Born: October 1897, Sandersville, GA

Education: Eighth grade

Died: February 25, 1975, Chicago, IL

Poole “had seen enough of the white man's brutality in Georgia to last me 26,000 years” (Pitre, 2007, p. 3) and said America would never ensure “freedom, justice, and equality” to descendants of her slaves.

He migrated and worked for a Detroit automaker. But he was jobless in 1931, when Wallace Fard recruited him to the year-old Temple No. 1, Nation of Islam (NOI). Formerly in the Moorish Science Temple, Fard taught the Koran. Elijah, given the surname Muhammad, was Fard's chief aide. Yet internal conflict, violence, and federal surveillance ensued. Muhammad relocated to Chicago, founded Temple No. 2, and rose to imam after Fard disappeared in 1934.

Honored by the NOI faithful as the Messenger of Allah, Muhammad became a powerful advocate of Islam, black pride, and self-determination. Rejecting nonviolence, integration, and dependence on the white man (his characterization of the civil rights leadership), he preached and promoted racial separatism, economic independence, and Muslim doctrine. Blacks flocked to the Nation by tens of thousands, notably in large urban areas, when Malcolm X served as its national spokesman. Its prison education and antidrug programs transformed many African Americans. When the Messenger died, NOI had an estimated 120,000 members, 75 temples, and more than $40 million in assets.