Islam among African Americans
Islam among African-Americans did not arise in the twentieth century, but began hundreds of years ago when African Muslims were enslaved in the Americas. ... But Islam declined among African-American until a resurgence beginning in the 1930s, with the emergence of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Muhammad. The alienation from society that African-Americans had experienced throughout their history greatly contributed to their embrace of this form of Islam, which would empower blacks and give them a strong cultural identity. ... Later, Malcolm X, preached in Harlem that President Eisenhower was an American Pharaoh, who kept African-Americans enslaved, as the Hebrews were enslaved by the Egyptian Pharaoh thousands of years earlier. ... The Biblical language used by Elijah Muhammad was used to draw in African-Americans who had grown up in Protestant churches.