About the Author

AFTER FINISHING HIGH school, Yahya Shabazz worked for a short time as an apprentice under his father Otto Sumrall as a cement finisher. He was already very active in the family church as he held every position there except for lead pastor, and this was because he had become active in the civil rights movement, serving in Clarke and Jaster Counties as project director for the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a group that came about as a result of the united efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was during this same time that Shabazz became involved in the Anti Viet Nam-War Movement, and was sentenced to a five-year prison term, and a $2,500 fine for refusing service in that war. He then became a fugitive after the sentence was upheld by the US Supreme Court, where he became active in the Black Revolutionary Movement. He was eventually captured and began serving his sentence at the Lompoc Federal Institution in Southern California. It was during this time that Yahya Shabazz joined the Nation of Islam under the leadership of The Honorable Elijah Mohammed. After His release in 1975, he became a follower of Imam W. Deen Mohammed, who became leader of the Nation of Islam after his father passed. Imam Mohammed changed the teachings of his father from nationalism to Al Islam, as given to humanity through the instructions from the Holy Quran and the example of Prophet Mohammed, Yahya Shabazz currently serves as Imam under the instructions of Imam W. Deen Mohammed. Imam Yahya Shabazz has been active in every phase of the movement for human dignity for the African American community. He has served as a foot soldier and in a leadership position. It is because of this life experience and the global view of Imam Mohammed that he is well qualified to offer advice on the moral, economic, political, and religious direction of human society.