Five Percenters unveil Allah and Justice Square in Harlem

By Clarke Illmatical | Last updated: Apr 24, 2019 - 9:55:07 AM

Large crowd of Five Percenters and supporters at recent ceremony.

On a brisk afternoon, a large crowd of Five Percenters, Gods and Earths, men, women, elders, and babies, gathered on the corner of 126th Street in Harlem to unveil the street sign—Allah & Justice Five Percenter Square.

Speaking on the importance of the new street sign, former Assemblyman Keith Wright said, “I’ve done a lot of these street renamings and, frankly, this is probably one of the most important ones. ... This is not only for us but for our babies. Also, for the newcomers in this community, they have to know where they are! They have to know, that not only are they on James Brown Way, on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, and that our Five Percenter Allah and Justice Square is here to stay!”

The initiative to add a street sign honoring the Five Percenters began almost nine years ago with Five Percenter Mal’akiy 17 Allah, who was influenced by a street sign named for Brooklyn activist Abubadika Sonny Carson.

Clarence 13X, founder of the Five Percenters, left the Nation of Islam in 1963 and continued to teach what his teacher the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught him which is that God is a man.

Clarence 13X Allah hit the streets of Harlem with The Supreme Wisdom. He delivered this information to the streets when Harlem was experiencing tremendous police brutality and in need of spiritual direction. Clarence 13X became known as “The Father,” and those in the streets, those who were deaf, dumb and blind, obtained knowledge of self. In 1964, he informed those he taught, that they would be known as Five Percenters.

(l) Firstborn Allah Born God addresses crowd. (r) Mal’akiy 17 Allah holds sign.

(l) Dr. Leonard Jeffries addresses crowd at street naming ceremony in honor of the founder of the Five Percenters. (r) New street sign in Harlem, “Five Percenters: Allah and Justice Square.”

Over the last few years, Mal’akiy continued acquiring information on the process of adding a street sign, and finally made a series of community board presentations, starting in 2017, with detailed information on Allah, Justice and the Five Percenter Nation of Gods and Earths.

Speaking on the journey, Mal’akiy said, “I did not do this by myself. … I didn’t know it was going to take this long and I didn’t know it was going to be so much work.”

The Gods and Earths showed and proved their case during a pivotal community board meeting on Nov. 7. Mal’akiy recalled how the presence of the Five Percenters and words from a local activist impacted the community board saying, “Over one hundred Gods and Earths showed up for that. The people in the community board, when they were coming in, they were like ‘We have never seen this room this full before!’ Keith Wright spoke at the board meeting. He said, ‘When I was 12 or 13 years old, when King got assassinated, while every city in America burned down, Harlem didn’t, primarily because of the Five Percenters. I saw it, I was there!’”

The street sign also acknowledges Justice, who was instrumental in developing the Five Percenters along with The Father. “I said, let me add Justice because he was The Father’s right-hand man, although I’ve been told there were several older Gods who were close to The Father,” explained Mal’akiy.

The afternoon March 30 unveiling ceremony was a celebration of the sign, and the nation of the Five Percenters themselves, that included passionate speeches, music, food and of course—peace.

Notable people in attendance included several firstborn Five Percenters, the physical children of Allah and Justice, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Attorney Sid Davidoff, former Assemblyman Keith Wright, scholar warrior Leonard Jeffries, Popa Wu of the Wu-Tang Clan, hip-hop photographer Ernie Paniccioli and Harlem fashion mogul, Dapper Dan.

At a time when the Black community is fighting gentrification, the addition of Allah & Justice Five Percenters Square is a reflection of the historical impact the Gods and Earths have had on Harlem and the power of The Supreme Wisdom, which was the core of Clarence 13X’s teachings, which provided light to so many who languished in mental darkness.

The street sign is not an ending, but a continuation of work that these poor righteous teachers have, a work that was expressed by The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan himself in a past speech, when he said, “Here is a small percentage of people who know God; and when they know God, they have a duty, and that duty is, to teach what you know to those who do not know.”

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