In August 2007, a 57-year-old investigative journalist named Chauncey Bailey was gunned down in broad daylight in Oakland, California. The hunt for his killer led to the Your Black Muslim Bakery, which was once hailed as a prime example of Black entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency.
Oakland’s Your Black Muslim Bakery (YBMB) was part of a chain of bakeries started by entrepreneur Yusuf Bey in 1968 in Santa Barbara, California. The bakery relocated to Oakland in 1971. At YBMB’s height, there were eight bakery outlets.
The bakery sold baked goods in accordance with the Qur’an and the business was named on the personal recommendation of Bey’s spiritual guide, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, according to Evil Eye.
The tide turned for Bey in the late 1990s when he faced accusations of physical and sexual abuse. In 2002, Bey turned himself in to Oakland Police after a warrant was issued for his arrest accusing him of 27 counts of rape of underaged girls. A year later in October 2003, Bey died of cancer at age 67 while awaiting trial.
The YBMB company was left to Bey’s heirs, two of whom died in violent circumstances between 2004 and 2005. Yusuf Bey IV took over the bakery in 2005. By 2006, YBMB filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
An editor at the Oakland Post, Bailey had been doing an investigative story about corruption at YBMB. Bey IV apparently became aware of the pending news coverage and allegedly ordered a hit on Bailey, Evil Eye reported.
Bey IV’s brother-in-law, Ali Saleem Bey (who had adopted the name “Bey”) was Bailey’s source for the story.
“According to Ali, YBMB had been seized from its rightful heirs in a coup, through fraud and forgery, by a younger branch of the family, that included Antar Bey and Yusef Bey IV. Ali revealed that in June 2005, John Bey, a former head of the Bey security service who had tried to expose the fraud behind the coup, fled Oakland with his family after an attempt on his life in a shooting outside his home,” Evil Eye reported.
Antar mortgaged the bakery property in 2005 to cover back taxes and other debt, and then defaulted. This led to the threat of foreclosure. This was part of what Baliey had been investigating.
Devaughndre Broussard, a 19-year-old YBMB handyman, tracked down Bailey and shot the journalist as he was leaving a McDonald’s restaurant. The next night, Broussard confessed to the police that he had killed Bailey.
By June 2011, Yusuf Bey IV and his associate Antoine Mackey were convicted of ordering Bailey’s murder. Broussard had recanted his confession and claimed he and Mackey had been ordered by Yusuf to kill Bailey.
Following the murder of journalist Bailey, a consortium of local journalists launched The Chauncey Bailey Project with the support of The Center for Investigative Reporting. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Peele is spearheading efforts to create a memorial in Bailey’s honor.
The YBMB drama continued even with Yusuf, who is serving a life sentence, behind bars. In 2016, authorities claimed he tried to orchestrate additional killings from prison — including calling for the murder of his brother-in-law Ali Saleem Bey.
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Although authorities are unsure of how Yusuf got a hold of a phone, they claim to have text messages and social media posts as evidence, The Mercury News reported.
In a Facebook post, Yusuf offered his opinion on the election of Donald Trump. The post read, “TRUMP becoming president is just what we as people of color need, particularly Blacks n america. Something needs to compel us to STAND UP and chart our own course. THIS IS NOT OUR GOVERNMENT nor does it serve our interest. The sooner we REALIZE this the SOONER FREEDOM & JUSTICE will become our REALITY!!!”
