A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women

African American Muslim Women in the Movement for Black Self-Determination, 19501975

By (author) Bayyinah S. Jeffries

Publication date:

04 April 2014

Length of book:

200 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739176535

A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women: African American Muslim Women in the Movement for Black Self Determination, 1950–1975 challenges traditional notions and interpretations of African American, particularly women who joined the Original Nation of Islam during the Civil Rights-Black Power era. This book is the first major investigation of the subject that engages a wide scope of women from “The Nation” and utilizes a wealth of primary documents and personal interviews to reveal the importance of women in this community. Jeffries reveals that women were respected in the movement and maintained a very clear and often sought after voice in the advancement of the Original Nation of Islam.
A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women replaces the typical portrait of the subservient and irrelevant African American Muslim woman with a far more accurate picture of their integral leadership and substantial contributions to the rise of Islam and black consciousness in the self-determination movement in the United States and beyond during the Civil Rights-Black Power era.

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1
Upon the Education of Its People Rests the Fate of a Nation:
The Struggle for Self-Determination
Chapter 2
African American Muslim Women in the Nation of Islam Movement:
Appeals, Benefits, and Outcomes
Chapter 3
“Raising Her Voice”: Writings By, For and About Women in Muhammad Speaks Newspaper
Chapter 4
African American Activism: The Muslim Community Contribution, 1960-1975
Chapter 5
Crossing Borders: Toward a Transnational Narrative in the Struggle
Notes
About the Author
Selected Bibliography

Jeffries's account provides fascinating insight into the experiences of African American Muslim women and their contributions to the Nation of Islam. In this much-needed treatment of a little-studied subject, the author reveals much about not only the women themselves, but also the broader communities of which they were a part. Using an array of published sources and oral histories, Jeffries explores women's motivations for joining the nation, how they crafted their identities, and the various ways in which they embraced the movement for self-determination. She pays particular attention to women's contributions in the realm of education as well as to the role that their writings played in challenging white models of beauty, diet, and public welfare. The book also highlights the transnational dimensions of these activities and includes a short case study on Bermuda. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduate collections and above.