Minister Louis Farrakhan has headed up the Nation of Islam for 47 years since assuming its leadership in 1977. In light of the organization’s Black nationalist rhetoric, some social media users recently were stunned to discover what appeared to be Farrakhan’s mixed-race background. Others said that is the story of most Black people in the Americas and West Indies.
Established in 1931 by Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, the Nation of Islam espouses Black exceptionalism, teaching that God is Black and that the first man was created in God’s image, which is Black. Central to its doctrine is the legend of Yakub, asserting that the white race emerged from genetic manipulation by one of the original Black people approximately 6,000 years ago, granting them dominion over the world.
This new “made man,” according to some in the faith, is referred to as a “devil.”
So, when an X user posted a picture and an accompanying narrative about Minister Farrakhan’s father, Percival Clark, some people were shocked to see he was not Black.
“This is Percival Clark the father of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Yes, I know it’s shocking but The Minister has a white father. Minister Louis Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott by ‘ANGLO-CARIBBEAN IMMIGRANTS’. His father Percival Clark is a WHITE JAMAICAN and his mother Sarah Mae Manning a Caribbean from Saint Kitts,” the X user wrote.
🚨#BREAKING: This is Percival Clark the father of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Yes, I know it’s shocking but The Minister has a white father.
— Sir Maejor – FBA 🇺🇸 (@Maejor4Congress) March 13, 2024
Minister Louis Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Walcott by “ANGLO-CARIBBEAN IMMIGRANTS”.
His father Percival Clark is a… pic.twitter.com/NutmUWHwpi
Though the image the user presented is often presented as being that of Farrakhan’s father, it actually depicts Sir Percival Clarke, a British man who served as the chairman of the County of London Sessions. Clark, the faith leader, was of Jamaican descent and had light skin.
Farrakhan described his parents thusly during one of his speeches: “My mother was a Black woman. My father was a high yellow Black man with curly hair.”
Clark went on to have a child in 1933 with Sarah Mae Manning from the island of St. Kitts, who later changed her name to Mother Sumayyah Farrakhan.
“My mother bore me with pain and sorrow, because she tried to abort me three times. Because she was living with my brother’s father – but my father, whom she married and never divorced came back into her life momentarily, and she became pregnant with me. So all the time she was carrying me, she was in sorrow, because she tried to kill me, and then she decided to have me,” Minister Farrakhan said, according to Brother Qiyam Blog.
He continued, “You don’t do that unless you are in pain. And the pain and fear of what the child would look like, that he who she was living with, my brother’s father, would become aware that her husband had slipped back in and had an affair with his wife, who had left him, but was living with my brother’s father.”
The Minister spoke about it again in 2015, during the Million Man March’s 20th anniversary. At the time, he alleged that his mother was pregnant under “uncomfortable” circumstances and she couldn’t face her child, being light-skinned when the man she was with was dark-skinned and so was she.”
In 1996, he said that his father, who was said to be of Portuguese descent, may have been Jewish.
While talking to Henry Louis Gates, an acclaimed Harvard scholar and genealogist, about his father’s parents, Farrakhan said during an interview with the New Yorker, “I’m going to tell you something. You really want to know what I think? I think they were members of the Jewish community.”
“I believe that in my blood, and not in a bad way. Because when I was a little boy I used to love listening to the Jewish cantors in Boston,” he continued. “They had a program, and every week I would listen. I was struck by the cantor, and I’ve always loved the way they sing or recite the Torah.”
Gates found Farrakhan’s assertion credible. He said noting that Iberians in Jamaica often have Sephardic Jewish ancestry — an ironic twist since the Chicago resident speaks so critically of the Jewish community.
Many have questioned why Farrakhan’s last name is Walcott instead of Clark. He has explained that this was because a man named Louis Walcott supported his mother while his father was absent and kept cheating on her.
His mother intended to begin a new life with Walcott but slipped up and linked back with her husband and became pregnant.
When the child was born with light skin and curly, auburn hair, Walcott realized the baby wasn’t his and left. Despite Walcott leaving, he treated Manning well and thus she still named the leader after him, according to ThoughtCo.
You know more about his father than he do? Crazy. pic.twitter.com/dVyTzzc4sS
— hecava M E C C A (@hecava_mecca) March 13, 2024
The discourse about Farrakhan’s father and his image resurfaces often on social media for unknown reasons. The latest resurfacing of this debunked claim found plenty of engagement from X users who were taken in.
Some people found the claim that the 90-year-old Black Muslim leader is biracial to be unremarkable, suggesting that “we all have white in our family trees. It’s AA and Caribbean people have white ancestors!”
“Wow this is just now coming out!! When the man clearly told us decades ago!!” another commented sarcastically.
“Master Fard was born of a white woman/Black father. That’s NOI lore. So there is no convo to be had. Pick up ‘Message To The Black Man’, it explains this. Min. Farrakhan stated that his father was a light-skinned Black American that his mother had an affair with,” one more X user posted.
I’m actually not surprised. Knowing he’s half white lets me know he’s been in certain rooms and has first hand knowledge of the hatred some whites have towards black ppl.
— Wednesday (@MainySexyCool) March 13, 2024
One person was quick to clarify, “I am not a supporter of Farrakhan by any means, but I am also not a supporter of misinformation. Percival Clark and Percival Clarke are two different people with two different spellings of their last names. This is a picture of Sir Percival Clarke from London a white man.”
While Farrakhan knew who his father was, Clark never played an active role in his son’s life.
