[wvns] American Islam "Profiles in Courage"
Profiles
in Courage
By Imam Ghayth Nur Kashif
Muslim Pioneer
[Author's Note: History will record that one of the greatest
transitions or "transformations" of a cultural or ethnic group---from
a parochial or isolationist orientation to the broader ummah world
view of the Qur'an---occurred here in America with the spectacular
evolution of the indigenous Muslim community.
The Climactic period of this evolution has been amply emphasized in
current Islamic literature. Missing from this literature, however, has
been any serious historical or objective documentation of the earlier
phases of the community, which, if carefully studied, might give the
serious Islamic student and/or scholar greater appreciation and
insight into these modern phenomena of conversion.
By recounting and analyzing the actual sociological constraints and
underpinning, one might discover those inherent and latent seeds of
otherwise Qur'anic influences that ultimately paved the way for a
rapid and smooth transformation. Thus the following article focuses
upon those aspects which bore the "seeds" through layers of darkness
until Allah, in His Mercy and Wisdom, brought them to fruition.]
On the night of December 7, 1941, most Americans were huddled in their
living rooms listening to the news bulletins declaring that the
Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. The mood of the entire country
was grim. Not only were the Western Powers already locked in a violent
struggle among themselves, but on this night the Japanese had done the
unthinkable: they dared to challenge the military might of the United
States.
This fateful night, placed against the backdrop of rampant racism,
lynching, and mob violence against non-white
minorities-instantaneously inflamed the climate, not only with
increased racial hostility, but also with overt religious bigotry. But
also on this night, in a store-front building in mid-town Washington,
DC, three score or more black men and women were seated quietly
listening to a small, neatly dressed man, known only as Mr. "Bogan" or
Mr. "Rasoul." This mild-mannered stranger pointedly told them that the
days of white supremacy would only come to an end with the acceptance
of Al-Islam as their religion. While most of them had already accepted
his leadership and had renounced their previous faiths, he was warning
them to expect greater persecution for the sake of their newly found
faith.
The precedent had been set. Less than two years earlier, several
members of this same group had borne the brunt of harassment and
hostility from the local authorities when they withdrew their children
from the public schools and subsequently established the "University
of Islam" within the "Temple of Islam," as the Mosque was known at
that time. An even *earlier precedent had, in fact, been set in
Detroit, Michigan; some eight years prior when several Muslim parents
(inspired by the example of Sister Clara Muhammad, who earlier removed
her children from Detroit's public schools), were arrested on *charges
of "contributing to the delinquency of minors (keeping their children
out of the public schools)."
THE ELDERS
According to the early Washington Muslim pioneers, their actions were
immediately countered by the truant officers of the DC public school
system, who filed charges with the District Juvenile Court. The cases
were processed for hearing and resulted in trials that led to the
jailing of several Muslim parents. Among them, Brother Hasan Sharif
and his wife Aquillah were made the prime "example" by the courts.
Although Sister Aquillah was pregnant at the time, she was made to
serve seven months in a women's federal prison in Virginia.
Brother Hasan served ten months in Lorton Reformatory, also in
Virginia. The Muslims continued to resist efforts to force them to
return their children to the public schools and many more were
arrested in the course of time. Some Muslims served local jail terms
that varied from a few days to -several weeks, while others served
longer terms. One of the teachers, Sister Nancy, who was also the
Mosque secretary, became ill with pneumonia after her arrest and died
in the old Women's Gallinger prison hospital.
As Mr. Bogan had warned, scores more would eventually be jailed, not
only on charges of truancy violations but the more serious charge of
opposition to the draft and war effort. Federal authorities had, in
fact, long contemplated some form of legal containment of this
movement since the early 1930s, when it surfaced in Detroit and
subsequently appeared in Chicago, Illinois, led by a former
sharecropper named Elijah Pool, the husband of Sister Clara. The
movement was initially met with mockery and was considered a
pseudo-cult with "Islamic and Qur'anic trappings."
