The black muslims in America

292 Pages·1961·15.559 MB·English

by  Eric C. Lincoln

his
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The Black Muslims
in America
by C. Eric Lincoln
Foreword by Gordon W. Allport
Beacon Press Boston
24697
Copyright © 1961 by C. Eric Lincoln
All rights reserved
Published simultaneously in Canada by
S. J. Reginald Saunders and Co., Ltd., Toronto
Library of Congress catalog card number: 61-5881
Printed in the United States of America
October, 1963
This book originated as a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Graduate School of Boston University
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge with thanks use of material from
the following sources: E. Dd. Beynon, “The Voodoo Cult Among
Negro Migrants in Detroit,” American Journal of Sociology (July
1937-May 1938); A. E. Fauset, ‘‘ Moorish Temple Scieinn Amcerieca, ”
in J. M. Yinger’s Religion, Society, and the Individual, Macmillan;
E. Hofler, The True Believer, New American Library; Mike Wallace
and Louis Lomax, “The Hate That Hate Produced,” Newsbeat
(WNTA-TV); Sepia, November 1959.
Preface
In the autumn of 1956, I was teaching courses in religion
and philosophy at Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. This study
of the Black Muslims began when I read the following appraisal
of Christianity in a term paper submitted to me by a senior stu-
dent:
The Christian religion is incompatible with the Negro’s aspirations for
dignity and equality in America. It has hindered where it might have
helped; it has been evasive when it was morally bound to be forthright;
it has separated believers on the basis of color although it has declared
its mission to be a universal brotherhood under Jesus Christ. Christian
love is the white man’s love for himself and for his race. For the man
who is not white, Islam is the hope for justice and equality in the
world we must build tomorrow.
Inquiry revealed that the writer, a sensitive and gifted young man,
had come under the influence of the local Muslim minister, as had
a few other students at the college. Despite their Christian back-
grounds, and despite the fact that they were even then attending a
church-related college, these young men had despaired of Chris-
tianity as a way of life capable of affording them the respect and
dignity they sought and deserved.
I did not share those sentiments, and I do not share them
today; but the challenge to study the alternative proposed in the
term paper was irresistible.
This study of the Black Muslims has been an interesting and
fascinating adventure, full of surprises and of social and religious
inconformities. I soon discovered, for example, that these were
no ordinary Moslems, nor did they wish to be taken as such. To
distinguish themselves from the small Moslem enclaves that have
existed in a few American cities for generations, they chose the
spelling “Muslim” rather than the more familiar “Moslem.”
Further, these Muslims emphasize that they are “Black Men,”
black as the antithesis of white. They do not subscribe to the
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1v Preface
familiar Moslem doctrine that a common submission to Allah
erases and transcends all racial awareness. On the contrary, they
do not conceive the white man as capable of being a Muslim. “By
nature he is incapable!”
The racial emphases peculiar to this rapidly growing, Chi-
cago-centered movement suggested the descriptive phrase “Black
Muslims,” which I coined in 1956 and which has been widely
used since to designate this group. Theretofore they had been
variously known as the “Temple People,” “the Muhammadans,”
“the Muslims,” “the Voodoo Cult” and “the Nation of Islam.”
The study of the Black Muslims has taken me to many cities
across the country, and it has provided unusual opportunities for
me to sense directly the several pulses of America’s Negro com-
munity, which is now making a determined struggle for a creative
and meaningful existence. —To most Negroes the teachings of the
Black Muslim leader, Elijah Muhammad, are intellectually repug-
nant, but one is uncomfortably conscious of an emotional ambiva-
lence towards the attraction and the power of a doctrine which
promises an “escape into freedom” after so many years and so
many forms of bondage. The rational self rebels against racism
in any form and from any quarter, but the emotional self resists
the contemplation of a reversal of fortune only with great effort.
This study is in no sense complete. At best it presents a
partial perspective of the dark and serious problems of racial
tension—problems which confront responsible men in this country
and throughout the world. We need more studies about the voice-
less people who want to be heard in the councils of the world.
We need more action in terms of the truths that are already
known. We shall have to hurry, I think, if we hope to pass on to
our children a world in which there is reasonable hope for creative
survival.
Many individuals and institutions have lent encouragement
or support to the study during the years it was in progress. It
would be impossible to name them all, but I wish to express my
thanks and appreciation to every person who has in any way
participated in bringing this piece of research to its present stage.
First of all, I would express my thanks to Albert and Jessie
Danielsen of Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, whose comfortable
Preface Vv
home and warm friendship have provided a haven of refuge at
periods when the day to day pressures have demanded respite.
I am particularly indebted to Professor Gordon Allport of
Harvard University and to Professor Harold Isaacs of the Center
for International Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology for their encouragement and advice at critical periods of
research and writing.
Dr. Kenneth Benne, Director of the Boston University
Human Relations Center, and Mr. Frank Hurwitz, Executive
Secretary of the Center, not only placed the facilities of the Center
