Cult/ure

ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

‘The Colored
d Genius’:
G
Lucius Lehmaan and the Californian
ian Roots
of Modern Afr
frican-American Islam
am

Patrick D. Bowen, PhD candidate,

ca University of Denver-Iliff School
Sch of Theology

Abstract: This article presents forr the

th first time the figure of Lucius Lehman, a self-procla
claimed black Muslim
“mullah” who, after living a fascinat
nating life in southern California, was incarcerated in San Quentin Prison from
1910 to 1924 and, as a result, may hahave indirectly influenced the creation of the Nation of Islam’s doctrines.

L
Lucius Lehman, 1888, Folsom Prison records,

courtesy of the California State Archives

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 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

I
Introduction: The San Quentin Connection

O ne of the most controv

oversial issues in the study of African-American Islam is the question of whether
Wallace D. Fard, the founder of thee Nation
N of Islam (NOI), was the same person as the Wallace
Wa or Wallie Dodd
Ford incarcerated in San Quentin PriPrison in the second half of the 1920s.[i] According to NOIN tradition, Wallace
Fard was born in Mecca, Arabia too a black father and white mother on February 26, 1877. 7. After studying in London
and at the University of Southern California,
Ca Fard, who was on a divine mission, arrivedd in Detroit on July 4, 1930
to introduce to the city’s African Americans
Am his teachings about their origins – that blackk people
p are the “original
man,” that their people were from Mecca,
M and that Islam was their true religion. However,er, in the 1950s, the FBI, in
an attempt to discredit the NOI, cond
onducted an investigation of Fard’s background and soon oon leaked its conclusions to
the press. Fard’s true identity, the FBI
FB asserted, was far from the idealized image he had gi given the NOI. He, first of
all, was neither from Mecca nor halfalf black. Fard was actually a dark-complexioned white te – or mixed white and
Asian – man, originally from Oregon gon, Hawaii, or New Zealand, who had been living in Los Lo Angeles since the
1910s, was a derelict husband and father,
fa and was a small-time opium dealer. It was in fact
fac due to the last of these
traits that resulted in Fard – whosee true
tr name, the FBI claimed, was Wallace or Wallie Do Dodd Ford – being
incarcerated in San Quentin Prisonn in California from 1926 to 1929. The strongest pieces es oof evidence presented to
support this claim were photographs hs and fingerprints of Wallace Dodd Ford purportedlyy fromfr San Quentin prison
that matched those of the Fard whoo w was arrested in Detroit in the 1930s. One of the major
or criticisms of this evidence
that has been brought up by the NOI OI is that no one outside the government has seen proof of that these two pieces of
evidence – particularly the fingerprin
rint records – were genuine, and not planted by the FBI BI as part of its well-known
disinformation and counter-intelligen
gence activities at the time.

Recently, however, a 1917 17 draft registration card from Los Angeles for a Wallaceace Dodd Fard (on the card,
“Ford” is put in parentheses next to ““Fard,” indicating that the former was an alternativee spelling)
sp has been
uncovered.[ii] The card indicates that
tha this Fard was born in 1893 on February 26 – the sam ame day, though not the
same year, that the NOI claimed for or its founder. Fard, described as being of medium heigh ight and build with brown
eyes and black hair, is listed as an un
unmarried restaurant owner. Finally, his place of birthh is noted as being Shinka,
Afghanistan, which is possibly what hat is known today as the Shinkay region in the southeast ast part of Afghanistan or a
town with a similar name in nearby y northwest
n Pakistan – both places inhabited by the Mus uslim Pashtun people. The
majority of these traits are consistent
ent with much of the evidence concerning Fard discover ered by the FBI in its
investigation and as well as the addit
ditional evidence and analysis presented by Karl Evanzznzz, in his biography of
Elijah Muhammad, and Fatimah Abd bdul-Tawwab Fanusie, in her 2008 dissertation.[iii] Inn pparticular, the connection
between this Fard, Afghanistan, and nd the Pashtun people is incredibly suggestive, as Evanz nzz and Fanusie, prior to this
card coming to light, had traced a number
nu of rather rare terms and ideas in the NOI to likel
kely having a Pashtun – or at
least Pakistani – provenance.[iv] Fard
Far may have actually been born in that region or he may ma have given authorities
his father’s birthplace instead of his
is own. As Evanzz suggests as a possibility, Fard’s fathe
ther could have taught his
son traditions from his homeland, andan Wallace might have borrowed from these when crea reating the NOI’s
doctrines.[v] In addition to the draft
ft card, a 1924 marriage record from Southern Californi rnia for a Wallie Dodd Ford
has been found; Ford’s parents’ nam ames are listed here, and are the same as what Fard told ld tthe NOI and
FBI.[vi] While I do not wish to sayy the
t draft card and marriage record are indisputable proof
pro that the Fard/Ford in
Los Angeles was the same person identified
id by the FBI (Ford) as well as the same personn who later appeared in
Detroit (Fard), it certainly increases
es the likelihood.

With it therefore being very

ery probable that the founder of the NOI was incarcerate
ated in San Quentin Prison
from 1926 to 1929, during which time
tim he likely developed the main ideas that would beco
come the NOI doctrines,

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 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

knowledge of the ideological trends

ds among San Quentin’s black prisoners in the 1920s would
wo help us gain a deeper
understanding of how it was that the NOI acquired its famous – if not notorious – racialize
ized worldview. Although a
few attempts have been made along ng these lines, these have been for the most part based almost
alm entirely on
speculation[vii] and they have all ign
ignored two key pieces of evidence: 1) the fact that a highly
hig intelligent black man
who presented himself as an Islamic ic leader and a committed black nationalist was livingg in San Quentin until 1924,
2) San Quentin’s small black prison
on population was reportedly very committed to black nationalism
na in as late as
1925 and most likely was at least somewhat
som interested in Islam.

The present article is prima

marily a discussion of the first of these two issues. I will
ill present a brief biography
of the man know as Lucius Lehman, an, a self-proclaimed “Mullah, Imam of Islam, Egyptian an Soudan,” who has until
now been completely ignored in the he history of African-American Islam. The majority off this th article will offer an
overview of what can currently be do documented about his fascinating life. This will be follollowed by a discussion of
the development of Islamic black na nationalism and how this was connected with Lucius’ss likely li influence on San
Quentin’s black prisoners in the 192920s, an influence that probably lingered after he was released
re in 1924. Although
most readers of this article will be in
interested in Lehman because of his likely indirect influfluence on the NOI’s
founder, the story of Lehman and his Islamic black nationalism is also important for schol olarship on African-
American Islam for another reason: n: iit demonstrates that the connections being made betwetween Islam and black
nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s – which were exemplified by the NOI, but also could ld bbe found in the
Ahmadiyya Movement and the Moo oorish Science Temple – were to some extent “natural.” l.” That is, individuals like
Lehman, who may have had no expo posure to the popular African-American Islamic groups ps at the time, could have
independently come to the conclusio sion that an Islamic identity and black nationalism shoul uld be combined. The story
of Lehman, therefore, helps deepen n our
o understanding of the attractiveness of Islam for African
Af Americans in
general in the first half of the twenti
ntieth century and later.

