05/02/1993
IWDM Study Library
Race Relations In America

By Imam W. Deen Mohammed
Imam WD Mohammed
Thank you. Thank you. We greet you in peace, as Muslims greet, As Salaamu Alaikum! And we praise the one G-d of us all, the Lord, creator of the heavens and the earth, we praise Him and we salute the last prophet, Muhammad, the prophet to whom the Qur'an was revealed with the traditional excellent salute, prayers and the peace beyond him, ameen. Let me begin by saying that I really appreciate the tribute that was given to recognize our achievements last night. They say, my achievement, but those are our achievements, can't make them, I can't make 'em by myself. So I don't know any kind of way. I told, I always tell the brothers, I say, look, you all give me a credit for things that I know I couldn't do without you.
Yes, the people are the most important concern and the people are the most resourceful. The most resourceful thing we have is our people, and God blesses us only because we are of service to our people. So I want to acknowledge that last night was a very special night for me. Witnessing that wonderful tribute to the achievements made since I've been your leader. And most of them were really more recent in the leadership for us, trips abroad and visits abroad to Saudi Arabia and also to Egypt and Northern Africa. Very, very, very, I would say inspiring, for me to look at that. When you are actually involved in something, you don't witness it as the onlooker or the spectator witnesses it. And when you see it, a lot of times it's fresh for me and it affects me very much in the way it affects Imam Plemon. When he was speaking for himself, he was speaking for me too. I was affected in the same way.
And since I can't acknowledge this tribute without acknowledging Imam Clyde Rahman, the Imam, resident Imam of Cleveland, Ohio, Masjid Bilal in Cleveland, Ohio, I have to acknowledge his leadership in bringing that tribute about. In fact, it was his suggestion. He suggested it several times to me over several years that he said we would like to do this. And he wasn't just speaking for himself, he was in conversation with other leaders of the community. And I finally agreed when I asked him to look into the possibility of us getting this Regal Theater for a public address here in Chicago, I've been looking at this facility and having special interest in this facility for our gathering. This facility, as you are aware of now, I'm sure this facility has Muslim history in it. There used to be a big Arab community right here in this neighborhood, many, many years ago, I think maybe 60 years or so ago.
There was Arabs here much later. But back then, in that time, there were many Arabs in this area. And the Arabs told me that they built this theater. It wasn't built as a theater. It was built as a recreational facility for the Arab people, social facility, for the Arab people to have the appearance of a mosque, a Muslim place of worship, a mosque or a masjid, and to provide a place for masjid service, mosque service. A musalah is here, the place where the pray, the mosque area was also in this facility. And we had Sister editor, Aesha Mustafa to do a little study of it, have her people at the press, at the newspaper office, Muslim Journal office, to do a little research. And they took pictures of the Islamic expressions that are still on this facility, still on the structure, still in the structure of this facility.
So we know that Muslims built this facility, Arabs, not us, not African Americans, but Arabs built this facility. And also the small, you notice on Stony Island, there's a small one. It was built by the same people, same time. That's what I was told, the little small one that's now a church. I thought I would give some attention to two things. Well, third, also, I haven't mentioned the first being the tribute, the second being this facility, this wonderful facility here, the new Regal Theater. How many Chicago ones (do) we have here? Let's see your hands. Oh, very good. A lot of Chicagoans.
Do you remember the Regal Theater on South Park when it was called South Park what's now King Drive? You know that theater was for us in Chicago, like the Apollo is, was and is for the people of New York, Harlem and Michael Jackson as a little boy and his family, they performed there before they got popular. They performed there at the Regal Theater. How I know, I saw 'em. I was in the audience. Yeah, I was in the audience when I saw them. They were in competition, amateur show competition and they won the competition against another group that was terrific too. And they were also called the Jacksons. Two groups were called the Jacksons, but the Jackson Five family, the Jackson Five, Michael, little Michael, they won, over, the other group. But the other group was terrific. Both groups were terrific. Now the third thing I want to talk about is this book here, before I go into my address. I have here a book that I cherish. One of the most, I would say appreciated gifts that I have received. And this gift was given to me from the great grandson of Booker T. Washington.
His name is in this book. His name is Muhammad Musa Muslim Abui. Some of you know him. I'm sure if you've been in South Carolina, Charleston, I'm sure you'd or somewhere else, you probably have met him. Wasn't my first time meeting him. I had met him a few years ago too. And he had told me about the family and how they appreciated my appreciation for Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington, and I'm introducing, I'm beginning my address right now. Booker T. Washington and certain other of our leaders in the history of African-American people on this continent, or I should say in this hemisphere, because we have to include Marcus Garvey, certain ones of them, and among them, some females were not just reacting to what goes on, what went on in our life or what was bothering us as a people in this country, but they were people of foresight as well as observers of what was happening. They were people who were aware, who kept themselves aware of what was happening to our people, our race. And they were also people who were looking to the future to see how should our race be directed in order to come into the best life that they could envision for the race.
I have come to understand or to see W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey. These two figures are put in opposition in history. Some even refer to them as being enemies, but I can't see how they could have been enemies. I see them as two different people representing two different sides of our life, or interest, facets of our life and emphasizing the facet of our life that they individually were attending. But without those two facets of our life, we don't have much of a life. And one's language was the language more so of an intellectual. And the other being, pardon me, being Booker T. Washington, his language was more the language of the business world and the common people. But we should never underestimate Booker T. Washington as an intellect. Booker T. Washington was a great intellect, as was a W.E.B. Du Bois. And he also was a man with a philosophical insight and mind, just as was W.E.B. Du Bois. Both of them, in my opinion, were great black or great African-American philosophers, along with many others that have indicated for the one who will read what they have written and take note that indicated that they were men with a vision and men with philosophical insight, philosophical insight. So we appreciate those men in our history very much, along with others who were called extremists and radicals.
Among them, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, who built upon what he saw as a good foundation left by Booker Washington, Marcus Garvey, Drew Ali, and others. Now we know that the honorable Elijah Muhammad didn't discover by himself a way to continue and build upon the good foundation that those leaders, or personalities, left for us.
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