Nation of Islam Temple Number Twelve in Philadelphia

This address was once an early Nation of Islam mosque, known as Muhammad's Temple of Islam Number Twelve, and it served as a center of African American Muslim life in Philadelphia through the nineteen fifties and sixties. The congregation operated under the national leadership of Elijah Muhammad, who led the organization from Chicago and preached Black self-sufficiency and separation from white American institutions. Two of the most consequential figures in mid-century Black intellectual and religious life passed through this building.

Malcolm X is said to have served as an administrator and teacher here, sharpening the oratorical style that would make him one of the most electrifying speakers in American history. Imam Wallace D. Muhammad, Elijah Muhammad's son, is also said to have taught here before eventually leading the movement toward Sunni orthodoxy after his father's death in nineteen seventy-five.