The
Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the
Nation of Gods and Earths (
NGE/
NOGE) or the
Five Percenters, is a cultural movement influenced by Islam founded in 1964 in the
Harlem section of the borough of
Manhattan,
New York City, by Allah the Father, who was previously known as
Clarence 13X and, before that, Clarence Edward Smith.
Clarence Edward Smith was born February 22, 1928, in Danville, Virginia.
[2] In 1952, Smith was inducted into the United States Army where his service in the
Korean War and
Japan earned him honors and medals, including the Korean Service Medal with one Bronze Service Star.
[3][4][5][6] Upon his honorable discharge from the military in 1960,
[3] Smith began visiting the
Nation of Islam's (NOI) Temple No. 7, where he was captivated by the speeches of
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (
Malcolm X).
[7] Smith joined the Nation of Islam and was renamed Clarence 13X, in accordance with the NOI's customs.
[8][9]
As a member of the Nation of Islam, Clarence 13X was an avid student of Malcolm X and NOI literature and lessons. He also became a member of the
Fruit of Islam.
[10] In 1963, Clarence 13X began teaching his NOI students that the Black man (collectively) was the "Original Man" and "God," and he "rejected" the Nation of Islam's doctrine that its biracial founder,
Wallace Fard Muhammad, was
Allah.
[11][12] Between 1963–1964 Clarence 13X left the Nation of Islam, renamed himself Allah, and founded what is known as the Five-Percent Nation or Nation of Gods and Earths.
[13][12][14] Five Percenters called him "The Father" because "many of them were the products of broken homes and this was the only father they knew."
[15] Thus, Clarence 13X became known as Allah, Allah the Father, and Father Allah.
Members of the group call themselves Allah's Five Percenters, which reflects the concept that ten percent of the people in the world know the truth of existence, and those
elites and their agents opt to keep eighty-five percent of the world in ignorance and under their controlling thumb; the remaining five percent are those who know the truth and are determined to enlighten the eighty-five percent.
[12][16]
The Nation of Gods and Earths teaches that Black people are the original people of the planet Earth, and therefore they are the fathers ("Gods") and mothers ("Earths") of civilization.
[12] The Nation teaches that Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet, a set of principles created by Allah the Father, is the key to understanding humankind's relationship to the universe. The Nation does not believe in a god but instead teaches a form of
Apotheosis, that the Asiatic Blackman is God and his proper name is "Allah", the Arabic word for "God".
[12]
Five Percenters have culture-specific names for certain cities. The New York City areas of Harlem ("Mecca") and
Brooklyn ("Medina") were named after notable Islamic cities by members of the organization.
[17][18] Other areas include
Detroit ("D-Mecca"),
New Jersey ("New Jerusalem"),
Chicago ("C-Medina"),
Queens ("the Desert"),
Connecticut ("New Heaven"),
St. Louis ("Saudi"),
Seattle ("Morocco"),
New Rochelle ("Now Rule"),
Dallas ("Sudan"),
Baltimore ("Born Mecca"),
Atlanta ("Allah's Garden"), and
Milwaukee ("Cream City").
[19][20]
Social and political impressions and impacts
The
FBI opened a file on the Five Percenters in 1965, the height of the
Civil Rights and
Black Power Movements in the United States. In "Disturbance by Group Called ‘Five Percenters,’" the FBI refers to the organization as a "loosely knit group of Negro youth gangs. . . . These particular gangs emanate from New York City Public School Number 120 which is a junior high school. . ."
[38] The FBI file stated that the organization's name meant "The five percent of the Muslims who smoke and drink."
[38] 1965 New York newspaper articles referred to the Five Percenters as a "gang," "hoodlums," and "terror group."
[38] Allah the Father and the Five Percenters "had a reputation for being unreachable, anti-white criminals."
[39] With the goal of preventing New York from having a race riot or uprising, New York Mayor
John V. Lindsay sent Barry Gottehrer, the head of the mayor's Urban Task Force, to meet with the organization the FBI had called a "gang" and "terror group."
[40] Gottehrer stated Allah the Father was non-violent, "but was dedicated to his community's well-being."
[40] Gottehrer and Allah began organizing picnics and airplane rides for the Five Percenters that were funded by New York City through the Urban Task Force.
[41][40] Wakeel Allah's book
In the Name of Allah includes a photo captioned: "Allah (in background) along with Mayor Lindsay (holding baby) on airplane ride with Five Percenters."
[41] In 1967, Father Allah, with Gottehrer's assistance, opened the Urban League Street Academy, which would become known as the Allah School in Mecca.
[40]
In 1967, shortly after Allah and Justice started holding classes at the Street Academy,
Civil Rights leader
Bayard Rustin and Massachusetts
Senator Edward Brooke visited Father Allah at the Academy.
[42] In an article titled "The Five Percenters," published in
The New Amsterdam News, Rustin wrote
We might all applaud the Street Academy as one of the most constructive contributions to the maintenance of stability in the Harlem Community, as well as creating an effective instrument for the rehabilitation of young men who might otherwise have no choice but the streets. [ . . . .] Besides their academic and social activities, the Five Percenters told me that they pursue a spiritual ideal of "helping others discover a true knowledge of themselves." They said they are "neither anti-white nor pro-black. . ."
[43]
Allah the Father stated that he was "neither pro-black nor anti-white."
[44] In his "National Statement" given at Brookdale College in Monmouth County New Jersey in 1998, Dumar Wa'de Allah, National Spokesman for the NGE,
[45] stated "... we are not anti-white, nor pro-black. In fact, we have white Five Percenters."
[46] NGE websites and articles state, "We as a collective are not anti-white nor pro-black. We are pro-righteous and anti-devilishment."
[47][48][49]
There have been from the organization's inception Five Percenters of various ethnicities. The most well-known Caucasian Five Percenter is John Michael Kennedy, who met Allah in 1965. Allah proclaimed Kennedy a "righteous man" and renamed him Azreal.
[50] Michael M. Knight's
The Five Percenters includes a photo of a gathering of Five Percenters that includes Barkim, who Knight describes as "one of the earliest white Five Percenters" and his siblings.
[51] Knight's book also includes two photos of Allah with Gottehrer, who Allah called "Moses."
[52] Dr. Sujan Dass, who is better known as
Supreme Understanding, is a Bangladeshi-American Five Percenter and an influential and prolific writer. His book
How to Hustle and Win: A Survival Guide for the Ghetto has been described as having the same impact on the hip hop generation as
The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Alex Haley's
Roots: The Saga of an American Family had on previous generations of African Americans.
[53]
In 2018 members of the Five Percent Nation and Harlem community members applied to the Transportation/Historic Preservation & Landmarks Committee of Manhattan Community Board 10 to have the northwest corner of 126th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd in Harlem, New York co-named “Allah, Justice & The Five Percenters Square.”
[54][55] The application and subsequent proposal were approved by
Manhattan Community Board 10 and the
New York City Council.
[55] In March 2019 the intersection of 126th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd in New York was officially co-named “Allah, Justice & The Five Percenters Square.”
[55][56]