother and a good speaker but he did not have the knowledge of Islam as Bro. Jabril did.  Prophet Muhammad said one learned man is more destructive to the devil than 1000 pious worshipers, so as a result of Bro. Jabril being so studied, men began to grow in Islam.  That’s the basis of how things started on the West coast and we grew so fast that we outgrew the brother that was the minister.

It got to the point where young people, who were developing from the ranks,  were merging in on the leadership and really were being taught, by Bro. Jabril, the Islam that was necessary to take root.  They were getting fed more [from Bro. Jabril] than they were getting fed by [Bro. Henry] and in a sense of speaking, they outgrew [Bro. Henry.]  He was transferred later down to Miami.

The believers [in L.A.] were a combination of those who came as a result of Min. Malcolm coming;  [along with] Min. Majied, (Henry X at that time), coming to the house and  teaching, and this contingent that I now identify as 5 percenters.   We all became one group and Allah allowed us to be able to establish Islam then. We were under Muhammad’s [Temple] of Islam.

Root firmly planted in the Inland/Empire area

[At one point,] I went with [Bro. Jabril] the first lecture he delivered in
Riverside and the title was “The Coming of the Son of Man” and he took about four hours.  To this day I’ve never witnessed such a well organized – he tried to be so much in depth and when [the people] left there, everybody was crazy because Elijah Muhammad had written a series, “The Coming of the Son of Man,” in the Pittsburgh Courier.  [Bro. Jabril] studied those articles and had the thing organized.  We’re talking so far back [but] that’s something I’ll never forget.

(BHN) –  How did the people respond?
(AWM) -  Riverside, San Bernadino and Empire had been problematic since the beginning.  As a tactic of Elijah Muhammad, the way he spread Islam from coast to coast and border to border, he put 52 articles in the Amsterdam News [in N.Y.] and that covered the East coast.  He put 52 [of the] same articles in the Herald Dispatch Newspaper [in L.A.] and that covered the West coast.  He filled America with sunshine and Jabril planted Islam in the manner he saw his leader do it.

Right now, if you go out into Inland and Empire, that area, I see some of the older brothers that are laborers.  Bro. Karriem, [the minister in Rialto], he’s got a group of [them] that really, we were younger brothers together then and we soldiered bringing Islam out to San Bernardino and Riverside.  That’s the Inland Empire area where Bro. Karriem is now.  Those [older] brothers all are his staunchest supporters [and] seem to be better than the young ones.  They’re the back row of elders, the “Over the Hill Gang” I call them.  They back the young minister up so very well because the root was planted through Bro. Jabril.

Early days with Abdul Allah and Abdul Wazir

Malcolm brought the [five] people that I told you, Bro. Jabril was one of them and he automatically sought out the people who were most promising to be of help and Abdul Allah was one of them.

My two mentors were Bro. Jabril and Abdul Allah Muhammad, who was John Shabazz [slave name Morrison] at that time.  [Bro. John and I] worked at the post office together and we were attracted to each other because of our dissatisfactions.  I had gotten to the point where I was not satisfied with anything that was going on.  They were always  partying at his house so after everything was over with, on Friday nights I would always go to his house and there was always a lot of people there.  They would be partying but when I would go there the partying would stop for the two of us and while everybody was doing what they were doing, we were drinking and smoking weed but we were dealing with how dissatisfied we were.  We were dealing with ideas, not just making merry.

One time he ran into a Muslim [and] when I came over, he was talking
something different and after awhile it wasn’t dissatisfaction so much as it was that which dissatisfaction brings about and it was a change. I was seeing something.  Bro. John was very wise about the way he did it.  He started giving me the teachings of Islam but he wouldn’t put a label on it because he knew how I felt about religion.  That was the early part of 1957.  I was headed for jail – had to do a year and that’s when I decided to become a Muslim.  When I got out at the end of 1957, I went straight to the temple.

(BHN) – When did you become a minister?
(AWM) - Officially in 1961.  The first lecture I heard – whatever was taught, I would go to the projects and there would be a lot of people waiting for me because I got this new word and it was very attractive because it was unknown but it was a solution people were in love with.  I would teach what the minister taught then I would bring the people, who listened and were interested, with me the next Sunday.

I would go back again and the people who were there would bring more people and I ‘d have a new lecture.  Then Bro. Min. John was given the authorization to teach in a little small temple that was opened up on the East side and he selected me to go with him as a helper.  It was right by Fremont High School which was largely Black populated at that time, so that was good fishing ground.  We would teach on Wednesday night and would get all those students over there and then we’d take them to the main temple on Sunday.  I started opening up for [Min. John] and that was my beginning.   In 1961 I was sent to Long Beach.

Abdul Allah, he later became the West Coast Representative and he was named John Shabazz by Elijah Muhammad.  (After Min. Farrakhan stood up to rebuild the work, John came back to help and Min. Farrakhan renamed him Abdul Allah.)

More memories of Malcolm

Bro. Jabril when he was [22], he was the captain in Lansing, Michigan under Min. Philbert who was Malcolm’s brother and who had actually started [Malcolm] on the road to be what he really was by giving him the teachings before he ever got out of jail.

[Malcolm] came out and just like that he rose to minister.  He was a minister in Detroit  and then [Elijah Muhammad] took him right to the top.  The biggest, most important [temple] was Number #7 in New York and that’s where he ended up being the head and being chief lieutenant.

He ended up being the best help Elijah Muhammad had and one of the good things about him, Min. Farrakhan said this in regard to Khalid [Abdul Muhammad].  He said, “I’m gonna do the same thing with Khalid that Elijah Muhammad did with Malcolm because, with Malcolm, he raised the Nation to a higher level.” Not just Malcolm, but with the kind of mindset and attracting power he had, he brought so many young ministers following his example and they brought to the teaching – the truth was the same but they put it in a language that was more acceptable to the population.  It sounded like college, like a real knowledge of what’s going on in the street as opposed to the older ministers.  Like Min. Isaiah, the minister in Baltimore, used to say that when he came to Elijah Muhammad he was like a plow boy.  He couldn’t read his name if you put it in boxcar letters, but he studied after hearing the teachings, overcame and was a very, very good minister but it was not that [same] level.

When [Malcolm] came in, it was Min. Lemuel Hassan [in Detroit,] and [Min. Isaiah], he was one of the best ministers Elijah Muhammad had and that whole battery of ministers was wonderful for that time.  Min. Luicius [Bey] was a preacher but his appearance and delivery was such that it was very attractive to elder statesmen or people who were Masons, i.e., who were sort of leaders in the business world among Black people.  He was a master at what he did, was very intelligent and his appearance was something.  He and Malcolm used to run together … the two of them would come to different cities to bring Islam and they attracted just about everybody.  Things just went to a higher level and Malcolm was in ascendancy over everybody else – he was the national representative.

