ABSTRACT

This chapter provides the pivotal role of Elijah Muhammad speaks in helping advance not only the message of the Nation during the 1960s but also some of the group's signature goals: the rehabilitation of Black men and urban Black communities. It also provides the Nation of Islam’s (NOI's) performances of Black masculinity in a broader context of the Black Power era that included an upsurge of militant Black male leadership, spectacular public displays of militancy and masculinity, and the rise of influential radical Black newspapers. The paper foregrounded the NOI's appeals to Black masculinity couched within the NOI's patriarchal gender politics and sold by the Fruit of Islam (FOI), the elite cadre of male members. Movement leaders' use of the paper to capitalize on and influence escalating public interest put increased demands on the FOI to meet quotas in selling the paper.