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Nation of Islam founded
During the summer of 1930, a street vendor named Wallace D. Fard appeared in Detroit, Michigan‘s Paradise Valley, claiming to be the leader of the Nation of Islam. Fard’s idea revolved around the claim that Islam was the true religion for blacks, and Christianity was only the faith of the “white devils” who were inferior to blacks. His preaching for black rights rapidly gained him many followers, renting a Detroit meeting hall as the NOI’S first Temple after 3 years. -
Elijah Muhammad seizes control of NOI
One Fard's earliest disciples was Elijah Poole, who changed his name to Elijah Muhammad. When Fard left the U.S. in 1934, Muhammad seized control of the organization, running it with absolute authority. -
NOI gains thousands of members
By the early 1950s, the NOI had several thousand members and Temples in Detroit, Chicago (Illinois), Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Washington, D.C. and other major cities. -
Malcolm X joins
During the spring of 1952, ex-convict Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X, joined the NOI. A charismatic orator, he soon became the Nation’s chief spokesman, created the organization’s newspaper. -
First public mention of NOI
The American public learned about the NOI when New York‘s WNTA-TV made a documentary titled “The Hate that Hate Produced”, depicting the NOI as a black supremacist group whose goal was the separation of blacks from the United States into a separate homeland in five Southern states. The reaction to the NOI’s ideas was overwhelmingly negative and civil rights leaders as well as other African Americans who were Muslims actively disassociated themselves from the organization’s ideology. -
Malcolm X breaks from NOI
On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam. Though still a Muslim, he felt that the Nation had "gone as far as it can" because of its rigid teachings. -
Malcolm X is assassinated
Malcolm was assassinated by rival Black Muslims in New York City while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. -
Elijah Muhammad dies, Son takes over
The attacks on Elijah Muhammad and his organizations continued until his death in 1975 when his son Wallace D. Muhammad assumed the leadership of the NOI. He engineered a series of conceptual changes that brought the NOI in line with Orthodox Islamic practices and abandoned the theory of racial superiority. -
Louis Farrakhan creates "new" NOI
Minister Louis Farrakhan in 1978 created the “new” Nation of Islam. The new Nation returned to the original teachings of Elijah Muhammad. -
Million Man March, Washington D.C.
In 1995 Farrakhan and the new Nation of Islam convened the Million Man March on Washington D.C., an effort to publicly challenge the disintegration of both the black family and African Ameican communities. The March may have attracted nearly one million participants although the actual figure is disputed. It clearly registered the Nation of Islam as an influential force among huge segments of the African American community even if the actual NOI membership remained less than 30,000. -
Today
Today the Nation of Islam owns hundreds of businesses nationwide and operates its own farm to support its members.