A native of Sandersville who grew up in Cordele, Elijah Poole moved north in the Great Migration to escape the depredations of Jim Crow. While in Detroit, he heard a speech by the Nation's founder, Wallace Fard Muhammad, that proposed Islam as a tool for Black empowerment. Poole joined the movement, changed his name to Elijah Muhammad and, upon Fard’s death, assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad, pictured here at a podium, preached Black self-sufficiency and pride, arguing that Blacks were God’s original people while whites sprang from the devil.
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