Th Trials and Tribulations of Lucius Lehman

The

According to Lucius’s death th certificate, his real name was Luther Lamar, he wass born
b on March 10, 1863 in
South Africa, and he was a U.S. vete eteran who had been living in the local National Military ary Home for at least a few
days prior to his death.[viii] Unfortu
rtunately, none of this can be confirmed by other records rds and it is all in fact highly
suspect. First of all, Lucius’s divorce
rced wife’s name is listed in the death certificate as thee same
s as his supposed real
name, Lamar, but she had never used sed that name. Since the time of their marriage and afterter, Lucius’s wife, Mattie,
had used the name Lenan (also spell elled Le Nan)[ix] – a name Lucius himself had once used sed, as we will see. In
addition, there is no known birth cercertificate for Lucius, who consistently claimed a non-U. U.S. origin. Also, Lucius’s
birthplace is listed as “Kartoon, Sout
outh Africa.” Such a city does not exist, as far as I know w, in any part of southern
Africa. It is likely that the city namee is an incorrect spelling of Khartoum, the East Africancan city in the Sudan, which
Lucius frequently claimed was hiss home.h The fact that the certificate lists two seeminglyy completely
c different
locations within Africa may reflectt a mistake on the part of the person recording the inform ormation, though over the
years Lucius himself would make sim similar contradictory claims about his African home, in addition to assertions
about being from other places within hin and without Africa. Indeed, throughout his life Luciu cius gave so many claims
about his background that we may ne never know the truth about his origins.

As for evidence of Lucius’s’s supposed

s U.S. military career, there is, in short, almos
ost nothing to confirm it.
There are currently no available reco
ecords of his stay in the National Military Home, and his more specific claim about
his military service – that he was a Buffalo
B Soldier, serving in “Troop A – 10th Cavalry W.S.G.,
W 1882 to 1887 –
Educated at Fort Davis, Texas and wasw honorably discharged”[x] – currently cannot be backed ba up by military
records.[xi] Even if the military reco
cords are incomplete and Lucius was indeed a Buffaloo Soldier,
S he definitely was

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 Cult/ure
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not one in 1887. The earliest record

rd we currently have for Lucius places him in Los Angel
geles on December 5, 1886,
the day of his marriage to Ann Danie
niels.[xii]

At the time of his 1886 marri

rriage, Lucius spelled his name Lucias C. Lenon and claimed
cla to be from the
Caribbean country of Haiti, but a yea
year later, in his declaration of intention for naturalizatio
tion, he, now spelling his
name Lucias Costela Le Non, indicaicated that he was from Tahiti, in the southern Pacific between
be Australia and South
America.[xiii]

Just three months after his na

naturalization, Lucius’s marriage came apart. In whatt would
w be his first of many
appearances in California’s newspap apers, a news brief indicated that Lucius – whose namee was written as Louis C.
Lenan – had been arrested for intentitionally throwing a hatchet at his wife, an action thatt re
reportedly was the result of
him flying into a rage when Ann sup
supposedly discovered that Lucius had raped her ten-year ear-old daughter.[xiv] On
April 6, 1888 Lucius was found guiluilty of rape and sentenced to serve fourteen years in Fol
Folsom Prison. Over the
course of the next year, Lucius’s law
lawyer appealed on the grounds of minor legal errors inn the t trial, but when he
failed, Lucius became his own advocvocate, and in the 1890s wrote letters to various officials
als professing his innocence
and asking for a pardon.[xv] Luciusus claimed that when he had married Ann, she did not tel tell him that she had
children. After the marriage was offi
fficial, she brought her children into their home, burdeni
ening Lucius and making
him miserable. To alleviate his pain,
in, Lucius decided to leave and give Ann half of his mon oney, but she did not accept
this, and the couple began fightingg often,
o culminating in Ann having her daughter accusee Lucius
L of rape.[xvi]

While we may never know whether

w Lucius did indeed rape his step-daughter, Luci
ucius’s letters on the subject
are, to say the least, impressive – at least
l from a historical standpoint. His refined handwri
riting, his command of
logic, and his awareness of legal argrguments and jargon are indicative of a man possessingng a sharp mind and a quality
educational background, a rare privil
ivilege in American society at the time for a member off aany race. It is all the more
impressive considering the facts that
hat A) he was black – at a time when the majority of blac
lack Americans were
completely illiterate – and that B) in the late nineteenth century there was only a very smalall number of African-
American lawyers in the entire U.S.,
.S., let alone in California where blacks had begun being
ng admitted to the state’s bar
only in 1887, and only a handful had ad actually become lawyers by the 1890s.[xvii] Thesee letters
le are therefore the first
of many testaments to Lucius’s inteltelligence and claimed elite background.

At the time, however, Luciusius’s letters failed to make the impact he was seeking; he was not pardoned,
though because of good behavior he ended up only serving around ten years of his sentenc ence, being released in
February 1897. Upon obtaining his is freedom,
f Lucius, who now spelled his name Lucius C. Lenan[xviii] and claimed
to be from Jamaica, found a job ass a cook and in December married one Mattie Clark from om
Tennessee.[xix] Following the marri rriage, for six months Lucuis’s life appears to have achie
hieved a degree of stability
and freedom that he had not had sincince, perhaps, his childhood. But in late June of 1898,, Lucius
Lu was back in the
courts as well as in the press, and was
wa becoming something of a local sensation.

On June 29, Lucius was arres

rested for burglary.[xx] Earlier in the month, he had, through
thro a middle man,
responded to an announcement that at a reward would be given for the return of the business
ess papers of a man named
James Robinson, papers that had been
bee stolen from his home. Lucius claimed to have found und the papers scattered
about in a park and brought them to an attorney who was supposed to return the papers for a small transaction fee.
The papers that Lucius returned, how
owever, did not include the most important and valuable ble ones that had been
stolen, so Robinson refused to payy th
the reward and notified the police. The police questione
oned Lucius who told them
he might be able to find the missing
ng papers; he, charging a search fee, then left the interrog
rogation and soon returned
with more papers as well as a coatt and
an watch that had also been stolen from Robinson. To Robinson and the police,
it now seemed obvious that Luciuss had
h been Robinson’s burglar. Lucius was subsequently tly arrested, though the
outcome of the case would defy thee expectations
e of all – or at least most – involved.

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 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

At the preliminary examinatiation on July 1, Lucius, rather surprisingly, chose to act

ct as his own
attorney.[xxi] When the prosecutionon presented its case, Lucius took extensive shorthand notes.
no He then proceeded
with cross-examinations that were so skillful and impressive that the detectives, the Distric
trict Attorney, and even the
judge were all left shocked, and thee case
c against Lucius began to look extremely weak. Ne Newspapers called him one
of the “brightest” and “most remarka
rkable” prisoners they had seen in years, and after the hearing,
he the judge remarked
that “few lawyers practicing in hiss co
court had ever conducted as skillful a line of cross-exam
xamination as this
defendant.”[xxii] Then, when presen
senting his defense, Lucius explained that not only did he have a white British
grandfather, but he had been educateated for diplomatic service in London (at, according too his
h later claims, Oxford
University) and could speak thirteenen languages. He added that after being released from pr prison in 1897, he had gone
to Cuba before returning to Los Ang ngeles to marry Mattie.

