Today we are going to pull on this thread of the American religious tapestry: The Nation of Islam, a 20th century American religious movement brought to national consciousness by 1960s Black Power, Muhammad Ali and Malcom X, and which also has a deep and significant history with implications for 21st century work in the public square. To do this, Joseph Stuart, an assistant professor of history at Brigham Young University and a well-known expert on Nation of Islam, has agreed to help.

Additional resources:

Judith Weisenfeld, New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration
Ula Y. Taylor, The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam
Edward Curtis IV, Black Muslim Religion in the Nation of Islam, 1960-1975
Erdmann Doane Beynon, "The Voodoo Cult Among Negro Migrants in Detroit"
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Season 3, Episode 35 – American Religion: The Nation of Islam

Guest Bio

Dr. Joseph Stuart is a scholar of African American history, particularly of the relationship between race, masculinity, civil rights, and religion in twentieth-century Black Freedom Movements. He has a B.A. in American Studies from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in U.S. History from the University of Utah. His forthcoming book manuscript examines the Nation of Islam’s racial and masculine ideologies to understand how and why some Black American groups opposed integration in the mid-twentieth century United States. The project traces the Nation of Islam’s founding from its origins in Great Depression Detroit to its schism following the Elijah Muhammad's death in 1975 and its “restoration” under Louis Farrakhan.

Joseph's research has been published in academic journals and edited collections, including Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, American Quarterly, the Journal of Mormon History, and Religion & Politics. He is also a contributing research associate to the Century of Black Mormons Project. He has hosted and produced podcasts for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship and the New Books Network.

Podcast Support

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the private, digital-first National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion. This includes the establishment of religious freedom in the United States Constitution’s Article VI and Bill of Rights religion clauses.