Black Panthers and The Nation of Islam

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Black Panthersand The Nation of Islam
Andrew Butler James Redmond Welledue Peter McGrael
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Black Panthers

• Founded in October 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey
  P. Newton after hearing a black power speech by
  Carmichael.
• Based in Oakland, CA
• Originally named the Black Panther Party for Self
  Defense ( for Self Defense was dropped in 1968)

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Black Panthers
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Black Panthers

• Became the symbol of young militant
  African-Americans
• They grew their hair in afros and referred to
  themselves as black instead of negro or
  colored
• Some followed Malcolm X and changed their name
  to celebrate their African heritage

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Black Panthers
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Black Panthers

• Organized armed patrols of urban neighborhoods
  to protect people from the police
• Created anti-poverty programs like free
  breakfast for poor African-American children
• Gained national attention when they entered the
  state capitol in Sacramento carrying shotguns and
  wearing black leather jackets in an attempt to
  protest against the restriction the second
  amendment

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Black Panthers

• Started to decline in 1977
• Declined for many reasons such as
• The arrests of high ranking officials in the
  organization
• A struggle for power inside the party
• Investigations by the government and police

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Nation of Islam Overview

• Radical political and religious group
• Pro Black Power, very anti-White
• Started in 1930, grew gradually
• Still existent today.

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Early Beginnings

• Started in the summer of 1930, by a peddler known
  as Master Fard, in Detroit.
• Fard taught a period of temporary domination by
  Blue-Eyed Devils, who had achieved power
  through brutality, murder, and trickery.
• Fard wrote two documents to govern the movement
• The Secret Ritual of the Nation of Islam
• Teacher for the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in a
  Mathematical Way
• Fard established several organizations to
  propagate his teachings The University of Islam,
  The Muslim Girls Training, and the Fruit of Islam.

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Rise of the Nation of Islam

• Early officer rose to power Robert Poole AKA
  Elijah Poole AKA Elijah Muhammad.
• Fard mysteriously disappeared in 1934, and
  Muhammad took over.
• Muhammad established the Temple of Islam No. 2,
  which eventually became the national headquarters
  of the movement.

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Elijah Muhammad
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Elijah Muhammad

• Muhammad reshaped the movement to his whim,
  through issuing several new doctrines Master
  Fard was Allah, God is a black man, he
  (Muhammad) knew Allah personally and was his
  messenger.
• Under Muhammads leadership, the movement
  developed a two part plan to counteract black
  inferiority in society the development of
  economic independence and a respectable
  self-identity.

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Elijah Muhammad

• Muhammad greatly helped the movement to grow
  during his 41 year leadership he established
  more than one hundred temples around the United
  States, and innumerable small businesses
  associated with the movement.
• Muhammad also greatly changed the lives of the
  members, forbidding alcohol, drugs, pork, and an
  unhealthy diet.
• Muhammads 120 degrees elaborated on aspects of
  the central message that the white man is the
  devil.

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Malcom X
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Malcom X

• Malcom Little was converted to the Nation of
  Islam in prison, being happy to have found a
  culprit for the extreme poverty and tragedies he
  had experienced.
• Malcom dropped his last name for X while in
  prison. This stood for ex-Christian, ex-Negro,
  ex-slave.
• Malcom rose rapidly through the ranks to become
  minister of Boston Temple No. 11 and Temple No. 7
  in Harlem, the largest after the headquarters.

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Malcom X

• Named national representative of the Nation of
  Islam, second only to the Messenger.
• Malcom urged violence to restore black
  independence, which formed the foundations for
  the American Black Power Movement in the late
  1960s.
• A political and philosophical debate related to
  this with Elijah Muhammad led Malcom to leave the
  Nation of Islam in 1964, to form his own
  organization.

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Decline of the Nation of Islam

• After Malcom X left, the movement declined
  gradually.
• It still exists today, although is not near as
  powerful as it previously was.
• Through more than 60 years, through various
  forms, the Nation of Islam has become the
  longest-lasting and more enduring of black
  militant and separist movements.

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Citations

• Salzman, Jack et al. Encyclopedia of
  African-American Culture and History. Vol. 3
  4. New York Simon Schuster Macmillan, 1996.
• Lapsansky-Werner, Emma J. et al. United States
  History. Boston Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008.
  (textbook)

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The End