Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad (born Elijah Robert Poole, later Elijah Karriem; October 7, 1897 – February 25, 1975) was an American religious leader who led the Nation of Islam from 1933 until his death in 1975. Under his leadership, the Nation of Islam grew from a small Detroit-based movement into a nationwide organization with tens of thousands of members in the United States during the civil rights movement, promoting black nationalism and a distinctive theology that white people are a race of "devils" created by an evil black Meccan scientist named Yakub, and that there are multiple gods, each a black man named Allah, whom he is the messenger of.

In the 1930s, Muhammad formally established the Nation of Islam, a religious movement that originated under the leadership and teachings of Wallace Fard Muhammad and that promoted black power, pride, economic empowerment, and racial separation. Muhammad taught that Master Fard Muhammad is the 'Son of Man' of the Bible, and after Fard's disappearance in 1934, Muhammad assumed control over Fard's former ministry, formally changing its name to the "Nation of Islam".

Muhammad's views on race and his call for black people having an independent nation for themselves made him a controversial figure, both within and outside the Nation of Islam. He has been variously described as a black nationalist and a black supremacist.

Muhammad died on February 25, 1975, after a period of declining health. He was succeeded as head of the Nation of Islam by his son, Wallace Muhammad.