The Crowning Event of Black History Month Saviours’ Day 2023

Saviours’ Day is an annual Nation of Islam commemoration of the birth of Master Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi of the Muslims, and the Messiah of the Christians, who appeared in North America on July 4, 1930, and declared that the 400 years of bondage Blacks served in America had ended.

His coming and declaration fulfill many scriptures; however, perhaps most notable is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham that his descendants would endure bondage in a strange land, among a strange people—before God Himself would deliver Abraham’s seed and judge the nation they served. Master Fard Muhammad was born on February 26, 1877, in the Holy City of Mecca.

He raised and taught the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who dedicated over 40 years of his life to the resurrection of the mentally, morally, spiritually, and economically dead so-called American Negro. Each year he would convene Saviour’s Day and deliver a major address and expound on the Divine Wisdom given to Him by Master Fard Muhammad.
After the 1975 departure of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in September of 1977, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan decided to rebuild the work of his Father, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and reestablish the Nation of Islam. Under Minister Farrakhan’s leadership, Saviour’s Day returned in 1981 in Chicago. In 1983, Minister Farrakhan changed the spelling of the commemoration from Saviour’s Day, as it had been, to the plural Saviours’ Day.

This year’s convention was held in the city of the Nation of Islam’s headquarters from Feb. 24-26 at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois, and was live-streamed throughout the United States, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. This was the first full in-person Saviours’ Day gathering since 2020 due to the pandemic. This year’s theme for the convention was from the book of Ephesians in the Bible which states in part: “Put on the Whole Armor of God.”

Thousands filled the McCormick convention center over the weekend for the plenary sessions, talent showcase, social entertainment, chess tournament, children’s activities, martial arts training, and the much anticipated return of the drill competition. On Sunday, Feb. 26, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered the keynote address at the Wintrust Arena, where over 10,000 were filled with guests, believers, families, Muslims, Christians, Hebrews, and other faiths and denominations, from a myriad of races. His message of  “The War of Armageddon has begun” was one of warning, love, salvation, and truth.

“Truth is the most necessary ingredient for our salvation,” the Minister proclaimed to the packed audience. His sermon included biblical and scriptural messages from the Bible and Holy Quran on following the right path and not the path of Satan. “Use your strength, whatever truth you know. Tell it! Say it! And put your trust in God.”

The soon-to-be-90-year-old Minister encouraged everyone to release the grip of Satan on their lives. Farrakhan addressed claims of antisemitism back in 1983 after he supported Jesse Jackson in his run for president. “God was with my tongue. God was with my mouth, and I stood with the spirit for Reverend Jackson’s run,” he said.

A list was read of prominent religious and political leaders along with Pan-Africanists, scholars, and national organizations who were once labeled antisemitic because of the positions they took on freedom, justice, equality, and fair dealing, including the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), The Nation of Islam, Rev. Billy Graham, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, William Tatum, Marcus Garvey, John Henrik Clarke, James Baldwin, Rosa Parks, Jimmy Carter, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X, Jay Z, Kanye West, Kyrie Irving, and many others.

At the head of the antisemitism battle cry are the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, groups that have conducted activities to diminish Black power and unity. These organizations label people who criticize Jewish behavior as antisemitic without proof, the Minister said. They have power over the media and other avenues that shape the human mind and just the charge of antisemitism brings public condemnation and isolation.

Labeled by these groups as the world’s top antisemites, the Minister said when somebody has lied so well when the truth comes and a man is born to tell that truth, the deceiver must hide that man. 

“I have never been an antisemite. If I had them in front of me, they could not prove their charge,” he said. “They don’t want you to hear what I have to say.” Farrakhan is considered the last man standing for the cause of truth and liberation for all people. Saviours’ Day, the crowning event of Black History Month, was an enlightened event that was open to the public and viewed worldwide.