ATLANTA—With injustice and inequality contributing to negative trends in education, health, housing, employment and safety outcomes for Black people daily, it is becoming increasingly clear that Black people must make their own communities decent and safe places to live.

This has been the clarion call of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, for decades.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, during a time when Black men were portrayed in the media as “menaces” to society, he recognized early on that directive and call to inspire Black men to take control of their communities.

“Come on, brothers! Let’s fill the churches up with men! Let’s fill the mosques up with men! And let us never let religion and the labels divide us ever again from one another. Never again!” he said in a “Men Only” meeting delivered on April 11, 1994, in Houston, leading up to the historic Million Man March in 1995 in Washington, D.C.

Minister Farrakhan then posed the following questions: “Are you interested in making our own communities a more decent place to live? How many of you brothers would like to accept a training that would cause you to be self-disciplined; and then we, in turn, take the responsibility of disciplining our community—making it safe for our women, our children and our elderly?”

Today, Black men in Atlanta are taking on that same principle, motivated by the work of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Atlanta’s Muhammad Mosque No. 15, the Nation of Islam’s Southern Regional headquarters, hosted a Men-Only meeting on April 25, under the theme “We Must Make Our Community a Decent and Safe Place to Live.”

The meeting was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Atlanta Fruit of Islam (F.O.I.) Student Regional Captain Oliver Muhammad, Student First Officer Bro. Terrance Muhammad and a team of F.O.I. 

Brother Meeko Muhammad was part of that team. “Whenever you can conceive something in your mind and bring it into existence, that’s really the ultimate aim of life. 

And so, in that regard, the fact that we planned it, organized it, pulled it off without any glitches that we are aware of, is a tremendous win for us, and it’s only the beginning,” he said to The Final Call.

“As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has instructed us, our work is in the community with our people, and we intend to continue the effort,” he said.

During the meeting, held at Hillside International Truth Center, words were shared by Rev. Dr. Jerome Maultsby, a pastor at the church; Alfreda Stukes-Hall, founder of the Atlanta-based organizations Men of Distinction and Women of Distinction;

Muhammad Hafeez, director of community engagement with the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative; Greg Clay, deputy chief of staff with the mayor’s office; Natalie Ammons, president of the Georgia chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives;

Major Antonio Clay, police commander of the city’s Zone 4, covering Southwest Atlanta; Bro. Dr. Jabril Muhammad, an assistant professor of microbiology, biochemistry and immunology at the Morehouse School of Medicine and Bro. Patrick Muhammad of Your Faith Farms.

Rev. Dr. Maultsby has facilitated the men’s group for Hillside International Truth Center for years. For him, the meeting dispelled myths related to the differences in Christianity and Islam.

He has attended meetings with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in the past, and the church itself hosted Minister Farrakhan in 1998, for the inauguration of Sister Dr. Ava Muhammad as the Nation’s Southern Regional Student Minister (may Allah be pleased).

“This men’s meeting dispelled many myths on that Saturday. It showed the brotherhood between the mosque and Hillside,” Rev. Dr. Maultsby said to The Final Call. “There was an energy in our sanctuary, bar none; it was just reverberating of positivity, of love, of respect and of awareness.”

He compared the moment to a family reunion and looks forward to the church continuing its relationship with the mosque.

“I’m reminded of the Million Man March, which I attended. We were all given a calling to not just show up there for one day, but to continue to show up. So, our goal is to continue to show up,” he said.

Bro. Jahi Muhammad, also part of the team of F.O.I., served as emcee. He believes the meeting was necessary to help curb the violence and the killings of Black youth in Atlanta. He explained to The Final Call how the F.O.I. built upon relationships they had already developed within the community to make the event happen. 

More than 400 Black men and boys attended the meeting. Program speakers emphasized the need for unity and the importance of personal transformation and collective action.

They spoke about men stepping up to take responsibility, the role of community in raising young Black men, alternative responses to criminal justice issues and the need for community partnerships.

Student Minister Abdul Malik Sayyid Muhammad, the Western Re-gional Student Minister of the Nation of Islam, who is an Atlanta native, delivered the keynote address. His message stressed the need for Black unity, self-sufficiency, education and economic empowerment.

“Our communities are unsafe. They’re not decent. … We’re here now and following the dictates of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. We want to work to do our part, and we want to work in collaboration with others of good intentions and noble intentions,” Bro. Meeko Muhammad said.

Morehouse School of Medicine conducted free screenings for prostate cancer, testing 145 Black men, its largest screening in history. A resource center was also available for attendees, providing an opportunity to engage in dialogue with program speakers and others who offer services. 

“What I hope they took away from that is the dire need to change, and it starts with the family,” Bro. Amin Muhammad, who was part of the F.O.I. organizing team, said to The Final Call.

“The Minister (Farrakhan) said self-improvement is the basis of community development, so making your community a decent and safe place to live begins with self-improvement.”

The team of brothers all agreed that their efforts to make their communities decent and safe places to live would continue and Insha’Allah (God-Willing) would expand throughout metro-Atlanta and to other cities across the Southern Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes all of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and parts of Tennessee.

“The inspiration for all that we do of good is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and following his example, not only the mantra/theme ‘making our communities a decent and safe place to live,’

But also a very powerful message that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered on July 9, 2012, entitled, ‘Help Our people See the Value of Making a Change,’” Bro. Meeko Muhammad said.

“That’s where he organized the F.O.I. to go out into the community, and we’ve been carrying that into practice since that date. And as long as Allah (God) will give us breath and strength, we intend to continue to do so.”