Edition |
First edition. |
Description |
xx, 441 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
Summary |
Killing the messenger is a searing work of narrative nonfiction that explores one of the most blatant attacks on the First Amendment and free speech in American history and the small Black Muslim cult that carried it out. Award-winning investigative reported Thomas Peele examines the Black Muslim movement from its founding in the early twentieth century by a con man who claimed to be God, to the height of power of the movement's leading figure, Elijah Muhammad, to how the great-grandson of Texas slaves reinvented himself as a Muslim Leader in Oakland and built the violent cult that the young gunman eventually joined. Peele delves into how charlatans exploited poor African Americans with tales from a religion they falsely claimed was Islam and the years of bloodshed that followed, from a human sacrifice in Detroit to police shootings of uinarmed Muslims to the horrible backlash of racism known as the "zebra murders," and finally to the brazen killing of Cauncey Bailey to stop him from publishing a newspaper story. |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 373-428) and index. |
Subject |
Bailey, Chauncey, 1949-2007.
|
|
Murder -- California -- Oakland -- Case studies.
|
|
Black Muslims -- Press coverage -- California -- Oakland -- Case studies.
|
|
Corruption -- Press coverage -- California -- Oakland -- Case studies.
|
ISBN |
9780307717559: $26.00 |
|
0307717550 |
|