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Baldwin’s Father
The leader of the Nation of Islam, a religious black separatist group. Although Baldwin disagrees with Elijah’s belief that all whites are “devils” and that the future of the world includes only black people, he understands the impulse and logic driving Elijah’s beliefs. He is even impressed by Elijah’s ability to bring black people together and to, in a sense, save them from the horrors and traps of abject poverty and oppression. Baldwin, though sympathetic to Elijah’s outlook, is unable to see eye-to-eye with the Nation of Islam because of its commitment to religion and its general “us versus them” perspective. Still, he depicts Elijah as a kind, intelligent man with a face that indicates pain and reminds Baldwin of his father.
Elijah Muhammad Quotes in The Fire Next Time
The The Fire Next Time quotes below are all either spoken by Elijah Muhammad or refer to Elijah Muhammad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Down At The Cross
Quotes
It is only “the so-called American Negro” who remains trapped, disinherited, and despised, in a nation that has kept him in bondage for nearly four hundred years and is still unable to recognize him as a human being. And the Black Muslims, along with many people who are not Muslims, no longer wish for a recognition so grudging and (should it ever be achieved) so tardy. Again, it cannot be denied that this point of view is abundantly justified by American Negro history. It is galling indeed to have stood so long, hat in hand, waiting for Americans to grow up enough to realize that you do not threaten them.
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It was very strange to stand with Elijah for those few moments, facing those vivid, violent, so problematical streets. I felt very close to him, and really wished to be able to love and honor him as a witness, an ally, and a father. I felt that I knew something of his pain and his fury, and, yes, even his beauty. Yet precisely because of the reality and the nature of those streets—because of what he conceived as his responsibility and what I took to be mine—we would always be strangers, and possibly, one day, enemies.
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Elijah Muhammad Quotes in The Fire Next Time
The The Fire Next Time quotes below are all either spoken by Elijah Muhammad or refer to Elijah Muhammad. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Down At The Cross
Quotes
It is only “the so-called American Negro” who remains trapped, disinherited, and despised, in a nation that has kept him in bondage for nearly four hundred years and is still unable to recognize him as a human being. And the Black Muslims, along with many people who are not Muslims, no longer wish for a recognition so grudging and (should it ever be achieved) so tardy. Again, it cannot be denied that this point of view is abundantly justified by American Negro history. It is galling indeed to have stood so long, hat in hand, waiting for Americans to grow up enough to realize that you do not threaten them.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
It was very strange to stand with Elijah for those few moments, facing those vivid, violent, so problematical streets. I felt very close to him, and really wished to be able to love and honor him as a witness, an ally, and a father. I felt that I knew something of his pain and his fury, and, yes, even his beauty. Yet precisely because of the reality and the nature of those streets—because of what he conceived as his responsibility and what I took to be mine—we would always be strangers, and possibly, one day, enemies.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
