Most NOI converts joined as a rebuke against white Christian systemic racism

Evidence

Due in large part to Malcolm X’s charisma and tireless proselytizing, the NOI expanded tenfold from 1956 to 1961, to between fifty thousand and seventy-­five thousand members. Most of their new recruits were in unemployment lines and impoverished inner-city ghettos; however, some middleclass African Americans also joined the NOI. Many of the converts to the Nation of Islam did so as a rebuke to the White and Christian mainstream responsible for systemic racism. This pairing of Black consciousness and Islam was a consistent feature of American racial politics prior to the large migrations of Muslims from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia after 1965. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 591

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the chapter’s core claim: that Black Islam in America predates and is distinct from the post-1965 immigrant Muslim wave, so ‘Black consciousness and Islam’ was already paired before Muslims arrived at scale.