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Book Summary of

Elijah Muhammad:
Message to the Blackman in America

The following is a brief summary that outlines some of the main points made by Elijah Muhammad in his 300-page book called Message to the Blackman in America. It was first printed in 1965 and then again in 1992 by United Brothers Communications Systems of Newport News, Virginia.

Elijah Muhammad makes many outlandish proclamations in his book, but it is important to keep in mind that the proclamations are mixed in with claims about discrimination that are true to varying degrees and that even when true to some degree, readers’ opinions would differ about the significance of such claims.

In his book, he says that he is a divine messenger who is warning blacks that they had better pledge to Nation of Islam’s version of Islam before Allah eliminates whites and non-believers in racial Armageddon. To understand the reasoning behind the belief in the eventual annihilation of whites, it is necessary to explore Elijah Muhammad’s interpretations of creation, of history, and of events from the 1960’s.

He says in his book that Allah created originally the blacks, next to the brown, red, and yellow races, and lastly the whites. A renegade black scientist named Yakub created the white race 6,000 years ago, and ever since then, the whites have ruled the other colors.

There are hints in the text that blacks are considered supreme over whites. After explaining that Yakub extracted the “brown germ” from the “black germ” and in turn grafted whites from the “brown germ,” the author says Yakub discovered that the “white . . . was the weaker of the black germ.” In discussing “Black Supremacy” versus “White Supremacy” the author says that “some must rule over the other. It is the law of nature.”

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