This week’s episode of Nurah Speaks is a Special Tribute Rewind in honor of Munir Muhammad, whose birthday we celebrated March 27th. Brother Munir was the business manager and co-founder of CROE (Coalition for the Remembrance of Elijah Muhammad). He was also known as the chief archivist and historian of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

This interview was recorded on December 9, 2017 in Camden, New Jersey during a film showing of the movie ‘The Nation’, written and directed by Junie Smith.

In this interview Brother Munir explains:

•how the Honorable Elijah Muhammad impacted him personally

•why time dictated the establishment of CROE

•why the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam are misunderstood by many

I feel it is important to note the significant impact of the work of Brother Munir. He was a man who single handedly performed the work of many men. He was an archivist, a journalist, an investigative reporter, a facilitator, a radio host, a television host, a leading media figure, a husband, a father, a successful businessman and so much more.

On set in the CROE television studio, he interviewed prominent politicians, judges, notable civil rights figures, renowned actors and actresses, singers, song writers, community organizers, Senators and Congressman, religious leaders, celebrated authors, respected businessmen and business women. Additionally, Brother Munir interviewed leaders of other esteemed nations and offered us a global perspective on world affairs.

On Nurah Speaks, when I mention my own personal mentors who have inspired and encouraged me to begin this podcast journey-Brother Munir was always one of my strongest supporters.

There are countless men and women who we learn little if anything about but who have worked tirelessly to address issues impacting our people. Brother Munir Muhammad was one of those men whose impact has not only been national but UNIVERSAL!

I honor him. I honor his legacy. And it has been a personal privilege to know him and join him on his television shows remotely and in person on so many great occasions.

He will continue to be an example to be emulated in the work for the true liberation of our people.

Enjoy this tribute replay of my interview with our Brother Munir Muhammad.

Learn more about CROE by visiting CROE.ORG and CROETV.COM. CROE is located at 2435 West 71st Street (CROE Lane) Chicago, IL 60629. You can contact them at 773-925-1600 or CROE@CROE.ORG.

Viewers can watch CROE live each Wednesday at 7:30est and Sunday at 3:30est on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC--UCt5LqFF3IW5fLn5lH2g or on Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/muhammad-and-friends. Be sure to check out CROE’s archived episodes as well!

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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Remember, don’t just Join the Movement, Be the Movement!

Harriett A. Washington is featured this episode for her incredible work in cataloguing historical and present day medical abuses experienced by Black patients within the medical industry. Her research provides the stark reality of how practically racial biases are applied everyday in medical offices, hospitals, clinics and pharmacies.

Often Black patients’ suspicion of doctors is dismissed as hyper paranoia related to the Tuskegee Study. Such disregard suggests the Tuskegee was a one-off atrocity. Harriet Washington’s research exposes the reality of the exploitation, abuses, under treatment, over treatment and savage treatment by doctors against Black people from the antebellum to the present.

In other words, Harriet’s work is confirmation of the sentiments many Black people have concerning the medical industry as less myth than hyper vigilance against true and real medical perversions experienced throughout American history.

This episode highlights three of her books:

1. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present (2006)

2. Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself—And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future (2011)

3.Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Medical Consent (2021)

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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This episode celebrates the conviction of Zora Neale Hurston in holding to her principles in spite of pressure from both the literary world and leaders within the Harlem Renaissance to write in a fashion that was both palatable and expressive of the black grief and pain of American racism.

Though Zora acknowledged that Black Americans experienced hardships associated with prejudice, she did not believe it was the predominant experience that should be expressed in literature. For Zora, Black people were joy and beauty, intelligence and love and in no great measure were we robbed of presence and prestige because of the divisions of segregation. Therefore, her writings in the 1920’s and 30’s were a deviation from the harsher realities portrayed by other authors such as Richard Wright.

Additionally, as an anthropologist, Zora held to the dialect and vernacular of the subjects she interviewed despite urgings to make the text ‘tidier’ for the reader. Rather, Zora chronicled the accounts of her subjects unchanged from how they were delivered to her.

