Khadijah Farrakhan, the longtime wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a central figure in the movement’s decadeslong work, died Saturday at age 90, the Nation of Islam announced. Services have not yet been scheduled.
She was known as “Mother Khadijah,” a title used with reverence inside the Nation of Islam. On Saturday, Louis Farrakhan’s wife of 72 years died at 90, the Nation of Islam announced.
The Shura Executive Council released a statement informing devotees that his “beloved wife of 72 years. the first lady of the Nation of Islam. Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased).” The statement did not list funeral details. saying instead that funeral services would be announced.
Her death landed just seven months after devotees marked Khadijah Farrakhan’s 90th birthday. For decades, she worked alongside her husband—helping lead a religious and sociopolitical movement rooted in Black self-reliance.
The couple’s home base was Mosque Maryam on the south side of Chicago, where they lived. Their partnership began with a different name and different faith. Khadijah Farrakhan was born Betsy Ross and married her husband—then named Louis Walcott—in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. Together, they had nine children.
Their family later endured losses. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., died in 2018. Another son, Joshua Farrakhan, died in 2023.
Khadijah Farrakhan converted to Islam in 1955, the same year her husband joined the Chicago-based movement after being heavily influenced by Malcolm X, who was his friend from Boston. Around that time, both changed their names.
In 1965, after Malcolm X was assassinated, Louis Farrakhan stepped into an organization leadership vacuum. Among the movement’s most significant accomplishments during his tenure was the Million Man March on Washington in 1995.
Khadijah Farrakhan’s public voice was also part of that era. Two years after the 1995 march, she spoke before a gathering of America’s Black women in Philadelphia dubbed the Million Woman March.
“A nation can rise no higher than its women,” she told the crowd. “We focus on women but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family — men, women and children.”
Her passing closes a chapter in a long-running marriage that shaped a movement’s public face for decades, from Mosque Maryam to major national gatherings like the Million Man March and the Million Woman March. Funeral services have yet to be announced by the Nation of Islam.
Khadijah Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan Nation of Islam Mosque Maryam Million Man March Million Woman March Chicago Black self-reliance