Finding W.D. Fard Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam By John Andrew Morrow Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam By John Andrew Morrow This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by John Andrew Morrow All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-2199-0 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-2199-5 To Ayah “Allah has proved to be very much a human being.” FBI (Nov. 1943) TABLE OFCONTENTS Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... ix Endorsements ............................................................................................. x Forewordby Dennis Walker ..................................................................... xii Chapter 1 .................................................................................................... 1 Issues of Origin Chapter 2 .................................................................................................. 36 Religious Roots Chapter 3 ................................................................................................ 111 Who was W.D. Fard? Chapter 4 ................................................................................................ 156 The Genealogical Connection Chapter 5 ................................................................................................ 231 The Sun Rises in the West Chapter 6 ................................................................................................ 288 The Image of gonIslam at inthe Ore Turnth Century of the 20 General Conclusions ............................................................................... 314 Afterword ............................................................................................... 332 Worksited C ............................................................................................ 344 Appendix 1 ............................................................................................. 362 Khan Documents Appendix 2 ............................................................................................. 375 Fred Dodd Documents viii Table of Contents Appendix 3 ............................................................................................. 414 Historical Images of Fred Dodd’s Salem Appendix 4 ............................................................................................. 418 Pearl Dodd Documents Appendix 5 ............................................................................................. 429 Wallie D. Ford Documents Appendix 6 ............................................................................................. 445 Wallace Max Ford Documents Appendix 7 ............................................................................................. 458 Major Figures Index ....................................................................................................... 466 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my wife esand they children have for all the sacrific made in support of my scholarship.search Every or moment I engaged in re writing was time that was takenis from due tothem. A debt of gratitude Carol Gibbs, interlibrary loanege, clerk for at Ivy Tech Community Coll helping me to obtain all the obscurehat I needed and hard to find sources t to complete my easantresearch. and Herprofessional pl was much demeanor appreciated. Appreciationighest order of isBarbara the expressed h to Castleton for proof-readingis and due copy-editing to Dr. this work. Thanks Patrick D. Bowen for sharing someespect of his and scholarship with me. R recognition is extended to Dr.who, Dennis among Walker, a senior scholar other areas, specializes in thenied Nation me over of Islam. He has accompa the past few yearsmself in described what he hi roller-coaster as a revelatory ride. Being able to bounce ideass truly and theories back and forth wa beneficial and has helped solidifylly, I would this scholarly edifice. Fina like to thank Cambridge Scholarsis book Publishing and for believing in th the contribution that it makes to scholarship. ENDORSEMENTS “An innovative and valuable bookibution that makesto a fundamental contr the historyam in of America.” Isl —Dr. Dennis Walker, AuthorIslam ofand the Search for African- American Nationhood: Elijah Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and Adjunct Researcher at Monash University, Australia “The world’s religions are oftenation centered of upon a mystery; the N Islam is no different. Whenever Muslims,” scholars investigate the “Black they are inevitably accompanied seems by the to figure of W.D. Fard, who linger in the background likeAndrew an ever-present specter. In John Morrow’sFinding book, W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam, W.D. Fard finally comes to the foreground, as Morrow delivers a direct encounterwas the with the mysterious man who founder of the black nationalistres such movement, as which attracted figu Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. Having analyzed ents,all relevant as wellony documas their of cacoph interpretations, John Andrewability Morrow’s to book stands alone in its shed light upon the historicaludies unknown of the that has plagued many st origins of the Nation of Islam.-up, From to Fard’s his tangled racial make theological and, socialwhich Morrow doctrines demonstratese wer influenced by a variety of religions,lly interrogates Morrow’s book systematica previous held ideas about W.D.mpelling Fard while delivering his own co composite of who this “deified”bt thatman really this was. There is no dou book will prove to be indispensablenderstand to allthe future attempts to u historical, social, and religioustion of Islam.”geist of W.D. Fard and the Na —Dustin J. Byrd, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and Arabic, Olivet College, MalcolmUSA, X: and From the co-editor of Political Eschatology to Religious Revolutionary “Once again, John Andrew Morrowic has that provided insight into a top few scholars havee -- triedthe life to tackland. Fard. legacy While of W.D few know his name, Fard is one ofin the U.S. most significant Muslims history, and Morrow does an excellenthe job of tracking him and t emergence of the Nation of Islam. his critically Following in the footsteps of acclaimedCovenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the Finding W.D. Fard:the Identity Unveiling of thexi Founder of the Nation of Islam World, Morrow has provided another scholarlye a gem which is bound to b quintessential reading on the life of W.D. Fard.” —Dr. Craig Considine, Lecturer of Sociology at Rice University and author Muslims of in America: Examining the Facts FOREWORD BYD ENNISWALKER RESEARCHERTHAILAND ON ’SM USLIMS ATM ONASHASIA INSTITUTE , AUSTRALIA It has been an illuminating experiencendrew to scroll through John A Morrow’sFinding book, W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam. I have followed the development of Morrow’s portrait of the founder of theeral “Black years. Muslim” movement over sev A part of Morrow at first feltMuhammad, strongly critical of Wali Fard whom he tended to see as a non-African-Americane 1930s human who in th misapplied his intelligence tos Negro separate / from their meagre monie African American lumpens who inigrated the latter years of the 1920s m from the rural South of the USA etroit,to a segregated urban slum in D Michigan. But Morrow’s maturingterm vision gains has registered the long- of social and economic self-improvementility and dramatic upward mob that Fard and his movement conferred from the upon uprooted black masses rural South who were disintegratingnality into in unemployment and crimi the great cities of the North,t Depression. increasingly wracked by the Grea A pure con-man would have formulated better intoIslam in a way that fitted the needs and convenience of themerica. white Anglo-Saxons who ruled A While he did vent real hatred inhites his non-stopas denunciation of w “devils” whom Almighty Allah, God,s would not long spare, and hi followers adopted an insouciantd stopped stance to the White police, Far short (some-timesf preparing just barely) themtary ofor armed mili insurrection,ferred and generally his convertsheir pre economic to improve t conditions by making themselves bourgeois. Wali Fard Muhammadeighed has beenby Morrow w as a man of Muslim origin who did indeed comeorrow from “the East,” somewhere. M tested both moderate and radical Beynon roles had attributed to W.D. Fard. reported in 1938 that the Nationous factions: of Islam was divided into vari “one branch of the movement, led thatby ‘Abdul Mohammed, maintained Fard was a prophet, and another,ieved headed by Elijah Muhammad, bel that he was Allah.” the teachings Accordingd of to Nation the Lost-Foun of Islam as enunciated by Elijah Muhammad,of a jet- W.D. Fard “was the son Finding W.D. Fard:the Identity Unveiling of thexiii Founder of the Nation of Islam black man, the Hidden platinum-blonde Imam, and an, Armenian the woma devil” (Goldman 36). While some scholars,