The Nation of Islam leader is set to speak at UC Berkeley tomorrow, despite efforts by Jewish leaders and students to try and get his appearance canceled. The Contra Costa Times’ Thomas Peele, who covered the now-defunct Your Black Muslim Bakery, a Nation of Islam offshoot, and has written a book about it, takes the occasion to recall Farrakhan’s last appearance at Berkeley 20 years ago.
Add: The Bakery’s last leader, Yusuf Bey IV, is serving a life sentence after his conviction last year for ordering the murder of journalist Chauncey Bailey. Writes Peele [brackets mine]:
Speaking [at UC] in 1974, [Farrakhan] encountered a young journalist for the San Francisco Sun named Chauncey Bailey who asked him pointed questions about his strange beliefs and drew angry response.
Little could Bailey know he was speaking to a man whose teachings would one day be used to help justify his murder.