Clarence 13X
Clarence 13X, also known as Allah the Father , was an American religious leader and the founder of the Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths . He was born in Virginia and moved to New York City as a young man, before serving in the United States Army during the Korean War. After returning to New York, he learned that his wife had joined the Nation of Islam. He followed her, taking the name Clarence 13X. He served in the group as a security officer, martial arts instructor, and student minister before leaving for an unclear reason in 1963. He enjoyed gambling, which was condemned by the NOI, and disagreed with their teachings that Wallace Fard Muhammad was a divine messenger.
After leaving the NOI, Clarence 13X formed a new group with other former members. He concluded that all black men were divine and took the name Allah to symbolize this status. He rejected the belief in an invisible God, teaching that God could be found within each black man. In his view, women were "earths" that complemented and nurtured men. He believed that they should be submissive to men. He and a few assistants retained some NOI teachings and pioneered novel interpretations of them. They ascribed teachings to the meaning of letters and numerals: understanding the meaning of each letter and number was said to provide deep truths about God and the universe. Clarence 13X referred to his new movement as the Five Percenters, referencing a NOI teaching that only five percent of the population knew and promoted the truth about God. One way that he distinguished his group from his previous faith, was by rejecting dress codes or strict behavioral guidelines—he allowed the consumption of alcohol, and at times, the use of illegal drugs.
In 1964, Clarence 13X was shot by an unknown assailant, but survived the attack. After an incident several months later, in which he and several of his followers vandalized stores and fought with police, he was arrested and placed in psychiatric care. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He referred to himself as "Allah", which had become his preferred name. He was released from custody after a 1966 ruling by the Supreme Court placed limits on confinement without trial. Although he initially taught his followers to hate white people, he eventually began to cooperate with white city leaders. They gave him funding for a night school, and in return, he tried to prevent violence in Harlem. In June 1969, Clarence 13X was fatally shot. The identity of his killer is unknown. Mayor John Lindsay and several other prominent leaders expressed condolences to his followers. Although the Five Percenters faltered in the immediate aftermath of his death, the movement rebounded after new leadership emerged. The group took a non-hierarchical approach to leadership, and no single leader replaced Clarence 13X. He has been held in high regard by Five Percenters, who celebrate his birthday as a holiday.
Early life and Nation of Islam
Clarence Edward Smith was born on February 22, 1928, and raised in Danville, Virginia, with his five brothers and one sister. During his childhood, Virginia was racially segregated, and he witnessed incidents of racism, including a fight between his father and a white man that was sparked by racial tensions. In 1946, he moved with his mother to New York City, where they settled in Harlem. He attended only two years of high school.In 1949, Smith fathered a child, Clarence Jowers, with Willieen Jowers. He married a woman named Dora Smith in 1950. He fathered another child, Otis Jowers, with Willieen in 1951. He also had several sons and daughters with Dora. Smith joined the U.S. Army in the early 1950s and was stationed in Korea from 1952 to 1954, where he served as an infantryman in the Korean War. After returning to the U.S., he lived in Harlem and served in the United States Army Reserve until 1960. During his military service, he became skilled in karate.
Dora Smith embraced the Nation of Islam while her husband was away and he converted after returning to New York. By 1961, he had registered at Mosque No. 7 and changed his name to Clarence 13X in accordance with NOI practice. Before his conversion, he often smoked marijuana and gambled, activities forbidden by the NOI. After joining the group, he studied the NOI's doctrines and quickly progressed within their organizational structure, possibly thanks to skills learned in the military. His responsibilities included teaching martial arts and serving on the Fruit of Islam security team. He was recognized as a skilled speaker and reached the rank of "student minister" at Mosque No. 7. By 1963, he had come to the attention of the FBI—informants recorded his presence at rallies led by Malcolm X.
The early 1960s were a turbulent period for the NOI. Unrest was caused by conflicts between leaders Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X. Around that time, Clarence 13X became disenchanted with the organization, although the root of his qualms is not known. NOI members have offered contradictory accounts of the events that caused his exit and whether he left voluntarily. His departure has been variously attributed to doubts about the NOI's theology, violations of their moral code, objections to the luxurious lifestyles of their senior leadership, or Malcolm X's distrust of him. Dora Smith elected to stay with the group, prompting the couple's separation.
Before leaving the NOI, Clarence 13X had begun to doubt their teaching that Wallace Fard Muhammad was a divine messenger. He believed that the NOI's teachings were contradictory because they taught that God is black, but encouraged reverence of Fard Muhammad, who was not of exclusively African descent. Clarence 13X concluded that divinity was found in all black men, rather than in a single person. Several times before he left the NOI, he was censured by the leadership for these assertions. His friend John 37X elected to leave with him. Malcolm X left the NOI in 1963 and remained on good terms with Clarence 13X. Clarence 13X did not join Malcolm X's newly created group, Muslim Mosque, Inc.
