Masjid Malcolm Shabazz

A Harlem mosque was firebombed in 1965, soon after the killing of Malcolm X. The community rebuilt it, and it carries his name today.

This is Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, on West 116th Street in Harlem, New York City. It began as Temple Number Seven of the Nation of Islam, a group that first called its places of worship temples and later called them mosques. Sources differ on the founding year: Wikipedia gives 1946, while the mosque and Columbia University’s WritLarge project give 1956.

Malcolm X served as its minister in the 1950s and early 1960s, and the temple became one of the best known in the country. In 1964 he left the Nation of Islam and founded his own group, Muslim Mosque, Incorporated.

In February 1965, after he was assassinated, the temple was firebombed by people who believed the Nation of Islam was responsible. The top floor was destroyed, and according to the mosque his old office survived. Wikipedia’s account differs: it describes the temple as destroyed and the Nation of Islam as moving elsewhere, while the mosque and Columbia describe this same building as burned and rebuilt. The Short follows the mosque’s account.

The community rebuilt, with a house of worship, a school and local businesses. Related records from 1948 to 1965 are kept at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, in Harlem.

After Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, his son, Imam Wallace D. Mohammed, led the community toward mainstream Sunni Islam. In 1976 the temple was renamed Masjid Malcolm Shabazz, in honor of Malcolm X, who had taken the name Malik el-Shabazz.

Today the building has a green dome, and the Clara Mohammed School is part of its work.