The authorities, however underestimated the ultimate influence of the
Qur'an on the direction and philosophy of the movement over time.
Despite the fact that these authorities concluded that the Islamic
world would not recognize this group as an authentic Muslim body, they
were faced with the fact that more and more African-Americans
Christians were abandoning Christianity for what they considered to be
the Islamic religion.
In addiction to this, they had become aware that this movement was
following the honored tradition in Islam of establishing an
independent school system following the organization of a Masjid or
Mosque. They had, in fact, set in motion efforts to destroy the whole
movement and had begun to concentrate on the leadership. Actually, Mr.
Began and Mr. Rasoul were aliases for Elijah, who became widely known
in later years as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. At the time he was,
in fact, staying one step ahead of federal authorities that were
seeking to arrest him on charges of sedition, draft evasion, and
truancy laws.
In the summer of 1942 the federal authorities achieved their
objective, arresting Elijah Muhammad in Washington, DC. After failing,
however, to connect him with Japan's war efforts or other sedition,
they charged him with draft evasion (though he was 45, well over draft
age at the time). They sentenced him to five years in Lorton
Reformatory, where some of his followers had been sent earlier.Along
with him the government arrested scores of Muslims of draft age,
leaving most of the Muslim households without male support. Despite
this, the attempts to keep the school going while avoiding more and
more arrests continued for the next three years.
[History will record that Elijah Muhammad's incarceration at Lorton
spawned today's rapid and continuous conversions of inmates to Islam.
This fact is fully documented in US Penal literature]
THE SCHOOL
"The curriculum," as recalled in the Muhammad University' of Islam
yearbook (1970 Washington, DC), "consisted of arithmetic, reading,
spelling, handwriting, physiology, and physical exercises." "Actually
we taught all of the basic academic elementary courses," says Sister
Hadiah, whose father, Brother Vincent, was one of the first to be
arrested. "Our children were all below 10 years of age. Our Islamic
teaching consisted mostly of reading copies of pages of the Our'an
that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had left with us. We could not find
Our'ans at the time, so we duplicated the pages we had and used them
to teach to the children. One of the favorite passages we used was
Luqman's advice to his son," she said. She ultimately spent week in
the local DC jail herself.
Continued harassment from federal authorities and the lack of
qualified teachers, however, forced the struggling Muslim community to
curtail its efforts. When Elijah Muhammad was released from prison in
1946, the parents and laborers (as the workers were called) decided to
discontinue their efforts to establish a school until a future time.
Many of the children were sent back to the public schools, although a
few of the parents continued to defy the authorities for much longer.
It was some 17 years later when the opportunity arose again for the
Muslims to reestablish an independent school. By this time the
community had grown considerably and had educational pursuits and
economic prowess wide. Local and national media had begun to publish
frequent reports of the Muslim activity, and although most such
reports branded them as "black supremacist," considerable credit was
given to their positive achievements.
The Muslims took this climate into account immediately after the
erection of Muhammad Mosque No. 4 (Now known as Masjid Muhammad in
1960. From that time until 1962 the Muslims carried out an intensive
dawah (call to Islam) campaign, coupled with a strong public relations
effort to defuse lingering hostility from government authorities.
In the fall of 1962 this effort was further rewarded by a transitional
development, which brought one of the community's most prominent
spokesmen to Washington. Malcolm X (Malik El-Shabazz) was appointed
by the Hon. Elijah Muhammad to replace outgoing Imam (Minister) Lucius
Bey, whose excellent leadership and civic diplomacy had help produce a
positive climate, whereby the community was inspired to erect a Mosque
in mid-town DC. [The Mosque, initially called a "Temple) has the
distinction of being the first Islamic structure build in America from
the ground up by indigenous Muslims. It was to be listed somewhat
later as a Muslim "tourist" attraction within the inner city for
capital city visitors.]
