Wallace Fard Muhammad

01 / The Detroit story

The Detroit story

Wallace Fard Muhammad appeared in Detroit in 1930; his followers date his arrival to July 4 of that year. His origins remain disputed: he claimed various birthplaces, and the FBI later identified him as Wallace Dodd Ford, a former restaurant owner from the West Coast. He began as a door-to-door peddler of silks in the Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods, visiting families who had recently arrived from the rural South, and turned sales calls into lessons on history, diet and religion. His teaching, which blended elements of Islam with a message of Black pride and separation, drew thousands within three years and became the Nation of Islam, with its own temple and school, the University of Islam. After a follower committed a ritual killing in 1932, police arrested him and ordered him out of the city; he kept returning until he left for good in 1934 and disappeared. His disciple Elijah Muhammad succeeded him, and the movement still marks his birthday, February 26, as Saviours' Day.

Highlights

1. Founded the Nation of Islam in Detroit in 1930
2. Recruited followers while peddling silks door to door in Black Bottom
3. Set up the University of Islam school for members' children
4. Left Detroit in 1934 and disappeared; succeeded by Elijah Muhammad