Religion / Civil rights & activism
Clara Muhammad
1899–1972 · Nation of Islam pioneer and educator
Wife of Elijah Muhammad who first brought him to W. D. Fard's Detroit lectures and helped build the Nation of Islam's schools, later named after her.
- Born
Macon, Georgia- Died
Chicago, Illinois
aged 72- Birth name
- Clara Evans
- Also known as
- Clara Poole · First Lady of the Nation of Islam
- Detroit years
- 1923–1935
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Clara Evans married Elijah Poole in Georgia in 1917, and in the early 1920s the young family joined the migration north to Detroit, hoping to escape poverty and racial violence. Life there was hard: work was scarce, money short, and her husband struggled with drinking and gambling. In 1931 she began attending the lectures of W. D. Fard, a door-to-door peddler who preached a new message of Islam and Black self-respect, and she brought her husband along; he soon became Fard's leading minister. Known as the First Lady of the Nation of Islam, she supported the ministry at every turn and was closely involved with the movement's own school, the University of Islam, which Detroit authorities tried to shut down as a truancy problem. The family moved to Chicago in 1935. Clara Muhammad died there in 1972, and in the following years the movement's schools were renamed the Clara Muhammad Schools in her honor.
Highlights
- Introduced Elijah Muhammad to W. D. Fard's teachings in Detroit in 1931
- Known as the First Lady of the Nation of Islam
- Supported the Detroit-born University of Islam school system
- The Clara Muhammad Schools are named after her