"Wallace-Fard" (1891?-1934?)

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Organized the group that became Temple No.1 of the Nation of Islam in Detriot.Accounts of his life vary widely.He used several names,including Fred Dodd & Wallace Ford; by the time he arrived in Detriot,however,he had become W.D. Fard.He was known to his followers as Fard Muhammad.He was born to a white mama and an African American daddy,or may have had Polynesian ancestry.Whatever his ethnic heritage,he was known to have passed for white when he was jailed later on.His birthplace was either New Zealand or Portland Oregon.In the 1920s Wallace operated a café in Los Angeles.After various encounters with the law,he was jailed and spent three years in San Quentin Prison for selling narcotics.He was released from prison on May 27,1929 and then settled in Detriot where he worked as a retail salesman in the African American community.He began to organize the Nation of Islam in 1930.By some account,Wallace thought of himself as the deity."My name is Mahdi; I am god,I came to guide you into the right path that you may be successful and see the hereafter,"he told Elijah Muhammad when asked who he was and what was his real name.The Nation of Islam was considered radical and thereafter a target for police harassment.In November 1932 Wallace was arrested only because the police tied a murder to the Nation of Islam.When it became known that Wallace persecution made him a martyr,he was ordered to leave Detriot.Wallace instead went to hiding and prepared Elijah Karriem to head the organization,giving him the surname of Muhammad and making him chief minister of Islam.The fragile unity of the Nation of Islam was shattered and fierce fighting followed.The police also accelerated its harassment.Meanwhile,Elijah Muhammad avoided the struggle and finally relocated the headquarters to Chicago.He met with Wallace in June 1934 and after that,Wallace disappeared.