Malcolm was elated by the ongoing efforts and suggested that a weekend
Islamic educational program should be started as soon as possible.
Shortly thereafter the parents and officials came together and began
what was known as the "Saturday School," or "Saturday Youth program,"
which concentrated on fundamental academic and Islamic studies for
both children and adults. This group began laying the foundation for a
permanent school. They had the assistance and support of many of the
elders who had suffered imprisonment for this very cause. The effort
had total community involvement.
In the fall of 1963 Elijah Muhammad selected Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz,
head of the Department of Mathematics at Atlanta University to assume
leadership of the mosque. He further developed the ongoing program and
prepared the community for the support of a full-time school, a major
responsibility that was to come later.
In 1967 Elijah Muhammad suggested that the school should become a
full-time institution immediately and in earnest. This suggestion was
heeded promptly, and within two weeks nearly all of the Muslim parents
had requested transfers for their children from the public school. The
demonstrable act of faith and courage meant that the children would
begin classes, grades one through twelve, in the local mosque-the only
facility available at the time.
It would be difficult to imagine the faith and spirit of sacrifice the
parents were being asked to make, and which they chose to make without
hesitation. Unlike the previous government harassments of the elders,
the federal government and local officials took a "wait-and-see"
attitude. There were even some who gave encouragement to the effort
in reconnection given the insurmountable problems of the public school
system.
Of the scores of children who transferred to the Muslim school there
were three students entering the twelfth grade at their respective
schools. One of these students, Sister Juanita Rashid, says, "Yes, it
was traumatic. I was a straight-A honor student and this was my last
year. I was worried about the facilities and so forth."
Nevertheless, Sister Juanita chose to accept the decision of her
parents. " I understood what it was all about," she said. "My father
(Paul Rashid) was one of those jailed along with the elders in the
1940s. He was only 18 years old at the time."
Having gone on to become a public relations specialist for NBC, Sister
Juanita recalls the positive results of her parents' decision.
"Actually I did have individualized instructions; it was like having a
private tutor, and as you know, our instruction were more advanced
than the public schools at that time. We were taught advanced
calculus, for instance." Sister Juanita and two other twelfth
graders, Brother Kermit and Sister Edwina, became the school's first
graduates the next year. Rul-Aref and Alif Ahmad Kashif, the authors
children, were also among the early graduates of t his "University of
Islam," and the subsequent (re-named) Clara Muhammad School.
The list of such early graudates and alumnis will be chronoliged in
follow up historical renderings in the near future. Many such students
have returned to the school as full and/or art time instructors.
To compensate for the lack of facilities and instructors, the school
operated an advanced "no-frills" curriculum. The basic citywide
curriculum was followed; however, more theoretical emphasis was used
to balance out the shortfall in physical materials. Furthermore, the
students were offered at least one year of advanced classes vis-?-vis
the public school grade placements. Students were drilled in
step-by-step fundamentals so that they would be able to quickly grasp
supplementary materials should they have to re-transfer again to the
public schools at some point in the future. Along with the core
academic courses, the school taught Spanish and Qur'anic Arabic, as
well as Islamic Studies. The teaching philosophy was one of
accelerated instructions:
"We must get away from the old kindergarten way of letting our
children play and lay around for months, studying the alphabet. We
must use the faster method of advanced education in order to begin
qualifying our children. We are at the door of an advanced change of
civilizations, and in order to compete we must qualify ourselves. We
cannot do this in integrated schools. We must do this alone, declared
Elijah Muhammad in 1970.
This was the philosophy that lay behind all of the teaching
methodology. There was no kindergarten. "As soon as it was felt that
the kindergard aged child could handle the material, they entered the
first grade. Some of the children started a 4 ? years," recalls Sister
Hafeeza Kashif, one of the early "founding members" and first/second
grade instructor whose services along with Sister Mildred Omar and
others spanned more than half-a-century.