Founding the Five Percenters
After leaving the NOI, Clarence 13X and John 37X continued to study the group's teachings, sometimes while smoking marijuana. They assumed new names: 13X took Allah, and 37X, Abu Shahid. After reading an NOI book with 34 riddles, known as the "Lost-Found Lessons", 37X concluded that numbers represented specific concepts, such as knowledge or wisdom. He referred to this system as "living mathematics". During its development, he was imprisoned on firearms charges.While 37X was in prison, 13X taught a system of beliefs he referred to as "supreme wisdom", which he saw as the core of Islam, to groups of young men. He was assisted by his friend James Howard, with whom he developed a modified version of living mathematics, "supreme mathematics", and an accompanying doctrine about letters, the "supreme alphabet". The development of these systems, considered a "divine science" by adherents, may have been influenced by the teachings of Sufism. Like some schools of Sufism, they found esoteric meanings in the alphabet. David Smydra of The Boston Globe compares these teachings to Kabbalah. Felicia Miyakawa of Middle Tennessee State University sees similarities to Gnosticism and Kemetism.
Clarence 13X ascribed novel teachings, assigning backronyms to familiar words. He stated that the letters of the word "Allah" stood for "arm, leg, leg, arm, head", signifying the human body. This was said to prove that humanity held a divine nature. He named parts of the New York area after locations in the Middle East that are significant to Islam: Harlem was referred to as Mecca, and Brooklyn as Medina. Other disaffected NOI members, including some who served the Fruit of Islam, were soon drawn to his burgeoning group. Several people from the NOI who were unwilling to choose between loyalty to Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X also joined. Clarence 13X incorporated aspects of the theology taught by the feuding leaders.
In the group's early years, some Five Percenters attended NOI events. Clarence 13X's theology had much in common with the teachings of the NOI, although there were notable differences. He taught his followers that he was an incarnation of God, and they each were gods. His followers were thus encouraged to look within themselves in their search for God. Clarence 13X taught that there was an inherent greatness in those of African descent not found in Europeans and their descendants, echoing statements made by Elijah Muhammad.
Clarence did not enforce the NOI's strict moral rules: One way that the group appealed to potential converts was by allowing many practices condemned by the NOI, including gambling, alcohol consumption, and drug use. Clarence 13X told his followers to avoid developing addictions, but that drug use was not inherently wrong. He strictly forbade the consumption of pork, arguing that pigs were similar to animals that are not eaten in the United States, such as rats and dogs, and hence should not be consumed. Owing to their belief that black men are gods, the group allowed its members to make choices about clothing and most aspects of diet.
Early members of the group often proselytized on street corners for hours. Clarence 13X's assistants led classes about the group's teachings, strictly enforcing study habits. He instructed his followers to memorize his teachings about the significance of numbers and letters. Once they did so, they were said to gain an understanding of profound truths. These lessons were taught in a form that resembled catechisms. Rather than hold services in mosques, they gathered for monthly meetings known as parliaments, which were often held outdoors. Attendees were given wide freedom to speak in a system that Ted Swedenburg of the University of Arkansas has compared to Quaker meetings.
Clarence 13X's group was initially known as the "Suns of Almighty God Allah" or the "Blood Brothers". After Malcolm X's death, the group became known as the "Five Percenters" or the "Five Percent Nation". The name was drawn from the NOI's claim to be the five percent of the black community who knew and promoted the truth about God. Clarence 13X considered his movement to be the five percent of the NOI that still held to truth and integrity. The other 95 percent were said to be unaware of the truth or corrupt.
Clarence 13X assembled an inner circle of assistants, nine of whom are referred to by Five Percenters as the "First Born": they are said to embody his attributes. The assistants were assigned to spread the group's teachings to younger people, many of whom took African names, including some from non-Islamic societies. Clarence 13X taught Afrocentrism to his disciples and often wore a dashiki. Male Five Percenters members frequently wore tasseled kufis, and female members wore colorful African head wraps. Some Five Percenters supported themselves via drug dealing and petty theft. Others intentionally committed minor legal infractions, hoping to proselytize to others who had been arrested.
Clarence 13X's followers saw him as a divine messenger and referred to him as "Father Allah". This elevated him to a higher position than Elijah Muhammad, who had deemed himself the "Messenger of Allah". Eventually, Clarence 13X stopped identifying himself as a Muslim, and spoke out against the reverence of Fard Muhammad, casting him as a "mystery God". He rejected the idea that God is invisible, which he felt weakened people. He encouraged his followers to learn about and respect other spiritual traditions.
Female converts were initially referred to as "nurses". Clarence 13X renamed them "earths" in 1967. He taught that women were not gods, as he believed that they were created by man and did not possess creative power. In his view, women could nurture, but only men could make children. Women were said to resemble the Earth in their ability to sustain life. Clarence 13X had a patriarchal philosophy, and the Five Percenters were initially overwhelmingly male. He spoke in favor of fathers' arranging their daughters' marriages and told women to embody submission by serving their husbands as God. Polygamy or serial monogamy was allowed, and legal marriage was discouraged. Clarence 13X encouraged his followers to have many children and discouraged the use of birth control.