After his [separation] and death, which is something the White man has used to divide Black people against the Muslims because [the people] didn’t know Malcolm, they made him a hero and in doing this, they accused the NOI as killing him so now [the people] are mad at the Nation, Elijah Muhammad and Min. Farrakhan. We’re not going to utilize the fact that [Malcolm] made a mistake and if he had of had time to think and somebody to speak to him in the right way, he probably would have been able to make it back.

I’m trying to give you the level of the [men] that were on the forefront when Malcolm came.  He started bringing young ministers that were off of campuses, that were more learned and read and they began to appeal to the college educated and to a broader spectrum of our people.  So, with those who came with him, Islam moved to a certain level and Khalid, The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, intended to use him to raise [the Nation] to a certain level.

Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad’s early days in the NOI

When Khalid came from Dillard University, he had already met Min. Farrakhan and he’d been converted.  When he came, he was not wet behind the ears, [he was a] raw, but very talented, Black man.  It’s second nature to me to try to develop young people in the mosque that have a desire to be in the ministry.  That’s something that Allah blessed me with:  a desire to do something to help develop an aspiring minister and never do anything to block a person from being able to work out his own salvation in the way of his choosing.  When I met Bro. Khalid, he came to me and I recognized a talent and saw him as being the most talented young brother that [came] into the Nation in the Los Angeles area.

He had a spirit of God in him that made him stand out.  I saw this so I took a special interest in him.  During that time we were going very good and I was the minister in Long Beach and [also] Santa Ana, San Pedro, Wilmington and Harbor City.  These were the [temples] under my control or this was the area to which I was assigned.

When Khalid came and I saw this great talent, I gave him his lessons – everything that Bro. Jabril and Abdul Allah had taught me I tried to teach it to him.  We were having money pretty good then.  I gave him clothes and then I gave him the city of Santa Ana to work out in.  Here’s the kind of talent this man had.  I sent him to Santa Ana, one of the smaller cities in my jurisdiction.  The home [temple] was Long Beach, but inside of two months time, this brother had Santa Ana bigger than the home [temple].  It was like he was a pied piper and would go stand on a corner and they would flock to him.  From that point on I tried to do whatever I could to help him and to promote him.  He was like a son to myself.

Khalid always used to leave the mosque and go down to all these different groups and he studied how they thought and what they did.  He was part of their movement and he read their books so, as this young group of revolutionary minded people were coming up, Khalid really had their number.  He knew how to translate Islam into their way of thinking and with Khalid, his mindset and the ministers that would come in as a result of his persona and influence,  [Min. Farrakhan] was intending to raise [the Nation] another notch.

That was being done but Khalid had one of the greatest problems you can have and the Bible warns against it.  It sounds very simple but it’s very profound and it says, “It’s not good that a man think more of himself than he ought to.”  If you think you’re all that, there’s something wrong with you.  Allah is the controller of all things and everything that you got, you got it from Him.  Everything that you utilize, it’s Him allowing you to utilize it.  This whole plan/program, everything that is bringing about the exalting and freeing of the Black man in America, that’s coming from Allah and it’s directed by Him and if He blesses you to play some part, that’s not you – that’s Him.

If ever you get to the point that, after Allah has made a choice, and you say you believe in Allah [yet] you begin to think that you ought to be the choice of God, that the man you’re saying is God’s choice, now you second guess everything he says, that means you think you’re thinking better than he [is].

Similarities between Malcolm X and Khalid

This is what ended up with Malcolm.  [He] wanted to be top man and the great help that he was and the submission he showed in his activities, that [germ] developed  in itself and probably was there in an undeveloped stage, it just had to be brought out.  You can guarantee that the slave master, if he sees that germ in you, he’s gonna keep working it until he enlarges that thing and it grows bigger than yourself and you’re on your way to a fall.

Khalid thought he was not going to make that mistake because he saw the example that Malcolm had already presented before him and he said he would not make the mistake that Malcolm had made.  Then he began to study Malcolm to the point where he really wanted to become Malcolm so he didn’t do what a wise study would do and take to himself the good that he saw, he took the good and the bad.  The results were the same.

Khalid had the advantage of [counsel], if he would listen to me – and he would up to a point –  then he got to a point where he wouldn’t listen to me or Bro. Majied down in Mississippi.  We were like father figures to him and if he would listen to what it is we advised him, he would come to a better proposition than what he ended up doing, but by him getting away, that thing took over.

(BHN) – Do you remember what year it was when Bro. Khalid came?
(AWM) -  No I don’t.  If you want to know years and times, all I know is Bro. Jabril remembers dates, the time, what was said, who said it, who was there, the year.  In the Quran, I may remember what is in [it] and can utilize what I’ve learned from it almost at anytime [but] Bro. Jabril knows where it is, what verse it is, who said it, when he said it.  That’s the kind of mind that he has.  I can see how Elijah Muhammad recognized that mind and trained that mind and got it ready for him to do exactly what he’s doing today.  You’d have to have that kind of mind for him even to begin to shape it for this to come out as the result.  You talk about a mind like a steel trap – [Bro. Jabril doesn't] forget dates.  Even now when he writes, you’ll see him refer back to page 54 of  “This is the One” that book he wrote back in the ’60s.

(BHN) –  Khalid came in the mosque right after -
(AWM) -  Right after he graduated from Dillard.  I had gotten into some trouble and the supreme captain, Raymond Sharrief at that time, gave the instruction that if I had to go to jail, which was likely, for me to put my assistant on the rostrum and then go down and soldier my way back up.

I went to finishing school [prison] and was gone a couple of years.  I got out in ‘85 so that was the early ’80s and Khalid was my assistant minister before I went in.  I went down in L.A. and came back up in Phoenix eventually.  That’s where Bro. Jabril was [at that time.]  Prior to that, before I went to jail and when I was the minister of  Long Beach [Temple] #42, [Jabril] made it so that I could have dinner with Elijah Muhammad [in the 1960s].

I [became a minister] in ‘61 and the temple was attacked in ‘62 and I was sent to jail for defending the [temple] in ‘65.  After I came out of jail in ‘66,  I had a chance to be with Elijah Muhammad.  It was Bro. Jabril, he was the minister in Phoenix and when [Elijah Muhammad] wanted to get out of Chicago or Cleveland, that’s where he would come.  It was like Western headquarters.  The captain was John Shabazz.

We thought we were being slick and Bro. Jabril said, “Look brother, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad will be here Sunday and we’re going to invite you over to teach.  We’re going to tell him that you’re in town and he’ll probably invite you to the table.” I went and taught and Elijah Muhammad invited me, however, we weren’t fooling him.  When I got to dinner he was prepared.  His secretary had my file and the negatives and the positives were right there for him to deal with.  He did some straightening out of my city and myself and put me on course.  So there are some mistakes I don’t make today because I made them then.