Despite being impressed with ith Lucius, the judge was not ready to dismiss the casee and
a a trial date was set. In
the intervening time, the police disco
scovered that Lucius’s marriage to Ann had not been legally
leg annulled, so Lucius
was charged with bigamy.[xxiii] For or this case, Lucius – who was seen reading a numberr ofo law books in the
courtroom[xxiv] – hired a lawyer,, andan explained that he had believed that he had indeed le legally divorced Ann, and
after examining the relevant docume ments, the court found out this was the truth.[xxv] At Lucius’s
Lu burglary trial in
October (for which he used a lawyer yer), his surprising conduct was again noted in the papers
ers, though this time there
was an emphasis on his extremely relaxed
re attitude throughout the proceedings; even whenen being questioned by the
prosecutor Lucius never once appear eared flustered or unsure, and continued to record every
ry word that was said during
the trial.[xxvi] His confidence wass sos unwavering that a rumor had spread that when he wa was leaving the city jail for
court the morning of his final triall da
day he, smiling, told the guard opening his cell door, “You
“Y will do that for me just
once more.”[xxvii] When, as he pred redicted, the case was dismissed, the Los Angeles Times es called Lucius “the colored
genius.”[xxviii]

After the trial, Lucius announ

ounced to reporters that he was planning to return to Cub
uba where he supposedly
had served in the military under a General
Ge Garcia,[xxix] though by the next year he was back
ba in Los Angeles where
his wife was giving birth to his child
ild and where he filed, under the name Lucius Cartellee Lenan
L and as a British
subject from the West Indies, a new w declaration of intention for naturalization, and was officially
off made a citizen in
1903.[xxx] Over the next eleven yea ears, Lucius remained in the Los Angeles area workingg primarily as a brick and
tile maker and, until 1910, he for the most part avoided encounters with the law.

Lucius, however, was nott one

o to remain out of the spotlight for long. In 1901, he conducted an interview
with the Los Angeles Heraldin whichich he claimed to be a grandson of Napoleon.[xxxi] Luc ucius told the reporter that
his father was the second son of Nap
apoleon and had married Lucius’s mother, a native Afric frican woman. This son, he
claimed, traveled extensively in Afri
frica, going from Cape Town, South Africa to Egypt and, and later, the Sudan, where
Lucius “Le Nan” was born, along with
wi eleven other children of the union. At the age of thirteen,
thi Lucius claimed, he
was sent to Oxford and graduated fro
from there in 1877, after which he spent two years in Heidelberg,
He Germany
studying civil engineering and langu
guage. The reporter noted that Lucius’s “comprehensive ive knowledge of history and
world politics are convincing if not
ot conclusive
c proofs of the genuineness of his claims.” In addition to this being the
first known instance in which Lucius
ius claimed to be Sudanese, it was also the first in which
ich he claimed to be a
follower of Islam, which he said wasas the religion of his mother. None of this, of course,, has
ha ever been confirmed.

In 1903, Lucius’s naturaliza

lization made the news[xxxii] and in 1905 his name wasas in the paper when he was
reportedly beaten and robbed for the $30 in gold he was carrying that belonged to his empployer.[xxxiii] Then, in the
following year, Lucius played a min
inor but notable role in the movement that marked thee birth
b of modern
Pentecostalism.

5
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

The Azusa Street Revivall began

b in early 1906 when William J. Seymour, a formemer slave who had been a
Holiness preacher, arrived in Los Angeles
An and began spreading the message of the phenomomenon of speaking in
tongues.[xxxiv] In April, the first of his followers displayed the ability, and his church, which
wh soon moved to a
building on Azusa Street, started attr
attracting a large, multiracial following that included a few
fe individuals of minor
prominence in the city. One of these se was Dr. Henry S. Keyes, the directing surgeon of Los os Angeles’s Emergency
and General Hospital, who claimedd that t he was given the ability to both speak and write in a dialect from
northwestern India. In September,, w when aLos Angeles Times reporter asked Dr. Keyes iff he h might try to have his
writing translated, Dr. Keyes took theth reporter to the home of a local language expert hee knew,
kn “L.C. Le Nan,” a
self-proclaimed Egyptian Muslim who wh told the reporter that he had studied at Oxford, Heideidelberg, and the
University of Cairo and knew thirty ty languages.[xxxv] After charging a small fee, Luciuss looked
lo at the writing and
quickly announced that he had identi ntified it: it was “Gese,” a previously unknown language
age that Lucius claimed had
been spoken in Palestine around 3,40 ,400 years ago. At that point, Lucius went with Dr. Keye
eyes and the reporter to an
Azusa Street meeting where another er woman there called to him supposedly in his nativee language
la (what this was,
the reported did not indicate) and ide
identified him by his birth name, Le Nan, as well as hisis “burial
“ name.” All this
impressed Lucius so much that he de decided to become a member of the group, and he was as ssoon featured on the front
page of the first issue of Azusa Stree
reet’s newspaper.[xxxvi] Despite the fact that a well-knonown language expert, Baba
Bharati, dismissed Keyes’s languageage as invented, Lucius remained as Azusa Street’s residsident translator for around a
month, at the end of which he claime
imed one of the “tongue” messages he heard there had askedas him to go to Africa
“to teach his people,” and Lucius did not return to the Pentecostal meetings.[xxxvii]

There is no trace of Lucius

us again until late 1909 or early 1910 when he was appar
parently living in Los
Angeles and still married to Mattie.[[xxxviii] By February, though, marriage problems had
ad led him to move to
Riverside by himself, using the name
me Lucius L. Lehman.[xxxix] Then, on February 17, Lucius
Lu killed a man.

Theodore Lasley, a black co coworker of Lucius, was shot and killed when, the Lasl asley family claimed, Lucius
traveled to the Lasley family homee tto confront Theodore about a letter he had recently rec eceived from him accusing
Lucius of sleeping with Theodore’s ’s wife.[xl]
w According to Theodore’s parents, Lucius’ss soleso intent when he went to
their home was to kill Theodore; Lucius,
Luc however, said that he went there at the request of Theodore who wanted
help with work on the family’s farm rm, but the two got into an argument, and when he saw Theodore
T coming towards
him with what appeared to be a gun un (it was in fact a pitchfork), he believed his life was in danger and fired a
shot.[xli] Both the case itself and the ever-impressive Lucius drew much interest, particula ularly from the African-
American community.[xlii] When he took the stand, Lucius articulately explained to thee court co that he was born in
1861 in “Southwest Africa, in the Cameroon
Ca district” (Cameroon is in fact on the westernrn coast of central Africa)
and that before serving five years in the “American Cavalry” he had studied in universities ties in Heidelberg, France,
and Barcelona.[xliii] The Los Angele eles Times also noted, just as it had in 1898, how at thee trial
t Lucius took down
copious shorthand notes and how “u “unconcerned” he seemed – in fact Lucius was said to be “one of the coolest
prisoners who ever appeared before re a jury in [Riverside].”[xliv] In this trial, however, Luc
ucius’s confidence did not
pay off. He was convicted of first degree
de murder and sentenced to life in San Quentin Pris rison.

Over the next fifteen years,

rs, Lucius worked tirelessly to free himself. He wrote numerous
nu letters to San
Quentin’s various wardens and Calif
alifornia’s legal officials pleading for a reconsiderationn of
o his case, again
frequently using complex but lucidd llogic as well as indications of knowledge of law and a refined writing style. He
applied for clemency in 1912 and for
fo parole in almost every year he was eligible. He also o cultivated
c his contacts
with various professionals, businessm
ssmen, and club leaders in the Los Angeles area who wo would vouch for Lucius’s
character and offer him employmentent upon his release. Lucius’s San Quentin inmate file contains
co most of these
documents and is over one hundred d pages
p long (to put Lucius’s prolificacy into perspectiv
tive, most San Quentin
inmate files from the time contain fewer
fe than a dozen pages, and Wallace/Wallie D. Ford’ rd’s file has only three pages

6
 Cult/ure
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total) – making his file both an exce

cellent resource for documenting the development of his identity while in San
Quentin, and further proof of his exc
exceptional intelligence and education.