These choices unfortunately had a deleterious impact on her work and though she saw great success with ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’, she subsequently found it impossible to get published and ultimately had to return to menial labor and living in housing for the poor.

Fortunately many years after her death, some of her work was resurrected and published, like Barracoon completed in 1931, published 87 years later in 2018.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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On the morning of April 12, 2015 Freddie Gray was taken into custody by Baltimore Police officers. With his hands cuffed behind his back and feet in shackles, he was put in the back of the vehicle and transported without being secured with a safety belt.

During transport, Freddie sustained a fractured neck with 80% of his spine was severed. Several days later he went into a coma and on April 19, 2015 Freddie was dead.

Marilyn Mosby was only five months into her first term as Baltimore State’s Attorney, the city’s chief prosecutor.

On May 1, 2015 she charged the six police officers involved in Freddie’s death, one of the first cases nationally holding police accountable for the death of a black man while in custody.

This decision had its consequences. Hate mail and death threats ensued forcing Marilyn to defend the decision to charge officers. "For those who believe I am anti-police, it's simply not the case. I am anti police brutality.”

Marilyn Mosby made an unpopular and highly controversial choice in charging the officers. Though none were convicted, there was a $6.4 million settlement with the family and Mosby’s office pursued substantial reforms that contributed to the exoneration of 13 men who had served a combined 300 years in prison despite proclaiming their innocence.

The right choice may not be the easy choice when justice is the basis for one's decision. Today, more than 10 years later, Marilyn and her family continue to suffer the fallout of her decision in holding officer’s accountable. However it is a decision of which she reports as having no regrets.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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On February 1, 1951 Henrietta Lacks walked into John’s Hopkins Hospital with a complaint of vaginal bleeding and a painful lump. When tissue samples were collected and examined, they became the marvel that changed medicine forever.

Henrietta’s ‘Immortal’ cells were retrieved without her consent or knowledge and scientists were in awe at their unusual ability to survive and grow unlike other cells that, after a few cell divisions, would die.

Unfortunately, Henrietta received a diagnosis of incurable metastatic cervical cancer and she passed away shortly after. Her cells, however, were the foundation for scientific innovation with pharmaceutical companies patenting novel means of utilizing her cells and reaping huge profits as a result.

Henrietta’s family was kept in the dark for decades, only to be mislead and deceived by researchers seeking to study their genetic material under the guise of monitoring for hereditary disease. They have been seeking justice for many years with recent undisclosed settlements from companies which have unjustly profited off her cells. Still, one can reasonably question, what is the true price of justice in cases such as these?

This is the first episode of several recognizing impactful women this Women’s History Month 2026.

You can learn more about Henrietta Lacks by reading ‘Medical Apartheid’ by Harriett Washington, ‘Henrietta Lacks -The Untold Story’ by her eldest grandson Ron Lacks and ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ‘by Rebecca Skloot.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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In this concluding Black History Month Episode, I provide an abbreviated sketch of the great history of the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad with present day work happening in Camden, New Jersey.

Huey P. Newton, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jesse Jackson Sr….we have heard mention of these incredible men and their contribution towards equity and justice for the Black man and woman in America.

But we learn very little, if anything at all, about the Nation of Islam (founded in 1930) and how the revolutionary ideology of ‘Self Love’ and ‘Do For Self’ influenced their efforts, inspired the Black Community and impacted national and international leaders alike.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Nation of Islam, was described by Reader’s Digest as the ‘Most powerful Black man in America’ and we have not seen any modern economist, sociologist, educator or psychologist impact Black people the way he did.

Because of this influence, one finds in COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) documents how the FBI endeavored, through substantially illegal and unethical efforts, to ‘Prevent The Rise of A Black Messiah’ amongst Black Americans who would have the power to unite and electrify them.

The federal government’s efforts sought to disrupt, discredit and misdirect Black nationalist groups, including the Nation of Islam, and to neutralize them in the public sphere because, 'In unity, there is strength.’

One can claim they achieved great success as so little is known and accurately understood about the Nation of Islam.

This episode seeks to provide a condensed sketch of that history.

