Oral History Report- Sulaiman Hadi

Sulaiman Abdul-Hadi

I started off with asking what his experiences were during the civil rights movements and he started by telling me stories of him in the military because during that time he was in the Navy. This is what ensued after I asked that Primary question. I started recording After I asked.

ABSTRACT

This interview is about my Grandfather’s experiences during the Civil Rights Movement and how he lived throughout that time. He was in the Navy for most of it and he was in the Military for Malcolm X’s and JFK’s assassination. He talks about what it was like to be Muslim during that time and what that meant for him. He begins to speak about what Islam is and how it explains the different scenarios between white and black people over the years. He also talks about what he thinks about people, white and black, today in today’s society.

Research

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1981/nov-dec/osur.htm

During the time by grandfather was in the navy the military was still heavily segregated but African- Americans were allowed to join and be apart of fighting for their country.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS564US564&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=when+did+jfk+die and https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHMO_enUS564US564&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=when%20did%20malcolm%20x%20die

My Grandfather was in the  Navy during Malcolm X’s assassination as well as JFK’s. This was 1965 and 1963.

Grand Father: So anyway, as we were talking about uh, talking’ about...we used to call them muck mucks. We called the followers of elijah muhammad muck mucks and they called us spook believers. Reason we called the, muck  mucks is because muck muck is a tribe in Africa that worshipped men. That worshipped human beings. So we said that you’re a muck muck. You worship a man, and they said we were spook believers because we believe in a spirit a guy in the sky so they called us spook believers [mumbles off]. But those were as I was telling you when you go back over it. Those were why my experiences wasn’t really, even though i lived in time wasn’t really with the movement or the civil rights movement or the black movement or the revolution so to speak because I was um I was a muslim, first I was in the Military but then when I came home I was a muslim. NOw when I was in the military. It was...deep. It was uh, when i was aboard ship it was 1,263 men on ship and only 63 was black

Slay: Oh wow

Grand Father: So that’ll tell ya somethin’.

Slay: What branch of the military were you in?

Grand Fater: I was in the navy, I was in the united states navy. I was in the navy right? Went to go see my sister in North Carolina. She was married to a man that was in the Marines, the marines and navy th-they worked in the same kind of a way there were marines aboard ship, aboard ships were marines. So I went down there to meet to uh spend some time with my sister, her husband was a marine like i said and one of his friends were there so he introduced me ya know, this is my brother in law and hes in the navy, right? This guy stuttered. So he looked at me and he said n-n-n-n-no wonder you j-j-j-joined the g-g-god damn n-n-n-navy. Got cha god damn boats with ya. Talkin about my feet. He said ya g-g-got ya god damn boats with ya so thats while I joined the navy and like I told ya I was only in there and i just didn’t go back [God willing] but… I think that...that the biggest thing that got me comin up with the races. I lived in a neighborhood that was at one time a jewish neighborhood because the jews still were there. but they lived in their businesses, overtop of their businesses. And my mother worked for one. It was in the cleaners. And uh his name was young, his last name was young. And my uncles, they worked for a jew. But the children, I remember one little jew boy that I played with his name was Louie. Louis Kramer was his name. We went out in the park one day, guess I  was 10 or 11...maybe not that big because they moved away before I was a teenager. But anyway we was in the park playin. And you know what memorial hall is? Its now called the please touch museum.

Slay: Oh ok

Grand Father: Well out front there are these statues of a man on a horse so we was playin and we climbed up on there and he fell of and broke his back I must have been about eight nine. Something like that. Fell and broke his back. Louis Kramer was his name. I don’t know they moved away I don’t know if he died or what but i do remember that my neighborhood was like all black. and you didn’t see too much mixing ya know. Blacks with girlfriends but sammy davis junior, he married...he became a jew to marry a jew woman. So that kinda was big and then he wrote a book called yes I can and that kinda did something for the race but my personal experience man i’ve been dealing with this Islam and Islam don’t have no racism. When Malcolm X went to mecca he changed his name to malik shabazz. and he came back and he said while he was in mecca he said i saw men with the bluest of eyes and the blondest of hair bowing down with men that were as black as coal. whereas in america if you were white you were the devil and if you were black you followed elijah muhammad. And that really woke him up to the universality of the religion because it doesn’t have a your um matter of fact its more muslims i think indonesia has the most muslim population in the world. but theres more muslims, in america, theres more muslims in china then in saudi arabia even though saudi arabia is arabs and arabs is where islam started at. but when you're in arabia they have um they have arab christians because the man the prophet went to when he became a prophet was a christian he was an arab christian and he died before muhammad became a prophet because he told him he said if i am alive i'll follow you but he died before hand but he died before hand which means he died riotously as so far as allah's concern. because muhammad hadn't taken prophethood but he went to a man that was a christian that wasn't saying that jesus was the son of god because some people they were called haneth which means um. It means to be up right. there is a branch of christians in america that are called unitarians. And they believed in jesus but they don't believe that jesus was the son of god. they believe that he was um. a righteous man but they don't describe divinity to him. divinity is only for  god. that why they are called unitarians. because not just jesus but they asked prophet muhammad one time how many prophets were there. and the prophet said there were 124,000 prophets and 314 of them were uh messengers so a messenger. the difference between a messenger and a prophet is that the prophet...he has divine inspiration from Allah, god almighty. to direct people to god consciousness. the messenger on the other hand, not only does  he have this permission from allah god almighty but he also has divine revelation with him which comes in the form of uh. a physical form. why moses had the torah jesus had the in jail uhhhh, dude had the sods the torah of moses the injeel of jesus and the sons of david. You can find some of that in what is called the holy bible. although the holy bible is not like the Quran the Quran was revealed to one man who didn't write. Wso it was a spoken revelation. The only way to understand the Quran is that like right now. If my voice is in there when you play that back its going to be my voice  so thats what the Qu'ran was. the Quran was given to muhammad so he was like the tape recorder so when you play the tape back it was really the voice who gave the revelation which was allah. So actually the Quran is really the very words of allah it just came through muhammad and just said that  he would be sitting like this and the revelation would come on him. whoom. and he would go [speaking arabic] and recite arabic and then he would come out of it and that was the Quran. So if I did that this tape recorder when you played it back you would be getting my very words so it wasn't muhammad who was saying it was allah using him. so that revelation the Qur'an is the only revelation that is still like it was when they first got it. see it was given to him and it took over a period of 23 years because it was given to the prophet muhammad as he needed it. In other words as a circumstance arose he would ask him like, one time...a jewish man accused a muslim woman. so when they arrested him and brought him to the prophet they said this guy accused one of our women and the prophet said why would you do that? the man said she looked like one of our women, she didn't look no different than the person..so allah revealed a verse that says... say to your wives and your daughters and the believing women to draw their undergarments over their body when they go out when they go out which will make them recognized as righteous women  and prevent them from being molested. All the women you saw out there today that were covered up like  جدة [Grandmother] be or sannah [my cousin] be sometimes or Bashira [My Aunt] be sometimes you know what i mean. like that. that became a revelation a direction because somebody did something to a muslim woman all the instances that happened when um one of the companion one of the prophets friends got drunk and while he was drunk he said something to the prophet something that wasn't right. so allah revealed a verse. so listen from now on gambling and wine and games of chance are forbidden to you because there may be some benefit but the harm is greater than the benefit like people say you can drink a glass of wine a day its good for your heart you know what I mean? but to become a wino you just drink wine to get drunk so while the benefit is there the harm is greater than the benefit.