WHAT YOU NEVER KNEW ABOUT ETTA JAMES: "I WAS AN HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD MUSLIM FOR 10 YEARS"
One of America's finest R&B singers, Etta James became an “Honorable Elijah Muhammad Muslim” using the name “Jamesetta X” in the early 1960s, after hearing Minister Louis Farrakhan preach. For 10 years she called herself a Muslim, later reflecting: “If I hadn’t fallen off the wagon so easily, and so frequently, Islam might have helped me avoid all sorts of problems.
In an excerpt from her autobiography Rage To Survive (published in 2009) Etta James writes:
"It was during one such period that I joined the Muslims. I'd been hearing about the Muslims all my life. Dorothy (Etta James's mother) was tight with some Muslim brothers back in L.A., where she'd hang out at their temple on Broadway. She always thought the Muslims were cool.
"My own connection happened in Atlanta when I was living at the Forest Arms Motel. Abye (a neighborhood friend) was with me. We were bored and working infrequently. As a diversion, we'd go to Temple 15, where the young Louis Farrakhan was minister. Farrakhan could preach. I picked up on the anger and rebellious vibe of the teaching. The messages were strong--let's not eat pork, let's were those headdresses and go to temple every night; let's learn to make bean soup; and mostly, let's hang out with those clean-cut Muslim brothers. It was the brothers who converted me. I got my X from that temple. I became an Honorable Elijah Muhammad Muslim and called myself Jamesetta X. No more slave name. I was written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
"Looking back, I see it as something of a fad for me--it was the radical, the "in" thing to do--but at the time I took it seriously. With John Lewis help, I studied the Holy Koran and bought all the separatism business. The racial pride did me good. It was a better way of living, a better way of eating, and if I hadn't fallen off the wagon so easily and frequently, Islam might have helped me avoid all sorts of problems. My religious practices might have been erratic, and my wildness surely overwhelmed my piety, but for ten years I called myself a Muslim."
She believes her example may’ve had some influence on her friend Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Clay) turning toward the organization, though in her case, the faith didn’t stick.
She further writes: "I never changed my stage name which shows you I never embraced the strict doctrine. I would sneak and eat pork. I didn't agree with everything the Muslims preached. On the other hand, hearing the white man called the devil didn't bother me at all. Calling anybody the devil gave me a chuckle."
In an excerpt from her autobiography Rage To Survive (published in 2009) Etta James writes:
"It was during one such period that I joined the Muslims. I'd been hearing about the Muslims all my life. Dorothy (Etta James's mother) was tight with some Muslim brothers back in L.A., where she'd hang out at their temple on Broadway. She always thought the Muslims were cool.
"My own connection happened in Atlanta when I was living at the Forest Arms Motel. Abye (a neighborhood friend) was with me. We were bored and working infrequently. As a diversion, we'd go to Temple 15, where the young Louis Farrakhan was minister. Farrakhan could preach. I picked up on the anger and rebellious vibe of the teaching. The messages were strong--let's not eat pork, let's were those headdresses and go to temple every night; let's learn to make bean soup; and mostly, let's hang out with those clean-cut Muslim brothers. It was the brothers who converted me. I got my X from that temple. I became an Honorable Elijah Muhammad Muslim and called myself Jamesetta X. No more slave name. I was written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
"Looking back, I see it as something of a fad for me--it was the radical, the "in" thing to do--but at the time I took it seriously. With John Lewis help, I studied the Holy Koran and bought all the separatism business. The racial pride did me good. It was a better way of living, a better way of eating, and if I hadn't fallen off the wagon so easily and frequently, Islam might have helped me avoid all sorts of problems. My religious practices might have been erratic, and my wildness surely overwhelmed my piety, but for ten years I called myself a Muslim."
She believes her example may’ve had some influence on her friend Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Clay) turning toward the organization, though in her case, the faith didn’t stick.
She further writes: "I never changed my stage name which shows you I never embraced the strict doctrine. I would sneak and eat pork. I didn't agree with everything the Muslims preached. On the other hand, hearing the white man called the devil didn't bother me at all. Calling anybody the devil gave me a chuckle."