In his 1912 application for

or clemency,
c Lucius, who wrote his name as “L.C. Lenan nan-Lehman” and noted that
he abstained from alcohol, indicatedted that he was born in Kingston, Jamaica, but had lived d in
i Cairo, Alexandria,
Khartoum, Mumbai, Calcutta, and in the Guangzhou Province in China.[xlv] His parents, ts, Henry and Emma Lenan-
Lehman, were currently living in Ha Haiti. However, in his 1917 application for parole, the details
de of his background
were somewhat different. Here he listslis his birthplace as the Sudan and both of his parents, ts, now called Henicaba (?)
and Aujenica (?) were African-born, rn, though all he says about their current residence is that
tha they live in foreign
countries. He explains that he has notno used any aliases in his life, but the differences in his name over the years are
the result of the “spelling of [his] nat
native African name [being] modified.” About his backg kground, he says that he was
born in 1860 to wealthy African pare arents; he attended school in Egypt for about seven year ars (until age thirteen) and
then attended school in Heidelberg. g. IIn this application, Lucius also reveals, for the first time,
tim his claim of having
been trained and “regularly ordained ed” as a Muslim “priest.” It is interesting that, probably ly not coincidentally, 1917 is
also the year Lucius starts signing hihis name “L.C. Lehman [or sometimes Lucius C. Lenan an-Lehman], Luco Lenaryi
al Mullah, Khartoum, Egyptian Soud oudan.”[xlvi] Also, after that date, Lucius occasionallyy in interjected Islamic phrases
in his letters.[xlvii]

What should we make of Lu Lucius’s numerous assertions about his background? At first glance, the sheer
abundance of fantastic claims caststs much
m doubt on Lucius’s stories. However, there are in fact only a few pieces of
information that actually conflict, and
an some of these, particularly dates, can easily be expla plained away as errors in
memory or as attempts to simplify a complex background. Even so, to make all of Lucius’ us’s stories fit together would
produce such an unbelievable biogragraphy that it would be, at the very least, the stuff of film
ilms. Nevertheless, even if
his claims about his Napoleonic conn
onnections, African nativity, European education, and la language skills are
completely false, Lucius’s obviouss inintelligence, confidence, education, and, especially, his verified activities in Los
Angeles still make a fascinating stor
tory.

Lucius’s life, however, wou

ould have almost certainly been lost to history had it not
no been for a single letter he
wrote in 1922 while still incarcerated
ted – a letter that is now the key clue linking Lucius and
nd San Quentin Prison to the
wider African-American Islamic movement
mo that was emerging in the 1920s.

The Rise of Islamic Black Nationalism

The year 1920 marks the birt irth of modern African-American Islam. During the era ra of slavery, Muslims
accounted for – at most – only twent
enty percent of all enslaved Africans in the U.S.[xlviii] Having
H been separated by
slave owners from their co-religionis
nists and speakers of the same language in order to inhib
hibit communication, which
would ultimately reduce their ability
ity to form successful rebellions, there were only a handf
ndful of places in the country
where Islam was kept alive at all, and
an it was rarely adhered to by the American-born. Byy 1900,
1 there were almost no
traces of Islam left in the African-Am
American community.

During the first two decades

es of the twentieth century, only a few black Americans
ns were known to be
Muslim, the majority of which were re poor African immigrants who had come to the U.S.. since
si the 1880s to perform
in various “Oriental” shows acrosss the
th country. In addition, we know of at least three black
ack individuals who were
probably promoting Islam to African
can Americans – the Sudanese Satti Majid, the self-procl
oclaimed Sudanese-Egyptian
Abdul Hamid Suleiman, and the Nor orth Carolina-born Noble Drew Ali (who most likely hadha been a student of
Suleiman) – though we still lack non
non-oral tradition evidence for their pre-1920 Islamic activities
act with African

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 Cult/ure
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Americans, and, given the lack of historical

hi record, it is probable that their leadership prod
roduced few followers at the
time.[xlix]

The first group to successfull

fully spread Islam among African Americans was the Ah Ahmadiyya Movement in
Islam, a South Asian Islamic sect thathat had sent a missionary, Muhammad Sadiq, to the U.SU.S. in early 1920.[l] After
experiencing racism himself and fail ailing to find many white converts, Sadiq turned his atte
ttention towards African
Americans, particularly in Chicago, o, Detroit, Indiana, and St. Louis, and converted around
nd 700 before his departure
in the fall of 1923[li] – the year Sule
uleiman made headlines leading a similar group in Newa wark. Sadiq’s successor,
Muhammad Din, converted several al hhundred more by 1925 when he set sail for India. Din’
in’s successor did not arrive
until 1928, and during the intervenin
ning years Satti Majid was able to make a number of Afr frican-American Sunni
converts, and Noble Drew Ali “orga ganized” a new African-American Islamic movement,, knownkn as the Moorish
Science Temple, in Chicago, whichh qquickly gained several thousand members in the north rthern Midwest and Mid-
Atlantic cities.[lii] The death of Drew
rew Ali in the summer of 1929 left a major leadership vacuum
va in the African-
American Islamic community, which ich appears to have largely been filled by Wallace D. Fard,
Fa who founded the
Nation of Islam (NOI) in Detroit, a former
f Ahmadiyya and MST stronghold, in 1930 and d ssoon spread his teachings
to Chicago and Milwaukee, ultimate ately gaining up to 8,000 members by November 1932.[l [liii]

Although none of these move

ovements shared the same Islamic doctrines, what appear ears to have united all of
them and contributed to their success
ess is an interest in and respect for the black nationalism
sm of Marcus Garvey and
his United Negro Improvement Asso ssociation (UNIA). The Ahmadis found allies and a num umber of converts from
among the UNIA members,[liv] Nob oble Drew Ali referred to Garvey as his “forerunner,”[lv [lv]several of Satti Majid’s
followers had been committed to Garvey’s
Ga ideas, and not only did the NOI probably recru ruit followers from the
UNIA, its well-known leader, Elijah
jah Muhammad, openly showed praise for Garvey.[lvi] This T fundamental
connection to Garvey reflects the important
im role he served in reshaping African-American an culture at the time.

A highly charismatic speakaker and effective organizer, Garvey, who after establish
lishing his UNIA in New
York in 1916, by 1920 had made the UNIA the largest and perhaps the most influential mass ma movement in the
history of African Americans. His ra rapid and impressive success was primarily due to hiss ability
a to, as E. David
Cronon expressed it, “put into power erful ringing phrases the secret thoughts of the Negroo world,”[lvii]
w particularly
the idea that “black skin was not a badge
ba of shame but a glorious symbol of national greatn
eatness.”[lviii] African
Americans, in other words, were part
par of large black “nation” that deserved its own land,, just
ju like any other nation. In
America, furthermore, whites would uld never allow blacks to have equality. Therefore, he argued,
arg African Americans
should move “back to Africa” and establish
es economic and social independence from white ites. It was an inspiring and
attractive message for African Amer ericans, who were only now beginning to emigrate out ut oof the Jim Crow South. It
was, in fact, an attractive message to black people throughout the world. Indeed, worldwid ide, the UNIA gained
probably over 80,000 official membe bers and 100,000 non-registered believers, and its news
wspaper, the Negro World,
had a circulation of at least 50,000.[l
[lix] Garvey’s power to connect the world’s black peopople and give them a sense
of dignity and common cause led to a significant transformation of African-American cult ulture and the development
of many new black identities that ref
reflected the UNIA’s nationalist message.

