Egg carton from Muslim Farms, 1968

Since its inception, in the spirit of Carter G. Woodson, Sapelo Square has commemorated Black History Month with daily Black Muslim History facts. This year, Sapelo Square is exploring the Muslim collection at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). During Black History Month, we will display a different object each day from the collection, showing how the objects help tell the rich histories of Muslims of African descent in the United States. View the entire series at our dedicated Black History Month 2021 page.

This egg carton is from Muslim Farms, Inc., part of the network of commercial farms owned and operated by the Nation of Islam (NOI) in the 1960s and ‘70s. By the mid-1970s, NOI-related enterprises owned thousands of acres of farmland in Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama, that supplied meat and produce to NOI-run grocery stores in cities throughout the United States. The NOI’s efforts to gain greater control over its food supply was a key component of its economic development program and central to its commitment to supplying Black communities with healthy and Islamically lawful foods.