{Along with Sister Kashif and Sister Omar, other early
"pioneers/founders," administrators and teachers included Biseemah
Bey, Hanna Muhmud, Delores Hameed, Portia Pasha, Dorothy Wedad, Hadiah
Muhammad; Carl 4x, Leroy X, Elinor Rashid, Emerson Brandon, Nafeeesa
Mahdi, Doris 2X, Johnny Kareem and several others. [Many "full" family
names which were unavailable at the time of this early documentation,
but will be obtained in an expanded history of these courageous
pioneers]. (many others whose names are not listed here also ranked
among these pioneers.)
Meanwhile It should be noted that the district's school board did not
resist the establishment of the Muslim school, as was the case for the
earlier pioneers mentioned above. This writer, also one of the early
"founders," held early discussions with several DC school board
officials regarding these matters and help to negotiate the board's
shift to a more accommodating stance. Following such discussions, it
was recommended to the school that the curriculum be modeled after the
DC Ammadon School's program, which was considered the best in the city.
While the school board did not concede to accredit the school at that
time, they determined that its establishment was worthwhile and
offered assistance with standardized testing procedures for the
students. They joined with school officials in establishing such
testing procedures. In every case it was found that the Muslim
children scored significantly high on the California Achievement Test
(recognized at the best in the country at that time) and ranked first
or near the very top among the local schools in "discipline." Over
the next five years, school enrollment continued to rise, and this
school complemented the growing number of such Muslim schools around
the country. At this time the school was, as stated, the subject of
us radio and television specials, which highlighted the academic and
disciplinary achievements of the fledging institution.
By 1975 the school had developed a four-bus transportation system and
had added two college level tutorial classes (engineering and
architecture). The buses transported the boys and girl students to
school at different hours (Boys in the morning and girls in the
evening). The time spends otherwise by the students involved off
school grounds educational activities (library activity, school trips,
etc). The students went to school all year long, except two weeks in
February, and two weeks in August.
THE TRANSFORMATION
As fate would have it, Elijah Muhammad returned to Allah on February
24, 1976. His passing ushered in a new era that would attempt to build
upon the community's practical achievements and transcend its
parochial nature. The community transformed its ideals to exalt the
principle of inclusion of all mankind in the universality of Al-Islam,
and it declared Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (saaw) categorically as
Allah's final Messenger to all mankind.
This latter development fell on the shoulders of Imam Warith Deen
Mohammed, who immediately began to reorganize the Muslim schools,
naming them " Sister Clara Muhammad" schools. As he had begun to
introduce the community to traditional Islamic standards, he
emphasized the need to upgrade the Arabic and Islamic Studies classes
in keeping with such traditions.
Nationally the school system underwent a series of changes designed to
update curriculum, increase fiscal responsibility and improve facilities.
This process eventually required the downsizing of some schools and
closing of some facilities. A brief casualty of this refinement, the
Washington school also closed its door for "re-tooling" and re-opened
on a full-time basis in 1980. Meanwhile the believers ---relying upon
the experiences of the elders---maintained smaller independent school
facilities and encouraged "home schooling."
The Bilalian center spearheaded by the elders and others served this
purpose well. Finally, in 1980 the Clara Muhammad School reopened in a
separate facility at 1851 9th Street, not far from tile site of the
original Masjid where the pioneers had made their stand. Later the
school re-located in a former District School building, also within
blocks of the Masjid. It is now located .in Southeast Washington and
provides the continuing quality education envisioned for Muslims in
the entire Metropolitan area.
The new generation of teachers and students continue to draw strength
from the legacy of the Pioneers----truly they are most deserving as
"Profiles in Courage." They have left us an honorable legacy to uphold
--30-
Note: The above material is soon to be expanded in depth including in
upcoming literary anthrological works of the author. Consequently,
while the sharing of above copyright material, with due credit by
recipients (after query) is permitted, the distribution of copyright
material for projected commercial use, in part or whole, (without
written consent of author) abridges legal rights).
*********************************************************************
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