The Final Call

Min. Farrakhan Celebrates Life, Work Of Don And Shirley Muhammad

By Richard B. Muhammad - Editor | Last updated: Sep 21, 2016 - 12:08:03 PM

What's your opinion on this article?

RANDOLPH, Mass.—The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan closed a tribute to a longtime friend, companion and devoted follower of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad during a celebration of the work of Minister Don Muhammad of Muhammad Mosque No. 11 in Boston, who became a powerful leader in the city and state and top laborer in the Nation of Islam.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Minister Don Muhammad. Photo: Hassan Muhammad

But the Minister declared, Min. Don could not be honored without honoring his wife, his life partner and queen and a Believer in her own right. “Tonight I am here to honor a great servant of Allah and his wife and his children—so this will be the Don and Shirley Show. There is no way in heaven or in hell that I could honor Brother Don and not honor his life companion Sister Shirley Muhammad,” said the Minister as the audience at the Lantana banquet hall exploded into applause.

The greater Boston-area drew Muslims and admirers from across the country. The impact of the life and ministry of “The Don,” as the Nation of Islam minister was affectionately known for his wisdom and skill in handling Black affairs in city and state issues, was celebrated.

Min. Don was feted with words, song and testimony about his years of commitment and effort as he steps away from public life to care for his wife, who suffers from health challenges.

Min. Farrakhan highlighted the strength of the Muslim couple and how their loving partnership had considerable impact on the Nation of Islam, on the city, the state, and the country.

This is no retirement party and there is no gold watch for Brother Don, whose shoes, or impact, are still growing, added Min. Farrakhan. Several hundred people attended the sold-out dinner at The Lantana banquet facility.

Min. Don and Sister Shirley served as respected and diligent laborers in the Nation of Islam with the husband a mosque minister and the wife as a legendary trainer of the women of the Nation of Islam. They married as teenagers, accepted Islam, founded businesses together, raised a family and pushed the program and teaching of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam.

When the Minister wanted to rebuild the work of his teacher in the late 1970s, he sought help from Brother Don and Sister Shirley who was at his side—committed once assured that the rebuilding effort would be a serious one.

“There would be no Don Muhammad if there were no Elijah Muhammad. There would be no Malcolm X if there were no Elijah Muhammad. There would be no Muhammad Ali if there were no Elijah Muhammad. There would be no Warith Deen Muhammad if there were no Elijah Muhammad. There would not be a Louis Farrakhan if I had not met and fell in love with and determined to follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” said the Minister.

Every man that becomes great in life must have a life partner and God created the male and female to complement one another, he explained. Don and Shirley Muhammad are great examples as both were devoted to Allah’s cause and she was a tremendous helpmeet for her husband, the Minister continued.

“This coming year will be my 60th year as an accepted, ordained minister of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I’m not tired and neither is my brother. This is not a retirement party and I didn’t bring a gold watch to give my brother. This is a step away from public life but never a step away from the mission of his life,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“I want to talk to you about a beautiful man and a beautiful woman who produced a beautiful family,” he said. “Nobody had to teach Don Muhammad how to be a man. He was always working for his wife and his family. But he was not by himself. He was in business, she was by his side. I never saw Sister Shirley away from the work of her husband because the work of her husband was her work.”

Min. Don and Sis. Shirley were successful business owners with ventures in Boston and with the help of other laborers, Muslims and supporters, helped to revitalize the city’s Roxbury neighborhood and Grove Hall section that remains home to Muhammad Mosque No. 11.

Brother Don “became not only a brother, a soldier, a lieutenant, a warrior—he was really a soldier’s soldier, a lieutenant’s lieutenant, a minister’s minister. He was special all the way through to this very moment,” said Min. Farrakhan.

The broad impact of the ministry of Don Muhammad was shown with a commendation from the mayor’s office and a taped message from a prison inmate, who thanked the Muslim minister for years of service to those behind the walls and often forgotten. There were accolades from the leadership of the Nation of Islam, from regional ministers served by Brother Don and from the National Council of Laborers as an expression of gratitude for his service. (See story page 11.)

Min. Farrakhan brought members of his family along, including Nation of Islam Student Supreme Capt. Mustapha Farrakhan, who thanked Min. Don for his years of love and sacrifice. Sons Louis Farrakhan, Jr., and Joshua Farrakhan and other family members attended to represent Nation of Islam First Lady Khadijah Farrakhan, who was ill at home.

“Of all of the things that Brother Don has accomplished, I loved what my brother, the forensic psychology master, had to say and the beautiful words he spoke about the man that took him in. So that great brother said to Brother Don as he was walking past, ‘You don’t even know how many people you have affected.’ Because he has corrected and helped hundreds but he would not have had that ability to do it except that he had a father in Don Muhammad,” said the Minister. He was speaking of Dr. Errol Williams, who shared how Min. Don helped him after prison to go to school and become a success. 

The Minister shared when New York City police officers invaded the mosque in New York in 1994, under the reign of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, it was Min. Don who spoke with Chief William Bratton, the former police commissioner in Boston. The same thing happened when there was a clash between a Muslim minister and police officers in Los Angeles. “We are not the group that you can walk on and spit on and mistreat and then think that you’re going to take us out and we don’t fight like hell to defend the life that God has given us,” Min. Farrakhan said. 

