Khadijah Farrakhan, known as "first lady of Nation of Islam," dies at 90

Khadijah Farrakhan, the longtime wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, died this weekend.

Ms. Farrakhan died Saturday, the Nation of Islam 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 is Mosque Maryam, located at 7351 S. Stony Island Ave.

Ms. Farrakhan's 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."

Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah Farrakhan married her husband, then named Louis Eugene Walcott, in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. The two had nine children. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., died in 2018, and son Joshua Farrakhan died in 2023.

The Nation of Islam was founded in Detroit by Wallace D. Fard in 1930, and moved its headquarters to Temple No. 2 on Chicago's South Side in the early 1930s.

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 took over as head of the Nation of Islam in 1978, rebuilding the movement after W.D. Mohammed, the son of longtime nation leader Elijah Muhammad, moved his followers toward mainstream Islam.

Among Louis Farrakhan's 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."