Michael Gomez is a history professor at New York University with a focus on the African diaspora. He wrote Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge University Press, 2005), which deals in part with Noble Drew Ali, Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.

Read about the history of the Nation of Islam and Beliefnet.com’s FAQs about the Nation of Islam.

The New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has an online exhibit about Malcolm X.

Read an article from The Root about tackling Islamophobia, much like The Cosby Show challenged African-American stereotypes.

Read a Feb. 12, 2013, StarTribune article about the growing African-American Muslim community and a bit about its history.

Read an outline of African-American Muslim history from On Common Ground: World Religions in America (Columbia University Press, 2002). It’s reprinted on the Pluralism Project’s website.

Read an excerpt of Taylor Branch’s book Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 (Simon and Schuster, 1998) about the break between W. Deen Mohammed and his father, Elijah Muhammad, one of the founders of the Nation of Islam. It’s posted on Beliefnet.com.

Read a Beliefnet.com article about W. Deen Mohammed’s decision to step down as head of the American Society of Muslims.

Laurie Maffly-Kipp is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She edited the Penguin Classics edition American Scriptures and can talk about the role of the King James Bible in American religious history.