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Legacy Of The Father Of Five Percenters Clarence 13X Going After Black Youth In NYC Gangs

Legacy Of The Father Of Five Percenters Clarence 13X Going After Black Youth In NYC Gangs

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Portrait of Clarence 13X hanging in the Allah School, located in Harlem.

The Five Percenter Nation of Gods and Earths was founded by former Nation of Islam member Clarence 13X back in 1964.

Similar to the Nation of Islam, one of the lures of the Five Percent Nation was that it offered refuge and hope for troubled youth. It provided much-needed structure to individuals and an alternative lifestyle to New York City gang life. 

In the book “The Name Of Allah: A History of Clarence 13X and The Five Percenters, Volume 2” written in 2009 by Wakeel Allah, a member of the NOI, 5 Percent nation elder Rasul Hebekah was interviewed. Hebekah spoke of how the group reformed gang members.

Although NYC and Harlem at the time of the rise of the NOI experienced a growth in Black consciousness with the help of the NOI and Malcolm X, some Black youth weren’t attracted to the NOI’s message.

The NYC gang attraction was captured in such films as “The Education of Sonny Carson.” It is a 1974 film based on the best-selling autobiography of Sonny Carson, who joined a gang and committed petty crime before being sent to prison. After his release from prison, he changed his life by working for the activist group Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). By 1967 he was the executive director of the Brooklyn CORE. He broke from the organization in 1968 and later founded the Committee to Honor Black Heroes. Caron’s experience proved that someone could turn away from gang life if given an alternative.

The 5 Percenters offered such an alternative.

“And he would always emphasize that together we can accomplish most things,” explained Rasul Hebekah, about how Clarence 13X, who was also called Allah By group members, approached and attracted gang youth. ‘But he would say things like this–you ain’t going to fight for a brother you don’t like. You ain’t going to stand up for a man that you don’t trust, so we had to learn to like each other and trust each other. And that’s what’s commanded, and it was obligated, and we saw the benefits of that we became close to each other, the benefits of liking each other. We went like crazy with it because it was a great thing for us, and we took it to everybody we came in contact with, but we learned that from him.”

He added, “This whole nation was built from gangs…Through Clarence 13x (Allah’s) efforts, 200 gangs eventually disappeared in NYC over a year’s time, coinciding with the advent of the Five Percenters.”

Portrait of Clarence 13X hanging in the Allah School, located in Harlem.