Black Muslim Movement

The "Black Muslim" movement in America, which started in the early 1900's, stems from a backlash against centuries of oppression by white Americans. By the 1920's, at the movement's beginning, slavery had been over for sixty years. Still, the status of African-Americans was still below the level of equality that they demanded, and also deserved. Beginning with Timothy Drew, (who later changed his name to Noble Drew Ali) in the 1920's, and Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in 1930, hundreds of thousands of African-Americans converted to Islam, many under the guidance of Fard's successor, Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.
. It had taken nearly four hundred years for the Black Man to climb from beneath this proverbial rock. Leading the climb during the civil rights movement was the Nation of Islam, the most influential and directional group in the history of Black America.

The members got this name because up until the formation of the group, Muslims in America were all immigrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. African-Americans did not begin to convert until Drew, Fard, and Elijah Muhammad began to preach. The founding beliefs of the Nation of Islam were that African-Americans had been oppressed for too long, and that the White, Christian-dominated American society was to blame. term "Black Muslim" is the original term for members of the Nation of Islam. The members got this name because up until the formation of the group, Muslims in America were all immigrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia. African-Americans did not begin to convert until Drew, Fard, and Elijah Muhammad began to preach. The founding beliefs of the Nation of Islam were that African-Americans had been oppressed for too long, and that the White, Christian-dominated American society was to blame. In Fard's eyes, Islam was the religion of the Black Man. Elijah Muhammad furthered this idea by preaching black independence from America under the guidance of the Nation of Islam, and also by claiming that Fard was actually Allah incarnate, and that he himself was the final prophet, not Muhammad. By this rationale, both God and his prophet would both be Black, and for that reason, the "Black Muslims" were supreme.