ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the little known historical context of Black Muslims and, for some, their forced enslavement during a significant period in the early development of the United States. It explores the more recent context for laws, policies, and politics that have shaped Islamophobia and the subsequent marginality of Black Muslims. Black Muslims experience forced divisions of their worlds that, in reality, overlap and converge. Since the foundation of the United States, Black Muslim Americans have been stripped of their identities and controlled by White supremacy, laws, and policies. The chapter addresses the literature on Black college students and then Black Muslim college students as a way to contextualize the nature and quality of Black Muslim student experiences among their racial/ethnic peers within higher education. Black Muslim college students are burdened with navigating how their religious and racial identities intersect, leading to further marginalization.