(BHN) – What city were you in as minister?
(AWM) - Long Beach, [Temple] #42, which it didn’t have a number when we started – we were just a study group.  Allah blessed us to get a number and then I became one of the ministers of a numbered [temple] and that’s a distinction, a step up from just being a field minister, which is what I started out doing.

(BHN) – Thank you for sharing.

---

© 2008 – All Rights Reserved – The Black House News
Unlimited online distribution allowed with acknowledgement of bhonline.org as the source

The history of Malcolm X has been told a number of times and from many angles coming from those who loved him from a distance – but never knew him.  Missing from that same history, however, are the voices of those who knew the man and were active with him in the Nation of Islam (NOI) when he was the national representative of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and who remain active in the NOI  under the guidance of Minister Louis Farrakhan. Some who love the revolutionary figure blame the NOI and Min. Farrakhan for Malcolm X’s tragic end February 21, 1965, when he was assassinated in New York’s Audobon Ballroom while giving a speech.  Many who love him today only know the Malcolm X that has been sold to the public through books, movies and articles produced, written and promoted by others who also never knew the man or the circumstances of his life and times in the NOI.

  Abdul Wazir Muhammad (AWM), 74, a long time NOI minister who met Malcolm X in the late 1950s and worked with, learned from and grew to love him, offers another perspective on the man that is not often presented.   Still active with the NOI and a staunch supporter of Min. Farrakhan, Bro. Wazir recently spoke with The Black House News (BHN) and shared some of his recollections about the Malcolm X he knew and how that man compares with the anti-NOI hero that has been manufactured, spread and largely accepted around the world.

(BHN) –  When did you first meet Malcolm?
(AWM) -   I came in the mosque in ‘57, [as Brother Randolph in Los Angeles California], and he came out helping to organize.  He was bringing five brothers from New York’s Mosque #7 to staff the mosque and out of the five were Bro. Jabril [Muhammad], who at that time was Bernard E. X – he was brought to become the secretary; Brother Henry, who was the minister, and Brother Larry was a captain.
[Malcolm] was looking for a captain and minister from among the [local] people and he had an investigative process where he would try to find out things about everybody.  He asked me some things about Ali Rashid, or Captain Edward at that time, and I gave him my impression of the brother.

(BHN) –   How was the Malcolm you knew different from the man that has been built up as an anti-NOI hero?
(AWM) -  First of all, Bro. Malcolm – and that’s what we all called him and we all loved him, don’t make any mistake about that – his love and allegiance to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was kind of like legend.  He was an extraordinary man, not the kind that comes along every year or every 5 or 10 years.  You’re lucky if you get a Malcolm in your lifetime.  
He was not the kind of man that would deliver Islam and you would listen and then go outside and be the same.  It was not like that.  Your head would hurt because he was that strong and he was a teacher.  Many of the things that are guiding principles to me [today] are things that Malcolm taught me.  I loved him.
I used to work with a cleaners and when [Malcolm] came to town, I would do his clothes.  I can remember one of the things which will give you some insight into the kind of trainer of men he was.  I was supposed to be delivering [his] clothes at 7 o’clock because he needed them to do the many activities he had scheduled for the day.  I get there about two minutes after seven, knock on the door, he comes and says, “Bro. Randolph do you have a watch?”  I said, no sir.  He said, “I said to myself, you got to watch Bro. Randolph.  He looks like one of them brothers that don’t have a watch.”  I’m thinking I’m on time.  I’m two minutes late but the way Malcolm was, if he was supposed to be somewhere at 7:00, if he got there one to five minutes [early], he would wait until it was 7:00 and knock on the door.  He would not be a minute late or a minute early,  [he would be] on time.  This is the way we were trained and not just in L.A. but all around the country.  He was a very good trainer of men.  Something he taught me about Jesus, he said the reason Jesus spoke in parables was because speaking in parables calls for  interpretation.  Interpretation is a heart condition.  With a parable, your heart leads you to interpret it one way but because of my heart condition, I interpret it another way.  Jesus would speak in parables and, as a result of that, when the people gave an answer he knew something about their heart.  This is something [Malcolm] taught since the inception, 1957-58, and these are things that have stuck with me.  I could think of so many other examples to show you the greatness and goodness of that man.

Malcolm’s great ability – a blessing and a curse

He had a problem, [however], and that was having this great big head, this great big mind.  Oftentimes, he assumed leadership position that he didn’t really have.  He said things on his own [yet] if he would have just checked with his leader before he said [them], when he found his tail in the crack, it would not have been there.  Elijah Muhammad could have guided him better.  I remember in [L.A.'s] Herald Dispatch Newspaper, Elijah Muhammad had an article called “Negro Salvation:  Lies and Recognizing the Truth, by Elijah Muhammad, Messenger of Allah.”  This was at a time when negros didn’t know nothing about Allah, and the Lamb’s picture was there.  On the other side, there was this article, “God’s Angry Man,” from Malcolm X, with Malcolm’s picture there.  Young man – older man; Oriental looking man –  fiery, look-like-off-the-block-negro that had been cleaned up man.  Elijah Muhammad told him, “Malcolm, say you’re a reader and you look at this, wouldn’t you be confused?”  It’s obvious the confusion is right there because [Black people are] confused 40 years later.  He said, “Look brother, one of us is gonna have to take our article out of the paper.”  You know who that was.

(BHN) –  Was it the editorial staff making the decision to put both articles there?
(AWM) -   Mrs. [Elizabeth P.] Alexander was the editor. Regardless to what suggestion was made, any  intelligent being could see the confusion it would bring about.  I don’t know what fueled it but I know this was the consequence.  I didn’t even realize this was a problem.  I’d always had this affinity for writing and I’d always wanted to be a writer.  Having a desire to be a writer, I came into contact with Mrs. Alexander and she, recognizing the talent, sat me down at a typewriter and made me write.  It was coming along very good.  Malcolm put me in charge of Elijah Muhammad’s article in the paper and I became the assistant editor.  I didn’t want to be a writer or assistant editor but Malcolm told me that I should guard over the article of Elijah Muhammad and make sure it was not edited to the point to where it was saying something different.    I don’t know anything about Malcolm and Elijah Muhammad’s rift – it really wasn’t a rift – it was a matter of putting things into perspective but [at that time] I don’t even know the situation exists.

Elijah Muhammad let him do things and because of his innate, great ability, [Malcolm] took opportunities to say things  that really weren’t proper like, “If one Muslim is killed, America’s gonna go up in flames, we’re gonna tear this up.”  Well, we’re not gonna tear this up.  Bro. Ronald was killed**, now what?  Now you done said it, now what?

