Inside the Nation of Islam By Vibert L. White, Jr. (Gainesville, FL: Uni versity Press of Florida, 2001. 256 pages.)

Abstract

The author, who embraced the teachings of Louis Farrakhan's revamped
Nation of Islam (NOI) in the late I 970s to find solutions to America's race
problems, left disillusioned in the mid-1990s. What he witnessed as he
passed through the organization's rank and file compelled him to compile
his experiences to give others a clearer understanding of the Nation's origins
as well as its role concerning the issues facing African-Americans.
Inside the Nation of Islam is divided into I I chapters and contains a
foreword by Mike Wallace an epilogue by the author, extensive notes, a
bibliography, and an index. Also included are several photographs that
illustrate White's extensive involvement in the NOL
With a brief overview of African-American history prior to the NOI's
creation, chapters 1 and 2 touch on the Harlem Renaissance, the origin of
the Jim Crow laws, and the mass exodus of African-Americans from the
South to the North. With the fall of similar resistance movements, the
NOJ stepped in to address the bitter disillusionment that many of them
experienced upon their arrival in the North ...