FILE - Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and his wife, Khadijah, watch as their grandson, Virginia senior Mustapha Farrakhan, is honored with other seniors before Virginia's NCAA college basketball game against North Carolina State in Charlottesville, Va., Tuesday, March 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
FILE - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, center from Chicago, Il., walks down the steps of the Capital Building with his wife, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, left, as they arrive at the Millions More Movement on the ɫtv Mall, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, his wife Khadijah Farrakhan, and their daughter, Maria Farrakhan Mohammad, pose for photographers in front of the Window Rock Navajo Monument, Wednesday, July 19, 2006, in Window Rock, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
FILE - Khadijah Farrakhan, wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, stands before members of the 20th Navajo Nation Council Wednesday, July 19, 2006 in Window Rock, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
FILE - Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and his wife, Khadijah, watch as their grandson, Virginia senior Mustapha Farrakhan, is honored with other seniors before Virginia's NCAA college basketball game against North Carolina State in Charlottesville, Va., Tuesday, March 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
FILE - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, center from Chicago, Il., walks down the steps of the Capital Building with his wife, Mother Khadijah Farrakhan, left, as they arrive at the Millions More Movement on the ɫtv Mall, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
FILE - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, his wife Khadijah Farrakhan, and their daughter, Maria Farrakhan Mohammad, pose for photographers in front of the Window Rock Navajo Monument, Wednesday, July 19, 2006, in Window Rock, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)
Khadijah Farrakhan, longtime wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, died on Saturday, the Nation of Islam has announced. She was 90.
“Mother Khadijah” worked alongside her provocative and charismatic husband for decades, helping lead their religious and sociopolitical movement, which espouses Black self-reliance. Its home base was Mosque Maryam on the south side of Chicago, where the pair lived.
“The Honorable Minister @LouisFarrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you that his beloved wife of 72 years, the first lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased),” a said.
Her death came only seven months after devotees had marked Khadijah's 90th birthday. The statement said funeral services are to be announced.
Mosque Maryam remembered Farrakhan as “a devoted follower” with “a precious soul, a sweet heart.”
In a post on Facebook, R&B artist ZaRio Son Rise recalled her as “a true queen, a righteous woman, and one of the greatest examples of dignity, faith, loyalty, and grace our generation has ever witnessed.”
Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah Farrakhan married her husband, then named Louis Walcott, in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. The two had nine children. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., , and son Joshua Farrakhan died in 2023.
Khadijah Farrakhan converted to Islam in 1955, the same year that her husband joined the Chicago-based movement after being heavily influenced Malcolm X, his friend from Boston. The pair changed their names around that time.
Louis Farrakhan stepped into the organization's leadership vacuum shortly after Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Among his most significant accomplishments was the Million Man March on Washington in 1995.
Two years later, Khadijah Farrakhan spoke before a gathering of America's Black women in Philadelphia dubbed the Million Woman March.
“A nation can rise no higher than its women," she told the crowd. "We focus on women but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family -- men, women and children.”
The Associated Press
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