WEB POSTED 03-10-2000
70 year
Commemorative of The Nation of Islam in North America
The
Final Call: Continuing a tradition
From
humble beginnings in the basement of the Honorable Minister Louis
Farrakhan’s south Chicago home, The
Final Call newspaper has emerged as America’s most widely
circulated Black-owned-and-operated newspaper that also enjoys a healthy
international distribution.
Founded
and personally financed by Min. Farrakhan in 1979, the paper was
launched on the faith and power of the message of his teacher, the Most
Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
The entire first edition of the paper, except for
the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s editorial and presentation of “The
Muslim Program”, was written by Min. Farrakhan. Members of his family,
particularly his daughter Donna, and others, including Chuck Green and
Melala Archibald, designed the layout, did the typesetting and copy
editing and assisted in the research.
The
emergence of The Final Call
just two years into Min. Farrakhan’s rebuilding effort of the Nation
of Islam sent a message to the community and the world about his serious
dedication to see the message of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad rebirthed.
The
paper, dedicated to the resurrection of the Black man and woman of
America and the world, emerged with its first headline, “The Ultimate
Challenge: The Survival of the Black Nation.”
“In
1972, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad spoke with Minister Louis Farrakhan
and said, ‘Brother, I don’t like to talk about this because it gives
me great pain, but the Nation is going to take a dive for the second
time,’ ” The Final Call
stated in a page 3 editorial.
“When
the Messenger saw the pain in Minister Farrakhan’s face, he comforted
him by saying, ‘But don’t worry, brother. It will be rebuilt, and it
will never fall again.’ It was from time to time that he kept saying
to Minister Farrakhan, ‘Go exactly as you see me go and do exactly as
you see me do. Now, Brother, you can preach this word as strongly as you
see me preach it. But, you must go according to the way I go … meaning
that you must practice righteousness or they (the enemy) will piece you
in two.’
“In rebuilding the Nation of Islam, it is
incumbent upon us to retrace the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s steps,”
the paper noted. “The first newspaper that the Messenger produced was
in 1934 after His Teacher Master Fard Muhammad had left Him with the
Mission. The name of that paper was The
Final Call To Islam.
“One
day, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to the Minister, ‘Brother, if
there were any sign or symbol that I would choose to represent my work
it would be the trumpet ... for the trumpet is the sign of the
resurrection of the dead,’ ” the paper continued.
“So,
as He began, we begin! THE FINAL
CALL is a monthly message published by people dedicated to the
resurrection of the Black man and woman of America and the world …”
With
the publication of the fourth edition, the paper, edited by Godfrey X
Patterson, and a graduate student of theology at Howard University,
began to include writers other than members of the Nation of Islam,
among them being Haki Madhubuti, the distinguished writer and educator,
and Lu Palmer, the legendary Black journalist.
Black
women, a central component of the Minister Farrakhan’s rebuilding
effort, were represented by Roberta Muhammad’s contribution, “The
Resurrection.”
By
1981, a special Saviour’s Day edition was published carrying the
headline, “The Rebirth of a Nation,” and subtitled, “A Saviour is
Born for the Black Man and Woman of America.” This historic paper
featured Minister Farrakhan’s edited remarks from the Nation of
Islam’s first Saviour’s Day address of the so‑called “Second
Resurrection.”
As
Volume two emerged, the editorial mantle of leadership passed from
Minister Godfrey X Patterson to Askia Muhammad, who was the Hon. Elijah
Muhammad’s first Muslim editor of the legendary Muhammad
Speaks newspaper.
By
1982, The Final Call emerged
from its basement office in the home of Minister Farrakhan to its new
home on West 79th Street in Chicago. Christened “The Final Call
Administration Building,” Minister Farrakhan opened headquarters on
Sept. 12, 1982.
“Our
home,” Bro. Askia wrote at the time, “is a beautiful place, worthy
of being declared as a witness of our faith in Messenger Muhammad’s
word alone (without His money, without His direct intercession in our
behalf, without His physical presence among us). After 60 long/short
months we have our first home in His Name …”.
