Editing Five-Percent Nation (section)

== History ==
=== Founding ===

{{Nation of Islam|Offshoots}}

The Nation of Gods and Earths was founded by [[Clarence 13X]] after he left the Nation of Islam (NOI)'s [[Mosque No. 7|Temple No. 7]] in [[Harlem, New York]], the same temple where [[Malcolm X]] was a minister from 1960 to 1963. Multiple stories exist as to why Clarence and the NOI parted ways: Some state he refused to give up gambling. Others state he questioned the unique [[divinity]] of [[Wallace Fard Muhammad]], whom the NOI deified as the true and living God in person, or that he questioned Fard's godhood due to the fact that Fard was born of a [[white people|white]] mother.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=48}}<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |title=The Five Percenters |publisher=Oneworld |year=2007 |isbn=9781851686155 |pages=35–36}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Five Percenter Rap |last=Miyakawa |first=Felecia |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0253217639 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253345745/page/15 15–16] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253345745/page/15}}</ref> One story states that he was disciplined by the NOI and [[excommunicated]] in 1963, but another version of events says that he left of his own free will.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=99}}

After leaving the NOI, he renamed himself "Allah the Father". He was joined by Abu Shahid, formerly John 37X, who agreed with Allah's questioning of Wallace Fard Muhammad. Allah the Father and Shahid were nicknamed "High Scientists" due to their intense study of lessons.<ref name=":4" /> Clarence was joined by Justice, formerly James 109X, and before that, James Howell, who became one of his closest associates until his death.<ref>{{cite web |author=Beloved Allah |url=http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/nge.html |title=The Founding of the Nation Of Gods And Earths |publisher=Thetalkingdrum.com |access-date=February 13, 2012 |archive-date=January 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126101744/http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/nge.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=125-126}}

Clarence proselytized the streets of Harlem, to teach others his views based on his interpretation of NOI teachings. After failing to reach elder adults whom he saw as already set in their ways, he found success with street youth.<ref name="IslamIn">{{cite book |title=Islam in America |author=Jane I. Smith |year=1999 |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=101–103, 206}}</ref><ref name="InTheName">{{cite book |title=In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam |author=Mattias Gardell |page=225 |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1996}}</ref><ref name="ThisFar">{{cite book |title=This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience |author=Juan Williams |publisher=Amistad/HarperCollins Publishers |year=2003 |pages=286–288}}</ref><ref name="McCloud 2014">{{cite book |last=McCloud |first=Aminah |author-link=Aminah McCloud |title=African American Islam |publisher=Taylor and Francis |location=Hoboken |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-136-64930-1 |oclc=884017193 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j_gJBAAAQBAJ |access-date=April 23, 2019 |pages=59–60 |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819132247/https://books.google.com/books?id=j_gJBAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Knight, Michael Muhamad. ''The Five Percenters: Islam, Hip Hop, and the Gods of New York''. Oxford, England, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2007. Chapter 16</ref> On October 10, 1964, this young group formed the First Nine Born of what became known as the Five-Percent Nation, or later the Nation of Gods and Earths.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=136–141}}

Clarence taught his Black male students that they were Gods, just as he was. He taught them that the astral twin of the Black man is the Sun.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=141}} In Supreme Mathematics, the Black man is symbolized as "Knowledge".{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=141}} The Black women who came into Clarence's growing movement to study along with the males were taught they were symbolic of the planet Earth, because women produce and sustain human existence as does the Earth.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=141}}

Female Five Percenters are also referred to as "Wisdom".{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=141}} The Nation of Gods and Earths' ''Supreme Wisdom'' states: "Wisdom is the Original Woman because life is continued through her cipher (womb)."<ref>Nation of Gods and Earth. "Supreme Mathematics." ''Supreme Wisdom''. page 8. https://www.scribd.com/doc/302750576/NGE-Supreme-Wisdom {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190407025457/https://www.scribd.com/doc/302750576/NGE-Supreme-Wisdom |date=April 7, 2019 }}</ref> The NGE does not consider itself a religion. Its position is that it makes no sense to be religious or to worship or deify anyone or anything outside of oneself because adherents, themselves, are the highest power in the known universe, both collectively and individually.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=137–138}}