The interest in Islam among

ong African-Americans in the 1920s and early 1930s was as highly influenced by the
UNIA’s endorsements of the religion ion. Garvey, who had read the pro-Islam black nationalisalist writings of Edward
Blyden and had worked for, in 1913,13, a British Muslim black nationalist named Dusé Moha ohamed Ali, sometimes
mentioned Islam and its prophet inn his
h speeches.[lx] Also, the Negro World ran a number er oof stories about Muslims
in the 1920s, particularly in 1922, the
th year Dusé served as the newspaper’s “Foreign Affai fairs” column writer
and head of the UNIA’s African Aff ffairs department.[lxi] Islam, in fact, featured prominen
ently in the Negro World in
the first half of the 1920s; theNegro
ro World, therefore, played an important role in spreadin
ding the connection between
Islam and black nationalism that wou ould serve as the foundation for the several African-Am
American Islamic groups at

8
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

the time. What is notable about thee references

r to Islam in the Negro World, however, is that
tha only a very small
number actually endorsed the uniting
ting of Islam to black nationalism – for the most part Isla
slam was simply regarded as
the religion of many Africans and otother non-white people who were struggling against European
Eur colonialism, and it
therefore was to be respected in thee spirit
s of black and anticolonial unity.

Nevertheless, there were still

sti some instances in which Islam and black nationalism
lism were clearly connected.
One of the earliest examples of this
is aappeared in the March 25, 1922 issue, which happened
ned to also be the date of the
appearance of Dusé’s first “Foreignn Affairs” column and therefore around the beginningg of
o the UNIA’s 1920s
interest in Islam. This connection was
wa made on page 8, in a letter to a UNIA member sent nt by the “Mullah of San
Quentin.”

Islam and
d Black
B Nationalism in San Quentin Prison in the 192
920s

In the late nineteenth centuryy and the first decade of the twentieth, life for a black
k American
A in California
was significantly better than it wass in the South or even in most places in the North. Africa
rican Americans were
sometimes permitted to buy property rty in white areas; there was a small but growing blackk business
b and professional
class; and though white racism of course
co existed, racist violence was minimal and interracracial interactions were not
infrequent. One major reason for this tolerance was that California’s black population was as relatively small,
especially compared to the Mexican an and Chinese populations, and therefore whites theree did d not feel particularly
threatened. For instance, in Los Angngeles, Lucius’s home, the total black population in 189 890 was only 1,285
compared to 47,205 whites, making ng African Americans two-and-a-half percent of the popu opulation; in 1900 the
proportion dipped to two percent; and
an in 1910 the percentage of blacks only increased too two-point-three
tw percent,
with 7,599 individuals.[lxii]

However, during the firstt de

decade of Lucius’ incarceration in San Quentin, Califor
fornia’s African-American
population roughly doubled, as hundndreds of thousands of America’s blacks fled the South
th at the beginning of the
Great Migration. With this growingg black presence and the concomitant rise in racial tensi
nsion throughout the country,
California’s white racism – both form
ormal and informal – began increasing proportionally.. A
African Americans in
California were now more segregateated and subject to violence than ever before.

It did not take long, then,, fo

for the community’s more race-minded leaders to begin
gin showing an interest in
Garvey’s message. By 1920, the Neg egro World was circulating throughout the state and UNIA
UN divisions were being
established in Los Angeles, San Franrancisco, and Oakland.[lxiii] With Garvey’s message spreading
spr fast, particularly in
the Bay Area, it is not surprising tha
hat the Negro World had made it behind the walls of onene of the Bay Area’s most
notorious prisons by early 1922.[lxiv
xiv]

At the time, San Quentin did

di not have a particularly large black population. In 1922,
19 African Americans
numbered only 158, compared to 2,148
2,1 “whites,” a number that surely included several hundred
hu
Latinos.[lxv] Indeed, when a race riot
rio broke out in 1925, it was between whites and Latino inos – African Americans are
not recorded to have been involved. d.[lxvi] This, however, did not mean that San Quentin’s ’s blacks were fully
integrated. Though they were “toleraerated” and even gained some status as “prison character ters,” which surely involved
playing to racial stereotypes,[lxvii] they
t seem to have been avoided by whites and exclude ded from the more enjoyable
jobs and supplementary activities,, such
su as the publishing of the prison’s short-lived newsp spaper.[lxviii] For the most
part, the black inmates went largely
ly ignored; memoirs of San Quentin from the period hav ave little to say about the
African Americans there, and it seem
eems that the group formed a quiet and probably relativelvely tight-knit community. If
a member of such a community was as as confident, intelligent, and, frankly, manipulative as Lucius seems to have

9
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

been, it is easy to see how this perso

rson could have exerted great influence on San Quentin’s
n’s African Americans,
particularly during a time when blac
lack nationalism was gaining a large number of converts.
rts.

What led Lucius to begin proclaiming

pr himself to be a mullah (and later, imam)) around
ar 1917 is still
unknown, but doing so was perfectly tly consistent with his many claims of high birth and edu education as well as his
attempts to use these claims to his advantage
ad in difficult situations. The fact that in any on
one year in the 1910s and
1920s there were only around a halfalf-a-dozen or so Muslims in San Quentin[lxix] suggests sts that if Lucius was using
the titles mullah and imam as a wayay of gaining respect from and perhaps control over these ese individuals, there is little
chance one of them could have know own if Lucius was faking his religious knowledge. Luciu cius may have indeed been
raised as a Muslim, but there is, outs
utside of his own assertions, almost no evidence to suppo pport his claim
of religious training or even adheren
rence prior to coming to San Quentin. He, furthermore,, was w a quick study with a
nimble mind, so faking it in a veryy convincing
c way does not seem to be beyond Lucius’ss aabilities or tendencies. In
the end, though, whatever his reasonons for using the titles, Lucius continued to do so for the rest of his time in San
Quentin.

By early 1922, Lucius adde ded a new element to his identity: that of a black nationa
onalist. After reading in
the Negro World a letter promotingg the
t role of women in the black nationalist movement, t, Lucius
L penned, on
February 27, a reply that would appeppear in the paper’s late March issue.[lxx] In his letter – which was signed “Lucius
C. Lenan-Lehman, Luco Lenaryi Mu Mullah, Imam of Islam, Egyptian Soudan”[lxxi] – Luciu cius commends the earlier
letter’s writer, saying that black wom
omen should play an important role in motivating “thee armya of Negro jelly fishes
too ignorant to know the differencee bbetween a fact and a theory” to work for the cause off black
b nationalism. Lucius
praises Garvey for being “fearless and
an true,” and, like Garvey, he feels that because of raciacism – ”Lucifer’s ‘prize-
winning’ design” – African America icans have no chance at equality and happiness in the U. U.S. They should return to
Africa, where they can, using the knknowledge they have gained from the West, “bring alll N Negroes nearer their ancient
glory.” The UNIA is in fact “‘Allah’ah’s’ answer to Ethiopia’s centuries of truthful prayers.”
s.”[lxxii]