** [NOTE:  There was a police shootout and raid of Mosque #27 on April 27, 1962 in which mosque secretary Bro. Ronald was killed and a number of other brothers were injured].

Disillusionment sets in

(BHN) –  Malcolm said that but that’s not what Elijah Muhammad said?
(AWM) -  Elijah Muhammad did not say that.  [Malcolm] said he wanted the nation to go to war with the devil when Ronald T. was killed.  Elijah Muhammad said, “Brother you don’t hate the devil more than I do.  I hate him more because I know him better.  We’re not strong enough yet to fight this devil.  You want me to get the whole nation killed.”    Malcolm has said something, now he has to eat it because the Lamb did not tell him to say that.  Malcolm is disillusioned at this point because he sees Elijah Muhammad as a head chopper, warrior.

[Malcolm] had a daughter named Qubilah, he never had any sons.  Qubilah is the female counterpart of Kublai Khan, a head chopper.  He had a daughter named Attilah, that’s the female counterpart of Attila the Hun. He had a daughter named Ilyasa which is the female counterpart of Ilyas or Elijah which he saw as a head chopper.  Here this part of him is saying:  ’if something like this happens, this is what’s gonna happen and now when I try to get it to go, my head chopping leader’s not gonna let it go.’  He didn’t think about the leadership and general qualities that Kublai Khan and Attila the Hun had.  They didn’t run their men into circumstances that would get them annihilated.

The press, they were so slick and used to write all the time, “Malcolm X and his Black Muslims.”  Malcolm didn’t have no Black Muslims, Malcolm was a Black Muslim that was had by Elijah Muhammad but this is a separation they were setting up.  Elijah Muhammad has Malcolm doing the running and organizing.  [Malcolm’s] eloquent, he was a mouthpiece….  Bottom line, you  need to be of a mindset that if you’ve got a leader, boss, advisor or teacher, when you say something, that’s not you talking, that’s him talking. You are talking for him.

After [Malcolm] shot his mouth off and said something, he can’t make it happen so now he’s disillusioned and that was when things began to turn.  When [President] Kennedy was killed [and Malcolm made the “chickens coming home to roost comment”], Elijah Muhammad didn’t sit [Malcolm]  down but he stopped him from  teaching publicly for 90 days for more than one reason.  The main reason was that if he was speaking publicly somebody was gonna kill him, so that was for protection until Elijah Muhammad could get things in order where it would be safe for him to speak.

At this point, he was so full of himself that [Malcolm] wanted to make Elijah Muhammad let him speak so he went to New Jersey and started feeding the press statements about a rift between Elijah Muhammad and his chief lieutenant. Then when they respond he goes to the Lamb with the paper and says, “Look, they say there’s a division between us.  If you let me speak, I’ll clear it up.”  Of course, Elijah Muhammad wouldn’t let him speak and the things that were being said to the press were things that only certain people knew and Malcolm was one of those certain people.

He was called into Phoenix and when confronted, Malcolm said to Elijah Muhammad,  “I saw myself fulfilling a role of  Korah but I couldn’t stop.   What can I do?”  Elijah Muhammad said, “You go back everywhere  you started a fire with a bucket of water.”  Malcolm said, I’ll do that.  He left the house running.  Every time he’d get instructions/orders that’s the spirit he would go in – he was on his way to get it done.  Elijah Muhammad, he loved Malcolm and he said, “Brother Malcolm will be back with us soon,” but somewhere along the line and before [Malcolm] could start doing what he was [initially] so happy to do, that proudness took over and turned him around.   The way to turn around is there but the real desire to do it, proudness and haughtiness didn’t allow him and he went on a trail and you know the end of it.

(BHN) –  To your knowledge, were there people around him who were egging him on in that direction?
(AWM) -  If Malcolm had had a sincere advisor that he respected and he listened to, he would be right here with us today because he only needed to relax and think this thing through.

Malcolm was the object of jealousy.  I’d heard Elijah Muhammad Jr. say, “This is the best help that my father got.  What’s the matter, don’t you want him to have no help at all?”  There were people that were in high places that were really jealous of Malcolm and they, therefore, created opposition.  Some of it may have been from a standpoint of wisdom but so much of it was from the standpoint of jealousy and if you’re not strong under those kind of circumstances, if you’re not checking out your mind and checking the way you’re thinking, you can fall into deviation very easy.  That’s part of what Malcolm fell victim to but Elijah Muhammad was looking to the day when Malcolm would be back.  We all, when we heard that Malcolm had turned against Elijah Muhammad, the brother minister that brought it to us, we got mad at him because we knew he was lying on [Malcolm].  When it turned out he really wasn’t lying it really hurt us.  Malcolm was our big brother.
He had many different incidents where, because he was in a leadership role and the way he assumed it, he just ended up doing things to hurt himself.  He also knew that Min. Louis Farrakhan, (Louis X at that time), who he brought along, was gonna be his  replacement.

(BHN) – He knew?
(AWM) – He told Min. Farrakhan, “I wish that it was you being an
example for me instead of me being an example for you.”  He knew absolutely that if you’re trying to find a board to fit and be able to stand as the cornerstone that will carry the weight of the building and you try one and it breaks, you have to throw that away and get you another board.  He knew that was coming.

Autobiography a ’stroke of genius’

(BHN) – Is it true, I think it’s in his autobiography, that he was trying to reconcile with Elijah Muhammad right before he was assassinated?
(AWM) -  If there’s any truth in that, I don’t know it and matter of fact, I really don’t believe it.  Malcolm knew that when he decided to [separate himself] that he should have some protection around him, so he got with these fellows who were violent, with guns. The reason for him surrounding himself with all of that was for protection that he didn’t think was adequate.  He left here and headed to Africa and stayed gone so long that his sister, who was part of [his] movement, said, “‘Look Malcolm, we need your  leadership.  What you do over there’s all fine but you need to come back and lead the movement that you’re heading up.”  He came back here and that’s when he was killed.

The devil thought he could kill two birds with one stone, i.e. take care of
Malcolm and blame it on the Muslims.  Now you have Malcolm cast as some kind of patron saint or like somebody the White people really loved but White people hated Malcolm, saw him as a threat and really wanted to get rid of him.

One thing should be made very clear:  the autobiography of Malcolm X was a stroke of genius.  One of the gains that Black people made as a result of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad was Black Studies.  They took the autobiography of Malcolm X and made it required reading in Black Studies all over America so now Black people’s children are reading that book and [it] rightfully portrays Malcolm as a hero.  At the same time, it casts Elijah Muhammad and the NOI as [his] killers.  Now Malcolm is gone so they don’t mind our children following a dead man because he can’t take them anywhere.  Now they’re against Min. Farrakhan because they make sure that you get the idea that he was the one who brought about, to some degree, Malcolm’s demise.

