BLACK MUSLIMS IN THE
UNITED STATES

This interactive lesson introduces participants to Black Muslims in U.S. history through a meet-and-greet activity. The lesson empowers participants to combat Islamophobia by sharing stories that challenge unidimensional caricatures of Muslims. The lesson raises up voices we rarely hear in the media when we talk about Islam and Muslims — Black Muslims. The meet-and-greet personalities in this lesson are all African American, which not only helps participants explore Islam in the United States, but also advances themes in Black history.

Racism fuels both our ignorance of Black history and our ignorance of Muslims. Islamophobia does not solely originate in a lack of knowledge about religious beliefs and rituals. Rather, Islamophobia is a consequence of white supremacy and American nativism, ideologies which also champion anti-Black racism.

It is within these intersections, like the intersection of anti-Black racism and Islamophobia, where we can build vocabularies to better understand bigotry in order to defeat it.