Clarence developed a curriculum of eight lessons that included the Supreme Alphabets and Mathematics, which he devised, as well as lessons developed by the [[Nation of Islam]]'s [[Elijah Muhammad]] and [[Wallace Fard Muhammad]].{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=152}} The eight lessons were taught in this order, which follows below:

# Supreme Mathematics (1–10)
# Supreme Alphabets (1–26)
# Student Enrollment (1–10)
# English Lesson C-1 (1–36)
# Lost-Found Muslim Lesson No. 1 (1–14)
# Lost-Found Muslim Lesson No. 2 (1–40)
# Actual Facts (13)
# Solar Facts (9){{sfn|Allah|2007|p=153}}

Each Five Percenter was required to fully "master" each lesson and was expected to be able to "think and reason by forming profound relationships between the lessons and significant experiences within life."{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=153}} Five Percenters were required to share what they had learned with others, and thereby recruit new members.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=138–139}}

=== Social and political influence ===
The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] opened a file on the Five Percenters in 1965, the height of the [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights]] and [[Black Power movement|Black Power Movements]] in the United States. In "Disturbance by Group Called 'Five Percenters,'" the FBI refers to the organization as a "loosely knit group of Negro youth gangs. ... These particular gangs emanate from New York City Public School Number 120 which is a junior high school."<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://vault.fbi.gov/5percent/five-percenters-part-01-of-01/view |title=Five Percenters: Part 01 of 01 |website=FBI Records: The Vault |access-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-date=May 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190514140833/https://vault.fbi.gov/5percent/five-percenters-part-01-of-01/view |url-status=live }}</ref> The FBI file stated that the organization's name meant "The five percent of the Muslims who smoke and drink."<ref name=":0" />

1965 New York newspaper articles referred to the Five Percenters as a "gang", "hoodlums", and "terror group".<ref name=":0" /> Allah the Father and the Five Percenters "had a reputation for being unreachable, anti-white criminals."<ref name=":1" /> With the goal of preventing New York from having a race riot or uprising, New York Mayor [[John Lindsay|John V. Lindsay]] sent Barry Gottehrer, the head of the mayor's Urban Task Force, to meet with the organization the FBI had called a "gang" and "terror group".<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |title=Five Percenter Rap |last=Miyakawa |first=Felicia |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-253-21763-6 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253345745/page/19 19] |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780253345745/page/19}}</ref> Gottehrer stated Allah the Father was non-violent, "but was dedicated to his community's well-being."<ref name=":1" />

Gottehrer and Clarence began organizing picnics and airplane rides for the Five Percenters that were funded by New York City through the Urban Task Force.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=238}}<ref name=":1" /> [[Wakeel Allah]]'s book ''In the Name of Allah'' includes a photo captioned: "Clarence (in background) along with Mayor Lindsay (holding baby) on airplane ride with Five Percenters."{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=238}} In 1967, Clarence, with Gottehrer's assistance, opened the Urban League Street Academy, which became known as the Allah School in Mecca.<ref name=":1" />

In 1967, shortly after Clarence and Justice started holding classes at the Street Academy, [[Civil rights movement|Civil Rights]] leader [[Bayard Rustin]] and Massachusetts [[Edward Brooke|Senator Edward Brooke]] visited Father Allah at the academy.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=240}} In an article titled "The Five Percenters", published in ''The New Amsterdam News,'' Rustin wrote<blockquote>We might all applaud the Street Academy as one of the most constructive contributions to the maintenance of stability in the Harlem Community, as well as creating an effective instrument for the rehabilitation of young men who might otherwise have no choice but the streets. ... Besides their academic and social activities, the Five Percenters told me that they pursue a spiritual ideal of "helping others discover a true knowledge of themselves." They said they are "neither anti-white nor pro-black."{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=241}}</blockquote>