It was an eloquent and pow owerful call to black nationalism that does not seem to have
ha been entirely born out
of an opportunistic desire to gain inf
influence in the small black community in San Quentin. n. One piece of evidence
supporting this is the fact in a letter
er Lucius
L wrote in 1924 to one of his supporters on thee ooutside he expressed pride
in never having been an “Uncle Tom om.”[lxxiii] It also must be remembered that throughout ut Lucius’s known life in
Los Angeles – at least in the way he presented it – he was the constant victim of undeserve rved white racism. The
courts – all the judges, lawyers, andnd jury members he faced – were all white. Even the (sup supposed) assault and
robbery he suffered in 1905, though gh it was at the hands of African Americans, was indirec rectly the result of white
racism – after going from restaurant nt to restaurant, looking for a place that would allow bla
blacks to eat inside, he was
finally only allowed into a black estastablishment, which happened to be the place his assaila ilants found
him.[lxxiv] Even if Lucius was a complete
com fraud, he undoubtedly was aware of and most st llikely resentful towards the
fact that a man of his intelligence anand abilities was prohibited from achieving professionalnal success and relegated to
manual labor and, perhaps, swindlin ling – primarily due to the color of his skin.

It seems very likely that Lucius,

Lu who had another impressive letter published inn theth Negro World in
September,[lxxv] did achieve somee iinfluence in San Quentin’s black community, especial ially considering the fact that
he was one of only two self-proclaimaimed Africans in the prison at the time,[lxxvi] which would
wo have made Lucius the
object of respect among Garvey-lean eaning men. While we do not currently have information ion about the impact of
Garvey on other San Quentin inmate ates in 1922, there is evidence that at least as early as 1924
19 Garveyism was on the
rise in the prison. A January 1925 letter
le to the Negro World from a San Quentin inmate indicated
ind as much and
explained that the black nationalistt spirit
s had become so strong that on New Year’s Day 19 1925 the majority of black
inmates stood together to protest a recent
re racially-motivated incident (in which only their ir portion
p of the dining hall
was used for the holiday’s annual vaudeville
va performance), and to demonstrate to the priso
rison authorities that they

10
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

were “very tired … of forever being

ng the goat every time in everything.”[lxxvii] Despite being
be taunted and threatened
by white inmates, the group, in a very
ver self-controlled manner, resisted fighting and instead
ead sent a spokesperson to
the guards to explain that they would
uld not be attending the performance. The guards acceptepted their position and the
group remained in the prison yard debating
de race conditions and their remedies. By the end
nd of the ordeal, the letter
writer claimed, San Quentin’s black
ck population was “100 per cent Garvey-ized.” Luciuss was w paroled on good
behavior in July 1924 and never agagain appears in the Negro World or known documentss connected
co to California’s
UNIA, so it is uncertain as to exactly
ctly the full extent of the role he may have played in thee sspread of Garveyism. But
the fact that the New Year’s Day incident
inc occurred only five months after his release incre
creases the chances that the
memory and inspiration of Lucius w was still fresh in the prisoners’ minds.

Interestingly, San Quentin

in w
was not the sole penitentiary converting to Garveyismsm during that period. From
1924 to 1926, black prisoners across
oss the country were reportedly joining, at least in spirit,
it, the ranks of the UNIA,
believing that Garvey had “the plan
an that [would] free the entire Negro race.”[lxxviii] Att the
th same time, there also
seems to have been a short-lived bur
urst of interest in Muslims and Islam in the UNIA. And, nd, if we are to judge by the
division reports published in the Neg
egro World, the Oakland UNIA, the most influential UNIA UN division in California
at the time and therefore the one mos
ost likely to have influenced the prisoners in nearby San Quentin, was, outside of
New York, the UNIA division with th pperhaps the strongest interest in Muslims.[lxxix]

There is therefore strong circumstantial

cir evidence that not just Garveyism, but Islam-tinged
Isla black
nationalism, was circulating in thee San
S Quentin black prison population upon the arrivall of the man going as
Wallace D. Ford in 1926. Ford, at the
th time, was a well-known “street politician” and an opium
op dealer in Los
Angeles who, because of both his ambiguous
am racial identity and his Islamic background,, may
m have found in San
Quentin’s Islam-influenced Garveyis yism a perfect niche to develop a new identity and caree
reer.[lxxx]

As for Lucius, all that cann bbe documented about his life after San Quentin is that
at he returned to work as a
brick maker and retired by 1936. On February 11, 1937, he died from severe arterioscleros rosis.[lxxxi]

The Call to Islam

We currently know almostt nonothing about how Lucius put his Islamic identity to use during his years living in
Los Angeles, and we know only a litlittle about how he used it in San Quentin. What we doo know, however, is that
nearly 2,000 miles west of the neares
rest African-American Islamic community of any signifnificant size (the Ahmadi
community in St. Louis in the 1920s0s), a black man was presenting himself as a learned and dignified Muslim in as
early as 1901, and by the 1920s hee w
was overtly supporting black nationalism. He, almostt certainly,
c did all this
without any knowledge of the Islamimic movements in the eastern U.S.

The story of Lucius’s life, then,

the helps us see that Islam did not spread in African-A American culture simply
through the efforts of the group off Islamic
Is leaders in the eastern U.S. who were proselytizi
tizing to African Americans,
and who almost certainly all knew about
ab and perhaps coordinated and/or competed with ea each other. There seems to
have been, at least for some who had experienced being black in America in the early twen entieth century, an almost
natural connection between Islam and an black nationalism. It is thus now easier to see nott on
only how the early leaders
of black nationalist Islam were ablele to draw thousands, but also why, as time passed, secon
cond-generation African-
American Muslim leaders like Malco lcolm X and Louis Farrakhan were able to command the attention of tens and
even hundreds of thousands. The stostory of Lucius’s life – whether there is a connection too tthe NOI’s Fard or not – is
therefore a testament to the powerr of Islam in African-American culture.

11
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

In a 1924 letter, Lucius waxed prophphetic: “My story will be told someday. Sensation upon on Sensation [sic] will
follow.”[lxxxii] Lucius’s story – att least
l a significant part of it – has now been, finally, tol
told. It remains to be seen,
however, what sensations may follow
llow.

Notes

[i] This question has been addr

ddressed in several of the major studies of the NOI. See, e.g.,
., Karl
K Evanzz, The Messenger:
The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad
ad (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999); Claude A. Clegg III, An
A Original Man: The Life
and Times of Elijah Muhammad (New York:
Y St. Martin’s Press, 1997); Richard Brent Turner, Islam
am in the African-American
Experience, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indian
iana University Press, 2003).

[ii] Ancestry.com, Registration

ion Location: Los Angeles County, California; Roll: 1530899;
99; Draft Board: 17.

[iii] Fatimah Abdul-Tawwabb Fanusie,

F “Fard Muhammad in Historical Context: An Islamicmic Thread in the American
Religious and Cultural Quilt” (PhD diss.
iss., Howard University, 2008), ch. 5, 244-96. Fanusie arguess that
t some of the evidence we
have about Fard and his teachings sugge
gests he was influenced by and used elements of Ahmadiyyaa IIslam. While this does not
necessarily mean that he was Central or South Asian, it strengthens that likelihood. Paul Guthrie has recently presented even
more evidence about Fard’s South Asian
ian/Ahmadiyya connections.

[iv] Evanzz, 409-12; Fanusie,

ie, 244-96.

[v] Evanzz, 411-12.

