In 1923 in Detroit, Elijah Poole and his wife joined Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, attended meetings and were very active. They even considered themselves “Garveyites.”
Eleven years later, Poole, renamed Elijah Muhammad, went on to lead the Nation of Islam. Following the teaching of Garvey, Muhammad recruited hundreds of thousands of Black people into the Nation of Islam, developed Black-owned businesses, large real estate holdings, security forces and schools. He built a mass movement that spans the globe today.
In his book, “Message to the Black Man,” Muhammad makes many references to Garvey, and clearly shows how he was inspired by the U.N.I.A. movement.