Becoming the ‘Mothers of Civilization’: Constructing Black beauty and sartorial modesty in the Nation of Islam

This article provides a feminist critical discourse analysis (CDA) of ‘Women in Islam’ editorials in the Nation of Islam’s (NOI) journal, Muhammad Speaks , from 1961 to 1975, to explore the ways in which women in the NOI constructed Black beauty. I argue that the NOI provided Black women with a new definition of Black beauty that challenged the dominant controlling images of Black womanhood that marked them as ugly, unfeminine and hypersexual. Through the organization’s emphasis on disciplining women’s bodies through modesty, naturalness and cleanliness, I show how the NOI created a new racial hierarchy and standard of beauty that valorized some Black women, while contributing to the marginalization of other Black women. The article reveals the limitations of solely relying on beauty politics to provide liberation for all Black women.