To learn more about the history of the Nation of Islam visit CROE.ORG. CROE (Coalition for Remembrance of Elijah Muhammad) serves as the National Archives of the Nation of Islam. Also, visit TEMPLE20.ORG to learn how the application of ‘Self Love’ and ‘Do For Self’ can impact our local communities as it is in Camden, New Jersey.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com. Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com.

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Mississippi Appendectomy refers to the involuntary and forced sterilization of Black Women in the southern United States from the 1920’s through the 1980’s. This procedure was bolstered by the practice of Eugenics whereby scientists and political leaders enacted state control through sterilization laws to govern the population growth of Black people not unlike that which occurred on the slave plantations.

The notion that reproduction was restricted to candidates deemed fit and black women were only 12% of the population yet 64% of those sterilized demonstrates the states’ antipathy of Black proliferation.

The celebrated feminist and women’s rights activist Margaret Sanger was a prominent eugenicist and proponent of arresting the growth of the Black population. As an advocate of birth control, especially for Black women, her intentions towards Blacks have been described as genocidal.

In 1964, during her testimony at the Democratic National Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer detailed her experience of being forcibly sterilized while in the hospital to have a non-cancerous tumor removed. Her remarks were so striking that President Lyndon B. Johnson interrupted her speech, calling a press conference to distract the public away from her testimony.

Sadly forced sterilizations are not transgressions of the past. Women continue to be impacted, specifically while in detention centers, not unlike those who were institutionalized in the 1930’s through 1980’s.

To learn more about the modern day forced sterilization of women imprisoned in California and ICE detention facilities in Georgia, visit these links:

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/belly_of_the_beast_documentary

https://www.democracynow.org/2020/9/22/new_film_links_forced_sterilization_in

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The Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of many Blacks towards the Covid-19 vaccine was a stark reminder of this nation’s historical mistreatment of Black patients and their resulting distrust in the medical industry.The Tuskegee Experiment, also called the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, is the most commonly known medical malpractice of physicians towards a vulnerable Black population in the U.S.

This research was conducted 1932 to 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service in which Black men already, infected with syphilis, were diagnosed as having ‘bad blood’. And rather than providing them the proven and effective treatment of syphilis, doctors duped these patients by instead engaging in a four decades long study in which they observed the ravages of the disease on their bodies and health. As horrific as this study was, it was by far not the most gruesome and barbaric of malpractice.

In March 1945, a Black truck driver, Ebb Cade was severely injured in an accident with what was believed to be life threatening injuries. He was taken to the Manhattan Engineer District Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Despite sustaining numerous broken bones, he survived. To his great misfortune, the doctors assigned to Mr. Cade were contracted with the US Atomic Energy Commission.

When it became known that a ‘well developed colored male’ was in the hospital, he was injected with Plutonium 239 by military physician Joseph Howland. Plutonium, described as the most ‘fiendishly toxic’ radioactive substance and the same compound used in atomic bombs, was injected even before doctors set his broken bones.

Subsequently, researchers pulled 15 teeth and extracted several bone samples from Mr. Cade to assess how plutonium moves throughout the human body.

That March in 1945 Mr. Ebb Cade made history as the first person and Black man injected with ‘the most dangerous chemical known’ without his consent or voluntary participation in a very dangerous research experiment.

It can be baffling to consider what men subjected other humans beings, however the ignorant and prejudicial coloring of Blacks as inferior, barbaric or on the level with beasts provided a cover for these heinous acts. It could accurately be said of these well respected scientists and doctors that they, in fact, were the barbarians.

To learn more about the diabolical history of medicine in the U.S., read 'Medical Malpractice' by Harriett A. Washington or search for Harriett A. Washington on Youtube to view her discussions on the subject.

If you would like to engage with the podcast, submit your listener questions to info@NurahSpeaks.com.

Listeners can also learn more by visiting NurahSpeaks.com. You can follow Nurah Speaks on X, Instagram and Facebook @NurahSpeaks and subscribe to the channel on YouTube.

Don't Just Join The Movement, Be The Movement!