Like most Negroes, I thought the answer to our problem was integration; that all we had to do was qualify ourselves and we would be totally accepted by the white race. Some of my high school teachers also insisted that this was the solution to the Negro problem. I was destined to learn the error of this kind of reasoning.
I was married after I completed my high school studies. Before long, I took a course in practical nursing. This, I thought, would give me a little more status than those who worked as housemaids, cooks, etc.
After finishing the practical nursing course, I received my license and was employed by a newly-built, modern hospital.
However, I soon found out that I didn’t receive any more respect than the maid or kitchen help. We all were “looked down” on and treated the same.
Furthermore, the white practical nurse working beside me received more pay when she started work than I already was earning, though I had been there longer and had been given three pay raises.
I also soon learned that my white co-workers expected me to do my share of the patients assigned to me and care, in addition, for theirs. I complained to the supervisor, but she took no action, which kept up a constant friction between my white co-workers and me.
My friends, who also were nurses, also complained about this treatment — but behind the whites’ backs and never to their faces.
After my friends saw me trying to stand up for my rights, they seemed afraid to talk to me in the presence of whites. Apparently they did not want to be seen acting on a friendly basis with someone the whites considered a “trouble maker.”
During this time, my husband had been attending the Mosque, and he started to tell me about the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. I got such a thorough understanding of the Messenger’s program that I knew this was the only solution to my problem and the problem of so-called Negroes.
No matter how many colleges or universities you have attended, or how many degrees you may own—without having a true knowledge of your God and yourself and following the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, you never will attain full freedom, justice or equality.
I always have loved my husband, but I love him even more for bringing to me the knowledge of the great and wonderful teachings of Islam.
I’m now 26 and he is 34, and we own our own home. We also have two fine children. We all are working in the cause of Islam. We forever thank Allah for sending to us our dear beloved leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
Reprinted verbatim from the “What Islam Has Done For Me” section of Muhammad Speaks, January 31, 1964, page 10. — The C.R.O.E. Report