The reason I know this, my oldest daughter was in school taking Black Studies and although she was Muslim, it was with reservation because of what was implanted in her mind in that school.

The first time that Malcolm went to the Middle East and he came back, we were sitting in the office at the Herald Dispatch.  I was new and Malcolm was our big brother.  I looked at him like the kind of  man you would never see deviate nor even see a reason for him to think about it.  He told me, “Brother Randolph, with what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, if I were to turn back Allah would be justified in dropping me off of the Empire State Building on top of my head.”  I said, now I know that I better not be so sure of myself – that it’s impossible for me to deviate – because here’s a man that is so big, so high and strong – if he thinks in terms of himself deviating,  then I better be careful  in looking at my chances of going that way.  This is the kind of dedication that man had.

They try to say that Malcolm went over there and saw White Muslims that he had never seen before.  When he went over there the first time, [he] saw the reality of the fact that Islam is the brotherhood of man and that the purpose of Islam is to bring about a universal brotherhood.  That’s not something that Elijah Muhammad didn’t know but you’re not gonna have brotherhood when you have people who will not submit to God and the equality of things [unless] they are in an exalted position.

Malcolm was no stranger to what was going on in the Middle East.  [He] had a mindset, ideas and things that he was trying to do before time.  The White man tried to utilize Malcolm to keep a permanent separation between those who admired [him] and those who tried to follow Elijah Muhammad, and now Min. Farrakhan.

Division masterfully healed

I thought it was so beautiful the way that Min. Farrakhan broke that down because what he did, the stance that had to be taken when all this division was taking place, was not a stance that had to remain.  As long as they could keep that mindset among the people the division was gonna stay there and [Min. Farrakhan] removed it.  The simplest way was to embrace the daughters of Malcolm and Malcolm’s wife, Sister Betty, who was with Malcolm when he was with the Nation, and after [Malcolm’s separation] and then losing her husband, she became bitter.  Until that was broken down, there was always gonna be that thing out there in the air that would stop the unity of us all.  Why should we allow someone who has been gone to stop us from going on to what it is that we have to do?  The minister just removed that and I don’t find it difficult to say that Malcolm was a great man and [he] was a brother to us all and a help to Elijah Muhammad.  

You can’t roll back the hand of time and the way that Malcolm was going in leadership, Min. Farrakhan has developed to and surpassed that already so I’m not going to wrap myself up in self importance and I don’t think any of us should.  We should all think in terms of the ultimate triumph of truth and we should always look to the day when we are liberated and in our own land doing for ourselves what all people are doing for themselves.

Malcolm’s brothers

(BHN) –  You’ve mentioned previously that two of Malcolm’s brothers were ministers in the Nation.  What happened with them after Malcolm separated himself?
(AWM) -  A brother bought a paper called The Islamic News and that was, I think, the first issue of Muhammad Speaks, (Malcolm put that paper out.)  [It has] a picture of Min. Philbert, Malcolm’s brother who was over the Flint, Muskegon and Grand Rapids Michigan mosques.  It also has a picture of  [Malcolm’s brother] Wilford who was Minister over Detroit and was also over the school [there.] When Malcolm was killed, [his brothers] didn’t go against the Nation and didn’t become vocal about anything that [they] might have felt, but they loved their brother.  It was almost like killing [them] too but I don’t know of anything negative that they had to say.  Neither of the two ever took a stand against Elijah Muhammad but they became inactive over the years.

(BHN) –  Which one guided Malcolm into the teachings?
(AWM) -  Philbert.  Min. Jabril, when he was [22] years old, was Min.
Philbert’s captain.  This is really where the foundation into the study of Islam [on the West Coast] was set:  by Bro. Jabril.  Allah had prepared him because he was with [Philbert] when he was young and he was under Malcolm in New York [for a] time.  He’d been prepared and above all he had so much exposure to Elijah Muhammad and [his] mind.  [Bro. Jabril] got to ask the kind of questions and do the kind of studying that he did and he has always studied, studied, studied.

Malcolm had a lot to do with the development of both Jabril and Min. Farrakhan.  [He] was Min. Farrakhan’s mentor.  I think a lot about the contributions Malcolm made in the production of [these] two men standing
as the base or foundation of the leadership of what has survived in the NOI.

(BHN) –  Thank you for sharing.

(Originally published July 2006)

---

© 2008 – All Rights Reserved – The Black House News
Unlimited online distribution allowed with acknowledgement of bhonline.org as the source

Sabir Muhammad (SM) is a long time Nation of Islam (NOI) member and laborer who has served in Denver, Colorado since 1970 when he was sent to minister in the city by The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad.   Formerly known as Brother Henry X in New York and then Bro. Henry 14X after relocating to California in the 1960s and becoming active in the local temple under the direction of Western Regional Minister John Shabazz who is now known as Abdul Allah Muhammad.

With Denver and the Mountain region so far removed from the east and west coasts, and life conditions of Black people equally as distant from what others experience in those areas, Bro. Sabir faced a challenge on how to bring the NOI message to the city in a way that would attract Blacks in the area.  The Black House News (BHN) spoke with him about his experiences and recollections which are being shared as part of the continuing The History of the NOI in the West series.  

 

(BHN) –  How were you first introduced to NOI teachings?
(SM) –  I first came in contact with Islam in Lackawanna, New York.  I had a brother there and I was [living] in Youngstown, Ohio at the time.  One weekend, I came up to visit with him and at that time the Bethelehem Steel Mill, one of the largest mills in America, [was] hiring so I put in an application and then went back to Youngstown.  A week later, I got a call that they’d accepted my application so I drove back and started working.
One day my brother and I were standing on the corner of Ridge Road and were talking and he asked me, “You see that man coming down the street?  Do you know who he is?”  I said, no.  He said, “That’s Tommy Mayfield, a brother from our hometown in Alabama…. he’s one of those Muslims.”  He took me across the street, [to meet him] and we started talking.  That was the first brush I had with Islam in 1956.
I first went to the mosque in March/April 1957 and I heard Min. Malcolm X who had just come back off a trip from Africa and it sounded very good, like something I thought I could be interested in and that would be beneficial to me being in the lifestyle I was in.  I started going to the mosque, made a couple of trips and didn’t go back for about 2 months and then decided, this is what I want to do.  So I told all of my friends and one of my best buddies Louis, who is now deceased, I said, “Come Dec. 31, I’m putting away the reefer, cigarettes, alcohol, the whole works.”  He said, “me too.”
We kept going to the mosque and that New Year’s Eve we had dinner at a Syrian restaurant where we used to eat all the time.  At midnight, I had half a pack of Marlboro cigarettes and we had been drinking a little booze, smoking a little weed and at 12:00, I put the cigarettes on the table and said, I’m never picking these up again.  I’m finished with alcohol and marijuana.”   Thanks to Allah I was able to stop all of those things and never went back to them and that was [48] years ago.

