revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

46
first lieutenant,
Elijah Karriem, later to become known as Elijah Muhammad,
fled the city going to Chicago for refuge . There, W . D . Fard and Elijah
Muhammad established Templer Number Two .
According to early accounts,
pressure from the government forced W . D . Fard to disappear and he left the
country . 39 After Fard's disappearance, Elijah Muhammad deified him by
designating Fard Allah in the person (flesh) and himself the last messenger
of Allah . 40 A power struggle in the Detroit Temple developed among those
accepting the version of deification and those who opposed it . Elijah was
forced to leave Chicago for Washington, D .C .
where he established anotfler
Temple . In the early 1940's,Elijah Muhammad was convicted of draft evasion
and sentenced to five years in prison . After serving two and half years,
he was paroled . He returned to Chicago and started rebuilding the Nation .
The turning point for the "Nation" was the recruitment of Malcolm Little
later to become known as Malcolm X and El Haji Malik E . Shabazz .
Malcolm, while serving an eight- to ten-year jail
sentence for burglary,
was
converted to Islam after consistent correspondence from his
brother Philbert .
Malcolm then corresponded with Elijah Muhammad for five
years . Upon his release from prison in August of 1952, Malcolm was a steadfast
Muslim, and as such, was assigned to "fish", recruit new members . He
fulfilled his assignment so well that he was made assistant minister of the
Detroit Temple in the summer of 1953 . Towards the end of the year, he received
special training in Chicago from Elijah Muhammad . In 1954, Malcolm
was sent to Boston where he organized Temple Eleven and in Philadelphia
Temple Twelve . By June, 1954, he was sent to organize a Temple in Harlem .
39lnterview with "Papa" Wells, (A founding member of the Nation of
Islam .), Detroit, Michigan, 1971 .
40 Ibid .