Harlem unveils The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad Way
Harlem commemorated the legacy of Elijah Muhammad this past Sunday by co-naming the intersection of 127th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. as “The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad Way.” The event was initially scheduled for the 126th birth anniversary of the late leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI) on Saturday, Oct. 7, and postponed due to rain. The current NOI Temple No. 7 is just steps west of the intersection. The ceremony was attended by various NOI supporters, including decades-long members, as well as several of Muhammad’s relatives.
“This is a great day where we pay homage to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” moderator Julius Tajiddin began, before acknowledging an absent Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan and several others who supported the campaign for the renaming. Then Sister Shanni read the proclamation.
“It’s really important to understand that Community Board 10 recognizes the changes in our district, and we’re trying to preserve our history,” said Chair Marcus Harrison. “We want to make sure that tradition is passed on so that kids from 30, 40, [and] 100 years from now can look up and see the names of the streets [to] prompt them wanting to learn about the individuals who impacted us, whose shoulders we stand on.”
Yusef Salaam, a member of the Exonerated Five, added, “When you come through a door, you have to acknowledge that door. You have to be able to speak truth to power because if it were not for that door, we wouldn’t be the people we are today.”
He explained how Minister Louis Farr Farrakhan assisted him and his co-defendants during their Central Park Five ordeal.
Muhammad’s granddaughter Llaila described her grandmother, Clara, as “a wife who was brave and a worker. She introduced her husband to their teacher, W.D. Fard. We have this, but it cannot stop. We have too much work to do.”
His great-grandson, Khalil Gibran, said, “As long as there’s forces of evil in this world, racism, that every one of the African diaspora is considered evil, suspect, and dangerous, there’s always going to be a place for an Elijah Muhammad.”
Activists Nova Felder and Melchizedek Shabazz-Allah noted several great leaders who came out of the NOI, including Malcolm X, Louis Farr Farrakhan, Muhammad Ali, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, the Father Allah, and Warith Deen Mohammed.
After Brother Julius pulled the string to unveil the new street sign, participants repeated chants of “Allahu Akbar.”
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