 

(BHN) –  When did you become a minister?
(SM) -  In Los Angeles, in 1963.  I left New York and went to California and Mosque 27 was a very striving, productive mosque [with] a lot of young people.  They had a student ministers class and these brothers would be teaching on Wednesday and Friday night.  The things they were talking about [were] different from what I learned on the east coast because Islam started on the east and was just getting into the western region.  I got so disturbed at their presentation of Islam and delivery, I said, “I can do that. I’m gonna get into the minister’s class.”  I talked to Min. John Shabazz, who is Min. Abdul Allah Muhammad now, and told him I wanted to join and he said fine.  I got in and after two weeks it was my turn to teach on Wednesday night.  I opened up for him and brought the firebrand of Islam from the East to the West and the mosque went wild.  That put me in line that anytime Min. John Shabazz couldn’t be at the mosque, I was always asked to hold it down until he got there.
One Monday I was a little late getting to the minister’s class and when I walked in all the student ministers applauded…. They told me, “You’ve just been chosen to go to San Diego to be the minister.”  The Messenger had told Min. John he wanted to make a change in San Diego and needed someone to go down.  Min. John put it before the student ministers and they all voted for me to be the one to go.  That was my first niche in the ministry over a mosque:  San Diego, 1964.

 

(BHN) –  When did you first come to Denver?
(SM) -  In January of 1970.  I was in the Nation in Phoenix helping Min. Jabril Muhammad, who was Bernard Cushmere at that time, and there were some believers in Denver who’d been writing to the Messenger [The Honorable Elijah Muhammad] about they wanted a minister.  In September of 1969 the Messenger had me come to Denver to investigate and I came up and checked.  There were about 10-12 believers.
I went back and gave him a report and at the time, I was going back and forth from Phoenix to Tucson.  In October, I was asked to come to Denver and spend a week.  I came up, stayed a week and went back and continued going to and fro from Phoenix to Tucson.  One day, the latter part of November, I got a letter from [Elijah Muhammad] and he said, “Bro. Minister, you may either go to Denver or Tucson.”  He said a few more things, then at the bottom of the letter he said, “The believers in Denver will be expecting you this Sunday.”  So he gave me a choice, then he took it back and sent me to Denver and that’s how I got to be here.

 

(BHN) –  Bro. Abdul Wazir Muhammad has commented that anybody who comes to Denver is headed here [directly], or in other words, this isn’t a place anyone is looking to pass through or has to pass through.  Why has there been such a difficulty establishing the Nation’s presence in this city and in this [Mountain] region?
(SM) –  Elijah Muhammad said all of our people are mentally, spiritually and morally dead but he said some are deader than others.  When I came here and went back and told [him] what I saw in the believers, he began to tell me about Denver.  I don’t know if he’d ever been here or not, I never asked him, but I know for the seven years he was running from hypocrites on the east coast, he went to a lot of cities and everywhere he went he left the seed of Islam and eventually a mosque sprung up.
He gave me some directions on how to go about my introduction into the city to be successful.  When I came here [and] brought my family here, we started out with about 12 believers.  Then I reflected on what he had said, took consensus of the geography and found out what the people were doing.  The brothers and sisters here, our first meeting was like a get acquainted meeting because I wanted to get acquainted with them and also the people in the city, who’s who, who were the leaders, the most respected, etc.
Denver was very unique in that it didn’t have any slum areas at that time and what they call slum here would be middle class back east.  The language had to be upgraded going into these areas in Denver teaching Islam to Black people – you couldn’t go in and talk about poverty, rats and roaches and things of this nature that we did on the east coast because they didn’t experience that.  Eighty-five percent of the Black people here at that time were working for the government, the post office, air force or finance center.  They had some kind of connection and Denver had the second highest educational level in the country next to Washington, D.C.  The average person in Denver had at least a high school education and above so the mind set was altogether different because racism was subtle.  It was here but was very subtle.  Black people were living in nice neighborhoods.  The homes they were living in back then, people kept their lawns so meticulously clean and neat.  We had to have a different approach in order to get to them.  They are reachable but there’s a way you have to do to get to them.
I took the Messenger’s advice.  He said, “Don’t go in trying to make a big name for yourself.  Go in and get acquainted with the leadership in the community, let them know why you’re there and what you’re trying to do to help our people.”  I was able to join the Ministerial Alliance and was meeting with preachers every week at a different church.  They had invited me in so it gave me a good standing with them that I was able to fit in with the community.  Gradually, I began to explain things about the NOI and the purpose and aims of Elijah Muhammad.
Allah blessed us to grow very fast because in order to have a number you have to have 40 registered brothers and sisters who are consistent.  Two years and a month it took us to go from 12 believers to 40 who were consistent and we got the number 51 in February 1972.  Myself and Min. Theodore G. X, who was in Oklahoma City, were racing to get the number 50 and he beat us by a month.  As I look back on it and check the chapters in the Quran, I can see that 51 fits Denver because it’s entitled “The Scatterers” and as you mentioned earlier about when you’re coming to Denver, you’re coming to Denver.  There are no major cities within a 400 mile radius.

 

(BHN) – Thank you.

 (Originally published Aug. 2006)

photo by Lens of Ansar

---

© 2008 – All Rights Reserved – The Black House News
Unlimited online distribution allowed with acknowledgement of bhonline.org as the source

The Rise & Fall of the NOI in Denver – Part 2

This is the second part of BHN’s interview with Zakee Muhammad in which he continues his recollections of events – good, bad and ugly – that occurred in Denver during the NOI’s pioneering years in the city.  (Originally published Nov. 2006)

 

(BHN) – When the Nation fell, how did that affect you in your beliefs and your personal life when you saw everything that had been built up come crashing down?
(ZM) - That affected me quite a bit because I felt like this is all I had and I was happy in there doing what I was doing, meeting the believers, studying and traveling around the country.  When all that was gone, I was sad and heartbroken.  I would talk to older believers, pioneers I knew before the fall, and it was always a joy when you met one that was there soldiering and fighting for Islam and the cause when you were there.  It made you feel so good when you would meet or see one because it seemed like everybody just disappeared for a minute when the Nation first fell.  It was just a sad day overall.

 

(BHN) – Were you instrumental in getting it back on track in Denver?

