Up Next
Back to Show
American Muslims: A History Revealed
How Islam Influenced Black Americans in 1920s Chicago
Season 1
Episode 16
In this film, host Malika Bilal (Senior Presenter, Al Jazeera English) tells the story of these early Black American Muslim communities through a woman named Florence Watts, who moved to the bustling South Side of Chicago around 1910, where she found work as a cook and a maid.
Support Provided By
24:45
A federal immigration file shows how early border laws shaped the Muslim experience in the U.S.
24:43
Host Aymann Ismail explores how Muslims shaped the imagination of America’s founding generation.
24:45
A photograph reveals the rise of Black Muslim life in northern cities during the Great Migration.
23:39
Asma Khalid travels to the American South West to tell the story of early South Asian migration.
24:45
A Lebanese homesteader recalls the building of one of the first mosques on the Great Plains.
22:24
Malika Bilal tells the story of an immigrant with a 200-page pension file detailing his experiences.
24:45
A Civil War pension file reveals the story of a Muslim man who fought for the Union.
23:19
Who was Mamadou Yarrow, and how did he make his way into this painting in his journey to freedom?
24:45
How Islam figured in debates about religious freedom and citizenship in the early Republic.
22:01
How Muslim homesteaders constructed one of the first purpose-built mosques in the country.
24:44
A 1819 portrait of a formerly enslaved man reveals the presence of Muslims at the nation’s founding.