Clarence stated that he was "neither pro-black nor anti-white".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael |publisher=One World |year=2009 |pages=xiii, 142, 227}}</ref> In his "National Statement" given at Brookdale College in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1998, Dumar Wa'de Allah, National Spokesman for the NGE,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2013/jun/27/rip-god-dumar-wade-allah/ |title=R.I.P. God Dumar Wa'de Allah |date=June 27, 2013 |website=Amsterdamnews.com |access-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809071836/http://amsterdamnews.com/news/2013/jun/27/rip-god-dumar-wade-allah/ |url-status=live }}</ref> stated "we are not anti-white, nor pro-black. In fact, we have white Five Percenters."<ref name="wa'de">{{Cite web |url=http://tareefsea.tripod.com/Degrees/notagang.html |title=A National Statement by Dumar Wa'de Allah |last=Allah |first=Dumar Wa'de |year=1998 |access-date=May 29, 2018 |archive-date=May 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180530034937/http://tareefsea.tripod.com/Degrees/notagang.html |url-status=live }}</ref> NGE websites and articles state, "We as a collective are not anti-white nor pro-black. We are pro-righteous and anti-devilishment."<ref name="jerule">{{Cite web |url=https://ngeinla.weebly.com/ |title=Welcome to the Love Allah website of the Gods and Earths! |last=Allah |first=Jerule |access-date=May 29, 2018 |archive-date=May 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204145/https://ngeinla.weebly.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sfbayview.com/2013/11/state-and-federal-prisons-persecute-nation-of-gods-and-earth-five-percenters/ |title=State and federal prisons persecute Nation of Gods and Earth (Five Percenters) |last=See also: Allah |first=Immortality Exegetical 120 (Randal Best) |date=November 28, 2013 |access-date=May 29, 2018 |archive-date=May 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529210358/http://sfbayview.com/2013/11/state-and-federal-prisons-persecute-nation-of-gods-and-earth-five-percenters/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Voices of the Earth: A Phenomenological Study of Women in the Nation of Gods and Earths |last=Keiler-Bradshaw |first=Ahmon J. |s2cid=151078180 |publisher=Georgia State University: M.A. Thesis |year=2010 |pages=101}}</ref>

There have been from the organization's inception Five Percenters of various ethnicities. The most well-known white Five Percenter is John Michael Kennedy, who met Clarence in 1965. Allah proclaimed Kennedy a "righteous man" and renamed him Azreal.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |publisher=One World |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-85168-615-5 |pages=85–86}}</ref> Michael M. Knight's ''The Five Percenters'' includes a photo of a gathering of Five Percenters that includes Barkim, who Knight describes as "one of the earliest white Five Percenters" and his siblings.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |publisher=One World |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-85168-615-5 |at=Plate 2}}</ref> Knight's book includes two photos of Allah with Gottehrer, who Allah called "Moses".<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |date=October 2008 |publisher=One World |isbn=978-1-85168-615-5 |at=Plates 6 & 7 and page 112}}</ref>