(ZM) – I still tried to work with the Nation for awhile and that was during the time when Imam Warith Deen, [Wallace Muhammad at that time], was over the Nation after the Messenger left.  It was a while before Brother Farrakhan really came back with the teaching, but I tried to follow the teaching of Islam and the leadership of [Wallace] but my heart wasn’t really 100% because of things that I had heard before the Nation fell that didn’t set too well with me.

 

(BHN) – About [Wallace]?

(ZM) - About [Wallace].  At the time, we held Malcolm in high esteem and then we got word that [Wallace] was with Malcolm and was not with his dad, and was breaking away from Elijah Muhammad and the teachings.  That kinda upset me but  I got over [it] eventually.

 

(BHN) – That was prior to ‘75?

(ZM) - This was after ‘75, after the Messenger left.

 

(BHN) – So people were saying that [Wallace] was with Malcolm at the time he separated himself?

(ZM) - Right.

 

(BHN) – How long did you stay under [Wallace's] guidance?

(ZM) - About 4-5 years and after that I wasn’t active for awhile.

 

(BHN) – Did the bakery here and the businesses survive after ‘75?

(ZM) – Really, I was in Cleveland when  Elijah Muhammad left us.  I had left Denver in the fall of ‘75 and relocated to Cleveland because I didn’t want my children in public school.  Cleveland at that time had a good Muslim school and I went back there in the fall of ‘75.  I didn’t come back to Denver until the summer of 1976. 

 

(BHN) – What was here as far as the Nation’s presence at that time?

(ZM) - I think [Bro. Henry] was teaching Islam and at that time he had accepted [Wallace] as the leader and he tried to rebuild the Nation.  I was still a little sore about the change and tried to follow the best I could but eventually I just dropped off the scene.  Then one of the brothers started teaching, he was trying to bring it back and I talked  to him, he was living in Colorado Springs and he would come up.  I tried to come back and  find my place again but it seemed like it wasn’t there at the time.

 

MURDER IN THE RANKS

There are so many events that took place over those years, I would need a lot of time to go back and try to define everything.

 

(BHN) – Can you name some of them?

(ZM) - One of the things was when the brother who was over our school here, when he was murdered by another brother.  He and [I were] very close.  That shattered me quite a bit.

 

(BHN) – Do you remember the year the murder happened?

(ZM) - I think in 1971 or 72. At the time I was the first officer and it was even rumored that I was one who ordered him to be killed.  That label was put on me by a very good sister friend of mine, Sister Irene.  She called me and said, “Bro. Clarence there’s talk that you might have had Bro. Keith killed.  I said, “No ma’am,  I would never do that. Bro. Keith and me are very close, he’s at my house everyday.”  She said, “The rumor was that you and Bro. Henry didn’t want him to start the Muslim school because you all wanted to get the credit for starting it.”  I said, “No ma’am.  Bro. Keith teaches my children at the house.”   In my mind I [said], I know 2 brothers in the temple that I believe would have [done]this to that brother.  At the time, it hadn’t been revealed but [later] it did come out that one of the two brothers was the one.

 

(BHN) – He was arrested and put in prison?

(ZM) - Yes.  He went to the institution for the criminal insane.

 

(BHN) – This was an FOI?

(ZM) - Yeah, he was FOI.  He stayed in prison for years and one day I happened to see him and he tried to talk Islam again and was telling me that he did it, he killed the brother, and he started confessing a lot of stuff.  I was glad that was [cleared] up because I didn’t want that on my record.  I would never do anything like that. 

 

(BHN) – But that got out in the community so people had a negative view of the Nation?

(ZM) - That’s exactly what happened.  Right. 

 

(BHN) – What reason did he give for murdering the brother?

(ZM) - I never did get the whole story on what happened and why he murdered the brother because I think he was arrested and went to prison not too long after [the murder].   He had served his time in prison the last time I saw him.

 

(BHN) – Min. Farrakhan has mentioned in the past about how there were pipe squads back in the first, is that what that was?

(ZM) - Right.  You can say that.  Min. Farrakhan remembered this brother Keith – that was his name – he was a school teacher.

 

(BHN) – The one that was murdered?

(ZM) - Right.  He was Keith X Bray and he was in the school system back in Ohio before he came to Denver and like I said, we got real close. We traveled around a lot, in fact, he and, I think, the ex-governor of Colorado went to school together and he knew him on a personal level.  I went one time with him to [the governor's] office to talk to him.  I think they went to college together or something like that, he was telling me.

 

(BHN) – Which governor?

(ZM) - Roy Romer.

 

(BHN) – You say Min. Farrakhan knew Bro. Keith?

(ZM) - Yeah because when Bro. Farrakhan came to Denver in 1989,  after he got settled, we [were] having a little meeting in  the hotel suite and he spoke that word.  He said “Denver, the city that killed my brother.” He was talking about Bro. Keith.   I didn’t know that the Minister knew him until he made that statement that night.

 

(BHN) – Did Elijah Muhammad call for an investigation or how did that work out?

(ZM) - At the time, the Nation seemed to be so overwhelmed with a lot of things like this taking place.

 

(BHN) – In other cities?

(ZM) - In other cities, so I don’t think that was really addressed to its entirety.  What went down and who did this and what, I don’t think we ever got to that.  It was handled on a local level, the police arrested Brother but the Nation was kinda like in a lot of turmoil right before the Messenger left.  So everything that took place, they didn’t follow up with sending investigators but in the past they had [done] things like that. They’d send an investigator out, he’d get all the information, document everything but I don’t recall that taking place when Bro. Keith was killed.  It could have been a time thing dealing with what was happening all over the Nation at that time.

 

(BHN) – What would you say to people who hear these kinds of stories and say, “I would never have anything to do with the Nation,” and they think things are the same today as they were back then?
(ZM) – Some, but most of them don’t go there in that regard and they seem to have grown up some.  It’s kind of died down but for 5-7 years after [Malcolm's death], it was still on the people quite a bit but over a period of time, I think it really just kind of simmered and went away.  I don’t even hear too much talk about Malcolm anymore or what went on back then. There’s a few people around who remember but they don’t talk about it too much it seems.

 

(BHN) – What do you think is the future for the Nation here in Denver?

(ZM) - I couldn’t give you an answer on that because I’m not active in the Nation like I was prior to ‘75. I go out every now and then but I really don’t know what’s going on too much with the mosque now.  Like I said, I go out, I listen to the teaching and I kind of go my own way. 

 

MEETING ELIJAH

(BHN) – Did you ever meet Elijah Muhammad?

(ZM) - Yes.  I met him real close in Phoenix, Arizona, Memorial Day weekend 1967, I believe.

 

(BHN) -  How did that meeting come about?

