Louis Farrakhan
| Louis Farrakhan | |
|---|---|
| File:Louis Farrakhan delivering a speech.jpg | |
| Born | Louis Eugene Walcott May 11, 1933 New York City, U.S. |
| Education | English High School of Boston, Winston-Salem State University |
| Occupation | Leader of the Nation of Islam Former calypso music singer |
| Predecessor | Warith Deen Mohammed |
| Spouse | ∞ 12 September 1953 Khadijah Farrakhan |
| Children | 9; including Mustapha and Donna |
Louis Farrakhan Sr., born Louis Eugene Walcott, formerly known as Louis X (born 11 May 1933), is an Afro-American black fascist, black supremacist and black separatist who is a leader of the Nation of Islam.
Life
Farrakhan was born in The Bronx, New York and raised as Eugene Walcott within the West Indian community in the Roxbury section of Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, Sarah Mae Manning, had emigrated from Saint Kitts and Nevis in the 1920s; his father, Percival Clarke, was a Jamaican cab driver from New York, but was not involved in his upbringing.
In Boston, Walcott attended the prestigious Boston Latin School and English High School, graduating from the latter. He attended college for two years at Winston-Salem State Teachers College, where he went to run track, but left to be with his wife (born Betsy Ross) in Boston who was pregnant with their child. Due to complications from the pregnancy, Walcott dropped out of college to devote time to his wife.
In the 1950s, Walcott became an up-and-coming calypso singer. He recorded several calypso albums under the name "The Charmer." [2] In 1955, while headlining a show in Chicago entitled "Calypso Follies," he first came in contact with the teachings of the Nation of Islam. A friend from Boston, sometime saxophonist Rodney Smith, introduced him to the NOI's doctrine. He joined the Nation of Islam in July of 1955, becoming Louis X (the "X" being a placeholder for the unknown surname of his slave forefathers, and the Islamic name some Nation members are given later in their conversion).
Thirty days after that, Elijah Muhammad stated that all musicians in the NOI had thirty days from the date of this announcement to give up the music world completely. Farrakhan did so after performing one last time at the Nevel Country Club. He is widely known among his detractors as "Calypso Louie". [3]
As of 2012, Farrakhan no longer supports Obama, whom he has since called the "first jewish president", due to Obama's support for the 2011 military intervention in Libya, which Farrakhan strongly opposed due to his own support for Muammar Gaddafi.[4]
Farrakhan currently resides in Kenwood along Woodlawn Avenue, an affluent neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and part time at a Nation of Islam farm in New Buffalo, Michigan.
Nation of Islam
Early involvement
He was inspired by Malcolm X and he accepted a friend's invitation to attend the Nation of Islam's annual Saviours' Day address by Elijah Muhammad. Walcott accepted Elijah Muhammad's teachings that day and was renamed "Louis X." He later became close friends with and a protégé of Malcolm X.
Adoption of the "X" surname is a tradition within the Nation of Islam. In the purview of the Nation of Islam, followers accept the "X" surname as the rejection of their "slave name". Eventually, the "X" name is replaced by a proper Muslim name more descriptive of the individual's personality and character.
After joining the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan quickly rose through the ranks to become Minister of the Nation of Islam's Boston Mosque. He was appointed Minister of the influential Harlem Mosque and served in that capacity from 1965 to 1975.
Leadership
In 1977, after wrestling with the changes and consequent dismantling of the NOI structure by Warith Deen Muhammad, Farrakhan walked away from the movement. In a 1990 interview with Emerge magazine, he expressed his disillusionment with the changes and said he decided to "quietly walk away" from the organization rather than cause a schism among the membership. In 1978 with no public notice, Farrakhan and a small number of supporters privately decided to rebuild the original Nation of Islam upon the foundation established by Wallace Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.
In 1979, the Nation of Islam's newspaper, Muhammad Speaks was reestablished by Farrakhan under the name The Final Call. In 1981, Farrakhan and supporters held the first annual Nation of Islam Saviors' Day convention in Chicago since 1975. At the convention's keynote address, Farrakhan made his first public announcement of the restoration of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad's teachings. [5]
On 12 January 1995, Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, was arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Farrakhan. It was later alleged that the FBI had used a paid informant, Michael Fitzpatrick, to frame Shabazz.[fact?] After Shabazz's arrest, Farrakhan held a press conference in Chicago in which he accused the FBI of attempting to exacerbate division and conflict between the Nation of Islam and the family of Malcolm X. Nearly four months later, on May 1, U.S. government prosecutors dropped their case against Shabazz.
On 6 May 1995, a packed public meeting in Harlem, New York, termed A New Beginning, featured Louis Farrakhan and Malcolm X's widow, Betty Shabazz. Originally organized by community activists as a fund raiser for Qubilah Shabazz's legal defense, the meeting marked the first public rapprochement between Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam and the Shabazz family.
On 16 October 1995, Farrakhan convened a broad coalition of nearly 1 million men in Washington, D.C. for the Million Man March. Farrakhan, along with New Black Panther Party leader Malik Zulu Shabazz, Al Sharpton and other prominent black Americans marked the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March by holding a second march, the Millions More Movement on 14 October through 17 October 2005, in Washington.
Quotes
- If the jews can receive reparations from Germany for a twelve year "holocaust", what should the jews be paying black people for four-hundred years? – Louis Farrakhan
External links
Encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia Britannica: Louis Farrakhan
- Encyclopedia.com: Louis Farrakhan
- Farrakhan Defends Black Right to Rob not just white people but other races too
References
- ↑ Louis Farrakhan denies antisemitism – then refers to 'Satanic jews'
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/20080709052406/http://www.fadetoblack.com/farrakhan/albums.html Sing - A - Long with Louis Farrakhan
- ↑ Calypso Louie's Latest Insult
- ↑ http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/129317/20110331/libya-usa.htm
- ↑ Farrakhan continues Hon. Elijah Muhammad's mission