The Abdul Wali Muhammad Years
Islam,
in the early 1980s, began to spread like “wild fire.” Numerous
laborers of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad began to join on to Min.
Farrakhan’s rebuilding effort. One of the major ministers of the
Honorable Elijah Muhammad, John Shabazz, now known as Min. Abdul Allah
Muhammad, returned to the Nation of Islam in Atlanta and quickly rose in
the ranks to become southern regional representative and later by 1983,
he assumed the reigns of editor-in-chief of The Final Call.
Given
Min. Abdul Allah’s formal education in journalism from the historic
Howard University, he brought a new level of professionalism to The Final Call and kept the publication steady for several years
under his leadership. Assisting Min. Abdul Allah was Min. Abdul Wali
Muhammad (1954-1991), who had just arrived at the Nation of Islam’s
Chicago headquarters in 1982.
Minister
Abdul Wali Muhammad assumed the post of editor-in-chief in 1984 and
introduced a higher level of technology to The
Final Call, particularly utilizing personal computers to automate
every department, and utilizing state-of-the-art equipment in the
production department.
Because
Min. Farrakhan’s media outreach extended chiefly through the
newspaper, Bro. Wali made The
Final Call the tie that bound Black America together. Indeed, circulation greatly increased during his years at the
helm. The Final Call’s
coverage of Min. Farrakhan—who was then a major media topic and would
become even more so—was crucial in bringing clarity and truth to the
distortions in the mainstream media about his message for years to come.
The
year 1991 ended with the passing of editor-in-chief Minister Abdul Wali
Muhammad, at the age of 37 on Dec. 26, 1991. “The Nation mourns the
passing of one of its brightest stars, Minister Abdul Wali Muhammad,”
Minister Farrakhan said. “His brilliant mind reflected in his speech
and in his pen will be greatly missed among us. I personally have lost a brother, a companion, a friend and a son
in the most difficult of all endeavors, the transformation of the lives
of our people here and throughout the world. I thank Allah (God) for the privilege and honor of having known
him. His memory shall be
with me to my dying day and his work shall endure in the history of the
Nation of Islam.”
Indeed,
The Final Call’s Abdul Wali
Muhammad years were extraordinary to say the least. The Nation of Islam’s rapid rebuilding and popularity was
authoritatively captured in the pages of The
Final Call.
Rise,
You Mighty Nation, Rise!
Under the guidance of Min. Farrakhan, Bro. Wali’s assistant,
James G. Muhammad, would carry the journalistic torch of The
Final Call to new heights as he assumed the post of editor-in-chief
in January 1992.
Keeping
in tune with Bro. Wali’s desire to stay on the cutting edge of
technology, Bro. James and his staff have expanded use of computer-based
technology, able to produce every facet of the paper in-house, except
the actual printing of the paper, which will be a reality in the near
future.
On
April 16, 1996, The Final Call
announced, the newspaper began its weekly publication schedule.
“Following the legacy of the Muhammad
Speaks newspaper, published by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we
plan to maintain and, in fact, increase our standard of excellence in
bringing information to the Black community.”
With
such a strong foundation to stand on, Bro. James, in an exclusive
interview, disclosed the future of the paper. “Of course, growth, growth, growth!
We want our paper to be more subscription based. We want to purchase our own printing press and expand on our
Internet web site and other things that we can do over the Internet.
We want to build up our staff to make it first-class and to add
the additional staff that’s needed in certain cities as well as United
Nations and establish bureaus in other international hubs. Those are our immediate goals.
“But most of all I thank the Honorable Minister
Farrakhan for his unselfish dedication to the rise and spiritual
upliftment of our people. He’s a principled man of character that I
try to pattern my life after. It is a great honor and responsibility to
be the editor of the best and boldest Black newspaper on earth,” he
said.
Photo
captions: #1-Volume 1 number 1 of The Final Call, Published in May of
1979; #2-Abdul Wali Muhammad.
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