(1933- ) Nation of Islam leader
As leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Abdul Farrakhan stresses personal responsibility, especially for black males, and advocates black economic self-sufficiency. His stance draws on a long history of black nationalist movements whose leaders sought to forge racial solidarity and self-reliance as their primary weapons against racial discrimination. He has often been criticized for appealing to black racism and anti-Semitism as means of promoting his views.
Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott in New York City on May 17, 1933. In 1955 he joined the Nation of Islam, adopted the name Abdul Haleem Farrakhan (later shortened to Louis Farrakhan), and rose to prominence in the organization on the strength of his speaking and singing abilities. In 1963, when a rift developed between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the organization, Farrakhan sided with Elijah Muhammad and publicly criticized Malcolm X for leaving the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan’s severe denunciation of Malcolm X led many to suspect that he was responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. Though
Farrakhan denied complicity in the murder, he acknowledged that he may have fostered an atmosphere conducive to such an act.
After Wallace Muhammad, son of the deceased Elijah Muhammad, changed the organization’s name to the World Community of Islam in the West and strayed away from the black nationalism of his father, Farrakhan formed a new organization under the original name, the Nation of Islam, and reasserted the principles of black separatism and self-reliance. Farrakhan’s popularity rose during the 1980s, especially among young, urban African Americans who admired his willingness to stand up against a society they believed to be racist. Especially popular was his message to blacks that they assume moral and economic responsibility for themselves by avoiding drugs and crime, staying in school, providing for their children, and becoming involved in bettering their communities. Mixed with this message were open attacks on white society and antiSemitic comments that were widely condemned by other black leaders.
Farrakhan’s call for black self-reliance culminated in the Million Man March, organized in Washington, D. C., in October 1995. Hundreds of thousands of black men attended and renewed their commitments to family, community, and personal responsibility. Although such exposure renewed criticism of his rhetoric, the march was considered a successful display of African-American racial solidarity and his message, based squarely on “traditional values,” moved Farrakhan closer to the political mainstream. This did not, however, remove his controversial status. He provoked further criticism by including Iran, Iraq, and Libya in his 1996 “world friendship tour” and for repeatedly criticizing the U. S. government during the tour.
See also affirmative action; Islam in America; poverty.
Further reading: Vibert White, Inside the Nation of Islam: A Historical and Personal Testimony by a Black Muslim (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001).
—William L. Glankler
World History
