Louis Farrakhan is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-White conspiracy theorist and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI, he was a calypso music singer who went by the stage name Calypso Gene. Earlier in his career, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and was appointed National Representative of the Nation of Islam by former NOI leader Elijah Muhammad. He adopted the name Louis X, before being named Louis Farrakhan.
A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam to be antisemitic, stating that it has engaged in Holocaust denial and antisemitic interpretations of the Holocaust, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade, whereas mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The Nation of Islam has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church or AME, is a predominantly African-American Methodist denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is the first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by black people, though it welcomes and has members of all ethnicities. It was founded by the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen (1760–1831) - later elected and ordained first bishop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from calling together of five black congregations of the earlier established Methodist Episcopal Church on the East Coast / Middle-Atlantic states area in the first General Conference, who wanted to escape the discrimination that was commonplace in society. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason, rather than for theological distinctions, and has persistently advocated for the civil and human rights of African Americans through social improvement, religious autonomy, and political engagement, while always being open to people of all racial backgrounds. Allen, an previously ordained Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, was elected by the gathered ministers and ordained / consecrated as its first bishop in 1816 by the first General Conference of the five churches - extending from the three in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania to one in Delaware and one in Maryland of Baltimore. The denomination then expanded west and through the South, particularly after the American Civil War (1861–1865). By 1906, the AME had a membership of about 500,000, more than the combined total of the two other predominantly Black American denominations - the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, making it the largest major African-American denomination of the Methodist traditions.
The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement whose members are called Unificationists and sometimes colloquially "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in Seoul, South Korea by Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), a Korean Messiah claimant also known for his business ventures and engagement in social and political causes.
Warith Deen Mohammed, also known as W. Deen Mohammed, Imam W. Deen Muhammad and Imam Warith Deen, was an African-American Muslim leader, theologian, philosopher, Muslim revivalist, and Islamic thinker (1975–2008) who disbanded the original Nation of Islam (NOI) in 1976 and transformed it into an ostensibly orthodox mainstream Islamic movement, the Bilalians (1975), World Community of Al-Islam in the West (1976–77), the American Muslim Mission (1978–85,) which later became the American Society of Muslims. He was a son of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam from 1933 to 1975.
The Million Man March was a large gathering of African-American men in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. Called by Louis Farrakhan, it was held on and around the National Mall. The National African American Leadership Summit, a leading group of civil rights activists and the Nation of Islam working with scores of civil rights organizations, including many local chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People formed the Million Man March Organizing Committee. The founder of the National African American Leadership Summit, Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. served as National Director of the Million Man March.
Khalid Abdul Muhammad was an African-American Muslim minister, activist and black supremacist who became a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam and later the New Black Panther Party. After a racially inflammatory 1993 speech at Kean College, Muhammad was condemned and removed from his position in the Nation of Islam by Louis Farrakhan. He was also censured by both Houses of the United States Congress.
The Young Lords, also known as the Young Lords Organization (YLO) or Young Lords Party (YLP), was a Chicago-based street gang that became a civil and human rights organization. The group aims to fight for neighborhood empowerment and self-determination for Puerto Rico, Latinos, and colonized people. Tactics used by the Young Lords include mass education, canvassing, community programs, occupations, and direct confrontation. The Young Lords became targets of the United States FBI's COINTELPRO program.
Michael Louis Pfleger is an American Roman Catholic priest and social activist located in Chicago.
The Million Family March was a rally in Washington D.C. to celebrate family unity and racial and religious harmony; as well as to address other issues, including abortion, capital punishment, health care, education, welfare and Social Security reform, substance abuse prevention, and overhaul of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The march’s organizers also planned a voter registration drive and hoped that participants would be encouraged to vote in the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. is an African-American civil rights leader and president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
The American Society of Muslims was a predominantly African-American association of Muslims which was the direct descendant of the original Nation of Islam. It was created by Warith Deen Mohammed after he assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad. Imam W. Deen Mohammed changed the name of the Nation of Islam to the "World Community of Islam in the West" in 1976, then the "American Muslim Mission" in 1981, and finally the "American Society of Muslims".
Black nationalism is a type of nationalism or pan-nationalism which espouses the belief that black people are a race and it seeks to develop and maintain a Black racial and national identity. Black nationalist activism revolves around the social, political, and economic empowerment of Black communities and people, especially to resist their assimilation into white culture and maintain a distinct Black identity.
Billy Ervin McCormack was a Southern Baptist clergyman from Shreveport, Louisiana, active for more than sixty years in the ministry. Considered a leader of the "Religious Right", McCormack was one of the four national directors of the Christian Coalition of America, an organization assembled in 1989 by televangelist Pat Robertson.
The Royal Ice Cream sit-in was a nonviolent protest in Durham, North Carolina, that led to a court case on the legality of segregated facilities. The demonstration took place on June 23, 1957 when a group of African American protesters, led by Reverend Douglas E. Moore, entered the Royal Ice Cream Parlor and sat in the section reserved for white patrons. When asked to move, the protesters refused and were arrested for trespassing. The case was appealed unsuccessfully to the County and State Superior Courts.
William J. Barber II is an American Protestant minister and social activist. He is the president and senior lecturer at Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. He also serves as a member of the national board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and is the chair of its legislative political action committee. From 2006 to 2017, Barber served as president of the NAACP's North Carolina state chapter, the largest in the Southern United States and the second-largest in the United States. He has pastored Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina since 1993.
20th Anniversary of the Million Man March: Justice or Else, sometimes abridged as Justice or Else or stylized as Justice or Else!, was a rally held at the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., on October 10, 2015 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Million Man March. The event was organized by Louis Farrakhan, and participants rallied in support of police reform and to raise awareness about discrimination against black people.
Tamika Danielle Mallory is an American activist. She was one of the leading organizers of the 2017 Women's March, for which she and her three other co-chairs were recognized in the TIME 100 that year. She received the Coretta Scott King Legacy Award from the Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural and Intellectual Freedom in 2018. Mallory is a proponent of gun control, feminism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Reverend Conrad Bennette Tillard Sr. is an American clergyman and theologian, and civil rights leader in the African-American consciousness movement tradition. He is an author, educator, youth advocate, community activist, radio talk show host and public theologian, born on September 15, 1964, in St. Louis, Missouri, he grew up in Washington DC and Atlanta, Ga.,. Today, he is the Senior Minister of Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church, a 120-year congregation located in the historic Ditmas Park section of Flatbush, Brooklyn. The Church is affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christians Churches. Tillard is also and adjunct professor in the Black Studies Department at The City College of New York, where he teaches on Harlem, Hip Hop and the Black Power Movement. He is the Immediate past Sr. Minister, of the Nazarene Congregational United Church of Christ in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn NY. Prior to that, he was the Interim Senior Minister, at the Eliot Congregational Church in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. He is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA, The American Baptist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches. Licensed to preach and ordained at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, he has been a community activist for over 30 years.
