Cardiss Collins (1931- )

Cardiss Collins (1931- )

Cardiss Robertson Collins was born September 24, 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Findley Robertson and Rosa Mae Robertson.  At the age of 10 her family relocated to Detroit and she spent the rest of her childhood there, eventually graduating from the...
Forty Acres and a Mule

Forty Acres and a Mule

The phrase “forty acres and a mule” evokes the federal government’s failure to redistribute land after the Civil War and the economic hardship that African Americans suffered as a result.  As Northern armies moved through the South at the end of the war, blacks began...
Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975)

Elijah Muhammad (1897-1975)

Elijah Muhammad, the most prominent leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), was born Elijah Poole in Sandersville, Georgia, on October 7, 1897. He was the son of sharecropper and Baptist minister Wallace Poole and his wife, Mariah. During his childhood in the racially...