(ZM) - I went to Phoenix to visit [Bro. Allah] who was the captain down there.  Bro. Jabril [Bernard Cushmere at that time] was the minister and always came to Denver quite a bit.  I got to know him quite well.  The captain down there, after I got to be the captain here, we really got close.  I went there one weekend with my family and Bro. Allah told the Messenger, “Bro. Clarence from Denver’s in town for the holiday.”   He told the Holy Apostle and [then told me], “Brother stand by your phone because we might have you over to the house.”  That Sunday he invited us to come over.  One of the sisters who I was visiting in Phoenix, was the sister who called me here in Denver [asking] about did I order that brother to be killed.  See, me and her was close and so I was there to visit her too, in fact, I was staying with her.  My wife and [child], we stayed with her.

That Sunday Bro. Allah called and said, “Bro. Clarence, go to the palace, Elijah Muhammad wants to see you.”  The two other brothers who were with me – it was my wife, myself and two more brothers – we all four went over to the palace and the Messenger was entertaining.  It was still in the dinner hour and they were still at the table so he invited us to come in and dine.  I was so glad to be there and get a chance to meet him up close.  We just [sat] around the dinner table and he started teaching and one of Elijah Muhammad’s sisters was at that table that night so he was telling about things that happened when they were kids in Georgia and when the Savior came and things about Islam.

We set there for hours.  At the time, my wife was pregnant with a second child and my first child, she was a baby.   Elijah Muhammad asked me, he said, “Brother what a fine baby, let me see her.”  So I gave her to [him] and he said, “I like her.  You need to give her to me.” (laugh)  I said, “Holy Apostle if I ever give her to anybody it would be you.”  He set there talking and at that time it was crowded because the Messenger, he would drop so many things.  He was a very humorous, comical man but he’d be teaching.  The baby went to sleep so he told the sister, “Take the baby upstairs and lay her down.”

We talked for hours and this was a meeting I’ll never forget because I asked him a question that night, I said, “Holy Apostle, of all the Black people and all the negros in America, Allah chose you as the Messenger to lead us.  Why he chose you?”  The Messenger said, “Brother, whoever he would have chosen at that time would have been the one.”  That was the answer he gave me at the dinner table.  At that table there was three people that’s still around when he said this.  Sister Irene, my first wife and myself.  All 3 of us [were] at that dinner table that night.  I think Bro. [Bernard] was there and I know Bro. Allah was there because [he] was the one who had called me to come on over.  Then we set at the table and like I said, we just listened to the Messenger teach and just enjoyed it.

 

OTHER PIONEERS

(BHN) – Very interesting history.  Any final words?

(ZM) -  It’s been so long, so many things have happened, so much water over the dam until you just, things just leave you after awhile.  There’s so many stories that could be told about the Nation, the pioneering years, it just, you need to sit down and really think.  I just can’t remember every event and every detail.

 

(BHN) – Are there any other pioneers from that time that are still around?  There’s you, Bro. Sabir and his wife…

(ZM) - Yeah.  Bro. Peter and his wife  – Sis. Barbara.  One thing I remember and I told him this in the last 6 months, [that] I was the reason he came to Denver in 1965.  He came here visiting but was living in Henderson, Nevada.  Bro. [Bernard] was coming [back and forth] and sometimes every week he would drive his little Volkswagen car to Denver.  We [were] teaching in my house at 32nd and Steele Street, right where the fire station is now.  I was living there and it was about 3-4 believers he would teach and it was like family.

In the meantime, Bro. Peter came and was talking about getting out of Nevada and I said, “Why don’t you come to Denver?  We’re just getting started, we need all the help we can get.”  He said, “No, I don’t think I should come here.”  He was an engineer for the federal government in Boulder City, Nevada, so I talked and talked and talked him into coming back to stay. 

About six months ago, he and me had a conversation, I said, “You know, I ‘m the reason you’re here.  You know that don’t you?”  He said, “I know I ain’t the reason I’m here.  I know it had to be somebody.  I need to get you now for inviting me to come here.” (laugh)  He was so funny.  I was really working on him to come to Denver so eventually he did come and I told him, “I’m the reason you’re here because it was not your intention to be in Denver.  I talked you into this.”  He came and was one of our first secretaries after we got the [Temple] number 51 under Bro. Henry.  I was the captain, he was the secretary and he was a good one.

Like I said, there’s so much history like that that went on and I don’t remember the dates that well but it was a lot that took place.

 

(BHN) – When you mentioned the house that’s the fire station now, were you referring to Bro. Jabril when you said he came to teach almost every week?

(ZM) - Not every week, but he would drive up to Denver from Phoenix and we would go to different believers houses and he would teach the families.  In fact, he’s the one that taught my wife how to make bean soup.  Then another sister who later became an officer, he taught her also. 

One week, I don’t remember the year, but he brought his wife here, Sis. Bernique who was the Messenger’s secretary.  She came to Denver, they spent a weekend and the minister in Phoenix who was there at one time, Bro. Joel, I think he’s still in Phoenix, they all came up.  They used to communicate with us quite a bit back in the 60s.  That’s how I knew Bro. Allah because he was the captain down in Phoenix so he and me really got close and when the Messenger left, we both, we [were] heart broken.

One day when I started working for the railroad in 1975, I decided I’d go to Phoenix and look him up so I went and found him.  He was crying on my shoulder and I was crying on his because the Messenger had gone and we [were] depressed [so] we got us some beer and started drinking.  It was an old sister that retired, her and her husband lived in Phoenix.  When I was a youngster, before I ever got married, I lived in their home [in Denver], so I located her in Phoenix while I was there.  She was glad to see me, her and her husband, and I was drinking and Bro. Allah was too.  We were drinking beer and she said, “William what happened to you?”  I says, “A lot of things took place Marie,” her name was Marie.  I said, “I’m kinda depressed and everything.”  She said, “Well I tell you,” she called me Billy sometimes, (my name was William),  she said, “Billy, I don’t like you like you are now.  I liked you before the old man left.”  She was talking about  Elijah Muhammad.  She said, “I liked you before he left but now, I don’t think I like you no more.”  That’s what she told me in Phoenix, Arizona.  She treated me like her son when I had a room in her home.  In fact, I was in her home when I got my X in 1961.  We hadn’t started a temple yet so when I got my letter, it told me to take the letter to the secretary but there was no secretary at that time.

 

(BHN) – So you took it to her?

(ZM) - No.  Bro William, the school teacher brother who started teaching, I gave it to him and I got my X in 1961.  Like I said, there’s so much history in the Nation of Islam.  Over the years there’s been so many changes, people have been moving around, was here this year and there the next.  We did a lot of going in the first because wherever the program [was], we would go pitch in and work.  We worked during the first.

 

(BHN) – Thank you for sharing.

---

© 2008- All Rights Reserved – The Black House New

Unlimited online distribution allowed with acknowledgement of bhonline.org as the source