Christians, Nation of Islam Find Common Ground in Washington

Their ideologies on what is God's name and the methodology of worship may differ, but a leader of the Christian church and a leader of the Islamic faith found common ground yesterday within the teachings of Booker T. Washington.

The Rev. Dr. Hycel Taylor, former senior pastor of Second Baptist Church, and Minister Ishmael Muhammad of the Nation of Islam gave keynote speeches Monday at the DuSable Museum of African American History regarding the legacy of educator Washington, and his influence on Blacks nearly 91 years after his death.

The speeches were part of a three-day Booker T. Washington Symposium held at various locations throughout the city.

Taylor said African Americans today are stranded somewhere between "the no longer and the not yets."

Taylor said that Blacks need to count on self-reliance because in a predominately white world Blacks are not needed anymore to do jobs that once required their services.

And Although Washington stressed self-reliance and making it through educator should not necessarily be viewed as a conservative, Taylor said.

"We as African American people, today, we still have our head in the mouth of the lion (white people). And while we shouldn't pat them on the head today, we should allow them to think what they want to think, to be what they want to be, and not spend our time and energy trying to change the minds of the lions."

Taylor said for too long, as African Americans, we have been marching and protesting trying to appeal to the lions (whites) to help us.

"Lions don't help people," Taylor said. "Lions eat people."

If the Booker T. Washington Symposium is an attempt to look at and redefine the Black agenda, Taylor said African Americans must put aside all of religious and political labels and come together as one to look at "how do we secure ourselves internally against divisive forces."

Muhammad continued the theme of relinquishing all labels and coming together as a people.

"We cannot continue to be defined by the labels that have been placed upon us that give each of us all our value, but does not give us our true value," he said. "I am neither Baptist nor Presbyterian. I am not Catholic; I am not Jew. I am not conservative; I am not liberal. I am a human being. A child of God."

Muhammad added that his heart was heavy due to lack of young people at the symposium, who he feels need the nurturing words and ideas of Washington today more than African Americans needed his thoughts in the early 20th Century.

"It is young people today who are lost, because as Dr. Hycel Taylor said, 'We're no longer, and we're not yet,'" Muhammad said. "So we are indeed fulfilling what is written in the scriptures. We are a lost lost people."