In 2018, members of the Five Percent Nation and Harlem community members applied to the Transportation/Historic Preservation & Landmarks Committee of Manhattan Community Board 10, to have the northwest corner of 126th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd in Harlem, New York, co-named "Allah, Justice & The Five Percenters Square".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www1.nyc.gov/html/mancb10/downloads/pdf/11_7_18_gbm_agenda_final.pdf |title=General Board Meeting of City of New York Manhattan Community Board |date=November 7, 2018 |website=www1.nyc.gov |access-date=December 4, 2019 |archive-date=December 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191204204520/https://www1.nyc.gov/html/mancb10/downloads/pdf/11_7_18_gbm_agenda_final.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |url=https://therighteouswaybook.com/allah-justice-the-five-percenters-square/ |title=ALLAH, JUSTICE & THE FIVE PERCENTERS SQUARE |last=Allah |first=Starmel |date=13 November 2018 |website=The Righteous Way Book |access-date=22 November 2019 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809033904/https://therighteouswaybook.com/allah-justice-the-five-percenters-square/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The application and subsequent proposal were approved by [[Manhattan Community Board 10]] and the [[New York City Council]].<ref name=":5" /> In March 2019, the intersection of 126th Street & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd in New York was officially co-named "Allah, Justice & The Five Percenters Square".<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://thesource.com/2019/03/29/tomorrow-allah-justice-the-five-percenters-square-street-sign-unveiling-in-harlem/ |title=TOMORROW! 'ALLAH, JUSTICE & THE FIVE PERCENTERS SQUARE' STREET SIGN UNVEILING IN HARLEM |last=Allah |first=Sha Be |date=29 March 2019 |website=The Source |access-date=22 November 2019 |archive-date=March 31, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331002444/http://thesource.com/2019/03/29/tomorrow-allah-justice-the-five-percenters-square-street-sign-unveiling-in-harlem/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Conflicts ===
After the founding of the Allah School, the Gods and Earths became more influential{{snd}}upon the April 1968 [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]], it quelled a potential rebellion inside Harlem.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=261–264}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |publisher=Oneworld |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-85168-615-5 |pages=107–109}}</ref> Allah was assassinated on the 13 June 1969, in the lobby of 21 West 112th Street in Harlem, within the Martin Luther King Jr. Towers housing projects, the residence of his wife and children.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=279-280}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |publisher=Oneworld |year=2007 |isbn=9781851686155 |pages=120}}</ref> There have been rumors and theories about assailants and motives,{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=281-292}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Five Percenters |last=Knight |first=Michael M. |publisher=Oneworld |year=2007 |isbn=9781851686155 |pages=117, 121}}</ref> but the murder remains unsolved. The murder was a blow to the movement. According to the direct orders of Allah before his death, some of his earliest disciples, a group of nine men who were called the First Nine Born carried on the teachings, and his friend Justice assumed an acting leadership role.{{sfn|Allah|2007|p=298-299}}

The FBI's labeling the Five Percenters as a "gang" in 1965 has caused much trouble for Gods and Earths in the United States. The "gang" label has caused individuals with even remote NGE affiliation to be designated as security threats in jails and prisons in [[Michigan]], [[New Jersey]], New York, and [[South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scalc.net/decisions.aspx?q=4&id=3297 |title=Ra'heen M. Shabazz, #170474 vs. SCDOC |date=November 29, 2001 |publisher=SC Administrative Law Court |access-date=January 5, 2010 |archive-date=March 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100305165705/http://www.scalc.net/decisions.aspx?q=4&id=3297 |url-status=live }}</ref> NGE literature has been banned from penal institutions in these and other states, and inmates have been denied privileges enjoyed by those of other persuasions. Such rules were relaxed in 2004 in New York to allow registered "sincere adherent(s)" to study teachings personally, but not share with unregistered inmates during their incarceration.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/nation/judge-no-sign-that-nation-of-gods-is-prison-risk/article_3c38162d-837d-59a3-b03e-48e0d1271719.html |title=Judge: No sign that Nation of Gods is prison risk |last=White |first=Ed |date=September 8, 2009 |work=Victoria Advocate |access-date=September 9, 2009 |agency=Associated Press |archive-date=April 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430050257/https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/nation/judge-no-sign-that-nation-of-gods-is-prison-risk/article_3c38162d-837d-59a3-b03e-48e0d1271719.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The group's newspaper, ''The Five Percenter'', condemns the states who impose restrictions on their practice as those who "attempt to define us in ways that seek to criminalize us."<ref>''Five Percenter Newspaper'', Vol 16.8, p.2</ref> In 2009, in Michigan, the Nation challenged a ban on the group's literature among prison inmates, after an inmate was designated a security threat until he renounced his membership. Judge Steven Whalen found no evidence that the group advocated violence and recommended that it be recognized as a legitimate belief system.<ref>White, Ed (September 9, 2009) "Nation of Islam sect allowed in prison", 
''The Associated Press''.</ref>