Juan Muhammad and wife Roberta came up from Atlanta for the tribute. Juan Muhammad grew up in Boston. Min. Don had a major impact on his life. “I knew Minister Don and Sister Shirley before I even came into the Nation because my family had a business down the street from their cleaners. They have always been hard workers, always been people in the community. And when I came in the Nation of Islam, Minister Don took me under his wings, took me into the community and really assigned me to work at the state capitol. My job was to communicate with the political leaders.

“I was into politics before I came into the Nation in helping with a lot of the campaigns in Boston. When I came into the Nation we were faced with the challenge of getting back into the prison system and because of my family relationships in Boston I knew a lot of the state representatives. Minister Don sent me down there to work with them and by Allah’s grace they reassigned us to be able to get back into the prison system in Boston,” he said.

Dorothy Jones, president of the Urban League Guild, and Jackie Cairo, who is also with the Urban League, enjoyed the Minister’s words, the tribute to Bro. Don’s work and the lessons about the value of women and family.

“I think that a lot of times women get kind of lost in the shuffle, especially when a man is a powerful man. And I think for me as a woman that’s been married for a long length of time recognizing that the smaller part of the community, but the biggest part of the community, was honored tonight and that’s a man and woman together with their family and then they branch out in what they do in wider community,” she said.

A lot is being lost in media and political messages about the importance of family, parenting and sacrificing to teach and show how family truly works, Ms. Jones added. “And I think sometimes families are not sacrificing anymore because they get caught-up in what they think they need to do rather than knowing what they need to do to keep their family together,” she said. 

Ms. Cairo was touched by the Minister coming to honor Min. Don, his words about Min. Don and his wife and doing work in the streets. “You have to go out and do what you’re being taught so that you can teach the rest, so we can help uplift our community,” she said. “I thought it was very powerful and the thing I thought was awesome was when Minister Don came up and said he is not going to (speak) after his leader. Oh my God,” she said.

A week before the tribute Jim Gilden, an attorney with the Minority Police Organization, was working with Min. Don on organizing educational town hall meetings to get people involved and more aware of city government. “There’s a feeling that the city government is not meeting the needs of the people of color, particularly the mayor and the police commissioner,” said Mr. Gilden. “If there is a problem in the community and we can’t get something done if we get to Minister Don and he starts shouting many times something happens,” he said. The attorney has known Minister Don for about 40 years.

“When he started the mosque and started to recruit people, that area was the pits. The Grove Hall area was dangerous. There was a lot of drugs going on, there was a lot of violence and he took his students out into the streets. He took his flock out into the streets. And Grove Hall is now a thriving area. A woman could walk there without being accosted. The drugs are not in that area of the city, so even today his effect on policing this part of the city is very apparent,” added Mr. Gilden, who is Caucasian.

The redevelopment effort in Roxbury and the Grove Hall sections of Boston are intimately tied to the work of Min. Don and his collaborative efforts with others. Since 1984, members of the mosque, business people and community activists have brought millions of dollars to Roxbury for development.

“Minister Don Muhammad and the Nation of Islam helped in the revival of the greater Roxbury community,” Bruce Bolling, the first Black president of the Boston City Council told The Final Call in 2009. He credited Min. Don’s fatherly prodding for galvanizing Black leaders to go before the council to get funding. The result in 2001 was construction of Grove Hall Mecca Mall, a $13.5 million project.

The Neighborhood Development Corporation of Grove Hall also led construction of a $5 million condominium project in Roxbury. “The vision in Roxbury is to make this community as good as any other middle class community,” Virginia Muhammad, a longtime secretary for Mosque No. 11 and driving force behind the community development corporation, told The Final Call at the time. “It is our responsibility, as followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, to improve the quality of life of our people.” That work included classes in dealing with lending institutions for home loans and guidance on how to handle family and personal finances.

Over the years, the community development corporation has completed a million dollar rehabilitation project, provided affordable housing and commercial units; pushed city-funded capital improvements, and pressed lending programs procuring millions for first-time home buyers.

The Grove Hall effort was part of a fight to counter gentrification of Black neighborhoods in Boston, especially in Roxbury, which had overcome decades of crime and disorder through the efforts of people like Don Muhammad and former head of the Boston police force Billy Celester.

The success in Boston comes in a city that had its share of racial conflicts and Blacks subjected to inferior schooling, sub-standard housing, restricted job opportunities and underachievement.

Don Muhammad has been an advocate for police accountability and intervening in the lives of young people caught up in gang life. He has been lauded getting young people out of gangs, understanding how the city functions and using that knowledge to serve and guide youth. Through the mosque, Min. Don instituted programs such as the Muhammad’s Youth Enrichment Academy, and established a “surrogate parents” affiliation with a local elementary school.

Brother Don and Sister Shirley have been honored with city of Boston and Commonwealth of Massachusetts resolutions for making a difference in the lives of others. The city council resolution noted the Muhammad’s dry cleaning business and a health food store run by Mrs. Muhammad; and how she once served as a Cub Scout Troop den mother for her youngest child. In 2009, Billy Celester, a former police department superintendent, remembered Min. Don for showing how the community could work with the police in the 1980s to stop drugs and gang violence. “Finally we were able to honor the two people who had given so much to the community, especially the youth in Boston,” Mr. Celester told The Final Call.

Then governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick noted in his resolution how the tireless efforts of Min. Don, Sis. Shirley and Mosque No. 11 brought real change to the Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods in the late 1990s, which led to the building of Unity Plaza and Grove Hall Mecca Mall, helping to bring the economically ravaged communities back to life. The couple was described as positive role models in Black neighborhoods. 

Min. Don and Sister Shirley, married for some 60 years, have five children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren—and a host of friends, admirers and supporters.