A Contemporary Revitalization Movement in American Race Relations: The 'Black Muslims'

Abstract

The Black Muslim movement among Negro Americans is viewed as an in-process example of a movement-a deliberate, organized, conscious effort by members of a society to construct a more satisfying culture. Using this juxtapositional method,.our.knowledge about the movement is systematized, and the theory is clarified and further operationalized. Several directions for research are suggested, including (1) viewing the Muslims in Weberian terms as a twentieth-century case of this-worldly activism motivated by religiously sanctioned asceticism, and (2) proposal of a comparative study designed to show the Muslimhs emerging from the same kinds of acculturative pressures as the Peyote cult of American Indian tribes. arely do empirical cases seem so made-to-order for a particular sociological theory as does the Black Muslim movement for Anthony Wallace's formulation of the revitalization movement.l The Lost-Foundl Nation of Islam ill Nortlh America is a mushrooming sect of Negro Americans led by some of the country's angriest young men. A politico-religious organiza