at my disposal but also relieved me of the normal responsibilities
incident to being a Human Relations Fellow, thus permitting me
to give full time to research on the Black Muslims. Professor
Robert Chin at the Center has been of invaluable help and encour-
agement in helping to structure the research and in criticizing my
methods of procedure and investigation.
I wish also to express my thanks to Mr. Elijah Muhammad,
the “Spiritual Head of the Muslims in the West,” for his coopera-
tion in certain phases of the study. I am especially indebted to
Minister Malcolm X of New York City and to Minister Louis X
of Boston for the unusual degree of cooperation I have received
from them during the course of the investigation. While we have
not always agreed on certain premises incident to the Movement,
these gentlemen have always welcomed me with courtesy, respect
and a spirit of cooperation.
The Pittsburgh Courier made its files available to me, an
important courtesy for which I am very grateful indeed.
To President James P. Brawley and Dean A. A. McPheeters
of Clark College, I would express my appreciation for their con-
tinued encouragement, and for the extended leave of absence
which made it possible for me to complete the research, the dis-
sertation and this manuscript before returning to my post as
Professor of Social Philosophy at Clark.
It would be difficult indeed for me to adequately express my
gratitude to Dean Walter G. Muelder and Associate Professor
Paul Deats, Jr., of the Boston University School of Theology.
Nominally the professors directing my graduate studies, they have
in fact been friends and counselors through three long and crucial
Vi Preface
years. I cannot hope to repay them for their guidance and con-
fidence—and for their abiding friendship, which has always been
a dimension external to the professor-student relationship.
I wish to express my indebtedness to Miss Sylvia Lafargue,
Miss Hester W. Price and Mrs. Bertha S. Mintz, whose expert
typing turned my original notes into an acceptable manuscript.
This has been an expensive undertaking, and it could not
have been accomplished without generous support from several
sources. The initial investigation was unsupported; but three
years of study and research at Boston University were supported
by grants and fellowships from the John Hay Whitney Foundation,
The Crusade Scholarships of the Methodist Church, the Lilly
Foundation, the Boston University Human Relations Center,
the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
Professor Lyman V. Cady, head of the Department of Re-
ligion and Philosophy during my graduate studies at Fisk Uni-
versity, very graciously interrupted his summer vacation to read
portions of the manuscript and to make suggestions for its im-
provement; so also did Alex Haley, who has himself been an
observer and interpreter of the Movement, and Dr. J. T. Wright,
former director of the Staten Island Mental Health Association.
All three are wise and perceptive friends and critics. Whatever
inadequacies may persist in this study can but reflect my own
inability to employ effectively the prudent judgments available to
me.
Finally, it should be acknowledged that the real sacrifice
making this study possible has been borne by those most dear to
me, who have had to carry on in my absence longer than it was
reasonable to ask. I only hope that in some way this effort has
been worth their patience and deprivation.
C. Eric LINCOLN
Boston, Massachusetts
December 1960
Contents
Preface
Foreword by Gordon W. Allport 1X
1. The Verdict Is “Guilty’—The Sentence Is “Death”
The End of the Second-Class Ride 6 The Stranger in Detroit 10
Economic and Political Power 17 The Believers . . . 21
. And Why They Become Believers 27
2. The Dynamics of Black Nationalism ais)
I. Bitter Soil and Bitter Fruits 34
Group Consciousness 34 Avoidance 35 Acceptance 38
Aggression 39
II. Black Nationalism, U.S.A. 41
Stereotype and Identity 41 Black Nationalism 43 Black
Nationalism and Social Class 46
Black Nationalism: The Minor Leagues 50
Religious Nationalism: The Moorish Science Temples 51
Political Nationalism: The Garvey Movement 56 Preparing
the Way for Allah 66
The Faith and the Future 67
I. Doctrines and Mythology 68
The Plight of the So-Called Negroes 68 The Coming of
Allah 72 The Original Man 75 The White Man and
Christianity 76
II. Muslim Morality 80
III. The Goals of the Movement 84
The United Front of Black Men 84 Racial Separation 87
Economic Separation 90 Some Good Earth 94
Reaching for the Masses 98
I. The Nature of a Mass Movement 98
The Importance of Mass Membership 98 The True Be-
liever 99 Leadership in the Mass Movement 101 The
Instruments of Unification 103
vil
Vili Contents
II. The Black Muslims as a Mass Movement 106
Reaching for the Masses 106 Lures for the True Be-
liever 108 Recruitment 111 Visit to a Temple 115
Schools and the Center 126 Mr. Muhammad Speaks 129
6. Tensions: Outside the Movement 135
I. The Negro Community 135
Individual Negro Leadership 135 The Negro Press 141
Institutional Negro Leadership 145 The Negro Christian
Churches 155 The Negro Man in the Street 159
II. The Jewish Community 165
Ill. The American Islamic Community 169
IV. The White Community 172
7. Tensions: Inside the Movement 179
I. The Concentration of Power 180
The Long Road from Sandersville 180 Malcolm X:
First Plenipotentiary 189 Near the Center192 Trouble
on the Horizon 194
Il. The Secret Army 199
III. The Search for Respectability 204
Violence and the Christian Tradition 204 The Race
Issue 208
8. The Black Muslims and Orthodox Islam 210
A Legitimate Religion? 212 A Moslem Sect? 218 The Politi-
cal Implications 223
9. The Meaning for America 230
I. The Spectrum of Negro Protest 227
A Vestige of Faith 227 Group Identification: The Cor-
porate Response 229
II. Separatist Organizations 234
Ill. Integrative Organizations 238
IV. The Black Muslim Movement 246
The Edge of the Spectrum 246 Function and Dysfunc-
tion 248
V. The Deeper Cause 253
Notes 257
Index 270