[vi] Marriage record for Wallie

llie Dodd Ford and Carmen Frevino, 5 June 1924. From Famil
milysearch.org, accessed 16
April 2013. Here, his father’s name is listed
lis as Zaradodd, which is very close to the name of Fard’s
’s father
f that the FBI learned
about, and his mother’s name is listed as Babbjie, which is very close to the “Baby Gee” name Fard
rd told the NOI. I would like to
thank Karl Evanzz for informing me abo
bout this record.

[vii] Evanzz gives some gener

eral speculation and Peter Matthews Wright devoted his MA
A thesis
t to theorizing that
Fard’s creation of the NOI doctrines whi
hile in San Quentin prison was primarily due to the interplay
ay of “penal trauma” and Fard
coming to terms with his ambiguous raci
acial position in the U.S. Matthews, however, does offer some
me more verifiable evidence
about San Quentin’s intellectual life – the
th description of this made by a San Quentin inmate at the tim
time, Robert Tasker, in his
book Grimhaven. See Peter Matthews W Wright, “A Box of Self-Threading Needles: Epic Vision andd Penal
P Trauma in the Fugitive
Origins of the Nation of Islam” (MA thesis,
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004).

[viii] Los Angeles County, Cal

California, Certificate of Death: Luther Lamar (aka Lucius L.. L
Lehman). Filed 11 February
1937.

[ix] See Los Angeles city direc

irectories for Mattie Lenan (and Le Nan), for the years 1909,, 11914, 1916, 1918, 1921, and
1936, and her U.S. Census record for the year 1920; all available on Ancestry.com (Beta), accessed
d 11
1 December 2012.

12
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

[x] Biographical Sketch of Pris

risoners Eligible to Parole, State Prison at San Quentin, Luciu
cius L. Lehman, undated,
contained in Lucius Lehman inmate reco
ecords, California State Archives.

[xi] The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), at my request, conducte
cted two searches for Lucius’s
name using his known aliases in the reco
ecords of Troop A; they found no matches. I have also examine
ined for myself the muster rolls
of Troop A in 1880s – no one in these re
records has anything like Lucius’s aliases and no one’s biogra
graphical data matches his
either.

[xii] Los Angeles County, Cali

alifornia, Marriage Record: Lucias C. Lenon and Ann Daniels
iels. Filed 5 December 1886.
From Rootsweb.com, accessed 11 Decem
cember 2012.

[xiii] NARA, Nationalizationn Records

R in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California,, L
Lucias Costela Le Non, 20
November 1887; Ancestry.com, accessed
sed 12 December 2012.

[xiv] “Telegraphic Breveties,”

s,” Sacramento Daily Record-Union, February 13, 1888, 4.

[xv] Lucius’s letters can be found

fou in his inmate file from Folsom Prison, held by the Califo
lifornia State Archives.

[xvi] See Lucius’s accounts of the situation in his writings in his inmate files from both Folsom
Fo Prison and San Quentin
Prison.

[xvii] J. Clay Smith, Emancipa

ipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 (Philade
delphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1993), esp. 485.

[xviii] Over the next few years

ars, he would still sometimes use the “Lenon” spelling of hiss nname, but increasingly went
with “Lenan.”

[xix] “Marriage Licenses,” Los Angeles Herald, 14 December 1897, 7; Los Angeles Coun
unty, California, Marriage
License: Lucius C. Lenan and Mattie Clark,
Cla 13 December 1897; Rootsweb.com, accessed on 12 Dec
ecember 2012.

[xx] “Arraigned for Burglary,”

y,” Los Angeles Herald, 30 June 1898, 8.

[xxi] See “Accomplished Negr egro,” Los Angeles Herald, 2 July 1898, 12; “Remarkable Pris
risoner,” Los Angeles Times, 2
July 1898, 5. Unfortunately, the court rec
records for this case have been destroyed.

[xxii] “Accomplished Negro”;

o”; “Remarkable Prisoner.”

[xxiii] The records for this cas

ase have also been destroyed.

[xxiv] W.A. Corey, “A Colore

ored Bigamist,” Los Angeles Herald, 13 July 1898, 10.

[xxv] One of the few surviving

ing sets of court records concerning Lucius are the divorce records
rec that show that Ann,
lacking the proper funds, simply failedd to finalize the divorce after giving Lucius the paperwork. A. Lennon vs. L.C. Lennon,
Superior Court of Los Angeles County, y, California,
C no. 23539, dept. 6.

[xxvi] “The Lenan Trial,” Los

os Angeles Times, 5 October 1898, 7; “Versatile Lenan Acquit
uitted,” Los Angeles Times, 6
October 1898, 7.

13
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

[xxvii] “The Public Service:: Will

W Investigate,” Los Angeles Times, 5 October 1898, 7; “No
Not a Burglar,” Los Angeles
Herald, 6 October 1898, 12.

[xxviii] “The Public Service:: Don’t

D Do Politics,” Los Angeles Times, 6 October 1898, 7.

[xxix] “Off to Cuba,” Los Ang

ngeles Times, 7 October 1898, 10.

[xxx] NARA, Nationalization

on Records in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California,, Lucius
L Cartelle Lenan, 10
April 1899 and 25 February 1903;Ances
cestry.com, accessed 12 December 2012.

[xxxi] “Grandson of the First

st N
Napoleon Lives in Los Angeles,” Los Angeles Herald, 21 Ap
April 1901, 7.

[xxxii] “King’s Subject Lost,”

t,” Los Angeles Times, 26 February 1903, A2.

[xxxiii] “Negro Robbed and B

Beaten,” Los Angeles Herald, 16 March 1905, 5.

[xxxiv] On the Azusa Streett re

revival and Dr. Keyes, see Cecil M. Robeck, Jr., The Azusa St
Street Mission and Revival:
The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Mov
ovement (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006).

[xxxv] “Baba Bharati Says No

Not a Language,” Los Angeles Times, 19 September 1906, sect
ect. II, 1.

[xxxvi] “Baba Bharati,” Thee A

Apostolic Faith 1.1 (Sept 1906): 1.

[xxxvii] “Claim Power to Rais

aise Dead,” Los Angeles Times, 24 September 1906, sect. II,, 7.

[xxxviii] See the Los Angeles

es city directory for 1910, Ancestry.com (Beta), accessed 12 D
December 2012. However, he
and Mattie possibly had been separatedd for
f a time prior to this, as only her name appears in the 1906
06 Los Angeles city directory.

[xxxix] In his application forr clemency

c (see below), Lucius claimed that he was not living
ng with Mattie at the time of his
1910 arrest because “My home had ceas
ased to be. Shame [had] driven me from Los Angeles.”

[xl] The Riverside Superior Court’s

Co copy of the trial records for this case have been destro
troyed, but partial records,
including key transcripts, remain in Luci
ucius’s San Quentin inmate file.

[xli] “Murderer of Corona Boy

oy to Get Sentence Monday,” Corona Courier, 14 April 1910
10, 1; Lucius Lehman’s
Application for Executive Clemency, San
Sa Quentin Prison, 24 [?] January 1912, in Lucius Lehman’s
’s San Quentin inmate file.

[xlii] “Lehman Tria[l] is Comm

mmenced,” Corona Independent, 12 April 1910, 1.

[xliii] People of the State off California

Ca vs. Lucius L. Lehman, 26 April 1910, transcript, in Lucius’s San Quentin inmate
file.

[xliv] “Calmly Faces Murderr C

Charge,” Los Angeles Times, 14 April 1910, sect. II, 13.

