Farrakhan, The Movie

I decided to revisit the life of a leader who captured the attention of so many during these last 50 years. Leila Wills' book, "Farrakhan The Movie", a book that reads like a movie, is not a traditional biography. The story starts on a Georgia Plantation with Elijah Poole, later known as Elijah Muhammad and the beginning of the Nation of Islam. Then it takes the reader to Malcolm Little (Malcolm X), his early life and emergence in the Nation of Islam and then onto Louis Eugene Wolcott, later known as Louis Farrakhan.

Nearly every page abounds with data that plugs the holes and connects what has been previously published.

Leila Wills gives you a virtual travel uncovering all sorts of material. The book plays and reads like no other political biography I've come across and this underlines that we are dealing here with a very different type of writer. She writes like a historian but the presentation is like a novelist and a very good one at that--deploying a great deal of conversation and showing considerable fluency and remarkable insight.

I marvel at the single-mindedness with which she has pursued the subjects - more than half a century. She gives her fascinating account of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan. This book is one in a class of scholarly adventure. Leila Wills has scooped up every detail and fact of the Nation of Islam. This textual and historical book through its unique design sheds a great deal of light on this era.

Essentially this movie novel falls into three parts: the background of Elijah Muhammad and the rise of the Nation of Islam; Malcolm X's background, life in the Nation of Islam and his dismissal from the Nation; then the background of Louis Farrakhan, his influence and rise to leadership in the Nation of Islam. Overshadowing it all is the physical presence of the F.B.I. in all their lives.

Ultimately what mattered most was the style of leadership and command exhibited by the three men.

It is fascinating to see how their rise and leadership styles developed during their years in the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan's ultimate rise to leadership.

Leila Wills goes to the very heart of the Nation of Islam. For that reason alone, this movie book is an interesting read.
Cheryl Loftin Wooding-Bey