For more than 70 years, Khadijah Farrakhan stood beside one of the most influential and controversial figures in modern Black America, helping shape the Nation of Islam while rarely seeking the spotlight herself. Farrakhan, the wife of Minister Louis Farrakhan and the movement’s longtime first lady, died Saturday at age 90.
The Nation of Islam announced her death in a statement from its Shura Executive Council, describing the late Farrakhan as the minister’s “beloved wife of 72 years.”
“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you 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 council said.
Known to followers simply as “Mother Khadijah,” she spent more than seven decades alongside her husband as the Nation of Islam expanded its influence through its teachings on Black self-determination, economic independence and faith. Although Minister Farrakhan remained the movement’s public face, those who knew the organization often pointed to Mother Khadijah as one of its steadying forces, helping guide both its institutional growth and its family-centered mission.
Born Betsy Ross in 1935, she married Louis Eugene Walcott in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. The couple embraced Islam together in 1955 after Minister Farrakhan came under the influence of Malcolm X, then a leading Nation of Islam minister. They later adopted the names by which they became known around the world. They raised nine children together during a marriage that spanned more than seven decades. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., died in 2018, and another son, Joshua Farrakhan, died in 2023.
As Minister Farrakhan rose through the Nation of Islam’s leadership, Mother Khadijah quietly assumed responsibilities that reached far beyond supporting her husband. According to a profile published by The Final Call, she helped establish organizational systems for the rebuilt Nation of Islam after 1977, served as its first treasurer and secretary, coordinated fundraising and membership efforts, led humanitarian initiatives, participated in overseas delegations and helped welcome visiting dignitaries from African nations. She also developed the organization’s secretarial department and was known for designing uniforms worn by Muslim women in the Nation of Islam.
Her public appearances were relatively rare, making them especially noteworthy when they occurred.
Two years after Minister Farrakhan organized the historic Million Man March in Washington in 1995, Mother Khadijah addressed thousands gathered in Philadelphia for 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.”
The Nation of Islam said the late first lady would “forever be cherished and remembered.”
“We thank Allah for the precious life of a loving wife, mother, a faithful devoted follower of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” the Shura Executive Council said. “Mother Khadijah will forever be cherished and remembered. May Allah give His unequaled comfort to the family as we mourn this tremendous loss and lift the family in our prayers and thoughts.”
The Nation of Islam has announced arrangements for public services. Mother Khadijah will lie in state July 1 and July 2 at Mosque Maryam in Chicago. Her janazah service is scheduled for July 3 at 11 a.m., followed by interment at Oak Woods Cemetery.
As family, friends and devoted supporters prepare to celebrate her life, tributes quickly spread beyond the Nation of Islam.
Mosque Maryam remembered her as “a devoted follower” with “a precious soul, a sweet heart.”
R&B artist ZaRio Son Rise called her “a true queen, a righteous woman, and one of the greatest examples of dignity, faith, loyalty, and grace our generation has ever witnessed.”