[xlv] Application for Executiv

tive Clemency.

[xlvi] See, e.g., letter, Luciuss L

Lehman to William D. Stevens, 7 April 1917, in Lucius’s San
Sa Quentin inmate file.

[xlvii] He, for example, usess the

th phrase “May Allah guide is my prayer.”

14
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

[xlviii] On enslaved Muslimss in

i the U.S., see Allan D. Austin, ed., African Muslims in Antebellum
Ant America: A
Sourcebook (New York: Garland, 1984)
4); Michael A. Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience andd Legacy
L of African Muslims in
the Americas (New York: Cambridge University
Un Press, 2005), 13, 18-20, 128-35, 144-52.

[xlix] On Satti Majid, see Patri

atrick D. Bowen, “Satti Majid: A Sudanese Founder of Americ
rican Islam,” Journal of
Africana Religions 1.2 (2013): 194-209;
9; Ahmed I. Abu Shouk, J.O. Hunwick & R.S. O’Fahey, “A Sudanese
S Missionary to the
United States,” Sudanic Africa 8 (1997):
7): 137-91. On Abdul Hamid Suleiman and Drew Ali’s earlyy efforts,
e see Patrick D. Bowen,
“Abdul Hamid Suleiman and the Originsins of the Moorish Science Temple,” Journal of Race, Ethnicit
icity,
and Religion 2.13 (September 2011): 1--54 and Patrick D. Bowen, “Prince D. Solomon and the Birth
rth of Modern African-
American Islam,” Journal of Theta Alph
lpha Kappa (forthcoming, Spring 2014).

[l] See Turner.

[li] “New Converts,” Moslem

m SSunrise 2.2-3 (1923): 191; “Dr. Sadiq,” Moslem Sunrise [2].
2].4 (1923): 268.

[lii] On Drew Ali’s MST being

ing “organized” in 1925, see [Noble Drew Ali], “Moorish Lea
eader’s Historical Message to
America,” Moorish Guide, 28 Septembe
ber 1928, 2.

[liii] On the NOI’s rise, see Evanzz;

Ev rica, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids:
Clegg; C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in Americ
W.B. Eerdsmans; Trenton: Africa World rld Press, [1961] 1994); E.U. Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism
lism: A Search for an Identity in
America (Chicago: University of Chicag
ago Press, 1962).

[liv] See, e.g., “Brief Reportt of the World in America,” Moslem Sunrise 2.1 (1923): 167.

[lv] Noble Drew Ali, Holy Koran

Kor of the Moorish Science Temple of America ([Chicago]:
]: N
Noble Drew Ali, 1927),
chapter XLVIII.

[lvi] Adeyemi Ademola, “Nati

ation of Islam Deserted,” African Mirror (Aug.-Sept. 1979):: 41.
4

[lvii] E. David Cronon, Black

ck M
Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the United Negro
o Improvement
I
Association (Madison: University of Wis
isconsin Press, 1969), 4.

[lviii] Ibid.

[lix] Cronon, 45, 204-07.

[lx] Edward E. Curtis, IV, Isla

slam in Black America: Identity, Liberation, and Difference in African-American Islamic
Thought (Albany: State University of New
Ne York Press, 2002), 50.

[lxi] Ian Duffield, “Duse Moha

ohamed Ali and the Development of Pan-Africanism 1866-194
1945” (PhD diss., Edinburgh
University, 1971), 661.

[lxii] J. Max Bond, “The Negr

gro in Los Angeles” (PhD diss., University of Southern Califo
lifornia, 1936), 20.

[lxiii] See, for example, Rober

bert A. Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Impmprovement Association
Papers (Berkeley: University of Californ
ornia Press, 1983), 4: 233-237, 311-312, 339, 477; also see Em
Emory J. Tolbert, The UNIA
and Black Los Angeles: Ideology and Community
Co in the American Garvey Movement (Los Angeles: es: Center for Afro-American
Studies University of California, 1980).
). UNIA divisions were established in a few other Californian
an cities in the early 1920s, but,
judging by their appearances in the Negr
egro World, they were probably very small and did not last long.
lon

15
 Cult/ure
ure 8.2 (spring 2013) P.D. Bowen, ‘The Colored Genius’

[lxiv] Evanzz suggests that the leader of San Francisco’s UNIA in the early 1920s, one George
Ge Farr, may have been
Ford/Fard using an alias. There are a number
num of reasons I find this highly unlikely, which I will enum
numerate in a future work.

[lxv] California State Board of Prison Directors, Biennial Report of the State Board of Pris
rison Directors of the State of
California, Seventy-Second and Seventy
ty-Third Fiscal Years, 1921-1922 ([San Quentin]: San Quentin
ntin Press, [1922]), 48.

[lxvi] Kenneth Lamott, Chroni

onicles of San Quentin: The Biography of a Prison (New York
ork: David McKay Co., 1961),
198-99.

[lxvii] Lamott, 197.

[lxviii] See the prison’s Wall

ll C
City News newspaper that was published in 1926.

[lxix] See San Quentin’s Bienn

ennial Reports for these years. Although few of these explicitly
itly note Muslims, they all list
the provenances of their prisoners, andd every
e year Muslim-majority nations were listed.

[lxx] Lucius C. Lenan-Lehman

an, “U.N.I.A. Answer to Allah’s Prayers – Egyptians,” Negro
gro World, 25 March 1922, 8.

[lxxi] In the sub-headline to th

this article, the Negro World called Lucius the “Mullah of San Quentin.”

[lxxii] The name Ethiopia was

as sometimes used by Garveyites to refer to all of Africa.

[lxxiii] Letter, Lucius C. Lenan

nan-Lehman to Hettie Tilghmen, 1 August 1924, in Lucius’ss San
S Quentin inmate file.

[lxxiv] However, his criticism

sm of “Negro jelly fishes” most likely reflects his resentmentt towards
to those blacks who had
opposed him over the years.

[lxxv] Lucius C. Lenan-Lehma

man, “Mrs. Katie Fenner of 1385 Osceola St., Denver, Col.,” Negro World, 30 September
1922, 8.

[lxxvi] California State Board

rd of Prison Directors, 36.

[lxxvii] James Allen Davis, “C

“Color Line Drawn in San Quentin Prison,” Negro World, 244 January 1925, 9.

[lxxviii] Wm. Tucker, “A Priso

rison a Good Place in Which to Learn to Think,” Negro World
rld, 16 August 1924, 11; “Great
Outpouring of People Pack Liberty Hall
all to Capacity,” Negro World, 5 September 1925, 3; “Nine Prisoners
Pri Contribute to
U.N.I.A. Fund,” Negro World, 3 July 19
1926, 2.

[lxxix] See the Oakland divisio

ision’s references to the Rif War in its division reports in the Negro
N World on the following
dates in 1925: 18 July, 5 September, 266 September,
S and 17 October. The Oakland group also hosted
ed in 1924 a purported
Abyssinian with a Muslim name, Abdull ullah Gali; see the division report on 5 July 1924.

[lxxx] On Ford’s “street politic

litician” reputation, see “Fueron Confiscados $5,000.00 Valor
or de
d Drogas
Heroicas,” Heraldo de Mexico, 17 Febru
bruary 1926, 8.

[lxxxi] See his death certificate

cate.

[lxxxii] Letter, Lucius C. Lena

enan-Lehman to Hettie Tilghmen.

16