Khalid Abdul Muhammad

Khalid Abdul Muhammad (born Harold Moore Jr.; January 12, 1948–February 17, 2001) was a black nationalist who came to prominence as the National Assistant to Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam (NOI), a position he held until 1993. He subsequently served as the National Chairman of the New Black Panther Party from 1993 until his death in 2001. He was lauded by some black Americans, and condemned by some black and white Americans, for his militant racial separatist rhetoric and denunciations of white power.

Biography

Early life

Muhammad was raised by his aunt, Carrie Moore Vann, in Houston, Texas, where he attended Bruce Elementary School, E.O. Smith Junior High School, and all-Black Phyllis Wheatley High School. He was also an Eagle Scout. After graduating high school, Muhammad went to Dillard University in Louisiana, where he was known as Harold Vann, to pursue a degree in theological studies, but he did not graduate. At this time, he ministered at Sloan Memorial Methodist Church. In 1967, he was initiated into the Theta Sigma Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. Later, Muhammad transferred to Pepperdine University and earned his Bachelor's degree.

Nation of Islam

In 1970, while attending Dillard, Muhammad joined the Nation of Islam, which was then under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. He changed his name to Harold Smith, became Minister Louis Farrakhan's protégé, and was active as a recruiter within the organization. In 1978, Muhammad was appointed Western Regional Minister of the Nation of Islam and leader of Mosque #27. In 1983, Minister Farrakhan named him Khalid after the Islamic general Khalid ibn al-Walid, a follower of Muhammad, calling him the Sword of Allah.

By 1985, Muhammad had become one of Louis Farrakhan's most trusted advisors in the Nation of Islam. He traveled to Libya on a fund-raising trip, where he became well acquainted with that country's leader, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Muhammad's dedication to Farrakhan and to the message of the NOI eventually secured him the title of national spokesman and he was named one of Louis Farrakhan's friends in 1981. He served at Nation of Islam mosques in New York and Atlanta throughout the 1980s and was convicted of fraud in 1988. In 1991, he became Farrakhan's personal assistant.

Muhammad's new position involved public speaking engagements, where he became known for his inflammatory anti-white, anti-semitic, and anti-homosexual speeches along with notions of Black self-empowerment and black separation. Muhammad's condemnation of whites and Jews extended to conservative Blacks, whom he criticized for what he perceived as their self-subjugation:

When white folks can't defeat you, they'll always find some Negro, some boot-licking, butt-licking, bamboozled, half-baked, half-fried, sissified, punkified, pasteurized, homogenized Nigger that they can trot out in front of you.

In 1993, following a speech at Kean College in Union Township, New Jersey, in which Muhammad referred to Jews as bloodsuckers; labeled the Pope a "no-good cracker"; and advocated the murder of any and all white South Africans who would not leave the nation subsequent to a warning period of 24 hours, the United States Senate voted 97–0 to censure Muhammad, and the United States House of Representatives in a special session passed a House Resolution. When he was also reprimanded by the NOI, he left the organization. There is some question as to whether Muhammad was removed from the organization by Louis Farrakhan or if his departure was voluntary. In 1994, Muhammad appeared on The Phil Donahue Show. He participated in heated arguments with Jewish audience members amid an explanation of his public statements.

Muhammad was shot by James Bess, a former NOI member, after he spoke at the University of California at Riverside on May 29, 1994. Muhammad believed the shooting was a part of a conspiracy against him.

New Black Panther Party

After being stripped of his position as NOI spokesman, Muhammad became the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party. On May 21, 1997, he delivered a heated speech at San Francisco State University in which he criticized Jews, whites, Catholics and homosexuals and said they should be killed. He endorsed a Holocaust denial position, asserted Jewish control over U.S. policy, and alleged Jewish involvement in various conspiracies.

In 1998, Muhammad organized the Million Youth March in New York City. The march was controversial from its inception as New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani denied organizers a permit, calling it a hate march. A court ruled that the event could go on but scaled back its duration and size. At the conclusion of the rally, just as Muhammad appeared on the stage to speak, the demonstration was interrupted by a low-flying police helicopter that acted as a signal for more than 3,000 police in riot gear, including some mounted on horseback, to come in and disperse the crowd. In response, Muhammad exhorted the rally participants to attack the oncoming police, to beat them with rails, and to shoot them with their own guns. Dozens were arrested, and 30 officers and five civilians were injured. Mayor Giuliani said that the march turned out to be precisely what he predicted, “filled with hatred, horrible, awful, vicious, anti-Semitic and other anti-white rhetoric, as well as exhortations to kill people, murder people...the speeches given today should not occur [at] any place.” In subsequent activism, Muhammad convened a second march in 1999 that drew roughly 90 participants and no incidents with the police, even though he made threats that his speech would include all his beliefs beforehand.

In 2000, Muhammad's beliefs were introduced to a completely new demographic when it was revealed that one of the contestants on the American version of the Dutch television show Big Brother, William Collins (Hiram Ashantee), was a follower of his. He also appeared in an episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends.

In 2001, Muhammad died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in Atlanta, Georgia, at the age of 53.

Since Muhammad's death, the organization has been headed by Malik Zulu Shabazz. Members of the original Black Panther Party—particularly founder Bobby Seale—have insisted that this party is illegitimate and have vociferously said, "[There] is no new Black Panther Party."

In popular culture

Muhammad was notably featured by the hip-hop group Public Enemy on the introduction of its 1988 track "Night of the Living Baseheads," from the album It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back:

Have you forgotten that once we were brought here, we were robbed of our name, robbed of our language. We lost our religion, our culture, our god...and many of us, by the way we act, we even lost our minds.

He also appeared in rapper Ice Cube's albums Death Certificate (1991) and Lethal Injection (1993) as a guest. On the former, Muhammad appeared on the tracks "Death" and "The Birth". On the latter, he appeared on the song "Cave Bitch," a song ridiculing white women who chase Black men. He also appeared on MC Ren's 1996 album The Villain in Black on the track "Muhammad Speaks," where he spoke about the history of rights of the African-Americans. Tupac Amaru Shakur's Makaveli album also features Muhammad on the track "White Man's World."

See also

• Nation of Islam and antisemitism
• Black separatism

External links

• Khallid Abdul Muhammad: In His Own Words
• The Hunt for Khalid Abdul Muhammed